BLITZCREIG HAND DRAWN POSTER; Credits:: Stupendous Calvin

College Fests and Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology ( MJCET ) go hand in hand.  The Biennial ADSOPHOS is a perfect example for the craze created by the fest at MJCET. The year 2010 too had its own bag full of events up for grabs. A reputed college, a picturesque campus and loads of energetic students make up the fest at the college we proudly call ” MJ” .  The two day event comprised of a mosaic of events put together. The various engineering departments organised their own event approved by the faculty and department heads. To list out all the events,

1. The Information Technology Department( ITD)  - BLITZKREIG 2010.
2. Civil Engineering Department- COLLOQUIUM 2010.
3. Electrical Engineering Department( EED ) – REFULGENCE 2010
4. Computer Science Engineering ( CSE ) – CYNOSURE 2010.
5. Mechanical Department- MECHALUTION 2010.
6. IEEE branch – STAC and SPAC 2010.
7. E cell – Festivity 2010
8. Robotix Club – ROBOLYMPIA 2010.

All the above fest had their own set of events. Both technical and Fun events combined

BLITZCREIG '10 .Credits :: Stupendous Calvin

together to provide a wonderful experience to the participants. Mounika Chintalpati, a second year student at SUCP, expresses jubilation at the fact that her college being so closely associated with MJ helps her to experience college fest of such magnitude. Mohd Zia Uddin, another second year student says, ” The extent to which the fest are conducted is mesmerising. The events conducted tested both physical and mental attributes of the students.” Each department had a plethora of events to their credit.

MOVIE MANIA ; Credits :: Stupendous Calvin

BLITZCREIG 2010 :: The IT department of MJCET probably organised the best Fest of the lot. It included events with cash incentives for the winners. The Fest comprised of Movie Mania, Programming/Debugging, Guess the Parts, Tech quiz . Paint ball, Poster Designing, Paper presentation, Loose screws, Beg Borrow Steal etc. Syed Qayam Hussain Razvi, a third year MJCET student and the organizer of Movie mania exclaims,” It was one hell of an experience managing the event. From publicizing the event to managing the participants was a difficult task.” He adds that it was a great learning experience.  Nikhil Acharya, a young advertisement director was the judge for the event. He was enthralled by the ideas presented by the young student directors. The students felt extremely happy after interacting with Nikhil and gaining his piece of advice.

Crowd enjoying Movie Mania; Credits :: Stupendous Calvin

Beg Borrow Steal, was another event that invited loads of participants. It involved participants running crazily around the college in order to fulfill their task within the time limit. Maria Syed, an energetic SUCP second year student asserts, ” Beg Borrow Steal, BEST event of the lot.” She participated in a total of 6 events that included Clues Blues, Tech quiz, snap shot, loose screws, Role play and B.B.S. She finishes by saying that these two days were the best days of her graduation yet. Beg

Beg Borrow Steal; Credits :: Stupendous Calvin

Borrow Steal had its share of cheering crowds, both boys and girls alike.

The technical part of the fest  consisted of competitions such as Debugging. Syed Mohd Abid Hussain, a second year student of  IT at MJCET says, ” To use the knowledge obtained in class rooms in competitions is way better than toiling away in examinations” . The competition comprised of two parts , the written part followed by the practical application of the various programs in the laboratory.

CYNOSURE 2010 ::  CYNOSURE organised by the Computer Sciences engineering department was another mouth watering sight. Events such as Bluff Master, Craft Arena, Quizzila, Raaz Mataaz, LAN gaming, Grafi’TEE’, Dreamer’s Day out and Mind Mania. The most acclaimed of the above events was Bluff Master (based on the TV show) and was appreciated by one and all. LAN gaming included computer games such as FIFA ‘09 and NASCAR.

STAC and SPAC 2010 :: The IEEE branch of MJCET organised STAC and SPAC which promised participation certificates for all the competitors. The events involved were Junkyard Wars, Role play, Hardware modelling, Mock Interviews,General quiz, Case Study, Ironic Safari and Paper Presentations.  Many students hoped that their experiences in events such as Mock Interviews could help them in their quest to obtain employment after graduation. Mehdi Dashtee, a third year MJCET academic explains the same. He says, ” With a year left for graduation, it is of utmost importance to go through the process of interviewing and such events definitely help.”

