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Rendezvous 2019, the annual cultural fest of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi began on 2nd October 2019. Here is an outlay of what went down at Day 1 and Day 2.

The western dance competition marked the unfolding of the four day long fest with great zeal and excitement. The first round of the event began at 9 a.m. with eyes glued on to the dances which set the stage ablaze. Satviki,Sanjay, a student of Miranda House said, “The performances blew my mind and made me want to dance myself”. Another student from Lady Shri Ram College for Women said, “The teams left us jaw dropped. I really liked team Nritya, looking forward to seeing them in the finals”. “The teams entertained us thoroughly. The hosts added their own quirks, but sexist jokes did resurface again and again,” added a student who wished to remain anonymous. The judges of the event were Akshat Dhanvani and Reuben from Ace Crew.

Mimansa, the street play competition was organised by the dramatics society of IIT Delhi, saw participants gearing up for the preliminary round with vocal exercises as early as 7:30 a.m. After an impromptu session, the competition began at 11:30 a.m. From over 120 online entries, 37 teams made it to the preliminary round. The competition was judged by theatre artists- Rajneesh Gautam from Saitaan Theatre, Yogesh Kumar from Jazba Theatre, and Ankit Dhawal from Theatre Leela. The teams captivated the judges and audience alike with their well-crafted dialogues and punch lines on socially relevant issues such as sex education or the role of government.

“But comedy is more than just humor. It is about confidence, wit and understanding of the audience,” reads the description of Comedy Hunt, competition for talented comedians to up their game of humor. True to its words, 9 shortlisted comedians competed in the finals to captivate the audience. The competition was judged by the comedians Srijan Kaushik and Pratyush Chaubey. It saw the audience rolling with laughter at jokes on hilarious human traits, religion, politics, sex, and relationships, among other things. Comedians Mohit Arora, Zubin Jacob, and Shubham Pujari bagged the third, second and first prizes respectively, collectively getting cash prizes worth more than INR 15000. “We are not an official club. Just a couple of students enthusiastic about comedy,” said a member from the organising team of Rendezvous’19.

Day 1 at the fest also saw aspiring rappers battling it out at the preliminary rounds of Hip Hop Fiesta: Rap Battle in the Lecture Hall Complex of IIT. Judged by rapper MC Kode, the event had 16 shortlisted candidates for the final rap battle. The Lecture Hall Complex in IITD was also home to a number of writing competitions such as ‘My Jottings’ and quizzes such as Shabdvyuh and Chakravyuh.

Mridang, the the Indian Music Society of IIT Delhi organised the first musical event of Rendezvous 2019, ‘Agaaz’, the eastern group singing competition. The event saw participation of 14 colleges who were judged by a panel of two eminent musicians, Dr. Mahesh Deshmukh who has been trained in Indian classical music under the tutelage of one of the finest Sitar Maestro in India, Ustad Usman Khan and has performed at eminent music festivals in India and countries across globe, and Mr. Pt. Chetan Joshi who is one of the senior most flutists of Indian classical music who has introduced several innovations in the sphere of flute playing which have become parts of his repertoire. Alahyaa, the music society of Daulat Ram College bagged the first position for their performance “Original Piece For The Year 2019-2020 in raag Shankara and Chandrakauns”, while Mridang, the music society of IIT Delhi came second for their performance ‘Krishna Morari Kala- a tribute to Lord Krishna’, and the third position was won by shared by Musoc of Kirorimal college and Alaap of Indraprastha College for Women for their performances “Garaj- Garaj Raghmiya Ki Malhar” and “Naam Ratat” respectively.

The second half of day one of Rendezvous commenced with prelims of Beatboxing contest of the Hip-Hop Fiesta. The event had a participation of 126 teams out of which only 16 teams qualified for the final round to be conducted on 4th October. The event had a footfall of about 80-100 students who thoroughly enjoyed the Beatboxing battle. The event was adjudged by N-Grave, a prominent Indian Beatboxer.

