At Darjeeling St. Joseph's College festival of creativity and bonding

REZA PRADHAN, SNS, DARJEELING, 6 APRIL: With a view to strengthening the bond among students, and bringing about a sense of belonging in them, St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling organised a Music Festival here yesterday. The festival held at the Arrupe open air quadrangle on the college premises, however, also came as a respite for students, as they reeled through uncertainty during the Covid- 19 pandemic, and got back to attending offline classes only after the college reopened recently after a gap of two years. "The programme with multiple purposes in mind. We felt that an induction programme through music and creativity was of prime importance for developing bonding and sense of belonging amongst the students who were for long deprived of normal college life due to the pandemic," St Joseph's College Principal Fr Donatus Kujur said in a press release.

"It is nothing short of unique and unprecedented in the recent global educational scenario, that students have reached the 4th semester without even stepping into the college premises. Given such a situation, orientation and familiarizing students with college life and with each other through art and creative impulse acquires great significance," he added.

Fr Kujur further maintained that students from all semesters and streams came together to participate in the "festival of creativity and bonding."

"The students used different innovative ways to express their creativity, among which included group songs, folk songs, folk dances, along with a medley that mixed the folk with the classical and the popular," he said, adding that the songs were sung in English, Nepali, Hindi and Bengali languages.

"In this new-normal post-pandemic world, normalization of life in the campus and beyond is of utmost importance.

The enthusiastic and energetic participation of the students more than proved the process of normalization and integration of life hack to its old mainstream is underway," said Fr Kujur.