COLLOQUIUM 2010 :: Civil Engineering true to its outdoor expectations organised the Cricket competition for all which stretched through most of the two days. The MJCET ground was divided into four equal halves. This allowed the organizers to conduct the event smoothly considering the fact that more than 30 teams participated totally. Syed Iqbal, a second year MJCET student, expressed satisfaction that he managed to reach the stage of the quater finals of the event in his first attempt.

ROBOLYMPIA 2010 :: The robotix club of MJCET managed to pull off a spectacular event

ROBOLYMPIA; Credits :: Stupendous Calvin

in the form of Robolympia. It had a series of events such as DEATH RACE, soccer with robots etc. The entry fee for the competitions was a meager 30 bucks. This lead to an increase in the competition.

FESTIVITY 2010 :: Another event with loads of events such as Business Quiz, Solution Presentation, 1 minute pitch, E- WARS, Hand Painting, Show and Tell and B quiz.REFULGENCE 2010, MECHALUTION 2010 were also a craze among the participants from different colleges.

To organize a fest of such magnitude requires  abundance of hard work to achieve success. Syed Irfan Naqvi, a student member of the core committee of MJCET concerned with the organisation of the fest, lays emphasis on the coordination between the students and the faculty of the college. According to him, ” It takes months of planning to put together a fest that can satisfy the reputation of MJCET” . At the end of the day, he feels that the fest was a huge accomplishment and he congratulated his fellow organizers for a work well done.

Bob Dylan, an american singer and song writer once said, ” Colleges are like old-age homes except for the fact that more people die in colleges” . This quote sounds quite relevant in recent times with our education system keeps declining to new levels. But it is proved irrelevant by such enterprising activities in colleges nowadays. MJCET, on its part, always provides the student a platform to learn while they enjoy.  April 9th & 10th 2010, will go a long way in justifying this reputation of the college we proudly say ” MJ” .

Unlike other college fests, the fest at NMR had around four individual fests organized by different departments from the college with their own names and unique events under each fest. Dr. D.N.Reddy, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University), Hyderabad was the Chief Guest and Nalla Malla Reddy, Hon’ble secretary, Nalla Malla Reddy Educational Society started off with the inaugural address. He said, “The united we are, the stronger it reflects in our celebrations.” Then there was a message from the Chief Guest after which, he initiated the Tech Fest and from there on, four different fests began to enthrall a large number of students who have visited the college to participate in various events.

Sambhavaat '10. Credits : Nocturnal Czar

The fests held at Tech Fest were Sambhavaat (Mechanical Engineering Department), Yatna (Electrical Engineering Department), Medha’s (CSE-IT; MCA Department), Cihan (Electronics Engineering Dept). All these fests were unique in functioning and the only thing that they had in common was the campus. The Tech Fest got a huge response as students from various departments from other colleges were pouring into the campus and it was full of young technocrats moving about. It was a delight to watch all the events take off simultaneously and have a healthy atmosphere. All were busy in their respective events, a few conducting and the others participating.

SAMBHAVAAT ’10, the fest conducted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, had a few unique events to be noted. They conducted a workshop on amateur Aero-modeling which would teach beginners on how to make a radio controlled glider and later fly it by themselves. “Wow, I can fly something I made and can control it easily with the remote in my hand.. The workshop was very useful for all of us,” said Swathi Reddy, a first year Mechanical Engineering student of the college. The other catchy event from this dept was “CREA” Assembly. This was an assembly of an IC engine. Participants had to perform the operation in a stipulated time limit and who did it faster, won. “It was good to see many students take up the challenges put up and compete with one other,” said T.Mohan Das, Head of Department, Mechanical Engineering.

Robotics. Credits : Nocturnal Czar

YATNA ’10 was a fest conducted by the Department of Electrical Engineering. It was very well organized and planned right from the start. All the third year engineering students were the organizers and they got a hold of good sponsors who encouraged talent and were willing to the best to encourage. YATNA had many attractive robotic competitions apart from the paper and poster presentations. “The track on which my bot had to travel was very tricky and I had to focus to stick till the very end,” said one of the participants of the Robotics Event. They also conducted a number of fun events which included treasure hunt. They kept the participants busy and gave them room for relaxation with these events. “We did have a very good time.. Though we came here for just a paper presentation, we did take part in a lots of other events and it was so well-organized, that none of the events clashed!” said P Deepthi, a 2^nd year Instrumentation Engineering student from Bhoj Reddy College of Engineering.

