A splash of colour

Dhaka University on Tuesday celebrated Bashanta Utsab (Spring Festival) with flowers, poems and songs as the bone-chilling, gloomy winter  gave way to a fiesta of colours and love.

Dhaka University Cultural Society (DUCS) organised the daylong festival at the 'Mall Chattar' of the campus.

 Mall Chattar of Dhaka University was adorned with colourful banners and festoons. Makeshift stalls, including traditional food, Nagordola (wooden Ferris wheel), bioscope and decorative henna parlours were also given a place at the corner of the main stage.

The programme, which ran throughout the day, featured drama, puppet show and a musical show featuring a spectrum of folk music -- gambhira, bhatiali, bhawaiyya, jari and recitation of puthi. Over 100 DU students performed at the festival with enthusiasm.

Later, prominent singers Kiron Chandra Roy, Bappa Mazumder, bands Joler Gaan and Arjon also sang their popular songs on stage.

Sayeed Khokon, mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation, inaugurated the festival in the morning. A colourful procession was brought out after the inaugural session.

DU Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique urged the younger generation to remember that the cultural unity of the Bangalee people was the prime driving force in the Independence of Bangladesh.

Veteran cultural personality Aly Zaker said that season-based festivals in the country will inspire people of every creed to build a secular state.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy's Director General, Liaquat Ali Lucky thanked DUCS for arranging such an event and said encouragingly that Shilpakala Academy will always extend its help to the DU students culturally. DUCS moderator Sabrina Sultana Chowdhury also spoke among others.

The programme came to a close through releasing of fanush (paper lanterns) into the night sky.