KALAIGAON, May 31 � Amidst enthusiasm, the people of Udalguri celebrated the Udalguri beach festival with fun, frolic and fanfare on May 24 and 25. The main attractions in the two-day festival were beach volleyball and sand castle-making contest, apart from a host of traditional games and events that marked the festival on the dried Golandi riverbed near here.
Drawn from various schools of Udalguri, 28 boys� teams and 12 girls� teams participated in the beach volleyball event. In the boys� event, Kathalguri village beat Udalguri College in the final, while Udalguri Higher Secondary School won the bronze. In the girls� section, Auxilium College, Udalguri won the gold and silver, while the Kathalguri village women�s team won the bronze.
Even more attractive was the sand castle-making competition in which more than a hundred children took part, making the most unbelievable edifices � forts, palaces, cartoons, fancy cars, temples, churches, mosques, etc., besides displaying boundless patriotism with their endless imagination. The sand castle-making competition was held in three categories � children in the age groups 5-10 years and 11- 20 years, and those who are differently abled.
Speaking on the occasion, chief guest Rihon Daimari, the local MLA, lauded the efforts made by the Indian Army�s Red Horns Division in bringing such creative and constructive entertainment to Udalguri and exhorted the people to make full use of such opportunities. The inquisitiveness shown by the people of all communities to such an event augurs well for community development as entertainment can also be a melting pot for all cultures, he said.
With merriment galore, the beach festival, organised by the Red Horn Division in collaboration with local NGOs like ADWR and YPM Media, proved that the calm that prevailed in Udalguri district while the rest of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) was burning in ethnic strife recently was no fluke.
