Nigambodh Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

The students union of Miranda House proved its mettle by putting up a good show at Tempest, the annual cultural fest of the college. The three day affair drew crowd in thousands every day.The swarm of people seen outside the college gate trying to pour into the college through the thin entrance only proved it better.

The day one of the fest, tagged as ‘Qayamat’ kicked off with the stage play competition, which saw the audience asking for more. The plays went house full, while one could always spot a crowd of atleast 20 people waiting outside the auditorium waiting to get inside. A few students misunderstood the entrepreneurship cell event, ‘the End of Times Sale’ as some sale which the society had put up and went back disappointed as the event was about making a product out of waste material provided. The talent show organized by the NSS unit of the college for the differently talented people received a very good response. Supriya from Miranda House won the first prize in dance category while Shipra won the second prize. DJ Sumit Sethi who came dressed in red, coupled with a sparkling red hat, played out some groovy numbers for the crowd while rapper Aman had the audience cheering for him for his Punjabi rap.

Resurrection, the day 2 of the fest saw the two most crowd pulling events being held. The bare spring sun didn’t stop the audience from cheering, singing and clapping during ‘Dhol Pitara’, the street play competition. Shivaji College bagged the first prize in ‘Dhol Pitara’, while Kamla Nehru College and Ramjas College shared the second prize. The third prize went to Ramanujam College.All the three prizes in the Poster Making competition, organized by the Fine Arts society of the college were bagged by the students of the Fine Arts and Photography society of Kirori Mal College. ‘Rear Gear’, the cycle stunts show organized by the Adventure Club of the college was a big hit amongst students.

The folk dance group of the host college won bagged the first prize in Sira, the Indian Dance competition. The day ended with ‘The Last Step’ the western group dance competition. Teams from 17 colleges across the city participated in the competition. The girls from Maitreyi College won the hearts of the crowd and the first prize with their scintillating performance on numbers like the ‘Naadaan Parinde’.

On Nirvana, the last day of the fest, a number of informal events like Holocaust-the ad-mad, Ancient Sleeves- the t-shirt painting competition, The Signs- the Tattoo making competition, a treasure hunt, et al were held. The Nishad-the Indian and the ‘Ending on a good note II’, the Western Music events went on for the whole day.

The highlight of the day was a performance each by the Hindi metal band Nigambodh and Parikrama. Nigambodh played some original compositions, accompanied by some growls by the vocalists and killer music by the guitarists. Parikrama along with its original compositions played a number of popular numbers of other bands like the Coldplay. People in the crowd were seen banging their heads off to the music of the both the metal bands. Free artist Jasleen Royal sang a number of popular songs and gave away free autographed CDs after the show. Parikrama ended its show and also the fest by calling upon the stage the core organizing committee of the fest and bowing in front of the audience along with them.

Photo Credits: Parthiv Goel, Saurabh Jain and Shweta Arora

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Tempest, the annual cultural festival of Miranda House will kick off tomorrow and promises to be bigger and better. Scheduled for the 23-24-25 February, Tempest is based on the theme ‘Apocalypse’. This year, a number of new competitions will be held during the fest. The ‘Rock Night’ will see a performance by the band Parikrama. The Hindi Metal band Nigambodh will open for Parikrama.

The day 1 of the fest will see a number of events happening back to back. The Entrepreneurship Cell of the college will for the first time since its inception hold competitions during the fest. Their signature event is the ‘End of Times Sales’. For the photography competition, the participants have to cover the fest and submit their best shots. The Rangoli making competition, environment base collage making competition, the quiz competition, the western music competition for solo category will all be held on the first day. The major event for the day will be ‘The Final Act’- the bilingual stage play competition. The day will conclude with the DJ night.

The day 2 will kick off with ‘Dhol Pitara’ the street play competition. The Indian Dance events, the poster making and the mask making competitions, the documentary film making competition and Shama Kohli Memorial debate will all be held on the second day. Another interesting event is the ‘Green Revival’ in which teams have to come prepared with an environmental problem along with the solution that they suggest for it. Other teams will get some time to suggest answers for each problem. Teams will be judged based on the problems they discuss, the solution they suggest for their own problem and for those of other teams. The highlight of the day will be the ‘The Last Step’, the western dance competition.

On the last day of the fest, a number of fun events will be held. The t-shirt designing, the tattoo making, the adventure club treasure hunt, ad-mad, film screening, the Indian and Western Music events will all be held on day 3. Along with the creative writing competition being organized by the Gandhi Study circle, a creative writing competition in Braille will also be held for the visually challenged students. In the Off-site choreography competition, teams will perform at 11 different spots in the Miranda House campus.

The fest will conclude with a performance by the bands Nigambodh and Parikrama. The music that Nigambodh plays has seen its lyrics in Hindi. They rely heavily on spiritual, classical Indian texts in order to churn out pieces of songs that speak of existential psychological dilemmas faced by the youth today. The root of their music lies in their ability to transcend genres and appeals to both, the posh and the local, the young and the old.

Talking about the unusual theme of the fest, Daisy the president of the Miranda House students’ union said “When we think of the year 2012, the end of the world flashes into our mind. So we decided to hold Tempest on this theme. We, however, are talking about it in a positive sense”.So get yourself registered for the fest or buy the passes before their run out of stock.

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