VISHU & EASTER CELEBRATIONS

The celebration of vishu, the harvest festival of Kerala in INdia and Easter organised by IdamMuscat, a cultural organisation of expatriates from Kerala, hereon friday turned out to be an occassion of joy for the participants.

The traditional dance form of kaikottikali performed by women along with a fest evoked nostalgic memories to participants. Former member of Keral legilative assembly Rosmma Punnose participated in the festival as a guest of honour. She was presented a momento by the organisers.

Singers from the expatriate community sang songs from old Malayalam and Hindi fims. Competitions for children and lucky draws where held on the occasion. A.K. Majeed who explained about the organisation, said Idam is anorganisation working in the periods of culture and art. It had organised several programmes to promote films of artistic value, he said. He recounted that the organisation had taken the lead to screen the Malayalam movie of "PULIJANMAM" which had won President of India's award for the best director.The organisation had also held programmes of well known artistes from Kerala he said .

K.M.Gafoor of Idam, who spoke on the future programmes of the organisation, said Idam has plans to hold a documentary film festival in Muscat with the co-operation of Kerala Chalachithra Academy.
"We are discussing the idea with the academy. We have also plans to screen Malayalam movies of artistic value and organize a folk art festival of India here" he added.
Expatriate writer N.T. Balachandran also addressed the function.