Kashi festivals come alive in pictures

VARANASI: Famous for festivities and celebrations, the holy city of Varanasi known for ‘Saatvar, nau-tyohar’ (nine festivals in seven days of a week), witnessed an exhibition of major festivals on Monday.
The moods and colours of 18 major festivals and fairs of a calendar year has been displayed under one roof by the Archeological Survey of India and State Archeology department in association with a group of students of fine arts and professional photographers at one of the galleries of Maan Mandir Observatory located on the Ganga banks
The exhibition on the theme of ‘fair and festivals’ was opened for visitors with formal inauguration by dean of Faculty of Visual Arts of Banaras Hindu University Hiralal Prajapati on Monday evening.The photographs by 29 lensmen are displayed in newly-created exhibition gallery of Maan Mandir Observatory.
If the wisely selected photographs by organisers are taking the locals back to memory lanes they are also giving tourists, including foreigners, an insight into how Banarasis live the special moments during festivities.
Maximum photographs are based on world famous ‘lakkha melas’ (fairs where gathering takes place in lakhs), including Bharat Milap, Nakattaiya of Chetganj, Naagnathaiyya, Lota-Bhanta Ka Mela, Ghazi Miya Ka Mela, Bhaidooj, Yam-Puja, Rathyatra, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Muharram, Shab-e-Raat, Buddh Purnima, Christmas and many other fairs organized on different festivals and special days.
Senior photographer Vinay Raval, who is coordinating the event, said, “The effort is aimed at enabling people to get a glimpse of the way of celebrations and the mood with which festivals are observed by the denizens of the city known as cultural capital.” Other artistes hope that ASI and state archeology department would keep one of its galleries available to display their creations at this observatory due to impressive footfall of visitors. The artistes said that if the initiatives like this exhibition continue in future they can showcase the photographs of maximum fairs and fests of this place. Raval said that the photographer fraternity has a treasure of all the events but there is a need for maintaining frequency of events like this exhibition to encourage them for their participation through photographs.