Abhivyakti, Hindi creative writing competition took place at LHC-114. The event had on the spot registration and had almost 150 participants. It was judged by Smt. Rajiv Kumar Shukl, Delhi Director at Aakashvani (All India Radio) and Smt. Ravi Shankar, Creative Director at an Advertising agency. The participants were given topics on the spot by the judges. They were first asked to write on the topic “Gandhi aaj mere liye” in reference to the date of the event,  2nd October. The students were reluctant to this topic so the judges gave them two more topics – “Swachhata, tan ki bhi, man ki bhi” and “Gandhi Vichar aur humara paryavaran“. The students were given the liberty to write on any one of the three options given to them. They were given about 1.5 hours to submit their piece and in any literary format they wished to.

At Pratirodh, the protest poetry event, a total of 9 poets took to stage and used the medium of poetry to express their emotions and views about various social and political issues of the world. The organisers defined poetry as a concept of how one “names the nameless”. Being a non-competitive event, it still witnessed a crowd of about 60-70 people. The participants spoke against mob lynching, female genital mutilation, marital rape, and various other issues of the nation. They addressed these crises in the form of art which really influenced the audience and even left them in tears.

In the later part of the afternoon the Dogra Hall hosted the Young India Debate moderated by Tanvi Shukla, News Editor at Mirror Now. The discussion involved well known panellists like Mr. Aman Sinha BJP Spokesperson, Mr. Raghav Awasthi member of the RSS, Yogendra Yadav Political Activist and Sanjay Rajoura from Aisi Taisi Democracy.

The agenda for the debate was, “Is New India More Intolerant?” Mr. Yogendra Yadav opened the debate denying that New India is intolerant in any way. He stated that intolerance has been privileged from a certain class in the society and is being systematically constructed.  He said, “When lynching takes place the spirit of new India is violated, however this is due to the political cloud that surrounds it.”
The debate went on to have a heated discussion on the growing intolerance towards caste, political ideology, gender, language, and religion. On the other hand, BJP spokesperson, Mr. Aman Sinha stated,” India has been a tolerant and diverse country right from the ancient to contemporary times.” The other speakers brought to light about the various aspects of tolerance and collated it with the national party regimes. Social media and its democratisation was debated extensively and the young student audience acknowledged the debate with equal fervour through active participation.

Just after the Open Sports Quiz, the IIT Delhi Quizzing Society organized its second event on the first day of Rendezvous’19, Karnival-Open Mela Quiz. Over 60 teams, each comprising of 3 participants came together to fight for the top spot. The event began at 2:30 p.m, with the quizmaster coming up with the first question of the prelims round, where a set of 20 mind boggling questions from various fields and interests were derived to decide the participants of the finals at the end of the first round, top 10 teams were selected to proceed for the final round where another set of questions were waiting to be answered by the super genius participants. The competition was a close affair with an enormous amount of coerciveness & fierce quizzing attitude interplaying throughout the game.

The day came to a magnificent close with performance of the trio, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, which swept the crowd of its feet. The audience grooved to their numbers such as Locha-e-Ulfat, Mitwa, and Dil Chahta Hai.

With great vigour and enthusiasm, the second day of Rendezvous, IIT Delhi was welcomed by excited participants and a plethora of events.

Madhubani Painting Workshop was conducted by Ms. Manisha Jha who enlightened the eager participants on the significance and history of Madhubani paintings. From a communal, caste and gender background she went forth to explain the background of prominent paintings.

JAM or Just-A-Minute tested the wit, fluency, presence of mind and grammar of the participants. The judge Dr. Sanjay Chugh left the audience in splits while the participants tried their best to not stutter. Aashima Anand, Aditi Utreja and Chim Sharma stood out as the ultimate winners of the game.

‘Mimansa’ or the street-play competition revolves around the theme of a social message. Participating societies educated the audience on themes related to human trafficking, sex, bias media, faulty legal system and the likes. The winners of the competition are, Hindu’s Ibtida bagging the first, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma’s Rangayan at second and College of Vocational Studies’ Dramanomics at third. The ‘Best Actor Male’ was from Deshbandhu, ‘Best Actor Female’ from Janki Devi Memorial College and the ‘Best Musical Play’ by Sri Venkateshwara College. The judges consisted of seasoned artistes; Tarun Kohli from Akshara Theatre, Varun Sharma from Theatreleela Studios and Vipul from Asmita Theatre.

