Sitting among the audience at Mavlankar Hall on the first day of the two-day Mithila Mahotsav organised by the Akhil Bhartiya Mithila Sangh and inaugurated by Sheila Dikshit last week, one wondered if the pulse of the festivities lay more on stage or off it.
The auditorium had elderly men to politicians to housewives with their children for a Maithili community gathering. Proceedings conducted entirely in Maithili, the event boasted Maithili writers, playwrights and thinkers as speakers who spoke about various issues concerning the language, literature and culture of the region.
The event also had various performances by singers like Sunil Pawan, who sang beautifully making the crowd happy even though he was permitted a very brief stint on stage before being rushed off. A lok-natya dance-drama complete with live music and vocals was performed by Rangmandap, a group from Begusarai followed by the folk dance of Pamaria.
ADVERTISEMENT
Delhi Chief Minister made an appearance two hours into the programme, and spoke briefly about the larger significance not only of such celebrations of distinct cultures in a cosmopolitan city like Delhi but also of the various cultural academies that have been set up in Delhi like the Mithila and Bhojpuri Academy and how they have given each community a means to sustain as well as celebrate its distinctiveness, ultimately enriching the fabric of Delhi’s culture as a whole.