CULTURAL SHOW AND LESSONS


Fortunately the day did not start very early, we woke up at 9.30.
We were supposed to have a lesson at 10.45 but since it had been cancelled we decided to practice a bit for the Cultural Show.
We gathered at around 10.30 in the auditorium and everyone started to work on his part, 9 people practiced the Bangrad, 8 trained for the Pizzica, 3-4 people began making the two power point presentations and the others took care of the preparation of the song Domani 21-04-2009.


After about one and a half hours, we had to move to the classroom where professor Chiranjiv Singh (former additional secretary, govt. of Karnataka) was waiting us for his lesson “Some interesting cultural aspects of Bangalore”.
What I found very interesting is that the professor made a comparison between Italy and India. He started telling us how the Romans and the Indians had a trading deal in the past and how this went on for some centuries.
After that he moved to the central topic: Bangalore’s different cultures.
Through a map he drew on the board he showed us how the city (situated in Karnataka) is very close to the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Kerala and that is way the city is full of cultural differences.


The teacher underlined how even from North and South Karnataka lie big cultural discrepancies and how these emerge in the city of Bangalore.
Besides that we have also been told that Karnataka hasn’t always been the capital of Karnataka, and that during the colonial age Bangalore was one of the biggest industrial and trading centers of the British Empire in India. At that time the city was divided into two parts: local people were living in the west and English in the East.
So the western lifestyle is still different from the Eastern and the present government doesn’t like the former. That is way it exhaled some laws to partly contrast its trend
But there is also a positive thing to say: Bangalore is also well-known for integrating properly immigrants in the society.

Right after the lesson we had lunch, with the very same Indian food of the last 10 days.
At 14.20 we moved back to the classroom where the former director of Chitrakala Parishad, Mr Suresh Jairam, was giving us a lesson about the Indian culture.
He said that “if America is a melting pot, India is a Thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls”.



Living in India means living simultaneously in different cultures and times: it can be hard sometimes but it’s a pleasure for the Indians and the tourists.
He also underlined that the unity of India lies in its ability to assimilate, integrate, sustain different cultural patterns. To better explain this he used a beautiful metaphor: India is a house with all the doors and windows open through which wind blows around and embraces with his delicate and sensitive arms all things and people whose mind is without fear and head is held high.

Where the world has not been broken up by fragmentation made by walls.
The value guide of india are:
1. AHIMSA(no violence)
2. DHARMA(that which uploads)
3. ARTHA(material wealth)
4. KAMA(desire)
5. MOKSHA(liberation for life after the death because for Indian people life is a cycle that never interrupt his movement)
6. KARMA(action not fare)
7. SATHYA(truth)
Once the lesson was finished we had a 15 minute break followed by a lesson on Human rights in India held by Dr. R. Venkat Rao (Vice Chancellor of national law school in Bangalore).



First thing is said was: “Human rights is the same thing of saying right to be human”. Then he talked about the Indian constitution which was exhaled on January 22nd 1950 when India became a republican union.
The latter was influenced by an historical event happened in 1948: the universal declaration of human rights which talked about rights with no distinction between genders (everything wasn’t referred to men but human beings).
And India had signed it where the countries were only 55, whereas nowadays 193 joined.

The steps of Indian history were:
1) Prevalence of colonial rules
2) Rise of the authoritarian government
3) Establishment of fascist Barbarous and oppressive regime
4) Rise of national liberation movement
5) Movements of democracy
The bad thing, Mr Venkat said, is that India reached political independence in 1947 but it’s still not free from a social point of view (see the caste system).

When lesson was over, we were supposed to meet some Indian students in order to give them our questionnaire but once again in the day we had to skip an appointment.
It turned out, indeed, that Indians were having exams during the all week so they had no time for filling out our papers.
So once again, we dedicated our spare time to practice for the cultural show.
Dinner was ready at 8.30 and after that we all went upstairs to the computer room to shoot the breeze.
I know some people went downtown with the unstoppable Jose to watch a Bollywood movie but I personally stayed at the student house to relax.
Good night everybody!