nagpur the south central zone culture centre reverberated with drum beats strains of flute and some folk singing as the threeday ishanya festival was inaugurated by mayor nanda jhichkar on friday evening the festival is featuring eight northeastern states and is showcasing their art cuisine and handicraftsthe aesthetically litup back lawn of the centre was decked in black red and green colours a stage has been specially set up for the folk dance performances we have used these three colours as they feature dominantly on the handloom and handicrafts of these eight states said gopal baitawar project officer who has designed the stage and has decorated the premises with masks and cut outs which represent various dance forms of assam meghalaya tripura mizoram manipur nagaland sikkim and arunachal pradeshten stalls of which nine are selling handicrafts and handloom items and one of north eastern cuisine have been setup around the stage adorning the handloom stalls are trendy kurtas oxidized and stone jewellery these kurtas and scarves are made using organic cotton which makes them so soft and cool says thansing jojo from manipur who is displaying a small collection of shawls scarves and kurtas designed using traditional manipuri motifs excited with the response that vessels made with crushed black stones are getting mayami from manipur is ruing the fact that she has carried so few of them this craft is called nungbi hampi in our language and people across the country know about it she saidsome 150 artistes presented 13 dances that gave a glimpse of culture and practices of the north east the traditional bihu of assam hojagiri and mamita of tripura which are festival dances ghotu and raisili of sikkim were performed to live music carrying different traditional weapons in hand a group of girls and boys from nagaland presented afili kude displaying valour and grace the dances have been choreographed by giriraj chandan baro of assam