The Mythological debate, Aaj Ka Narad, was also conducted. The event was judged by an ex-IITian, Mr Yatish Kumar. It was an open event with both college and school students participating. The participants were divided into teams of three each with two rounds- prelims and finals. The first position was backed my Mr Shivam Sanoria, while the second and third positions were shared by three contestants each.

A perfect platform to rant your hearts out, Spin-a-Yarn was a fan-fiction writing competition, an open event for both college and school students. The participants were given 2.5 hours to write a story on any of the prompts given. A total of five themes were addressed- Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Death Note and Percy Jackson. For each theme three situations were provided out of which the contestant could choose to write on any one. This competition was subject to internal checking and the results for the same would be announced in about a week or two’s time.

A melodious touch to Rendezvous ‘19 was added by the fusion band competition of Tatva. 8 college bands participated in this event and gave outstanding performances that truly touched the audience’s hearts. The first position was backed by Happy Together (SGTB Khalsa) while the second and third positions were backed by Raag Shas (IITD) and Calico Skies (CVS) respectively. This event was judged by Mr Raghav Verma and Mr Kartik Dhar.

After a tiring day at IITD Rendezvous, comedians Appurv Gupta and Gaurav Kapoor tickled the funny bone in every person by performing their hilarious sets at the Comedy Fest. Addressing all topics like DU students to a typical day with your father, the comedians well managed to throw everyone off their seats laughing.

Sketch-A-Spot was an open and live sketching event with over 450 participants. Participants were asked to discover their own place in the campus and draw the same. The event was judged by Dr. Rajashri Chakrabarti, professor at the College of Art and Shri Saumya Samanta.

Debutante was an intense debating session bifurcated by different rounds. With sharp minds and even sharper tongue, participants ranging over 40 teams battled it out on several themes spanning across several rounds. Over a period of two days, ranging from feminism and Indian politics to pop culture and economics, the participants were welcomed with a variety of themes. The finals remain awaited on the 4th of October.

The prelims for the Mela-Ish Quiz, organised by the Quiz Club of IIT Delhi. Almost 60 teams participated in the event out of which, only eight teams were supposed to qualify for the finals. It had questions from all sorts of topics, covering Music, Entertainment, Art, Indian history, Science etc. The questions very detailed and had the participants scratching their heads. The quiz consisted of about 20 questions and the participants were given a time of 2-3 minutes for one question. The event was judged by the Quiz society itself and was very well informative throughout.

Hindi Samiti (The Hindi society of IIT Delhi) in collaboration with Nojoto, an app that provides aspiring writers a platform to pursue their dreams, organised a poetry competition, Chhatra Kavi Sangoshthhi. The event had about 250 registrations who submitted their poems to the organisers and only 27 participants were shortlisted for the second round. The event was judged by Smt. Rajiv Kumar Shukl, Delhi Director at Aakashvani (All India Radio) and Smt. Kinshuk Gupta, Chief Juror for Konark literary festival. Each participant was given five minutes to present their Shayaris. The audience was deeply touched by the emotions of the poets who well connected with everyone through their poems.

The Dance Club of IIT Delhi organised a Solo Dance competition. They invited registrations through submission of dance videos of people. They received videos of about 300 aspiring dancers, out of which 45 were shortlisted for the prelims. After the prelims, only nine qualified for the final round. The competition was very diverse as the participants performed all different kinds of dance, western, classical, street dance, etc. After the performances of the participants, Deepanshu, A member of the Solo Dance Club of IIT Delhi took it to stage and left everyone awestruck by his dance. The event was judged by Sanyam Bhayana, Choreographer at University of Delhi and a renowned dancer. First position was bagged by Tiger Pop and the second prize was given to Shreewarna Rawat. After the results, the audience chanted the name of the judge askin him to dance. Sanyam took to stage and danced phenomenally, which was clear by the applause from the audience.

