Dussehra Cultural Events 2021 @ ICAT, Bangalore

The Cultural Club of ICAT Design and Media College, Bangalore organized a Cultural Events on 12th of October 2021 on the occasion of Dussehra. Navratri is a nine-day festival in which nine forms of Goddess Durga are worshipped and the tenth day is Dashami. It is one of the most significant festivals celebrated by Hindus all across India with great fervour. There are a total of four Navratris in a year, but only two - Chaitra Navratri and Sharad Navratri are celebrated widely. People in different parts of the country celebrate the festival differently. Though they worship the same deity, but perform different rituals. The aim of the event was to make people aware about the Hindu mythology and create a festive atmosphere.

The celebration began at 2 PM in the afternoon. The hosts for the event were Ms Shreya and Ms Apurva, 2nd year students who conducted the programme very well. The event set rolling by the welcome speech by Ms. Hemalatha Doddamani and followed by devotional songs performed by students. It was a kind of devotional offering from their side. The first event was the Ramp walk with the theme was the nine manifestations of Goddess Durga and the students presented each form very gracefully. The Dussehera festival honors the nine avatars of Goddess Durga and every day has its own significance. It celebrates the Goddess's victory over evil. Each day of the festival stands for an auspicious colour, which is dedicated to all the avatars of the Goddess. The goddesses are Goddess Shailputri, Goddess Brahmacharini, Goddess Chandraghanta, Goddess Kushmanda, Goddess Skandmata, Goddess Katyayani, Goddess Kaalratri, Goddess Mahagauri, and Goddess Siddhidatri.

After that, the anchors conducted a quiz session to engage the crowd and it too went off very well. All the questions asked were from the Hindu Mythology which helped the crowd in testing their knowledge. Next on the list was a Drama performed by the students from the Mahabharata sequence which depicted the importance of Ayudha Pooja and how it started in that era. This drama depicts the sequence, when the Pandavas lost to the Kauravas in the game of Chausar and their mother Kunti gave them the order to go on isolation for one year. Students played different characters: Tanish played Arjuna, Manav as Bheem, Prishitha as Draupadi, Nitish as Yudishthir, Kiran as Nakul, and Vignesh as Sahdev.

The grand finale was a dance performance by Rahul, Kiran, Tanish, Chaitra, Purni, Saranya, Sakshi on Navartri songs which transformed the mood of the college, making it a Dussehera festivity.