The third weekend of Pondicherry Heritage Festival 2017 was packed with events that brought alive the traditional folk art, introduced the history of magic and captured the changing landscape.
Protected by helmets, children between the age group 8 and 16 skated along Promenade Beach to promote Pondicherry Heritage Festival on Sunday evening. Led by two senior skaters holding a banner, the 50 children from Thomas Speed Skating Academy held a balloon in their hands with ‘Pondicherry Heritage Festival’ printed on it.
Beginning the procession from Chief Secretariat office, the skaters reached Gandhi Thidal and performed slalom skating. Soon, Zumba flash mob took over the platform surprising the evening walkers with their performance.
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Shadow puppet show
Presenting one of the dying folk arts to the audience at Lycee Francais de Pondicherry, Soulful Pondy organised a shadow puppet show on Saturday evening. R. Kuppuswamy, a ninth generation shadow puppeteer living in Puducherry, manipulates the strings to tell a story of Hindu epic ‘Ramayanam’ through silhouettes.
Leather shaped into characters and painted with glaring colours took the stage to narrate ‘Ramayanam’. “This puppteer is the son of L. Rajappa and R. Sundari. Mr.Rajappa was honoured with ‘Kalaimamani’ award. He is one of the few artists who continue the legacy of this folk art originated from Thanjavur,” said Vijay Shankar, Coordinator, Pondicherry Heritage Festival.
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This show was hosted by Lycee Francais, Proviseur Mr. Stephan Madrias organised by Soulful Pondy, INTACH, Pondy CAN and People for Pondicherry heritage (PPH) for the Pondicherry heritage festival 2017.
At dusk, Urban Design took the architecture students and tourists from Delhi and France on a ‘night walk’ to explore and capture Puducherry’s streets.
Starting from Le Café on Saturday evening, the participants walked along the Promenade Beach. “Inspired by the writer Jane Jacob’s most well-known concepts —‘Eyes on the street’, ‘allowing for the strange, ‘private and public space’ and others, we discussed the changing urban life. The participants were asked to capture the photographs that responded to these themes,” said Devangi Ramakrishnan of Urban Design Collective.
Janes Jacob was a writer, journalist and activist best known for her 1961 book, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’. This book was one of the most influential American texts on the inner workings and failings of cities that inspired generations of urban planners and activists.
She added that they captured the bustling activity on the beach road where people came in large numbers during the weekends.
They also led a team on a ‘morning walk’ to freeze the early morning bustle at Puducherry’s Sunday market and Grand Bazaar in their cameras.
“Amateur photographers, tourists and local enthusiasts were present. We looked for the changing nature, old and new, contract them and find the missing element through the photographs and discussed continued relevance and importance of these themes in contemporary urban life in India,” she added.
She stated that the best pictures from the photowalk will be exhibited as part of the Heritage Festival photography exhibition at Maison Colombani from February 23.
Alliance Francaise hosted a talk on the ‘History of Magic in India and France’ and a magic show by French magician Lawrens Godon.
On Sunday evening, Anita Ratnam performed ‘A Million Sitas’ at Gratitude Heritage Hotel.