Seminar credits : Nocturnal Czar

MEDHA’s ‘10 was a joint event of the CSE IT and MCA deparments. They had presentations and seminars based on latest technological advancements on their fields. They had all the technology related events like advancements and application of various projects. They conducted LAN-gaming, which was the star attraction of the fest. Students were pouring in from all streams of engineering to wage wars in the gaming world and see test their skill, “In gaming you have to be very serious.. one can’t afford to take chances and it’s the survival of the fittest,” said D. Chaitanya, a third year CSE student of NMR College, who was also the organizer of gaming.

CIHAN’10 was conducted by the Electronics Engineering Department. They had a very good number of events like paper and poster presentation, project exhibition, live models, etc. In project exhibition and live model presentation, a student had to show his working model of the project and explain it on the basis of details like the usage and applications. “By presenting my model and after interacting with the judges and answering their queries I could get some new ideas which I will use to implement the next time,” said  Raja Nihanth Reddy, studying 3^rd year Electronics Engineering at Aurora Technological and Research Institute.

Robotics Event. Credits : Nocturnal czar

All the fests were running parallel to each other. They had their own set of participants and visitors and NMREC was the only venue for all the events. There were no problems of inconvenience for any participant as it was well planned and handled. It was unlimited fun at every camp and who ever found the one more interesting spent a lot of time there, at the end of the day gaining knowledge is what one looks into at a fest. “It was great to be here and we learnt a lot and spent very good time for two days,” quoted a visitor, Viraj Reddy, studying final year Electronics Engineering at CVR College of Engineering. Waiting for the next TECH FEST when all these four departments will be gearing up to set new challenges, and encourage everyone to perform much better. Another long year to go and this will happen in a much better way and will for sure go beyond the expectations of all.

All The Best!

But the question of the hour is Why college Fest?  What does it take to make it possible?  Here is an attempt to clear the 5 Ws 1 H and give an idea about the fest. A survey among the students has been taken from colleges in and around Hyderabad.

The grounds for conducting a fest in a college have many motives but to emphasize the top few reasons for fest to be conducted are:

1. To bring out the hidden talent in the students.

2. Look into world outside the college gates.

3. To learn time and finance management.

4. To bring in coordination among the students of all years and branches.

0^th reason ‘Branding of the College’

Various Sponsors. Credits: Morle'La Wheermy

Functionality of Fests:

For an event to get noticed, their always should exist ‘Uniqueness’ or ‘Difference’ in comparison to the other fests. A college fest also requires umpteen hours of prior toil. To carry out an event certain rubrics and statute titles are to be maintained and followed.

Initially the skeletal structure of the event, the Budget is decided and interested students are requested to register for the coordinators’ team. For a fest to function there are various committees that are formed like: Core, Committees like Sponsors, Organizing, Event Heads, Publicity and Communication, Letter Work, External and Internal affairs and Volunteers.

The prominence is given to students who can work in parallel on more than two events at a time as the events should take shape from the outline. Various departments share few students. At this phase the entire process of functionality is divided into three heads. They are:

* Event Management: – Development of the events to presentation on the day of the fest. From paper to the end user application; perfect work which attracts people to the fest and which shows the events are better than the rest.

* Publicity: – Decisions on events to be publicized more, media partners to tie up, maximum strategies to get attention, how to get extra attention.

* Sponsors: – The critical zone of elimination. Uncanny Sense and Communication skills prioritized.  Every student faces in prioritizing who sponsors and who doesn’t.

Prakriti: Agricultural Fest. Credits: Morle'La Wheermy

The important zone of the complete fest is to zero in on who supports and who sponsors the fest. To approach the exact company/person which is directly related to the theme of the fest is very significant. Maintaining documentation of the sponsors approached is a good tactic. “Some politely reject our request and some make us talk for hours together or snub. The best way to start with sponsors is to do a lot of home work on who sponsors, where, how much and how does he/she get convinced, then pick up students who are good with the analyzed work and send them for sponsorship,” says Gaurav Kaushal, Student- Aviation, CMEC.