Day 2 ended with harsh rain showers and thunder, due to which the Pronite with Ritwiz was cancelled. The weather turned sour, and led to felling of trees. The Organising Committees at Rendezvous uploaded information regarding safety of the participants, students, and attendees. Allegedly a few people were injured and taken to the hospital on campus for immediate first-aid. The thunder washed away the décor and made a ruckus during the pronite.

Feature Image Credits: Gauri Ramchandani for DU Beat

Anandi Sen

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Avni Dhawan

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Aditi

Abhinandan Kaul

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Faizan

Priyanshi

Sriya Rane

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Bhavya Pandey

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Satviki Sanjay

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Welcome to the lusciously green and tranquil campus of one of the most prestigious colleges of Delhi, IIT. On the 20th of October, the ornamentally decorated and colourful environs of this college, would take you down the streets of fun unlimited. Greeted by robust sponsor banners displayed copiously all around, were the very proud sponsors and partners of Rendezvous 2012. The title sponsor of the event Micromax and the associate sponsors being Nimbuzz, Parle and .net made their presence felt finely with activity kiosks at every nook of the colossal campus. With an itinerary for the day which was mind boggling and a cheerily over enthusiastic crowd, the second day of Rendezvous kick started.

Absolute exuberance was displayed in all activities, whether it were the fourteen street plays performed by renowned DU colleges revolving around unambiguous social dilemmas like the acceptance of eunuchs in the society or other abstract themes of emotions like ‘fear’, or an event like the English stage plays, they were all greeted with extreme fervour and spirit by the students. A classical music performance by Smt. Sunetra Chakravarty, gloomed in hues of discontentment by the crowd, an offensive response which irked the performer to pits. But the most anticipated event of the day was a hilarious comic ride by the extremely popular stand-up comedian, Papa C J. If children were to be taught the definition of the state of solid, wherein atoms are tightly packed with no movement, the example of this auditorium where the ‘father of stand-up comedy’ performed shall not be given a miss. His effortless comic timing and synchronization with the youth furnished his gig, which rendered the audience in pangs of thunderous laughter. The auditorium reverberated with the cries of wholesome entertainment when ‘Papa C J – live and uncensored’ played to the field which is his absolute forte, and yes that is pretty much ‘uncensored’.

Kaleidoscope, the fashion event was the outright highlight of the day. With the perfect amalgamation of an apt venue, well synced lighting and a receptively aware crowd, the show swept the audience into another world. The event started with the choreography section. Herein, the first performance by Adagio, the choreography society of Kamala Nehru College which depicted the plight of women in our society and pledged for women’s empowerment was nerve shivering.  It was followed by Hindu College‘s performance which celebrated the true spirit of life barring physical shortcomings. These were followed by a performance by NSIT College which well portrayed the rat race of human life and another performance by the host institute IITD which was deservingly applauded. With a series of activities that stand queued up for the glorified hours of the night at Rendezvous, we now depart till the coverage of yet another eventful day of the fest tomorrow.

Au revoir!

 

 

Image credits: Additi Seth

DAY 1 (16th January, 2011)

The Dramatics Society of Shri Ram College of Commerce with their sweatshirts reading ‘100 percent cut off, 200 percent dramebazi’, began the first day of their annual fest ‘Histronica’ by singing their official ‘Oha!’ song. Though the event got delayed as a consequence of campus placements going on in the college, as well as the Indo-US meet, the fervour and energy was soon on display as they filled the air with calls of ‘aao aao..natak dekho…srcc ka..natak dekho’ in tandem with their dafli beats.

The main event of the day , ‘The Street Play Festival’ began soon after. With a stupendous footfall of hundreds of people, the street play festival was filled with scintillating performances by CBS,Hindu,IP (for women), Hansraj, SRCC, DRC, Khalsa and GGS. The street plays through their songs, squeals, screams, calls and subtle satire, spoke of a wide array of themes such as whistle blowing, child abuse, right to education to name a few. The event was judged by Ms.Tejaswini (LSR passout currently practising street theatre in Law Faculty) ,Soumyajeet (Indian representative for Lok Theatre Group) and Mr.Shirish (works with National School of Drama).

