Bhopal Carnival begins with chaos

I was not at all thrilled when Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC) released the calendar of the activities for the week long Bhopal Carnival. The carnival is to be organized by them for the first time in the history of Bhopal.

The timings, the activities and the events looked as if no planning had been done. It looked half hearted planning. The activities in the event do not represent Bhopal’s culture nor had a zing to evoke the response the inhabitants. The calendar looked completely mixed-up.

The aim and intention of organizing a week-long Bhopal Carnival between April 19 and 26 is to promote tourism and develop the State capital as a major tourist hub. Absolutely fine but the calendar completely lacks vision. Except that of batole bazzi which Bhopal is famous for?
No activity in the seven day looks enchanting. There is nothing which is promoting culture, tradition, music & dance , art and theatre, cuisine , place, destination, picnic spots, heritage & handicraft, The objective of the Bhopal Carnival does not match with the activities at all as they don’t showcase the vibrant culture and milieu of the city.

Although one thing they tried is uniting couple of department’s like Culture department, Nagar Nigam and Bhopal development authority to make the event grand.

As a person who has been in the trade for almost a decade I saw it as a waste of Rs 50 lakhs. Straight down the drain. In this amount a national event could have been created and also history.

Let’s see how the carnival comes up. Although the first programme organized under the banner of the Department of Culture was extremely pitiable in every sphere.

The artiste they choose was Roop Kumar Rathod. No doubt an excellent singer but the organizers failed to attract more than 200 odd people. The Chairman Tourism & Mayor looked baffled on the stage.

The sound system was pathetic. From the anchor to Roop Kumar Rathod in the whole show they kept adjusting the sound monitor. It looked utterly disgusting. The department showed their standard. The bankruptcy of ideas by the culture department of MP was shown by calling the artiste instead of artistes of Madhya Pradesh. Least realizing the event was to promote tourism and showcase the best of Bhopal.

The event was missing on plenty of things.

Poor choice of the venue.
No publicity was done.
No invitations were sent.
No proper backdrop /or stage design was erected.
Lack of arrangement in terms of light, sound and decoration.
No vision for an event in terms of artistes and musical night.

Let’s see aage ……