A youthful extravaganza

PUNE: A three-hour spectacular show will mark the opening of the seven-day sports extravaganza, when the curtains go up for the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games at the Shiv Chattrapati Sports Complex here on Sunday.

As many as 7000 schoolchildren will dance to different Bollywood songs, besides the theme song ‘Welcome to Pune’. The surprise of the day will be a performance by Urmila Matondkar, popular Bollywood actress, who will dance some of her famous numbers.

It will be followed by the oath taking and march-past by the athletes from 71 countries. Thousands of schoolchildren are volunteering to make the games a success. “We are looking forward to the big day, when the whole country will watch,” says Anita Jadav, a fifth standard student from Vikhe Patil School.

The school children are working hard for the last 45 days to make the Games a success. However, the organisers left many parents when miffed when they failed to provide adequate food for children on Friday. “I thought I should call it a day after Friday’s pathetic show by the organisers, but I regrouped with them this morning despite the fact my parents also wanted me to quit the show,” said Sunil Nair, a 7th standard student from Nirmal Bethany, who reached home at 11 pm on Friday night.