KOCHI: Resmi S, a native of Pookattupady, was not affected much by the flood. But her life has turned upside down, along with many others, in the aftermath of the flood. A dance teacher by profession, she had set up a costume centre after availing a bank loan. She had hoped to win back the amount during festival season. “I bought Rs 3.5 lakh worth of costumes and ornaments,” says Resmi. “The next day, the government cancelled all Onam programmes. And it didn’t stop there. There was no Sri Krishna Jayanthi celebration and now the youth festival is being cancelled too. I don’t know how to pay off my debts now.”
Resmi is not the only one who is devastated by the latest developments. Many set workers, tabla players, makeup artists, decoration artists, dance teachers and other small-time performers are in a fix. A group of small-time artists had even taken out a protest march to the Secretariat the other day. They had given petitions to the Chief Minister’s Office and Cultural Minister’s Office, which included suggestions to find alternative methods to raise funds to conduct these festivals.
One of them was Sreekumar, who has been a makeup artist for more than 13 years. “All I know to do is makeup,” he says. “Most of my income comes from the school, sub-district, district and state youth festivals. With the events being cancelled, I don’t know what to do to get by. I don’t know anything else and I am not physically well either.”
He understands the necessity to reserve money for flood relief but is worried about how thousands like him, who look forward to these festivals for an income, would deal with this. “All we are asking the government is to think of an alternate way to deal with the aftermath of the flood,” Sreekumar says. “There are still ways to conduct the youth festival in an economic way. The events need not be extravagant. Also, there are art societies who are willing to organise the festival. The government, in this case, doesn’t even need to spend a penny.”
(With inputs from Akhil Vijayan)