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Last time around we told you that we ‘LISTEN’ to YOU and from your inputs the idea of a South Indian Cultural Carnival was conceived. Our weekly Carnival has started, and its on, every Friday eve 7 pm onwards, showcasing famous traditions of South India.

It was time for weeks long discussions to be put into action. As soon as the lunch winded up, everybody got into the thick of action. The decoration of the place; kites, flowers, pots, leaves, rangoli – all being used to give the place a true Carnival atmosphere. Soon the Channapatna Toys, the palmist, the potter arrived with their whole armoury and as soon as the toys’ man put up his things on display – he started selling. Yeah, they were so beautiful that even I was tempted to buy those lovely looking toys. The atmosphere was so fun filled and exciting that it did not take long for our CEO, Venkatesh, to get into the act. He could soon be seen busy with the boys setting up his Live Counter.

Weeks of planning and hours of non-stop work was what it took to get South Indies ready for the first ever South Indian Cultural Carnival in the city. And then the efforts started to bear fruit. We had quite a lot of bookings already made online, thanks to our newsletters and of course our twitter and facebook pages,.

On the Carnival night, the guests were welcomed by traditional ‘Arishana-Kunkuma’. The women were also presented ‘gajras’. Also a brief about the Carnival was given to all our guests, which was highly appreciated by them. On departure the guests were thanked with South Indian pickles along with their recipes.

While Channapatna toys and the potter were expectantly an instant hit, what was amazing, was the number of people who queued up for the palmist. People are really interested to know their future I guess ! Channapatna toys, an art known in this part of the world from the times when Tipu Sultan reigned here, is still equally popular as it was then.

Though many of us have seen the potter’s wheel and pots being beautifully made, hardly anyone of us had tried that! The Carnival gave everybody an opportunity to do something never done before. Everybody was allowed to try their hands out at the wheel and even take away what they made. Not to say that not many were successful in making what they intended to but nevertheless the effort and the experience was what mattered the most.

Well, enough talk, we’ll leave you with the pics of the first edition of the Carnival and invite you to come and see for yourself the South Indian Carnival @ southindies.