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Ishaan Sengupta

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Top Societies at Delhi University Fests: Gargi for Indian Music

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Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests. The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during 13 cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were award 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally. With 19 points, Gargi College’s Samranjini emerged as the winner in the Indian Music (Group) category. Kamala Nehru College’s Sangeetika and Daulat Ram College’s Alahyaa follow next with 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Winning Society at a glance

Samranjini, Gargi College

Gargi College’s Indian Music Society, Samranjini, sang their original composition in fests like Mecca and Shruti this year. The song was based on two ragas, namely Puriyadhanashri and Shuddh Basant raga. When we asked this talented choir their secret to success, they said, “We swear by the saying ‘practice makes a man perfect’. It was passion towards music and the endeavour to give our best that drove us all the way.” Names of the performing members: Aishwarya R, Vibhooshitha R, Ambika Srikrishnan, Mohima Chakraborty, J Subhadra, Arpita Sahai, Anjali Mehra, Ishita Mathur, Darsana Gogoi, Arundhati Ray, Yatika Sharma, Stuti Rai, Sahishnuta Barua, Needhi Roy. Note: The thirteen fests included in our analysis for this series include SRCC’s Crossroads, Gargi College’s Reverie, Sri Venkateswara College’s Nexus, LSR’s Tarang, Hans Raj’s Confluence, I.P. College for Women’s Shruti, Daulat Ram College’s Manjari, Hindu College’s Mecca, Jesus and Mary College’s Montage, Miranda House’s Tempest, Kamala Nehru College’s Ullas, Kirori Mal College’s Renaissance, SGTB Khalsa’s Lashkara. Out of the fests listed, only 11 had conducted an Indian Music Group Competition.]]>

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Shri Ram College of Commerce

P.G.D.A.V based Conundrum wins Bass Camp at Crossroads

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Day four of Crossroads 2014 started with Bass Camp, the Rock band Competition organised by the Western Music Society of Shri Ram College Of Commerce. The finals of the Competition started at around  12:30 in the afternoon. The prelims were conducted earlier under the supervision of three eminent judges of the Delhi School of Music. 32 bands had showed up and out of these bands, the best 10 bands were sieved out. The judges for the finals were, Moses Khiagte who is a vocal coach and a retired musician, currently working in three places namely, Bikers Cafe, Punjabi by Nature and 100% rock. He has managed three contemporary rock bands. He is also the ex-music teacher of Delhi Public School, Sonipat. He has also done recording sessions with Parikrama and Black Shades.

The other judge was Bhanu Mehendiratta, a well known musician, who is a part of bands like Sold Out and Half Step Down. This was his second time at judging Bass Camp. He has also won the famous competition 440 yards.

Out of the 10 selected bands, 9 had turned up and they battled it out for the first position. The winning band was to receive Rs. 7000 as the cash prize and a keyboard from Casio. Conundrum, an alternative rock band from P.G.D.A.V College played two of their original compositions and proved their worth. Their music had alternative and progressive rock elements to it that led them to obtaining the winning spot in the competition.

All in all the event provided followers of rock music a wide variety and variation of genres right from Hindi Fusion to Funk to Death Metal and provided the audience a few new independent bands to follow.

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Shri Ram College of Commerce

Crossroads 2014 ends with Sukhwinder Singh’s Jai Ho

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The final day of Crossroads 2014 ended with Woodstock. After three days that featured performances by Shaan, Dualist Inquiry and Jennifer Rene, the last day had Sukhwinder Singh performing at the main stage. The popular singer decimated the whole crowd at Shri Ram College of Commerce with his extreme vocal range and melody.

The internationally acclaimed singer performed for around two hours at one of India’s biggest college fests.
He was accompanied by his team of spectacular musicians and dancers to add some flavour to the night. Just before Sukhwinder Singh was about to start, his Microphone Tech and his Female accompanist sang two songs each to get the crowd going.

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Sukhwinder Singh finally started his performance at 6 30. His first song was Jai Ho, the Grammy Award winning song from Slumdog Millionaire. His set also included songs like Chaiyya Chaiyya, Haule Haule , Bidi Jalaile , Dard – e – Disco, Dhan Te Nan, Marjani Marjani, Saki Saki, Lagan Lagi, Chak De India, Ramta Jogi and a few more.

Every song that was sung, was accompanied by the dancers who were dressed in vibrant colours. Often, in the middle of songs, he would start a vocal – instrument jugal bandi between himself and his musicians. There were also times with songs like Bidi Jalaile, when he would ask the audience to clap while he sang and the audience would blissfully oblige.

He finally ended with a repetion of the song Jai Ho, bringing the concert to a befitting full circle and then signed off at around 9 15 in the night. Apart from the whole Parking lot, a third of the whole college ground was occupied by students who couldn’t stop dancing. And with that, Crossroads came to an end.

Post by DU Beat.

Image Credit: Abhinav Arora for DU Beat

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Sri Venkateswara College

Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences wins Indian Music duet at Nexus 2014

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Day two of Nexus 2014 began with the Indian Duet Music Competition named Malang. This year Malang received only 4 entries due to weather discrepencies. The participants were from Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Sri Aurobindo College [Evening], an inter – college duo of DDUC – KIIT and from the host college Sri Venkateshwara College itself. The competition only allowed filmy/non classical/ semi classical music and strictly classical music would not be encouraged. Due to weather restrictions the competition which was scheduled to start at 9 in the morning was postponed to 11 30 in the afternoon. The judges were, Mr. Avinash Kumar who is currently pursuing a Phd. in Music from the University of Delhi. He started learning Hindustani Classical Music from Ustad Aftab Ahmed Khan and is undergoing training from Pandit Tushar Dutta. He has won various awards including Madhubhasin Memorial Prize in 2008 and Mutatkar Award in 2010. There were two in house judges as well.

The first performance was by Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences. This duo sang their self composed song which won the hearts of the audience. Ultimately, they turned out to be the winners. We had the opportunity to talk with the duo after the results were announced. They were pretty happy and said, ” The organising of the event was good, the weather issues could be excused. The room had good acoustics and the crowd helped us alot” . Next up were, Sri Aurobindo College who sang their version of Rahat fateh Ali Khan’s- Sanu Ik Pal Chain Na Avey. The third act was the inter college duo, who sang a song from Murder 2 but were disqualified , because their song exceeded the time limit. The last act was form Sri Venkateshwara College and they sang ” Hum to aise hai Bhaiya”.

Another unnoficial duo from the host college who sang “Madari” , the coke studio composition by Vishal Dadlani and Sonu Kakkar with precision. The event ended after this song and the results were declared. The first prize was Rs 2000 claimed by Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences.

Post by DU Beat.
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