The riot of colours and aroma of sweets and spices were feast to the eyes and nose as one entered the ‘Potpourri Day’ hall at PSG Institute of Management here on Friday.
Cultures and cuisine of the districts of Tamil Nadu aesthetically and tastefully converged at ‘Sangamam’, organised by students of PSG-University of Toledo MBA programme.
The districts of the State were divided into seven regions based on the similarity in cultures and geographical proximity. Vellore was one unit, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur and Madarasapattinam (Chennai) formed a unit, while Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari formed another. Likewise, there were the Kongumandalam, Pandya Nadu, the Tiruchi-Kumbakonam, and Namakkal-Salem confluences.
The seven stalls reflected the region’s geographical highlights, religious and historical structures, and many more.
There were models of houses, temples, bullock carts, pillars, and doors, to visually bring out the essence of the cultures. Students were also dressed in the characteristic costume of the regions.
Long rows of dishes were lined up to represent the delicacies of the six regions. It was a potpourri of sweets and spicy dishes made mostly of the millets that were characteristic of each region.
The cuisine was also colourful and appeasing to the palate. It was not only displayed creatively, but also served well.
According to class representative T. Santhosh Kumar, the class took two weeks to plan and three days to execute it.
That they had put in much effort was clearly evident from the props and other articles they had collected to display at the stalls.
Getting some rare artefacts and black and white photographs had involved lot of groundwork, according to the students.
Surfing the net, spending long hours in the library, visiting blogs, talking to grandparents and elders were some of the methods by which the students gleaned information about the regions. They also had to collect the relevant clothes, accessories, and also get trained on wearing them.
But the most challenging was putting together the menu.
This was so, not only because the students did not know about most of the delicacies that were characteristic of the regions, but also because they had to be prepared with the original flavour.
With references from relatives and friends all over the State, students got to know some hotels here that could prepare the kind of food they wanted.
Yet, for the spirit of it they ensured that only 60 per cent of food was catered.
The rest was brought from their homes.
Though it was a learning experience, students enjoyed putting together the show, which would also fetch them marks.
