Art, conservation, hives and honey. It was established early, beyond the 55 magnificent installations themed around the bee, that the country’s first bee festival will pack in a lot more creative ‘sting’ than just art.
But the way it unfolded amazed even a usually non-chalant AR Rahman, who inaugurated the three-day festival called Pollinator-1.
“I think it’s really great,” the composer told Express, after watching performances and poetry themed around the humble bee. “This is a very unconventional crowd for me and I’m quite liking it,” he added before leaving the venue.
In fact, Santosh, a student of Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, composed the opening ‘bee’ song, with lyrics written by Vairamuthu. Needless to say, Rahman was a proud man.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary, who had come down for the inaugural, said, “This should happen all over the country soon. People need to know just how medicinal bee honey is.”
As part of the festival, Kurumba tribals (bee-keepers from the Nilgiris) will hold discussions on bee culture in Tamil and Telugu.
This is the start of a series of such events, revealed Rajeev Sethi, Chairman of the Asian Heritage Foundation. He said, “We are already planning a Pollinator 2 in Hyderabad, which will take place in October.”
“Albert Einstein told us half a century ago that if the bees disappear, so will human civilisation in four years,” stated Arun Saraf, owner of the Hyatt Regency, which is hosting the event.
Incidentally, the idea was inspired by the numerous hives on the ceiling of the erstwhile Abbottsbury, before it was rebuilt as the Hyatt. The event is jointly organised by these bodies along with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, CPR Environmental Education Centre and the National Biodiversity Authority.
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