A ‘musical’ start for Panjab University youth fest

LUDHIANA: The four-day Panjab University (PU) zonal Youth and Heritage festival of Ludhiana zone got off to a vibrant start at Mata Ganga Khalsa College, Manji Sahib, Kottan, on Friday. The college is also celebrating its 25th anniversary, this year. The theme of the festival is ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’.
The festival is expected to get almost 1,800 participants from 16 PU-affiliated colleges of Ludhiana Zone- A, to compete in over 67 categories. The participating colleges include Arya College, GC (East), Gujranwala GNKC, KLSD College, PURC, SCDGC, all from Ludhiana; andAS College, Khanna; BSSGGC, Sidhsar; Gobindgarh PC, Allour; GC, Karamsar; GNNC, Doraha; Malwa College Bondli, Samrala; MGKC, Kottan; SAV Jain College, Hussainpura; and SACCM, Jhande.
Chief guest Balwinder Singh Bhoondar (former SAD general secretary and former Rajya Sabha member) and Manjeet Kaur (Khanna SDM) inaugurated the festival with a lamp-lighting ceremony, along with PU youth welfare director Rohit Kumar Sharma and principals of various colleges. LMC members Inderjeet Singh Loppon and Joginder Singh Oberoi, and Kamikar Singh were also present occasion.
Singer Bittu Khannewala was the chief guest for the evening session. Principal Kuldip Kaur Dhaliwal welcomed the chief guest and all the guests, adding that these competitions would develop talent and creativity skills of the students.
The festival started with a group performance of Gurbani recital, followed by bhajan, folk songs, gazals and poetry. In the second half of the day, guddian-patole, paranda-making, chhiku-making, naala-making, tokri-making, poetry, story writing, essay writing, and other competitions were organised.