“To find sponsors for the fest is a mental work. It needs a lot of logic. We have to be very careful while speaking, one word in a wrong context drowns the complete idea of sponsoring,” says Akshay Neelakantam, Student- ECE, SVIT. One important aspect is, to find whether the sponsor we are approaching has sponsored any other event or not. In case of a positive response try to “Maskafy“.  “My college is not a renowned or deemed university; it’s not very popular, so initially it was scary to start off. Now after working on it, I feel it was a really excellent experience,” said Rohit Mishra, Student- ECE, SVIT.

With recession still affecting the economy, many companies point a direct “NO”. The businessmen and company sponsors have their own reason. “We always try to analyze the type of fest students organize and to get the best advantage and benefit for our company,” said Mr. Laxman Rao, Managing Director, S One Technology Private Limited. When asked about recession and its effect on the fests he says, “Basically before recession, all the decisions were taken by the local marketing dept but now everywhere the market is down, so even we have to try cost-cutting measures. We choose only such fests where we can get 99% benefit for sponsoring. We don’t sponsor just because we have money, right?”

“We mostly prefer fests where there is lot of female crowd who intend to look gorgeous. So in most cases we prefer such colleges where we apply our constraints,” said Shine Mathew, Marketing, Anoos Beauty Parlour. “The first thing we look into when we tie up with the college is the “BRAND” value. Most students tune into Radio channels at random. But in cases, where we are sponsoring them, they listen to our channel even during the advertisements. That way we gain more listeners,” said Sidharth, Ex-Marketing Incharge, Red FM (93.5).

Parakram: Sports Night or Sports Fest. Credits: Morle'La Wheermy

“Stalls are the best way to indulge students to stay on the campus. Games stalls and Food stalls get a lot of profits. Our college has a lot of these every year. We even get celebrities for college fests which results in more crowd inflow. Stalls are also best parts of economy for fests. Arranging stalls is extremely tiresome though,” said Dinesh Rayala, Student- EEE, CBIT.

Publicity, in the present day, is mainly done by enrolling with media and radio partners, online social communities, by sending texts to friends, by putting on posters and banners in college and on college buses, sending students to put on posters in other colleges and thereby publicizing the event. Few with a mega budget put on hoardings too. Grabbing attention towards a fest is difficult. It requires a lot of talent and new ways to design the poster. It should be impressive.

The posters and banners are to be catchy. One has to create easy and simple ways to convey the content. “To make posters, we usually ask for ideas and draft themes from all the students and once we get them, we sit down and select the best. If nothing is good then we design a new one altogether. In most cases, these things come to the forefront at the 11^th hour. I have been making the website for my college fest for the past three years. In case of website, the template design takes 15 days, and coding at max an hour or two, if the content is ready. Event heads have to give the description of their respective events, and then the description is given to those students who can make it more effective,” says Karthik Navuluri, Student, CVRCE.

The arguments on a small decision, the rebellion ideas against college for taking selected people, the open protest from specific crowd for not asking them individually to take part in the fests are some of the serious issues. Suharsh Raj from MVSR says “Passionate and interested students are always welcome. It’s not a one man show. One cannot expect such individual requests.”

Event management is a huge responsibility. Everything needs a clear outline and work in all the directions. “We design an event and we have to test it in all the possible cases. Many colleges come up with new events every year. So in order to keep students stuck to our events, we need to be more creative and appealing. The outlook is to be made very glossy. All the events are to be well taken care of,” says Aditya Venkat, Student – ECE, Aurora Engineering College.

Sahaya 2010 : A fund raising event and college fest. Credits:Morle'La Wheermy

View Point:

Most college managements do the fests for Branding of the college. Few follow it just because it’s in vogue. When questioned “How Branding happens?” most students answered, “It’s a simple logic, when our college gives us permission for fests, then we show our college in the best possible way. All those who attend the event look at the best ends of the college. All the students praise the management. The college can get students with better ranks in the college which increases the popularity.”

“We encourage students to have a fest because they will get to learn more things; which is the prime motto and they enjoy it too,” said Mr. Narasinmha Rao, Ex- Principal, SVIT. “We take the initiative of bringing out the potential and hidden talent of the students by making them organize the fests,” says Mrs. Meenakshi Dhondi, faculty in-charge, Gaia 09, SVIT.

