Practising bhangra for more than six hours every day despite the prevailing chill led 12 boys of Guru Nanak Institute of Management Technology (GNIMT) bag the second position at the National Inter-Zonal Youth Festival held in Nagpur recently. Not only this,the Association of Indian Universities also declared them as one of the three national teams that can take part in government events. While the GNIMT team stood second in folk dance category at the festival,the team from Karnataka bagged the first position at the feat. The consecutive six-time winner at state level,however,had to compete hard. This time,we had only three members of the old team. The rest were first and second-year students. Practice sessions had begun from October,last year. The students used to come for practice at 3.30 am sharp,which continued till 7.30 am. Again after college,they used to practice from 5 pm to 8 pm, said Team Manager Tripat Deep Singh Dua. Sachpreet Singh,the team leader,said: At times,our feet used to get swollen. Many also fell unconscious while dancing,but still we practiced hard. To take part in the national level event,the team at first had to became the PTU team by winning the Zonal Youth Festival. Later,they came second in the North Zone Youth Festival. At the national fest,we danced like fire for 9 minutes and 27 seconds and the response was unbelievable. Students from across the country were dancing to the tunes of bhangra, said a team member. While Coach Gurtej Singh Chinna came up with special steps for the event,Ustad Ravi wrote new boliyan to give the performance a new look.
