Kochi: Those who turned up for the 31st Ernakulam Revenue District School Kalolsavam that began here on Wednesday were amused by the name of the venues. They wondered what was the relation between jackfruit, the official fruit of the state, and the school festival.
Interestingly, though this year's jackfruit season is well over, the 13 venues of the art festival (kalolsavam) are all named after different varieties of the humble fruit. Stages one to six are at Girls HSS at Ernakulam North. Here, the first two main stages are named 'Thenvarikka' and 'Kuzhachakka'.
For stages three to six, here goes the names - Chembankuzha, Manja Madurima, Maduramunda and Janavary First. Venues seven to 10 are at SRV School that is not far away from GHSS. Here, the names are Swamiyar Varikka, Edassery Varikka, Karkidakkachakka and Supriya.
Nearby, at venues 11 and 12 at Adhyapaka Bhavan in Karikkamuri, the names are Vaali Varikka and Thenkuzha. The venue at St Joseph UPS where the chavittu nadakam contest is being held is called Vaikom Varikka.
This is perhaps for the first time such an experiment has been done with the names of the kalolsavam venues. As usual, the plan was to name the venues after well-known personalities of Ernakulam. But doubts were raised if that could lead to controversies. Hence, they decided to name the venues after jackfruit which was recently declared as the official fruit of the state, said state committee vice-chairman Santhosh Kumar and convenor K A Noushad.
While they were searching up names of jackfruits on the Net, they came to know about jackfruit lover Thomas Kattakayam, a resident of Ramapuram, Pala. They contacted him. Thomas, who grows more than 200 varieties of jackfruit trees in his orchard, was more than happy to provide them with the names.