Few students feel, “we get to showcase our talent, skill and working spirit when the fests are conducted.” Whereas a few others feel that, “Working for a fest we will learn new things like how to manage the finance and time, according to the situation.”

The co-ordination among the students is the key aspect to success. There also exist reasons for students to work for the fest like attendance shortage (as attendance is given to students who work for the fest), popularity (name in the poster, pamphlet), self-satisfaction, compelled by college, and Coordinator certificates which adds to the résumé. Scathing comments do prevail as critics always like to see things only from their perspective.

Preparing a model. Credits: Suharsh Raj

Mrs. Subha Sharma, a parent comments, “No festival is as big as a college fest for students. They sort of do everything for the fest. At the beginning it looks like a tough job which is hard to make real, but these students make it a perfect presentation by the decided date. My daughter started working on her college fest from 2^nd year. Initially I objected to it, but then after viewing the work that they put into to make their fest, I am now proud.”

“When we started working, everything was confusing and vague. We had to design, code, test and make it work within a short span of two months. It was fun working with other students from the college. Most of the decisions are taken in the regular meets. We usually consider students who are regular to meets as “IN”, and exclude those who don’t and start working. It’s tough but fun,” says Shahbaj Sheikh, Student- IT, BVRIT.

Hopefully, this article would interest all those students, who want to be part of the fest but question themselves, “Why should I work for the fest and what will I gain?” And for those, who are already working, a few more ways of making college fests a sure-fire.

The uniqueness of the fest were the unparalleled events, which were pioneered by the students of NITW. Each department had its own set of events and were totally handled by the particular department. Since the workload was distributed, the event was quite smooth. One of the most anomalous events was the “Amazing Race” in which the participants are divided into a team, consisting of 2 members each and are given various tasks that shall qualify them to the next round. Abhinay Pitta, a 2^nd year student of MME in NITW says, “In the preliminary round, we give them a certain task, like, we asked them to count the number of 9s that we printed on a sheet of paper and suppose if 50 is the number of teams that we require out of 100, then the first 50 teams to give us the correct answer or at least the nearest correct answer, advance for the next round. Here on, the actual game starts where we give them a clue and then they proceed to their tasks”. Last year, there were around a 200 students, but this year the number of students participating in the ‘Amazing race’ has unfortunately gone down and Abhinay claims that this is because there have been more number of other innovative events and students are always enthusiastic to try out new ones. Apart from ‘Amazing race’, there were some customary events like, Debates (Hindi, English and Telugu), JAM, Essay writing, Spelling Bee, Crossword, Scrabble, Antakshari, Movie quiz, Singing and Dancing.

NIT Campus. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Graffiti competition. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Dance Competition (Solo). Credits: Libran Dranzer

The dance competitions, both solo and group were the most appealing to watch. S.Manjusha, a 2^nd year student of GRIET asserts, “All the dances were mind-blowing, especially the break dances. They performed like full-time professional choreographers. Everyone performed very well and so, there was very tough competition. I am sure the judge had a difficult time in deciding the winners.” Rakhee Sharma, one of the favorite contestants of the famous dance show, ‘Dance India Dance’ was the judge. Besides this, there was the fashion competition, virtual DJ, instrumental and rock competition. A couple of exclusive events had been introduced in ‘Spring Spree’ this year. Shashank Pawar, a 1^st year mechanical student at NITW claims, “We have events like junkyard fashion, where the students can use their creativity for creating a fashion article of their own. Then, there is ‘Kite Flying’ event, where the students have to make their own kites and then fly them. Finally, there is this hobbies exhibition, where a student can display his/her hobby-for instance, if someone has the hobby of collecting different varieties of bottle caps, then he/she is to display it at this exhibition.” In the evening, there was a classical dance performance, by the famous Kuchipudi dancer- Sobha Naidu.

Painting Gallery. Credits: Libran Dranzer

This painting was highly appreciated by most onlookers. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Painting gallery. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Each and every person present at NITW for the fest was astonished with the painting gallery, where drawing and painting works from students were exhibited. Ashok Mathew, a final year student of CSE at NITW quotes, “Most of the paintings displayed here are of the students of NITW. All of the paintings are spectacular, so we are deciding the winner by public voting.” Suman.T, a student of GRIET gushes, “There is a portrait of my favorite actor Mahesh Babu. I have voted for that. I hope it wins because it is so much like actual Mahesh Babu!”

