Angaraag Mahanta who is more famously known to us as Papon performed at Hindu’s Rock Night along with his band East India Company on the first day of Mecca 2014. A large crowd turned up cheering as Papon stepped on the stage and took a hold of his mike.
He started the performance with songs like Khumaar (performed by Papon in Coke Studio) which talks about how a guy is passionately in love with a girl but has to spend a difficult day waiting for the night to come when he can see her and moved on to an Assamese folk song that joins into a Punjabi folk song explaining how the song was about how India is united despite its diversity and even though our diversity might pose problems once in a while it’s all right because while the rest of the world is black and white, India stands out with all its colours.
He also sang many of his more famous songs including Dinae Dinae, Kaun mera from the movie Special 26, Kyon from Barfi! And Jiyein kyun from Dum Maaro Dum. However, what really got the crowd going were Papon’s little quirks and jokes as he explained the meaning behind his songs and how in life everything figures out in the end and you find what you are supposed to be, like he did despite being a college dropout. He also introduced his band mate Jinti who is professionally an automobile engineer but now runs cars through his guitar followed by a demonstration by Jinti on the same.
Papon ended his performance with “Banao” and a Bihu song for all his Assamese fans.
Right before Papon came on stage another artist performed on the stage of Mecca 2014, Jasleen Kaur Royal. Jasleen who is a Hinduite, has been a participant on India’s Got Talent and is currently working with Parikrama. She sang songs like “Pani da rang”, “Iktara” and “Shaam savere”.
Nritiyakriti, the Choreography competition on Day 1 of Ullas was organised by Adagio, the Choreography Society of the college. There were a total of 8 participating teams including Kirori Mal College, Gargi College, Sri Venkateswara College and Hansraj College. The judges for the event were Mr. Adi, Director of Rada and known for blending contemporary with lyrical hip-hop and Mr. Arjun Kohli, guest artist with Anveshana Dance Theatre and Urshilla Dance Company.
Hindu College’s Choreography Society- Srijya put up a performance titled ‘Paradox’. Ashish from Hindu College elaborated, “We’ve put up our performance related to fear, three different levels of fear. The organisation of the event has been good and all participants were competitive enough.”
Eventually Gargi College’s choreography society Sparx won the first place in the competition, with Hansraj College’s Terpsichorean following second. One of the judges said, “I have seen all colleges, some are good, some are better. I’ve seen lack of synchronisation in almost all performances.” He also emphasised that “performances should have a wow factor”.
The Debating Society of the college, Crossfire also conducted a conventional debate earlier in the day. The motion for the debate was – This house believes that temporary anarchy is the only means to achieve a stable democracy as an end. Madhav from KMC, Divya from KMC and Mehvish from St. Stephen’s were adjudged the best speakers and Divya from KMC was the best interjector.
Twenty odd bands fought at the prelims in Cafe Morrison yesterday and only six bands qualified for the finals of the Battle of the Bands at Mecca 2014.
The finals started with two originals from the band Andolan. Their compositions were called Manmohini and Udh panchi. Rock and Raaga, the second band also started with a self composed song ‘for all the beautiful eyes out there’. Followed by the same, an ear- throbbing metal performance by Conundrum from P.G.D.A.V college left the audience wanting for more. They sang two songs, again out of which, one was an original composition – Temporal Drift.
Zero Education also performed an their original compositions, followed by a gig by the Red Shorts. The last band concluded the musical madness with an original composition that was an instrumental piece called Dreams.
Andolan not only started first, but ended the show by bagging the first winning spot. Conundrum was declared the runners-up for the competition.
The annual fest of Miranda House – Tempest, started on 20th February with an inter-college stage play competition organized by Ariels, the English dramatics society of the college.
The competition saw plays by seven colleges namely, SRCC, Ramjas, SGTB Khalsa, Northern India Engineering College, Kamala Nehru College and Hindu College. These colleges performed the plays titled The Nerd, The Private Ear, Bande and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay (both by SGTB), Butter Chicken, Cover Story and The Fifth Symphony respectively.
The award for the Best Play was won by SGTB Khalsa’s Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay – a play that has won laurels recently at Udaan as well.
Ramjas College’s Neil won the Best Actor (male) for his performance in The Private Ear.
In addition to the winning spot, SGTB Khalsa took home three more awards. Their play Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay received the Best Director and the Best Actor (female) award. Their other play Bande got the prize of the Best Set Design. Ramjas College’s play The Private Ear, won the Best Technical Team award.
“Our event this year was an attempt to bring together some of the best plays put together by various college theatre groups. It turned out to be quite successful.” Said Varuni, the President of Ariels, “It was a delight to see such wonderful performances. The audience was also very responsive.”
