IMPHAL, September 21: The 10th Festival of Narrative Arts, 2014 was opened today at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Community Hall, Mekola Bazar.
The festival is being organised by the Theatre Centre, Manipur, Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy and Mekola Dramatic Union.
The inaugural function was attended by social activist and educationist S Manaoton Singh, chairperson Theatre Centre Manipur Wareppa Naba, Mekola Dramatic Union president B Thoibi Devi and advisor Sarungbam Ibobi as chief guest, president and guests of honour respectively.
Manaoton said reports of killings and deaths have today become the norm.
Today, we get to hear of killings even among family members for petty matters, he said.
The development we see in technology has distanced friends and relatives, he said and added the more we get developed, the more we are incline to lose our culture.
The conduct of such festivals like this one on narrative arts of Manipur will go a long way in encouraging our culture and traditions even in this digital age, he said.
Wareppa Naba said the festival honours the age old indigenous art form of Manipur.
To safeguard the gradually fading traditions and culture of our society, every individual need to help by chipping in their own ways to promote the culture, he said.
Although conducting such a large festival incurs huge amount of fund, the concerned government department had decided to extend a small amount of funding, he said.
The Arts and Culture director had last year in her speech assured more financial assistance from her department, however, this year the assistance has been only half of what was received last year, he lamented.
He further lauded the women folk of Mekola who provided the refreshment during the inaugural function.