Also, some workshops namely, automobile sketching workshop, animation workshop and painting workshop were conducted quite successfully. Some of the other colorful events that took place were graffiti and sand sculpture. Another challenging and inimitable event was ‘NITMUN’, which abbreviates for National Institute of Technology Model United Nations. In this event, the student had to represent the country he/she is given and should speak how he/she would speak if they had to represent that country at the UN.

Few paintings in the gallery. Credits:Libran Dranzer

Some more wonderful Paintings & Sketches. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Hand Painting competition. Credits : Libran Dranzer

However, the fest lacked charm in certain ways. Unlike every other cultural fest, there was no music playing in the campus. Although, the campus was buzzing with activity and sounds of enthusiasm, it seemed surprisingly calm and quiet and did not look busy at all. Most of the fun events happened within the auditorium, where obviously all people could not be accommodated. Many students claimed it would have been better if those events happened outside in the campus lawns. It would not only make the environment lively but also would be feasible for all the students to watch them comfortably. Some students of NITW claimed that this year, the number of sponsorers and the number of participants went down due to the Telangana agitations.

Yet, the fest did not stay far behind from creating joy and exhilaration among the students, who attended it. Says M.Abhinaya of GRIET, “Warangal is my hometown. After the internals, all of us felt like taking a big break. So, all of my classmates decided to come for the fest. We traveled from Hyderabad to Warangal and all of us had fun at my place. We also had a gala time at the fest although we did not participate. We visited some famous temples. Overall, it was like a nice vacation for all of together”.

Spring Spree - The fun spree! Credits : Libran Dranzer

Western Solo Singing. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Painting Gallery. Credits: Libran Dranzer

What ultimately matters when a cultural fest is organized is that it gets a large number of participants, a colorfully decorated campus, an atmosphere, where other students cheer their college mates and other contestants and of course, enough sponsorship to hold the events and have profit. ‘Spring Spree’ undoubtedly met all of the above requirements and hence, it did wind up as a grand success!

Ranjith Kumar, a final year student at VNR and also the general secretary of SLAST proudly asserted, “This is only the second year of SLAST but the response has been voluminous. We have had students from Chennai and Maharashtra coming all the way to our college for SLAST. We have been working from the past 3 months for this and I am very happy for the way the fest has turned out. Above all, from the entire team of SLAST, I would like to especially thank  all our sponsors for the assistance they gave us”. Sriram Talluri, a 2^nd year student of VNR and also a member in the registrations committee said, “Last year, we had around 73 colleges, but this time we have 89 colleges and close to 3,200 participants, which is definitely an exponential increase comparatively. We are not collecting any registration fees. Only a caution deposit and the food and accommodation are free for the non-city participants”.

The badminton court. Credits: Libran Dranzer

One more factor responsible for the success of the fest is the ample sports facilities that the college bestows upon its students. The ‘Kode Venkatadri Chowdary sports complex’ in the campus of VNR is an example of the plentiful sports amenities in the college. The 6 year old complex boasts of an enticing badminton court, a table tennis court and a gymnasium (with all the required equipments of course). Venkatakrishna Chaitanya, a 1^st year student of VNR, who is in the badminton team happily quips, “I am a professional badminton player ever since 6^th std. but I had to discontinue the sport for a while owing to the pressure of my studies, but after joining VNR, I am back to badminton. There is a nice court and in spite of being a 1^st year student, my seniors and my coach encouraged me to play and thanks to them that I am in the college badminton team. This college is very supportive towards its students. I owe my college a lot of gratitude for taking me back to my sport”.

Mr. Veeraswamy, the college coach for badminton affirms, “VNR instigates students to take part in a lot of sports. It has been four years since I have been a coach here and due to the students’ interest, I am always busy. Owing to an optimistic management and talented students, we have won a lot of prizes at local and national level. Last year, at the ‘central zone sports competition’, our students were runners-up, both in singles and doubles. Hopefully, this year we shall be the winners”.

