Visit Salt Lake stadium to watch boat races, lathi khela, bhatiyali music and more this weekend.

The state department of backward classes welfare is hosting a festival named Dignity 2013 in memory of an 1873 movement where members of backward classes had demanded dignity and equality before the law. The festival will be held in the water body on the right hand side if entering the stadium from the VIP entrance on the E.M. Bypass.

The three-day event will be inaugurated at 11am on December 13 and will be followed by boat races and traditional sports such as lathi khela and dariabandham (a field game where members of one team try to run across the field and the other team tries to stop them). This morning routine will be presented everyday between 11am and 1pm.

From 1.30pm will be a workshop on Kabigan. This is a folk music form where the singers — the kabials —compose their songs on the spot when confronted by their musical rivals. A puppet show will be staged at 4.30pm on the 1873 movement and from 5.30pm will be bhatiyali music.

There will be seminars and workshops on the culture and migration patterns of this community on Saturday and Sunday and every evening will conclude with bhatiyali song on boats. The festival and workshops are open to all.

New store

Telecommunications service provider Vodafone opened its second store in Salt Lake. The new store is located in Bengal Intelligent Park Building, next to Infinity. Before that, the township’s only store was the one opposite City Centre. New Town has a kiosk in DLF building.

An attendant arranges products at the Vodafone store in Sector V. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

The store will stay open from 9.30am to 7.30pm from Monday to Saturday. It also has a round-the-clock self-service kiosk where customers can pay their bills.

Other than connections, USB sticks, data plans and smartphones, the store sells zoozoo soft toys and coffee mugs.