PAU youth fest theatre performances throw light on ‘ailing’ Punjabi society

Preserving the richness of the cultural landscape, the Inter-College Youth Festival at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) featured theatrical and musical items on Thursday.

The skit competition, unleashing the dramatic skills of the students, presented the merits and demerits of Punjab as well as the social media. The 10-minute skit item threw light on the Punjabi milieu, which was in a state of flux with young population running after greener pastures, especially in Canada, and the ageing population being left behind in lurch with no one to look after them. Punjabi youth’s maddening race for visa and money, and their first preference for settling abroad over geriatric care in their families, touched the emotional chords of the audience.

Besides, the skits highlighted the enormous generation gap between the years gone by and the tech-savvy era. They showcased how the septuagenarians and octogenarians were fed up of the youth’s addiction to social media, how young couples – remaining glued to smart phones — lacked patience to bring up their children, and how social media influencers were ruling in comparison to Punjabi artistes.

Additionally, the skits presented the growing influence of social media harming the younger generation, increasing menace of drugs and alcohol, poor healthcare facilities and diminishing job opportunities for agriculture graduates.

The students also displayed their vocal skills in lammi hek wale geet and talent in mimicry. Giddha, bhangra and prize distribution ceremony will take place in the evening.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Punjab Administrative Reforms and NRI Affairs Minister, who was the chief guest, voiced concern over social media and drug addiction — destroying the youth, corruption — rampant in the society and dowry — an age-old vice.

Addressing the youth, he said, “You can help in getting rid of all these vices. It is important to empower and inspire the youth not to tread the wrong path.”

Referring to students’ protest for including agriculture as a regular subject in schools and appointment of agri-graduates in the master cadre, the minister assured the gathering of the state government’s full support in this direction. “Punjab is an agrarian state, we are on the job to create more employment for the youth; things may take time but it will be done,” he told the PAU students.

Results

Skit: Agriculture (A), Horticulture and Forestry (HF) and Agriculture College (AC), Ballowal Saunkhri

Nala making: Jasmeen Kaur (A), Damandeep Kaur (Community Science-CS) and Inderjot Kaur (CS)

Ennu making: Gaganpreet Kaur (CS), Ravneet Kaur (CS) and Puneet Kaur (HF)

Mitti de khidoney making: Prince Bali (Basic Sciences-BS), Parneet Kaur (A) and Abhishek (A)

Chikku making: Damandeep Kaur (CS), Manpreet Kaur (BS) and Japleen Kaur (A)

Pehree making: MD Mirazuddin (BS), Rajpreet Singh (BS) and Jasmeen Kaur (A)

Elocution: Tarun Kapoor (A), Unnati Anand (BS) and Davinderpal Singh (AC, Ballowal Saunkhri)

Extempore: Amitoz Singh (A), Agam Sharma (BS) and Punia Khosla (CS)

Quiz: Colleges of Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry as well as Basic Sciences secured top three positions

Mime: Colleges of Horticulture and Forestry, Agriculture and Community Science won top three spots

Bhand: Colleges of Agriculture, Community Science and Basic Sciences bagged first three prizes

Mono acting: Dilawar Singh (A), Gayatri Gupta (A) and Vansh Sharma (Agricultural Engineering)

One act play: Colleges of Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry as well as Basic Sciences won top three positions.