Published on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 @ 1345 hrs.

ANNUAL SPORTS AND CULTURAL FESTIVAL 2011 - Day 1

The Annual Sports and Cultural Festival occupies a prominent place in the calendar of events of the students’ curriculum in the hallowed Sri Sathya Sai Educational institutions. Students from colleges and schools and people from far and near come in large numbers to witness this grand spectacle of the students. This event is entirely organised and choreographed by the students and staff of the educational institutions. Showcasing of sports events is usually done on the 11th of every year with dramatic presentations on succeeding days and ends with the prize distribution function on the Sankranti festival. This year the sports events will be spanned over a period of two days and would be an evening affair. On the 11th evening, all the campuses marched sprightly to lilting tunes of the Institute’s brass band followed by an exhibition of daredevilry and rhythm by the Anantapur and Brindavan campuses with a short programme by the students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, College of Nursing & Allied Health Sciences. This was the maiden performance by the College of Nursing students.

Bhagawan arrived at the Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium at 5 p.m. in an immaculate white robe through the northern end of the stadium overlooking the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School. A motorbike escort of students drove in regally welcoming Bhagawan into the stadium. The Anantapur campus band, slow march squad bearing flags and the Institute brass band formed part of this grand procession. After Bhagawan ascended the dais, He lighted the ceremonial lamp to mark the beginning of the proceedings. At the outset, more than 1,600 students from Bhagawan’s educational institutions marched past the dais saluting Bhagawan. The first contingent was the tiny tots from Sri Sathya Sai Primary School followed by Smt. Easwaramma High School – English Medium (again a first performance by the school), Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences), Sri Sathya Sai Junior College for Women, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Brindavan Campus and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus. The Revered Chancellor of the Institute, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba then hoisted the Institute flag and the Institute Captain administered the oath to take part in the sports events in the Annual Sports and Cultural Festival in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the honour of the country and the glory of Mother Sai. After the ceremonial lighting of the sports torch by Bhagawan, the athletes of the Institute in pairs carried the torch aloft to a point in the hill near the Chaitanya Jyoti museum from where the torch-bearer of the sports meet, a tropical multicoloured parrot took it to its destination, an urn at the Hanuman hilltop. The urn was lit to a thunderous applause from the audience. Bhagawan released doves symbolising peace as bunches of balloons soared in the sky. The Anantapur Campus band and the Institute Brass Band marched past the dais saluting Bhagawan. This marked the conclusion of the march past event.

The evening’s sports performance began with the sports and cultural events by the Anantapur campus of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. The first item was showcasing of stunts on Apache 160 RTR motorbikes. The presentation was christened “Aim High, Soar High”. The feats included crisscrossing on bikes, balancing acts – some of them were truly stunning. An awe-inspiring stunt was jumping across girls lying on the ground after getting the elevation from a ramp, and smashing an obstacle with consummate ease. After the bike stunts was a cultural event featuring different formations with colourful bands of cloth. 

The next presentation was Yogasanas on a structure designed like a ship. Students performed various postures on the ship’s mast. The formations and balancing acts were eye-catching and inspiring. The theme of this presentation was “Sai is the anchor, Sai is the lighthouse and Sai is the destination”. The last item, “Imagination is the highest kite” was an innovative performance with kites. Sankranti is the season for kite flying. Taking this cue, the students made formations with kites. After this, the students converged for the final formation releasing colourful balloons.

The next presentation was a short one from the students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences). Dressed as nurses, they brought out the nobility of the nursing profession through various formations and dances.

The last presentation for the evening was from the students of Brindavan Campus. The first performance was from the brass band of the campus, which played a few pieces. The next item was a dance with balance and dexterity – the flavour and fragrance of Lord Jagannath of Puri. A beautiful backdrop of a peacock in full bloom with lights was an added attraction. They made various yogic postures and beautiful balances, one on the other. Dragon dance in typical Chinese style was performed by the students which gave the aura of the Chinese ambience. This performance was marked by rhythm and harmony on huge drums. A discerning viewer got a feel of the Chinese culture with martial artistes performing with the ferocity of a tiger. Shifting over to the ancient Indian style of martial arts, students showed combat formations and styles with swords and sticks followed by a demonstration of actual combat with sticks and swords.

The last performance for the evening was on a huge suspended structure. Students made beautiful formations beginning with 85 Years of Love. It was a treat to watch students joining each other’s legs and hands to make these formations. Calling themselves aerial acrobats, these messengers of love performed with skill, dexterity and balance. Their feats ended with the beautiful formation, “We Love You Sai – Yours Forever”. Arathi was offered to Bhagawan at 6.45 p.m. Thus ended, the first day of Sports and Cultural Festival of the Sri Sathya Sai Educational Institutions.

