By Sanaullah Ataullah
DOHA: Record crowds of workers from the Industrial Area converged in the Open Theatre in Asia Town yesterday to watch dance and musical shows in Bhojpuri and Maithili dialects and the Hindi and Nepali languages.
While Nepali is spoken in Nepal which sends hundreds of thousands of workers to Qatar, Bhojpuri dialect is spoken in eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, northwestern Jharkhand, the Indian states that also send large numbers of workers here, and the western plains of Nepal.
Maithili is spoken in northern Bihar and eastern plains of Nepal, from where also large number of low-income expatriate workers come.
Titled ‘Dhamaka’ (meaning ‘Thunder’ in both Urdu and Hindi) the cultural shows in the above dialects/language featured some superstars particularly from the Bhojpuri film world. Nirahuwa, the superstar of Bhojpuri films whose real name is Dinesh Lal Yadav, the heart throb of millions of people, and his troupe were the crowd-pullers.
Bhojpuri films in India are a thriving business as the dialect is also spoken in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa and Surinam.
There were tickets for the above shows priced at QR35, QR55 and QR100 and despite that there were milling crowds to watch them.
Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported that according to its estimate some 40,000 people had turned up at the Asian Town to watch the various events, including ‘Dhamaka’, cricket match and cultural shows of Indian and Sri Lankan communities.
This reporter estimated that there were more than 15,000 people watched the ‘Dhamaka’ events. The organizers of ‘Dhamaka’ shows had the experience because last year also they had held similar shows. Large police presence as there to manage the crowds.
The shows were to begin at 6pm at the Open Theatre and entry was to be allowed from 4pm onwards, but seeing the large crowds the police began allowing people in by 3.35pm. Nearly a dozen ticket windows were open at least an hour after the shows began. The shows were of four-hour duration.
Most of the songs presented by Actor-Singer Nirahuwa were about the families of expatriate workers desperately awaiting their arrival on vacation. People hysterically jeered and cheered as those songs were sung.
Meanwhile, in the open ground opposite the Cricket Stadium members of the Indian and Sri Lankan expatriate communities, including their schools, held cultural shows.
Stages were erected for the purpose and the events attracted large numbers of people. Overall organisers of all these events was the Ministry of Interior and prominent members of the expatriate communities.
Also, outside the cricket stadium in the Asian Town a mobile van from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) held a blood collection drive from volunteer donors. Some 64 people donated their blood in HMC’s drive. The van was manned by 11 HMC staffers. In the van, blood could be collected from four donors at a time. Naseem Al Rabih, a prominent private healthcare facility in Qatar, held a blood test drive for 250 low-income workers to check their sugar levels and blood pressure.
Officials manning the test drive told this newspaper that some 50 per cent of the people tested had tested positive for high sugar levels, while some 30 to 40 percent people had high blood pressure.
At Al Wakrah Stadium where the Pakistani and Bangladeshi expatriate communities held their cultural shows organised by the Ministry of Interior in association with these expatriate communities, some 20,000 people had turned up, according to QNA. In Al Rayyan Stadium, expatriate communities from the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia presented their cultural shows along with their schools and some 5,000 people watched the events, QNA reported.
At Al Khor Workers’ Recreation Centre, cultural shows and sports competitions were held in which members of Indian, Bangladeshi and Nepali expatriates took part.
The Peninsula
