Primary School Students dancing to Jai Ho
Youth Festival is a festival that occurs every year at schools in India where students are put in competitions for a range of different activities from English recitation to traditional dance, from comedy sketches to Malayalam speeches.
The festival is over two days and it was a great chance for us to see some more Kerelan culture. At the opening ceremony Lucy and I were invited up onto the stage to light the ceremonial candle, which was a lovely privilege for us and we were greeted with a huge round of applause.
Youth Festival was a great opportunity for Lucy and I to get more involved in the school as we were able to help the students who were doing English recitations and speeches. We went back to school after lunch or helped students out in our free periods, I think some of the teachers thought I was a little crazy when I made them stand over the other side of the staff room and speak loudly so I could hear them. They definitely thought I was crazy when I was telling them to take deep breaths and relax – yoga style! It was a great opportunity for me to be able to work with my old students too, and they really appreciated the help especially with their pronunciation of words.
The school were really great at getting us involved in the day, and it was lovely to spend some more time with the students and meet other students in the school.
On the day Lucy and I were allowed to sit in the room where the speeches/recitations took place, judges from other schools come in – it is all taken very seriously. We had spent several hours by that point going over all the speeches and I felt like I knew some sections of the speeches myself! I was super proud of all the students who took part and their attitude was great, one student told me another student was upset after forgetting his lines. When I went to find him to check he was okay he said ‘of course, it is the participation that counts.’ I could have definitely done with that attitude at primary school – I remember forgetting a line to a Christmas play when I was at primary school and ran off the stage crying, and that didn’t even count for anything!!
Students with their winning certificate
After the English speeches and recitations had taken place we were able to watch the other activities, we got to see the lower primary schools welcome dance which was to J’ai Ho and we also got to see our students doing some traditional dances. In between dances one of the teachers played J’ai Ho and a popular movie song (which even now is still stuck in my head even though I have no idea what they are saying!), which meant the students repeatedly went absolutely crazy! There was a point where we were asked to get up on stage and dance in front of everyone to fill a gap, we declined that one!
The school were really great at getting us involved in the day, and it was lovely to spend some more time with the students and meet other students in the school.
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