Top Societies for DU Fests 2018: Alaap of Sri Venkateswara College for Indian Choir

One of the many things that make the University of Delhi happening and enchanting is the performing arts societies and their marvelous annual productions. In the past few months, we saw cut-throat competition across several Delhi University colleges. The hours and hours of practice and hard work were put to test this fest season and from amongst the pool of massive talent, some groups emerged brighter than the others. We attempt to select the best society of the lot.

Methodology
The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions that could be won at various events. The society that secured the 1st position was awarded 3 points, the society that secured the 2nd position was awarded 2 points, and finally, the society securing the 3rd position was awarded 1 point.
Eight college fests were referred to while evaluating the top societies tally this fest season. They were: Tarang, LSR; Ullas, KNC; Tempest, Miranda House; Montage, JMC; Mecca, Hindu College; Reverie, Gargi College; Crossroads; Sri Ram College of Commerce; and Nexus, Sri Venkateswara College.

The Top Three
In the Indian Choir category, Alaap of Sri Venkateswara College leads with 13 points. Alankar of Hindu College is second with 10 marks, closely followed by Swaranjali of Hansraj College which has 8 points.

Points Tally: Indian Choir

The Winning Society at a glance
For years now Alaap, the Indian music society of Sri Venkateswara College, has been serenading the audience with their soulful renditions. This year under the guidance of Dr. Avinash Kumar and Mr. Mahavir Chandrawat, they have emerged as the top society from amongst immensely talented counterparts.

While in conversation with DU Beat, Naman Aggarwal, President of Alaap, explained this year’s production and said, “With innumerable months of practice, brainstorming sessions, and trying out various combinations, we came up with a difficult concept this year. We decided on a renowned method singing in Hindustani Classical Music called Jasrangi. Jasrangi involves singing two different raags, in two different scales, at the same time, in a way that they compliment each other. This has been by far our hardest composition as it has involved a great amount of hard work especially in synchronising two different scales and raags together at the very same time. Apart from our annual production, we also took up an old composition of our society and tried to recreate an old legacy on stage. Raagmala, which was the annual composition of our society in the year 2014-15 included Raag Ramkali, Bahar, Basant, Kedar and Miya Malhar. Although our annual production has been Jasrangi, but we have also performed Raagmala in many stages as well.”

Participating members
Vocalists: Karthika Vijay, Jagruthi Kallem, Taranjot Kaur, Jahanvi Miglani, Srijani Chaudhuri, Mahima Pandey, Abhishek Malhotra, Madhav Bhatia, Harsh Bisht, Rakshit Gupta, Umang Tayal, Vardaan Malhotra, Aditi Agarwal.

Instrumentalists:

Keyboard – Naman Aggarwal
Sitar – Rohan Kapoor
Tabla – Mahavir Chandrawat, Soumendra Goswami

Winners Tally
Out of the eight colleges we considered, Alaap won at:
I Position: Montage, Tempest, Mecca
II Position: Ullas
III Position: Reverie, Crossroads

(Hover over the icons to know more about their victories)