India Day

17th of march was a lovely day for all of us Indians. Today morning we had a class by Eva Lundberg regarding project work on cultural differences. After a brief agenda given by Eva, we were divided into groups and were left to discuss a variety of topics regarding our culture. Our groups consisted of Swedish students as well as us Indians. We were made to discuss answers to some questions like ' What are the experiences of our cultural meeting? , What have i learnt about Goan/ Swedish culture so far?, In what ways has my own culture become visible to me?' After a discussion of about half an hour or so we were made to write a group wise conclusion, which will be presented in front of the class by the end of the week or so depending on when time permits.

Followed by the class with Eva we moved for breakfast and soon shifted to have the practices of the India day. After days of hard work for the India day,it finally started of with some performances by the Swedish themselves. We had the traditional folk song performance on the violin , following that we had a musical performance by the students together forming a lively and enthralling band. After which we soon began the variety of performances by us students . The programme was hosted by Gauravi Keni and myself. We had a number of performances starting with two different bharatnatyam dance forms - Jatiswaram and Rati padam. Following that we had some classical singing and some other bollywood dance performances as well as some songs. Besides we also gave them a taste of goa through the Kunbi dance, the Mando and the Konkani duet song. The grand finale was the 'Glimpses of India' which showcased a range of dresses of some of the important states of India. Besides we also had some spot questions for the Swedish students to give them some idea about India. We concluded the programme by singing the National Anthem of India. After which we moved on to the cafeteria for some fellowship over some lip- smacking Swedish as well as Indian snacks. Our day ended today with dinner wherein some of us had gone to the Food Court and the rest to Mc Donalds. After which , we went around and exploring the place . Some also bought a variety of chocolates and candy. We now back to the hostel. Awaiting tomorrows day as it is most likely to snow. We all eagerly waiting for that feeling... Will let you'll know about our day tomorrow.Loads of love from Sweden. - Dorothy Furtado