Maithry
is a Malayalam fraternity in Delhi University. This community which take cross
sections from undergraduates, graduates and research students is spread around
30 colleges of north and south Delhi university campuses and moves under the
guidance of its teaching and non teaching staff members.
As its
name suggests, Maithry is a symbol of unity, moreover, an ensemble of Malayalam
language, the culture emanating from it and friendship that binds it. The
beauty of this communion is in how well we merge into the cultural fabric of
Delhi University. Maithry envisions being a prototype rather an ideal example
on how to keep a language and tangents of its existence enliven in a culturally
diverse country in a healthy manner. Each program which we design and conduct
is tested to serve the purpose of dissemination and exchange of traditions that
our land gave us.
When
we look back from Maithry’s inception in 2005 by a bunch of youngsters to
discuss Malayalam literature and celebrate Keralite festivals to today we could
see a transformation of a friendship community to a platform of creativity.
Apart celebrating Ifthar, Onam and Christmas in its all prowess and beauty,
Maithry provides a platform to unravel the creativity lurked inside its family
members.
That
helped it create a documentary Vishwa Vidyalaya (’07) in its hub, hold literary
talks on different dimensions of its culture by eminent personalities like
Sachidhanadan (Kendra Sahitya Academy Award winning poet) , C R Nellakandan
(Writer and environmentalist) ,T K A Nair IAS, V.N. Rajsekharan Pillai (
Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU) , Shyam B Menon ( Vice Chancellor of Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar University) etc., Nostalgia-11,a 5 day film festival and programs
where its members show case their artistic, dancing and musical talents.
As
Maithry crosses its 6th year on 2011, it plans gets more hue and life. Vayana
pura a virtual Malayalam library created by sharing books, Kazhayuth Mazika an
online blog of beautiful poems , stories and essays from which our annual
magazine would be realized ,etc are some of the creative explorations that
Maithry already started this year.
Maithry
is facing challenges too. Including our malayalm literature enthusiast but
non-malayali friends to our community had been a hard task for us. To address
this, we are planning to give life to the now vacant Malayalam department of
Delhi University and set up Malayalam learning centers in our campuses. Often
we find that culture of Kerala is not well introduced in the North of our
country as vice versa happens. Maithry want to be the bridge between these
cultures. Instances like the beauty and richness of national award winning
Malayalam movies and books missing entry to the club discussions of our
colleges devoid of subtitles and translations can’t be allowed any longer. Like
Rabindranath Tagore mentioned on the importance of knowing different cultures
by which only one culture could remove the vices in it , Maithry wishes to
represent its culture in Delhi , where all traditions , cultures and identities
flows to one big ocean of unity.
Stronger
are the challenges we face which asks us to seek greater support from everyone
– be it a culture aficionado or a laymen. Bigger are our dreams as deeper our
love for a language is.
With
all the warmth and love of a land that we keep alive in our memories we welcome
you to Maithry family!!
