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When hip goes rural

A contest exclusively for village belles draws an encouraging response

FUN AND FROLIC Tasting a village feast

Dressed in their Sunday best and dancing to popular numbers, 300 women raised a lot of dust with their speeding heels at a day long competition jointly organised by the Lions Club of Madurai Temple City and the Centre for Rural Education and Development (CRED).

If the `ghana numbers' gave goosepimples and stiffened the nerves, the visitors could not escape the `gramathu virundhu' either, a traditional variety of food spread. "With rural women mostly remaining confined to their homes, this event was an opportunity to exhibit and showcase their talents in front of a crowd," says Saroja Navanathan, club's president.

"Is it right to confiscate rural women's talents just because she is a woman? At least, urban women get an occasional chance to participate in various competitions. But who cares about our counterparts in rural areas? Hence, we took the initiative," she explains.

"Though the competitions were run-of-the-mill like cooking, `kolattam,' `kummi,' `kolam,' we made an earnest attempt to give it a traditional or rather a village touch. Particularly the cooking competition brought to the fore their skills in items like ragi, kambu," says Rajeswari Thiagarajan, club's secretary.

She also points out that being a maiden attempt the club conducted ordinary competitions. In future, they plan to conduct more and a greater variety of competitions on par with urban women.

"Taking part in a contest here was totally a new experience and I enjoyed it a lot," said a participant, adding that she used to play various indoor games like `thayam,' `chottangal' and `pannankuzhi' in those days to kill time but nowadays such activities have become scarce as most women are engage with self-help groups for economic development.

"From cradle to grave, women toil and adorn multiple roles for the sake of their parents, children and husband. With their willing to sacrifice attitude, they hardly get time to spend for themselves. Their talents mostly lie dormant," she says. Ask anyone around whether they believe in women enjoying an equal status in society, nine out of ten may reply in the affirmative but when it comes to practicing the same, it does not happen. Rural women rarely find opportunities to unveil their enthusiastic instinct and skills.

The club members wanted to explode the misconception that clubs work only with urban women. "Urban or rural, we rub shoulders with all besides making the day a memorable one for them," the club members say.

S.S KAVITHA

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