By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: ‘A Passage to India’ — a unique community festival in Doha — will bring its third edition to showcase India’s cultural diversity and strides in various spheres, at Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park.
The festival will feature cultural performances, handicrafts and cuisine from Indian states along with the country’s achievements in business, science and technology on April 14 and 15.
A depiction of Mangalyaan — India’s spacecraft to Mars and of Indian railways displaying a train passing through a tunnel will be special features.
The event is being organised by Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) with the Indian embassy.
The first edition was held in November 2013 and the idea then was to promote Indian culture and showcase the decades-long bond Qatar and India share.
“It is significant that the festival (this year) would be inaugurated on the 125th birth anniversary of one of India’s greatest sons, the late Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India,” Indian Ambassador Sanjiv Arora told a press conference yesterday. “The festival celebrates deep-tooted ties of friendship and multi-dimensional, growing cooperation between India and Qatar,” he added.
The festival will bring artistes from outside Qatar for the first time, including a 12- member ‘Kalbelia’ folk dance troupe from the state of Rajasthan.
The dance performed to celebrate any joyful moment in the community, is an integral part of Kalbelia culture in the Rajasthani society.
Kalbelia will be staged along with Indian traditional dances and music performed by artistes from more than 100 cultural organisations and schools.
The festival will have 40 pavilions and is expected to draw huge number of visitors as in previous years.
In 2014, the first edition of the festival attracted 25,000 visitors at MIA Park and the number reached some 60,000 at Katara last year.
“As on previous occasions, the festival would attract thousands of people, including Qatari and expatriate communities,” said Arora.
R K Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Suneel Thapliyal, Second Secretary, and Girish Kumar, President, ICC, were present at the media briefing at the embassy.
The Peninsula
