A spirit of bonhomie pervaded the celebrations of Utkal Divas — Odisha Formation Day — on Friday. Several Odia families settled in the city got together to enjoy a variety of cultural programmes and relish traditional dishes of Odisha at a programme organised by the Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj at its premises at Daspalla Hills.
The function started with garlanding of portraits of Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das and Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, the architects of a separate State of Odisha.
S.C. Choudhury, president of the Samaj, inaugurated the festivities. C. Rajendran, Principal Commissioner of Customs was the chief guest, P.C. Mohapatra, Director (Projects), RINL, was the Guest of Honour on the occasion.
The other speakers were Dr P.V. Satyanarayana, cardiac surgeon of CARE Hospitalsm and A.K. Murthy, GM, Nalco.
Lip-smacking dishes
The families enjoyed a lip-smacking array of traditional Odia delicacies like Manda, Kakara, Dahi Bara, Aloo Dum, Chuda Ghasa and Poda Pitha at the food festival.
'The evening was enlivened by a cultural performance by cultural troupe Lakshay from Bhubaneswar led by Kshanaprava Parida, who presented foot-tapping dance numbers and enthralled the audience. An art exhibition of water colour works by artist Naresh Mahanta was also displayed at the venue.
On April 2, invocation song ‘Vande Utkal Janani’ will be presented followed by performances of Odissi, Sambalpuri and folk dances by in-house artistes.
An Odia play ‘Niraba Jhada’ directed by R P Sahu will also be staged.
