Bathinda Virasat Mela

The Malwa Heritage Foundation attempts to revisit heritage by organising, the Virasat Mela, a heritage festival. Upholding a decades-old tradition, the Heritage Festival endeavours to revive the ancient folk arts, customs and traditions at a specially built “Jaipalgarh Village” the Sports Stadium at Bhatinda. The renowned and much-awaited annual cultural extravaganza, Virasat Mela, got off to a colourful start here on Friday. As part of the inauguration of the mela, a procession was taken out by the Malwa Heritage and Sabhyacharak Foundation, Bathinda, in which decorated camels walked in a line, horses and adorned elephants danced while tractor trolleys carried a tableau depicting the now-forgotten culture of Punjab. The rural Punjab also came alive with folk orchestra, folk music and traditional stalls set up at Jaipalgarh village, adjacent to Multipurpose Sports Stadium in the city. The entire village was decorated beautifully with things celebrating rural Punjab, including ‘chakkis’, ‘chattis’, ‘madhanis’ and ‘phulkaris’.