Lively and thrilling performances by young students during the theatre and cultural shows at the concluding day of Tamasha 2010, organised by FAST University, enthralled the audience here Monday. The event, organised by a society ‘Jagoo’ recently set up by the students of FAST, hosted some 200 students from 30 universities for various competitions including essay writing, bilingual declamation, painting, theatre and cultural performances.

The cultural show titled ‘Mehndi’ proved to be a great success for the organisers, who found it difficult to accommodate a large crowd from different walks of life in the 500-seat auditorium. The performing students portrayed local cultural norms and traditions with particular reference to wedding ceremonies in which family members, relatives and other people showered their love and affection to the bride and groom.

“The cultural show covered the unique wedding culture, focusing on the fabulous function of ‘Mehndi’. The students tried to strictly stick to real emotions and feelings that are always a hallmark of such kinds of events,” said Arslan Khalid, coordinator and choreographer of the cultural show.

In theatre competition, the students were divided into 16 teams and each was given 20 minutes for a street performance - ‘notanki’ and mime (silent). “The event attempted to infuse theatre as a cultural norm in our society. The young students provided a fresh and invigorating look on life through their dazzling performances,” said Shaheer Mansoor, coordinator of the theatre competition.

The essay writing competition was divided into two categories of English and Urdu, while the English essay writing was further divided into fictional and normal writing. The topics for fictional writing included ‘Photographer & Meaning of Life’, ‘Journey of a Water Drop’, ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Priest’, while the participants of normal writing wrote on topics such as ‘Dog Day’ and ‘The Planet Criminolia’.

In Urdu essay writing, Shaista Zeb of NUML got the first position while Muhammad Hassan of UET and Hafiz Mudassar of Gomal University grabbed the second and third positions respectively. In English essay writing, Farrukh Zafar of PARC National University, Waqas Maqsood of Punjab University and Rabel Mustafa of FUMC secured the first, second and third positions respectively. In English fictional essay writing, Salman Latif of PSED stood first, while Syed Shahbaz and Haroon Yasir of Beaconhouse secured the second and third positions respectively. The team of PAF Academy won the best prize in the declamation competition.

In the painting competition, some 18 students were given two-day time to complete their work under the themes of ‘Renaissance’, ‘Psychedelic’ and ‘Conceptual Art’. Aysha Kamal of NCA grabbed the first position for her painting, while Habib Akram of Punjab University came second. The team of Punjab University was awarded as best in the ‘concept’ category.