Students of De Nobili Digwadih perform at the inaugural ceremony of the youth fest in Dhanbad on Friday. Picture by Gautam Dey

The De Nobili Group of Schools came together for an annual festival at its Digwadih-based cradle on Friday.

More than 1,000 students from Maithon, Mugma, Sindri, Sijua, CMRI, Chandrapura and Digwadih branches participated at the two-day 6th Inter De Nobilian Youth Festival 2011.

Also present at the fest were director and secretary of De Nobili Group of Schools Father George Fernandes and Father James Kalapura, principals and teachers.

The lighting of the lamp by chief guest, deputy commissioner Sunil Kumar Burnwal along with guest of honour, C.H. Diwaker, general manager of Tata Steel (Jharia division), marked its traditional opening.

“I’ve always advocated all-round development of students, in which extracurricular activities play a key role,” said Burnwal.

This was followed by a prayer and welcome dance by students of the host school. Principal Father Sebastian Puthenpura delivered the inaugural address, where he welcomed all the visitors.

“The meet inculcates the values of teamwork and provides a platform to display the talent of youngsters,” he said.

This was followed by the school song and a march past.

The fun and games started right after.

Activities on the first day were track-and-field events, basketball and volleyball matches, singing and drama contests and stand-up comedy.

Rachit Francis from Digwadih and Koena Roy from CMRI won the English solo singing contest in boys and girls categories, respectively. Akansha Singh outperformed others in the Hindi (girls) category. Dishani Lahiry of Maithon won the short put in senior girls’ group and Sakshi Priya of Sijua won the discus throw.