A pink spring festival
Pink was chosen as the dress code to express solidarity with the global awareness campaign against breast cancer
The sunny morning on Saturday was pinkish for Siddiqui's International School in the Dhanmondi area of Dhaka.
One of the oldest English medium schools in the country, Siddiqui's was established in 1974. It seemed to be glowing with over 500 current and former students, their parents and teachers, all dressed in pink to celebrate the 4th spring carnival that day.
Girls were attired in pink saris while boys donned pink panjabis. Pink was chosen as the dress code to express solidarity with the global awareness campaign against breast cancer.
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On the annual occasion, the entire campus was decorated with traditional colourful paintings on walls and alpona's on the floors.
Among the cultural programmes were shown such as dancing, modelling and singing.
"Besides [showing unity with the global campaign], we want to affirm that pink is not a colour for girls alone. Anyone can wear pink. We believe both girls and boys are equal," said Someira Siddika, coordinator of the carnival.
A rickshaw was on display beside a boundary wall in the school. Someira said it was an effort to highlight the unnoticed struggle of a rickshaw-puller.
"We also want our students to learn to be humble with rickshaw-pullers," she added.
The spring festival was also graced by Tarique Afzal, president and managing director of AB Bank.
During the carnival, he had a meeting with Riffat Ahmed, chairperson of the school.
Riffat informed Tarique that her school will celebrate the upcoming Mujib Borsho at the Bangla Academy on March 21 with a display of paintings by her students, followed by a cultural event. Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah will be the chief guest at the event.
Painting and essay competitions have already been announced at the school, asking participants to submit essays and paintings on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Prizes will be given to the winners at the March 21 event.
Tarique Afzal told Riffat Ahmed that his bank wants to sponsor the event, which Riffat welcomed.
She said, "There is no alternative to cultural programmes to introduce our culture to the next generations. We would love to celebrate the event jointly with AB Bank."
Tarique Afzal further expressed his desire to jointly organise all future cultural programmes of Siddiqui's International School.
