A girl tries out a dish at the food festival in the SBI Officers’ Residential Complex

It was a fashion show, not by the masters but by the students. And that made the difference.

At a packed auditorium of Pragjyoti, students of the city branch of the J.D. Institute of Fashion Technology showca-sed their creations last week at a fashion show titled Designers Weekend 2006.

The event turned out to be different as the city hardly gets to see young designers showcasing their collection on such a mega scale. “In our entire history of existence, since the past 18 years we have always given opportunities to the young designers to showcase their talent on a big platform,” said Sumita Dey Deka, the director of the Guwahati branch of J.D. Institute.

The institute was opened in the city last year.

“The entire collection by students is an experiment with fashion trends making it more chic and wearable and experimenting with textile development of the entire region,” said Deka.

The fashion-conscious audience encouraged the designers by asking them to design for them.

Food fest

It was an event for all foodies. The women’s wing of the SBI Officers’ Residential Complex in Guwahati organised a food festival last week. Food connoisseurs were delighted as recipes from across the country were spread out.

Led by Nandita Sinha, the first part of the festival consisted of a cookery competition in which there were 31 entries. Scoring the highest marks for both her vegetarian and non-vegetarian items, Gita Bhattacharjee bagged the Champion’s Trophy.

The other winners were Tanima Chatterjee (potol keema), Momi Barua (egg curry), Asfiqa Begum Hazarika (chicken barbecue and shahi paneer) and Dolly Bhattacharjee (paneer butter masala). Two senior couples of the SBI family, Bhargab Choudhury and Krishna Choudhury, N.I. Laskar and Kaniz Fatima Laskar and senior AG official Tapan Choudhury were the judges at the competition.

Filled to capacity Sunday crowd relished the dishes which were served at the food stalls set up by the ladies. Minati Debnath, Sunanda Paul Choudhury, Devjani Dutta, Rumi Misra, Sikha Chakrabarty and Dolly Bhattacharjee were presented with mementoes for their hard work in organising the festival. Devjani Dutta was declared the Lady of the Festival.

Book release

The land of Arunachal Pradesh still retains a “lost world” charm mainly because of its virgin landscape. This world has been beautifully depicted in critically acclaimed author Mamang Dai’s latest book The Legends of Pensam. The book, a publication of Penguin Books, was released in the Northeast recently at Hotel Bellevue in the city. And what more? The entire event turned out to be a big literary party where all the “giants” from the literary circuit of the Northeast gathered to congratulate Dai on her endeavour to offer connoisseurs some of the finest “legends and folktales” of the land of the rising sun.

Columnist D.N. Bezbaruah released the book. Ravi Singh, the chief editor of Penguin Books, spoke on the intention of Penguin Books for entering the region to search for new talents. “The Northeast has some promising authors and we want to give them a platform to explore their talents,” said Singh. He added, “Moreover, the authors from the region can tell the world about the politics, culture and tradition of the region which is still shrouded in so much of mysticism.”

The book, a collection of folktales has touched upon the very inner chord of Arunachal Pradesh. Dai has used some innovative ways of expressing her deep feeling about the land which has been her home since childhood. Her writing needs no appreciation as critics have hailed Dai for her poetic phrases with deep laden philosophy.

Pageant

The Mega Miss Northeast Beauty Contest drew a large crowd at the preliminary round held recently at Cloud 9.

The finals of the beauty pageant is slated to be held at the ITA Pragjyoti Cultural Complex, Machkhowa, Guwahati, on September 9.

Perhaps the main reason behind the event drawing a large number of contestants is the fact that the winner of the crown will be given a chance to participate in the Gladrags Mega Model Contest and prelims of the Femina Miss India Contest.

Of the several participants, the judges selected only seven women with great poise from the state to be a part of the grand finale. “The girls were judged on the basis of their appearance, figure, communication skills, stage presentation, wit, poise and ability to answer questions,” said Abhijeet Singha, fashion designer and the brain behind the contest.

The winners of the prelims from across the region are at present, undergoing a grooming session in the city to put their best foot forward in the finals.

“Leading names from the fashion industry of the country will judge the winner on the final day, ” said Singha.