The sports complex at VNR. Credits: Libran Dranzer

The physical director, Mr.Sreerama, who was in charge of SLAST, was all praise for the students, his colleagues and especially the management, who he claims were very co-operative and crucial in making the event a grand success. A student asked “So, what gave you the idea of an altogether exclusory sports fest?” and the director asserts, “A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. These days, some students are very busy in their studies and some others are idle. So, to divert all kinds of students from their regular astir, we decided to have an entirely different kind of zealous activity for students. Besides, our students have been winning medals and tournaments at central level, like, for instance, they won sports competitions at BITS Pilani last year, so we thought-why not have a sports fest in our college itself? That is how we have taken this approach last year for the first time”.

Even with the scorching heat, non-participating students did not back away from cheering for their respective colleges. Instead, they thought that it was their cheering alone that triggered the players’ mettle. Shouting a combo of slogans to exhilarate the representatives of their college, they not only motivated them but also enforced a sense of support and belief in the minds’ of the players.

Throw ball (girls) finals match. Credits: Libran Dranzer

Manasa Sindhu, a 2^nd year student of VNR quips, “All the matches were very exciting. Added to that, in most of the games, VNR were the finalists and it was really amazing to cheer for them. We shouted slogans like ‘jeetega jeetega VNR jeetega’ and ‘coca-cola, pepsi-VNR is sexy’. We were all enjoying a lot!” M.Abhinaya of GRIET couldn’t agree more. “We got so engrossed in the matches that we never realized the heat. We put a lot of energy in shouting our jingles, yet we never knew about it, for at that time, the ‘spirit of the game’ and cheering for our college were the only things that mattered”. The winners in different events were as follows- Basket-Ball(boys)-SSN, Chennai, Basketball(girls)-GNITS, Hyderabad, Throwball(girls)-VNR-VJIET, table-tennis-SSN,Chennai.

The winners were given cash prizes, medals and merit certificates. All the participants were given participation certificates. The fest delivered a complete package of  fighting spirit, entertainment, competition, inciting hurrah for colleges, elucidating the importance of sports and finally, making all the students ONE by bringing all of them on a common platform-sports. Over-all, it was a gala time for all the students. “Resplendent” is one word sufficient to describe the 3 magnificent sporty days at VNR-VJIET. Cheers to them!

More Information: SLAST Fest Official website, Blast at VNR SLAST Sports Fest

Over 96 colleges from across the country were seen at this event. Even with the mammoth sized game courts and athletic fields, which had a cerise glow in everyone of  its events, there was hardly any place to stand on the first day. All the teams went Gung ho! at the events and the race to stand their ground began through the systematic ladder elimination course that the college followed. Only the fittest of athletes survived to the third and final day of this sensational sports fest. But the most noteworthy competitors to most of the colleges was the Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering team, which clean swept the events and the crowd’s hearts with shear performance.

The various events that were held at this euphoric fest were Basketball, Cricket, Badminton, Table Tennis, Discus Throw and 200 meters dash for both boys and girls. The SSNCE College beat all their opponents fair and square through these three days and came out the victors in the following events:

1: Badminton (Men and Women)

2: Discus Throw (Only Boys) (VNR Girls stood FIRST in Discus Throw and then MLREC)

3: 200 m Dash (Men and Women)

4: Table Tennis (Men and Women)

Badminton & Table Tennis Building. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Ground. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Athletes. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Second to them being VNR  VJIET, who indeed were a tough team to nail, trying their best to defend their home title and third being Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology and MLRIT together, respectively in the events. Events such as Basket Ball and Throw Ball had the maximum number of colleges participating in both Men and Women categories.

On being asked as to how he and his teammates felt about this mammoth event, says Vishvesharan, the captain of the SSNCE college basketball team, “We’ve participated in many events synonymous to this but this event really was something more than my expectations, I was first startled by the hospitality and the competition not to mention the stern game referees… I felt like a pro for once!” And also, says an exhausted Vijetha, a second runners up from CBIT in the 200 m dash, “While I was on the track running with the finish line in sight, I was tired but had only one thing in my mind, I can breathe all the air my lungs needs after I cross it!”

Not just on the tracks, excitement was just almost everywhere. The table tennis room gave a completely different vibe of excitement. “I love table tennis, but this time I was overpowered by a mixed emotion of nervousness, frustration and confidence and the encouragement I got from my team mates was enough to get back the adrenaline rush”, says Sai Divya, an ace table tennis player from Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology. On asking her how she felt about the fest she quotes, “It was an amazing experience though we couldn’t make it to the finals. It was worth all the hard work and feels great to play with such amazingly talented players.”

