French President Francois Hollande was among the dignitaries who paid special attention to a depiction of how coffee is grown and brewed in Kodagu on the Karnataka tableau at the 67th Republic Day parade on Tuesday, a official said.
"Our tableau depicting facets of coffee from beans to beverage made an impressive show at the R-Day parade on Rajpath, drawing special attention of VVIPs, including Hollande, President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi," state information deputy director H. Srinivas told IANS.
As the 11th state tableau to roll on Rajpath, the theme in sculptures showed a woman in traditional garb plucking red berries in a plantation, another drying them, a third carrying them in a basket, while a man processed the beans in a roaster and converted them into powder for brewing into steaming aromatic cup of coffee in a steel filter.
Apart from VIPs, thousands of people who watched the parade en-route were fascinated by the captivating tableau, depicting the theme "Kodagu: coffee land of Karnataka", based on a book by folklorist H. L. Nage Gowda, describing how coffee is grown and made from the hills to cup.
"The tableau was among the 16 chosen for display at the R-Day parade this year. Two Kodava couples - Somayya and Kavitha and Sachi and Charlie were selected to walk alongside it during the parade in their traditional dress," Srinivas said.
Nestling in the southern Western Ghats, about 270km from Bengaluru, Kodagu is the region where coffee is largely growth for domestic consumption and exports.
Karnataka is India's largest coffee producer, accounting for 70 percent of the production.