10-day Chandigarh crafts mela to celebrate culture, cuisine starts on November 28

Preparations for the annual 15th Chandigarh National Crafts Mela are going full steam with the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC) pulling out all the stops to make it a unique event.

The mega event, to be jointly organised by the NZCC and the UT Department of Art and Culture, will begin at Kalagram, Manimajra, on November 28. The daily timings are 11 am to 9.30 pm.

There will be a slew of power-packed performances by Bollywood playback singers, prominent folk singers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and other regions of the country during the 10-day event. Prominent among them are ‘dilruba’ exponent Prof Amandeep Singh (Nov 28), Kanwar Grewal (Nov 29), Sudesh Bhosale (Nov 30), Mame Khan (Dec 1), Anuj Sharma and Khushboo Bhardwaj, aka Himachali Nightingale (Dec 2), Vidhi Deswal (Dec 3), Rakesh Khanwal (Dec 4), Manmohan Waris (Dec 5), Amar Noorie, Alaap Sikander, Sarang Sikander (Dec 6), and Amrit Mann (Dec 7).

The theme of the mela this year is “Vibrant Bharat”. The host NZCC has invited acclaimed artisans from 24 states for preparing a magnificent decor at the venue to create a heritage backdrop.

There will be morning and evening sessions, which will have a melange of ground and stage performances by folk artistes. A quiz competition, specially curated for schoolchildren to test their ingenuity, will be a daily feature.

A variety of lip-smacking cuisines and culinary treats will be available at the food corner, offering dishes from across the country.

The NZCC Director, Mohd Furqan Khan, said, “It has always been our earnest endeavour to go the extra mile to bring in, besides sumptuous culinary treats to city folks, a rich repertoire of ethnic handicraft items from various part of the country through this annual feature.”