The Fine Arts Society and Dramatics Society of Hans Raj College organised Annual Cultural Event on 12-13th March. The event aims to bring all the cultural societies of the college together to perform for the home crowd.

Chief Guest for the event was Dr. Suchitra Gupta – Deputy Dean, Culture and Youth Affairs, University of Delhi. She said, “I appreciate the effort of college authorities for organising this cultural event in the cultural week alloted by the University.” The event was also attended by the college principal, Dr. VK Khwatra; ECA Convenor, Mrs. Sonal Gupta; Hindi Dramatics Head, Mr. M.P Sharma and other teachers of various departments.

The first day began with the Rangoli Making in front of the auditorium with participation from both students and teachers. This was followed by Swaranjali – the music society of college performing it’s Indian choir composition called Pratham Gajavadana Dhyaye Sada. After the spiritual Ganesh Vandana, the lamp lighting ceremony took place. All the guests for the day lit the holy lamp.

Dr. V.K. Khwatra while addressing the audience said, “Cultural activities are the essence of one’s college life. Irrespective of what your future plans are, each student should go through the process of joining a society in college and doing something productive along with studies.”

The performances started with Terpsichoreon – the choreography society of college performing their annual dance production. A 10-minute dance act on the theme, “personality fear” talked about how we should accept and acknowledge this fear because one can by no means overcome this personality fear.

Siddhi Jain, the ECA entry for dance performed Bharatanatyam for the audience. The act performed was a ‘Pushpanjali’ – which means an offering of flowers. Siddhi is a disciple of Guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar and has been learning Bharata Natyam since the age of five years. She has also performed in Japan under the cultural programme JNESYS.

Oorja – the western dance society performed thereafter. The western dance was performed on a medley of various hindi and punjabi songs. Tanushree Pande, the president of the society said, “Oorja is the only society to have bagged a chance to perform with world’s best Latin dancers at IFL 2013. We consider this as a great achievement.”

Santosh – a Sanskrit honours student of the college was handling fillers in the event. He was entertaining the audience with his Hindi shayari.

A Kathak dance was performed by a Srihari Madhav, a trained Kathak Dancer. He is also an ECA entrant into the college for dance and is part of Terpsichoreon. He started with a ganesh vandana by Late Guru Pandit Durga Lal which was followed by conventional kathak performance on Panjitji’s compositions in teentaal. Srihari who is trained Kathak dancer from Kathak Kendra, the national academy of Kathak dance says, “During my childhood, a teacher used to come to train my sister. I just joined in then. Not many male dancwers go out to learn this dance form but a form like this stays with you for life.” Srihari is a proud performer for CWG 2010 Youth Festival and Didacta Education Fair in Hanover Germnay.

Day one ended with a performance by Hansraj Dramatics Society who presented their much acclaimed production ‘Holi’. The play has won the first position at SGTB Khalsa, Daulat Ram College and Jesus and Mary College. Holi, a story about a bunch of hostel friends showcases the different levels of temperament of today’s youth. A play that projects the events happening in a single day talks about the realistic lifestyle of a college hostel and how the timeline changes from day to night. The production has also won awards at Dyal Singh College, Hindu College and St. Stephens College. Purusharth Budhiraja and Nirmal Kothari, actors for the production have also bagged the best actor awards. Mrs. Gupta, the chief guest who is also an eminent theatre personality gave members of Holi a small feedback and expressed her desire to have one common theatre production for the whole university.

Mrs. Sonal Gupta, the ECA Convenor said, “It is great to see how all the societies of the college excel in various competitions all over the country. It is a matter of great pride for the college.”