Football fans recently got together on the inaugural day at Mecca, as the Economics Department of the College organised an open Street-Soccer tournament. The 4-a-side football event was organised at the Ibtida lawns, which included 8 teams divided in 2 groups of 4. The matches, though only lasting 5 minutes each, entertained substantial crowds as teams progressed to knock out stages and beyond.
The matches were low scoring in general, with teams only conceding more than 2 goals on one occasion. However, despite the lack of goals, all the teams displayed a very attack minded approach to the game. The matches also stood witness to several rash tackles and challenges, however managing to keep a general fluidity to the game. By the time of the finals, a substantial number of onlookers had stopped to watch the match. Though only being a 1-0 victory, the mood of the match can best be highlighted by the fact that the supporters seemed to cheer and rant at every tackle and every shot.
The winners of the tournament, an all Hindu team, including Tushar Batra, Tajammul, Abhik Palit, Mrithunjay, Sahil Chunka, Lahm and Arjun Maharishi. They went away with a cash prize of Rs. 1500, while the runners up received a prize worth Rs. 1000.
Glitz, the Fashion Society of Kamala Nehru College organised its Fashion Show Competition on 19th February – the first day of Ullas 2014.
A total of eight teams (seven competitive and one non-competitive team) took part in the competition. The judges for the event were; Ritu Singh, an eminent personality in fashion world, Suhail Kohli, who has worked with Swapnil Shinde and Kakoli C. Mehra, who started as a Custom Designer for Mr. Steven Segal, crowned as Miss Kanchenjunga i.e. Miss North Bengal in 1993.
The event commenced with the performance of Style Brokers, the Fashion Society of Deshbandhu College, followed by the performance of iVogue- the Fashion Society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce. Each college was given a time limit of 10-12 minutes. Members from the organizing society say “Fashion is not something that exists in the dresses. It is in the sky. Fashion never dies.”
The award for the Best Wardrobe was given to Maitreyi College. The best model in the female and male category, were Shivani and Mayank from CVS respectively. The first prize was bagged by Prophecy- Fashion Society of Lady Irwin College and the second prize went to Maitreyi College.
Gargi College conducted its Annual Cultural Fest – Reverie 2014 on 5th, 6th and 7th February. Under the tagline – ‘Dreams to Reality’, the three day fest was a culmination of various events ranging from dance, music and art. To top all, there was a last minute change in the Star Night and a delay in the Sufi Night due to rain. Here is a recap of all that happened at Reverie 2014.
The Inauguration
The day kicked off with the inauguration in the Auditorium. With Rajasthani elements of Kalbailiya and Ghoomar, the inauguration did manage to gather the hoots from Gargi students in the packed auditorium.
Choreo Night
Ten teams contested to win the top spots at ‘Cursive-iti’ – the choreo night at Reverie. With no pre-lims, the event was the closing act of day one. The judging panel comprised of Mr. Firoz Haider and Mr. Himanshu Sharma.
The home team from Gargi College was also the winning team, with their performance themed on ‘Astitva, the search within’. Kamala Nehru College’s Adagio performed ‘Trip- Is it worth it?’ and earned the second spot. The third prize came in the kitty of Hansraj College’s Terpsi Chorean for the performance ‘The oomph!’.
An excited Kanika Joshi from winning team, has the following to say, “To achieve something we have never achieved before, we had to do something completely different. We believed in ourselves and let the dance win! Cursive-iti has always enjoyed the most amazing reception and the best teams from across DU. And we won! But I also really liked Hansraj’s performance.”
Hosted by the students union of Gargi College, the second day of the three-day college fest, Reverie had to culminate with the performance of Coke Studio artists – Adi and Suhail. Just when the spirits were soaring, it started to rain at the venue. Though nominal, it ended soon only to start again after sometime. The fluctuating feelings could be seen among the crowd, just when Gargi College’s music society decided to sing some fillers inside the tent where rain was not a problem.
Their performance was accorded with a huge cheer and also gave a ray of hope to the Coke Studio-wallaswho then decided to do the same and perform under the tent. In Adil’s own words, “This is the coolest gig we have performed in our life”. As soon as the crowd heard this, they went beserk and repeatedly applauded for the professional singers and instrumentalists. The duo performed several sufi melodies, including the famous ‘malhar’ and ’ranjha’.
Star Night with Neeraj Shridhar
Nothing could have been more befitting than the musical adieu, that the final day got with the presence and performance of famous singer, lyricist and music director Neeraj Sridhar. Neeraj who is known for his peppy numbers in Bollywood for almost a decade now, successfully got the audience’s eye and appreciation irrespective of him being roped in at the moment due to Arijit Singh’s ill health.