Basketball players in action. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Table Tennis Match. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Volley Ball Girls' Team. Credits: Pious Taijasa

Such was the majestic epiphany of this event. And conclusively it can be said that when people work in an environment that is enjoyable, they are apt to be more creative, more productive, get along better with a diverse crowd and remain enthusiastic and motivated in the long run, which is very essential to grooming our nation’s youth. Overall VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute Of  Engineering & Technology’s Sports fest sufficed this need rather deftly!

More Information: SLAST Official Website, Sporty time at VNR VJIET – SLAST Demystified

Wondering where’s the connection between the aforementioned incidents? All these random moments shared something in common, a common thread that knit them all together – A successful wrap up of a college fest.

Almost every professional college, today, is associated with a fest of its own, where a gamut of events and performances are organized over a period of two to three days. And though it’d seem like they are pulled off in a day or two, hitting the rewind button will only reveal the magnitude of effort that was put in to make it all happen. So what are the chain of events that trigger off an explosive college fest? What exactly is ‘the making of a college fest?’

Organizing the Organization

The organizing committee is generally designed as a hierarchy pattern, consisting of a paramount core committee, the organizers, coordinators, and finally, the volunteers. And since most of the fests are completely student-organized, firstly, a set of students are selected who constitute the core committee. This bunch is usually a conglomeration of the fourth years and the third years, chosen by their predecessors. This panel, in turn, selects the organizers after a brief procedure, who then, choose their coordinators and volunteers. The organizers are also assigned some events, which they are supposed to head. The volunteers are the lowest in the hierarchy, to whom the trivial jobs are offloaded to (Generally, this level comprises of the first years). Further, the whole organizing committee is grouped branch-wise too. Then there is this group of troubleshooters and software designers which lends support in the form of technical potentiality to the organization (such as designing the website, creating SMS gateways, troubleshooting, etc). Now that a ‘pseudo-organization’ is structured, every piece of work is done with equal responsibility as the directions keep trickling down from the higher levels.

Ideas: Re-new-ing the Old

“Next year, we’ll come back bigger and better.” This was the note on which Ciencia, a national level technical symposium of CVR College of Engineering, dropped curtains last year. And as far as college fests are concerned, new is betterment. The organisers are encouraged to come up with new ideas even for the customary events to give the fest have a fresh appeal. Transforming a mundane ongoing into giant carnival-like occasion is how they make it magnetic to the crowd. But, a new idea has an unidentical evil twin – newer problems. And that’s when the creativity comes in. “Since we couldn’t sell all the passes for the concert last year, we decided to conduct small events prior to the concert and give away the untaken passes as rewards to the winners. The entry tickets we charged compensated for the shortfall,” says Srikar, a second year student of Vasavi College of Engineering. So the mantra is:

New Ideas –> New Problems –> Newer Ideas –> In the NEWS!

Hunting for the treasure in a new way. Credits: Wording Noise

Digging into the Groundwork

The buzz billows with the presentation of an estimated ‘budget’ after referring to the expenditures incurred in the previous year. If this is approved, the whole event is fit into this budget, while making sure there are considerable returns too. “Every buck is billed, and is accounted for”, says Dilip, a third year student from Srinidhi College of Engineering, adhering to how the capital is managed. This leaves ‘minimal’ (with a math background, it’s hard not to get carried away) room for illegal transactions. The budget also includes the funding from the sponsors. For this reason, a sponsorship drive is launched, and the students approach different MNCs and media organisations for funding. When the money is in hand, a generous part of this amount is shelled out on the events that stand out as the star-attraction to the fest. A date for the fest is then fixed and the publicity team springs into action. Posters, e-mails and SMSes become mouthpieces for the college as they become a part of the propaganda for advertising the fest.

Now, it’s almost all-set.

The last step of the ‘making of a fest’ is the fest itself. This part calls for what might be called as ‘real-time management.’ Innumerous problems pop up as the events commence, and it’s only when they are attended to properly, all the hard work and finicky planning pays off.

This is the recipe to all that unravels in about a couple of days. And when it all comes to an end, what unfurled this year forms the foundation to what awaits to unfurl the next year. It only ends to start all over again.