FIRST EDITION OF MANDAWALI UTSAV – A GRAND SUCCESS

OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER
GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI
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·        FIRST EDITION OF MANDAWALI UTSAV – A GRAND SUCCESS
·        MANDAWALI UTSAV WILL BE HELD EVERY YEAR- DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER
New Delhi: 26/12/2018
The first edition of the Mandavali Utsav by the Hindi Academy of the Delhi Government was a three day long event from 23rd – 25th December 2018. This Utsav was very well received by the citizens of Delhi. The event had a packed audience of up to 2000 people every day. It bought to the locals of Mandavalli soulful bhajans ,bhojpuri music and joyous evenings with Hasya Kavi Surendra Sharma to the locals of that area. Other elements of this splendid festival were Maithili Bhojpuri folk dance and folk song by Ms. Anju Jha and a Kathakali performance by Chaurasmita. Among the audience were dignitaries – Atishi, Counselor Geeta Rawat and Kuldeep. Deputy CM, Shri Manish Sisodia declared that this Utsav will be an annual event. He believes that other states too should take motivation from the Delhi Government to organize events of Art and Culture.
This Utsav is part of Delhi government’s  ongoing effort to expand the cultural landscape by decentralizing art and culture events, the Art, Culture and Languages department of the Delhi Government has been organizing and will continue to organize art and culture festivals across Delhi. Brainchild of Hon. Deputy CM, Shri Manish Sisodia, the government will regularly take to the people good quality programmes that provide an alternative to mainstream entertainment. The idea is also to democratize the cultural landscape and break the norm of large scale programmes that are mostly restricted to central Delhi.
Shri Sisodia said,“Until now most cultural events were held in Lutyens Delhi, the Delhi Government has decided to take these programmes to the people of Delhi in their own neighbourhoods. This will in turn increase patronage and make the arts accessible to more people.  We need to create a ‘mahaul’ and audience for arts to thrive, that would also provide an alternative to mainstream entertainment for people”.
These activities help in community integration by bridging social barriers of class, caste, etc. The residents of the area were overjoyed by the efforts of the Delhi government. Surendra Rawat, a local said, “Waah kya mehfil hai, aisa kuch humare mauhalle mein ho sakta hai kabhi socha nahi tha.” (Wow! What a splendid evening, we never thought that something of this scale could happen in our locality.) Sunita Saini was mesmerized as she said, “Maaze aa gaye, kya programme tha!” (It was great fun, amazing programme!”) This event gave an opportunity to local artists to project their talent to a wide audience, eager to receive their art. The final programme of the event was anchored by a resident of Mandavalli. The people were very excited to see the government bring popular artists to their doorstep.

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