The celebrity began the concert around 7: 30 p.m. when the ground roared several people cheering and shouting for the star of the night. Starting with the famous peppy numbers like ‘Hey Baby’ , ‘Chor Bazari’ and ‘Prem ki naiyya’ he went on to the recent most awaited chartbusters like ‘tum hi ho bandhu’. Not only did he interact, but also shared interesting stuff about the making of songs and behind the screen happenings which audience enjoyed as well.
Best Play: The Private Ear (Ramjas College) Best Direction and second Best Play: Black Comedy (SRCC) Best actor: Shared by Kabir Ahmad (SRCC) and Dhruv Sirohi (Ramjas). Special Mention (Acting): Gagan Arora, Shaheed Bhagat Singh (evening)
First Position: Rahul and Kshitij from Sadhna Sangeet College (SSC) Second Position: Kshitij, Saptak and Prateek from Hans Raj College Third Position: Miranda House and Jesus & Mary College
First Position:Gargi College Second Position: Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College (SGTB Khalsa) Third Position: Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce (SGGSCC)
Cursive-ity: Choreo
First Position: Gargi College Second Position: Kamala Nehru College Third Position: Hansraj College
First Position: SGTB Khalsa College’s We, The People Second Position: Guru Gobind Singh College’s Chidiya ki Kahaani Third Position: Kirori Mal College’s Company Raj
Overacting
First Position: Nishant, Sulabh and Sanchit from Maharaja Agrasen College Second Position: Akshat, Satyam, Rahul from PDGAV Third Position:Devesh, Akshay, Rahul from Maharaja Agrasen College
Poster Making Competition
First Position: Kunal Singh from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College Second Position: Sandeep Gupta from Ramjas College Third Position: Anjali Bokaria from Gargi College
Conventional Debate
First Position: Sidhant Shekhar and Aiman Anjum from Deshbandu College Second Position: Sushmita Singh and Meghna Acharjee from Gargi College Best Interjector: Bhawna from Lady Hardinge Medical College.
First Position: Ritu Singh from Gargi College Second Position: Pratibha Pathak from Satyawati College Third Position: Suruchi from St. Stephen’s College
Rangoli Competition
Winner of the Second Position at the Rangoli Competition
First Position:Chahat and Swati of Keshav Mahavidyalaya Second Position: Ekta, Neha, Nisha and Sonia of Janaki Devi Memorial College
Western Music (Choir)
First Position: Lady Shri Ram College for Women
Second Position: Jesus and Mary College
Third Position: Kamala Nehru College
Western Music (Solo)
First Position:Hanita Bhambri, SSCBS Second Position:Shubham Mahajan, SSCBS Third Position:Tie between Lalmuanpuii, SRCC and Yamini Joshi, KNC
The Sanskrit Department of Gargi College hosted a twin event on the third and final day of their annual college fest ‘Reverie’ – 2014 in the afternoon slot. The event was judged by Ms. Veena Bhatnagar and Ms. Kumkum Jindal, professors from the same department.
The first leg of the event called ‘Sanskrit Shlokavriti Pratiyogita’ saw the recitation of Sanskrit shlokas from numerous literature pieces of the language. The first prize was bagged by Vaibhav from St. Stephens College, who was praised well for the clear recitation by both the jury members. Sonali from Gargi College bagged the second prize.
The other event called ‘Natya Abhivyakti Pratiyogita’ saw the participants enacting and delivering Sanskrit dialogues in different situations provided by jury members. The first prize was bagged by Ritu Singh from Gargi College itself, second being bagged by Pratibha Pathak( Satyawati College). The third position in both events was won by Suruchi from St. Stephen’s College.
Both the events saw a participation of overall 15 teams. “The event was really exciting, the decision was tough, hence, the prizes were exceedingly divided and consolation prizes distributed. It was nice to see the interest of youth in the language still alive.” said Ms. Kumkum Jindal, after the announcement of results.
Nazakat – the Indian Dance Society of Gargi College conducted the Indian Solo Classical Dance Competition on the last day of Reverie 2014. With 10 teams participating in the competition, the event was held alongside the main stage of the fest.
The event was judged by Ms. Priya Srinivasan, a Bharat Natyam Dancer and student of Ms. Leela Samson. She was accompanied by Dr. Rashmi Bansal, a trained Bharat Natyam Dancer and Professor at Gargi College.
The event saw performances ranging in different classical dance forms including Kathak, Bharat Natyam and Mohiniyattam. The first position in the competition was bagged by Jayapriya from Gargi College while the second position was grabbed by Radhika of Miranda House.