The second day’s performance will be by the students from Bhagawan’s educational institutions in Prasanthi Nilayam including the institute, the higher secondary school, the primary school and the new entrant Smt. Easwaramma English Medium High School.

Day 2 Report with Images

Published on Thursday, January 12, 2010 @ 1640 hrs. IST

The second day of the Sports Festival belonged to the students of Prasanthi Nilayam. It was a carnival of colour from the students of Sri Sathya Sai Primary School and Easwaramma High School while the students of Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning presented a programme of gymnastics and roller skating with interludes of dances with lights.

On this evening, Bhagawan came to Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium at 1715 hrs. preceded by a motorbike escort squad. The procession also had the pageantry of lion dance from the Institute, dragon dance from the Primary School and the brass band of Brindavan students. The first to perform in this session were the students from Sri Sathya Sai Primary School. “Universe is a Divine Play in His Safe Hands” was the backdrop for their programme. It conveyed that Bhagawan’s outstretched, all-embracing hands were protecting the universe. As in the previous years, there was a riot of colours in the performance of Sri Sathya Sai Primary School with a mix of gymnastics. The first presentation was a dance by the students from the girls section to a song which conveyed that they are unable to comprehend what merit they have done in their previous birth to be in the Divine Presence, to have the invaluable Darshan of the Lord in human form.

The next performance was floor exercises typically performed by gymnasts. The students somersaulted and crossed human hurdles after getting elevation from a ramp. Gymnastic feats on a structure was their next performance. The balancing acts performed head downwards, one holding the other and Dhanur Asana (Asana in the pattern of a bow) were performed with dexterity and skill. There was also a display of dragon dance and lion dance.

Girls dressed as Gopikas with Lord Krishna in their midst was the next performance. This dance transported the audience to the Vraj Brindavan days of Dwapara. A colourful dance with kites by the tiny tots, a Kavadi dance – traditionally performed by Lord Muruga devotees in Tamil Nadu and a peacock dance by the tiny tots won the hearts of the audience. A dance by girls with flowers arranged in a semicircular pattern; the speciality of this dance was the colours of flowers kept changing in a trice just by swaying to and fro. This spectacle won the plaudits of the audience. With this performance, the presentation of Primary School students came to a close. All the students converged for the final formation with placards displaying “We are Yours”.     

Smt. Easwaramma English Medium School, the new entrant to this Sports and Cultural Festival, gave a good account of themselves with a short performance of dances and floor exercises choreographed to perfection. They ended the session with a formation showing WE LOVE YOU SAI declaring loudly to Bhagawan that, YOU ARE OUR EVERYTHING.

The last performance for the evening session was the students from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School and Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music. At the outset, a few students wheeled in a huge monolith idol of Lord Krishna playing flute towards the dais for their Lord to see and behold the efforts they had put in over a number of days to create this masterpiece.

The performances of the Prasanthi Nilayam students was a healthy mix of sinew and skill. The first item was gymnastics on vaulting horse, parallel bars and balancing acts on a structure. All these were done with agility, dexterity and skill. Events like parallel bars and vaulting horse require a lot of practice to perform even by professionals. The students exhibited these skills quite adeptly. Roller skating, another event displayed by the students exhibited their raw power. The speed of skaters moving in tandem, crossing hurdles, ramp jump over six students, jumping over a wall and jumping over a wall of fire is worth mentioning here.

Unity Cup 2011, an exhibition of cricket strokes and catching skills was the next presentation. One may recall a cricket match was conducted at Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium in the year 1997 and Unity Cup was presented to the then captain of Indian cricket team Sachin Tendulkar. Cricketers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England participated in the match. The students on this occasion made an attempt to bring back those memories with a live cricket match between India and the Rest of the World which ended in a tie. There was also a live practice session with the bowling machine delivering balls at 200 km/hr.

The next item was a display of harmony in lights, titled ‘star wars’.  Students made various formations like the wave formation with wands of light. The final item of the Prasanth Nilayam campus was lion dance by the Prasanthi Lions. The lions danced gleefully glittering with lights making the grand stand balancing on one leg and climbing a structure with ease to the delight of everyone.

All the students converged for the final formation. A display of fireworks followed. Arati was offered to Bhagawan at 1910 hrs. Thus ended the Annual Sports and Cultural Festival of Sri Sathya Sai Educational Institutions at Prasanthi Nilayam.     

Day 1 Report with Images, Video