Plays titled ‘Tu maar de seeti’ (cbs), ‘zaruarurat kyat hi ‘(hindu),’albert pinto ko gussa kyun aata hai’ (ip for women), ‘dharm’(khalsa), ‘laalsa’(hansraj), ’prathmik’(srcc), ’ugte suraj ka sapna’(ggs), ’mehfooz’(drc) kept the crowd gripped and staring on in awe at the sheer brilliance of it all.

Students devoured on food at the various stalls which included Kolkata Biryani House, Dominos, Brown Sugar and Kwality Walls. After the street play exhibition, the side events commenced. The main filler events were –Shutter (photography event), Twister (game) and Poem Writing. With a staggering participation of 100 students in shutters, 150 students in twister and 35 students in poem writing, the competition was palpable at the fest.

Later as the evening progressed, it started to rain. The judges sat with the teams for comments and suggestions till 9 pm and in their 3 hours dialogue they expressed how they loved the creativity exhibited in the performances. In a well decorated college with ‘angeethis’ to warm the students in the evening, an intellectually stimulating talk with the judges was the perfect way to call it a day.
Navika Chaudhary, member of the SRCC dramsoc, went on to say, “drama is more than just a passion, it’s a way of life, and the dedication and commitment with which the teams performed today proved exactly that.”

With the sounds of “o baake chunar…munariya hoye…o baake ammi boli hoye…o beta…jeet ke aana..’ still in their hearts, everyone went home a winner.

DAY 2 (17th January, 2011)

The second day of the SRCC dramsoc fest ‘Histronica’ was as thrilling and eventful as the first. With more people coming in, despite the chilly winds and extremely cold weather; it was the day for stage plays. The entrance to the college was elaborately decorated with painted matkas and masquerade masks.

The list of people judging these plays is worth a separate mention. The first being Geeta Sudan who herself happens to be an SRCC alumnus and is presently a director at Paradine. She has also acted in accomplished films such as ‘No One Killed Jessica’ and ‘Udaan’. The second being Deepak Dhamija who is currently an entrepreneur, as well as the founder of Shoelace Production. He has also directed 10 plays. The third being Amrita Laalji, who teaches theatre at Shri Ram School and National Open School. She also happens to teach a practical course in ‘drama in exploration’ in Delhi University.

After a warm welcome to the judges, the four plays commenced in the auditorium. The acting was par brilliance and so were the themes and scripts. The sets only added to the sheer brilliance of it all. SRCC performed ‘The Untitled,kyunki kuch cheezon ka zikr nahi kiya jaa sakta’ centred around the electra complex. The second was a brilliant adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel ‘A Mousetrap’ and was titled ‘The Three Blind Mice’. The third play titled ‘Mr.Kolpert’ was a dark comedy and was presented by Ramjas. The last play was based on schizophrenia, was titled ‘Uss Paar’ and was acted out by the team of Hindu College.

Once the plays ended, the judges as well as the audience lauded the efforts of the teams and the judges went on thave a discussion with them. In the dialogue that followed they said that the script of ‘The Untitled’ was commendable because the concept of electra complex is difficult to portray, therefore writing a script on it was a brave move. Also Hindu and Ramjas were appreciated for their remarkable acting. And the adaptation of script of the ‘Three Blind Mice’ was exalted as well.

This was followed by a musical rendition by Harpreet Singh as well as a magictricks performance by Karan Singh. The filler event which happened later was ‘Ad Mad’ and it was won by Akshay and Mariam from Hindu College. They won Rs.1000 and special mugs sponsored by Worlds of Wonder.

It was yet another brilliant day hosted by SRCC’s dramsoc. And in Ayusha Kaul’s (who is a part of SRCC dramsoc) words ,”drama is life,you must live it well,enough said.” This was definitely another ‘well lived’ day.

Mannat Sandhu
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