This time around Mecca, the annual cultural festival of Hindu College was a four day affair. With each evening lined up with a star performance and societies bringing their best for competitive events, Mecca went off smoothly, with a few events cancelled. While all days of the fest saw a good turnout, the crowd that’d gathered for Bollywood singers Vishal and Shekhar’s performance on Day 3 was grand indeed.
Now that the event has come to an end, we bring you the highlights of each day, with the performances, videos and winners’ tally:
Day 1: Inauguration, Choreography competition and first round of Battle of the Bands
The inauguration of Mecca began with the lighting of the lamp by the Dr. Anju Srivastava, Principal and other dignitaries and heads of various departments of the college including Dr Kaul and Dr Kapoor. This was followed by a speech by the Principal and Tushar Soni, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hindu College.
Mecca hosted its choreography competition in the college auditorium. Dance performance by the dance society of Lady Shri Ram College was adjudged the best and it revolved around the life of women in Amazon forests. The choreography society of Hans Raj College, Terpsichoreon won the second position.
After competitions like choreography and Battle of Bands, second half of Day 1 at Mecca hosted the much awaited nukkad natak competition which complemented Mecca’s Bollywood theme this year. Street production ‘Mannmarziyaan‘ by Abhivyakti, the dramatics society of IP College bagged the first prize at Mecca. The spot for first position was shared by Kshitij– The Street Play Society of Gargi College.
Day 1 of Hindu College’s Mecca concluded with its alumnus Rekha Bharadwaj performing for the first time at Delhi University. The National Award winning singer who is as popular for her sufi music as for her playback singing in Bollywood, gave a soulful rendition to the evening.
Day 2: Battle of the Bands, Fashion Show and Indie Music Night
The second and final round of the Battle of the bands began on the second day of Mecca 2015 with the six bands that were shortlisted on the first day. The final winner of the two rounds of the battle was The Hansraj Projekt and the second prize was taken by the Paperboat and with that the much sought after battle finally came to an end.
The highlight event for Day 2 was Panache, the fashion show which saw six fashion societies from Delhi University coming forward to highlight their range of clothing and accessories. Maitreyi College with their production ‘Lord of the Wild’ won the first position. Their act focused on banning tiger trade in India.
The final event that concluded the second day started off with the band F16s playing in the genre of Indies music while a large crowd of students swayed along as the sky shimmered with the stage and sky lights followed by Duallist Inquiry playing their famous Progressive House and EDM numbers with a guitar in the background. The last hour of the evening was taken over by Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale.
Day 3: A Capella, Western Dance Competition and performance by Vishal and Shekhar
The third day of Mecca 2015 witnessed the A cappella competition with a total of six colleges participating. The event was judged by Chayan Adhikari, singer of Advaita and Nisa Shetty, alumnus of Hindu College and now a singer, song writer and performer. The first place was awarded to Lady Shri Ram College, second place to St. Stephens and the third prize was given to Sri Venkateswara College.
#LSR performing ‘Jailer’ for the A capella competition at #Mecca2015 #festseason #hindu #Mecca2015 A video posted by DU Beat (@du_beat) on
In the Western Dance Competition, Mecca saw some of the most popular dance societies of Delhi University perform on a plethora of songs ranging from popular to contemporary songs. Hans Raj Colleges’s western dance society, Oorja won the First prize and SGGSCC was adjudged the first runner up.
Day 3 of Mecca ended with a mesmerizing performance by the music directing duo Vishal-Shekhar. Popular for several Bollywood features like Salam Namaste and Jhankar Beats, they performed on some of their most celebrated songs, like ‘Velle’, ‘Zehnaseeb’, ‘Balam Pichkari’, ‘Chhammak Chhallo’, ‘Om Shanti Om’, ‘I hate love stories,’ etc. They kept a steady interaction with the crowd and gave them all a supremely energetic performance.
Day 4: Panel discussion with eminent scholars and speaker session with Javed Akhtar
The panel discussion began at 3pm on the last day of Mecca and was headed by eminent scholars such as Professor Romila Thapar, author of the popular classic A History of India, Professor Kunal Chakraborti who teaches at the Center of Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr. Ish Mishra, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Professor P.K Vijayan from the Department of English, Hindu College.
The Principal of Hindu College Anju Srivastava and Convener P.K Sinha felicitated the star of the evening Shri Javed Akhtar. The topic of discussion was ‘Mind Your Language’. In a few words he explained how in our everyday speech, we use words which are borrowed from a number of languages like Persian, Italian, Turkish and Gujarati among others.
After four days of events and sessions, Mecca 2015 came to a successful close on the 28th of February. Here’s looking forward to its next edition!
Writers: Isheeta Sharma, Iresh Gupta, Sidharth Yadav, Arindam Goswami, Ayesha Sareen
Photographers: Kashish Madan, Chirag Sharma, Abhay Makhija, Paurush
Comments are closed.