Festember 09

Yet another festember has gone by. This one being the last one of my college life. Didn’t want to miss blogging about this. Thats why I’m back from a long hiatus.

Thanks to the heavy downpour in Trichy on Day 0, I couldn’t attend the inaugural function (in which the college presi wished everyone good morning at 6 in the evening) and I also missed a few performances by the Dance Troupe of  NITT. But I did make it to the concert by Kadri Gopalnath. He started off with a few classical ones and eventually went on to what the audience really wanted – the ‘Anjali anjali’ song. Overall it was a memorable performance. It was followed by half-an-hour long fireworks display. The sky was completely lit and the I’m sure the awesome show would have caused a few accidents in the adjacent highway due to mesmerized drivers.

A few of the other events I attended were ChoreoNite and Tarangini the major events at barn. As usual there was an uncontrollable crowd shouting every time a team performs for some ARR song. There were quite a few catchy performances from various colleges. Vijay TV’s Super Singer winner Ajesh too had come over for competing in Tarangani with his college light music team. The crowd loved his performance.

Yet again, the Dance Troupe and Music Troupe of NITT were at their best. It is a great thing for participating institutions that they don’t have to compete with the hosts in the dance and light music events. Else the best they can get is the second place.

Another popular event at Festember every year is the pattimandram type of event conducted by the Tami Mandram of NITT. This year it just got bigger, with excellent group of participants and and awesome judge, Barathi Baskaran of Sun Tv Pattimandram fame.

This Festember wouldn’t have been fun without Sushish Kamath‘s workshop. He was called in for a workshop on Independent Film making and he was at his best. He gave us tips on how NOT to make a movie. He included his own experiences making TFLW and another movie He Says, She Says. He definitely kept his audience attentive even though the workshop’s timing made many of them stay hungry.  It was indeed an enthusiatic turn-out. After all he is the best known film critic of south India.

The best of the events were saved for the final day. The ProNite show had an energetic Benny Dayal and a band called Bandish currently making waves in the music scene. Benny Dayal’s concert was simple superb, but had to be cut short as the girls were asked to leave early. Then a just-for-boys show by Bandish began enthusiatically at 11 in the night. The best thing was the absence of staff and the girls. With them in Barn, Festember wouldn’t have ended the way it did this year. Would never forget their performance I guess. They rocked the stage and the barn truly came alive with the whole crowd cheering. It ensured that Festember 09 ended on a high. Inspite of there being a few organisational glitches, and rain playing spoilsport, I would say that Festember 09 rocked. (and even kra feels the same).

It Happens Only In NIT Trichy

Photos of Class Notes

A couple of days before the cycle test, one person gets a camera and starts clicking. The properly compiled notes of a studious person(mostly a girl ;P), pages of a rare text book, etc are photographed and circulated to all students.

This method is generally easier than photocopying since it is free and can be shared on the LAN. More importantly because a digital camera is easily available(even I have one – generally used for this purpose ;P) and also because an overwhelming majority of the students own a laptop or a desktop computer.

Putting Technology to a great use.. ;P

Pragyan

Hey Algae.. What is it Pragyan? inquired Ganesh on gmail as I had my Status message as Pragyan 2009.

Since its holiday time, I have loads of time to read blogs, to write blogs, and besides other things, to keep in touch with old friends.

Our Tech Fest…. I replied.

Reminds me of my college days, continued Ganesh, an 2008 pass-out of a prestigious private college in Tamil Nadu. I was a part of the Guest Lecture Team in my college Techfest. Our techfest meant more to us than anything else.

I could see this guy lost in his old days. I could feel the pride in his eyes.

Have a Look at the Pragyan 2009 website, I said as I typed www.pragyan.org

After a few minutes,

Hey, Do you people outsource this website work? asked Ganesh.

Now, It was my turn to feel proud. It was the time to declare with a smiley that it was our Techfest. OURS. We did every bit of it ourselves. The posters. The Website. The Videos. Everything. And we did it like professionals. I didn’t say much.

All I said was, we do it on our own. In fact, even I’m partly involved in it.

Oh! So you did it? he was surprised.

Not just me. We work as a big team. Almost every NITTian is involved in the organization of Pragyan.

He wasn’t in a mood to project his techfest as something cooler than what Pragyan is. So he continued with the plain truth, Ah, Well… We used to outsource our website work. Even now I guess it is outsourced.

A sense of satisfaction replaced the feeling of pride. I felt more happy than proud to be a part of a culture which believed in the true meaning of a student fest. Students should make it work. The culture of Pragyan. Celebration of Technology..!!

Thats when the proud, satisfied and happy heart of mine wanted to shout - NITT Rocks…!!

Life goes on

Another semester of my undergrad came to an end this week. It went past as fast as the preceding ones did. Semesters in NITT have always been very small. And within these few months we do a lot of non-academic stuff, keeping us busy throughout. And time flies so fast. People say time flies when you are having fun. We did have a lot of fun this semester.

The semester started with all third years moving to the Garnet Hostel which is one of the new hostels to be built. After getting settled in our rooms we started setting up the LAN within the hostel. The G-LAN is one of the best in the campus and is almost always overflowing with data. It has data starting from various Software to various sitcoms to hundreds of movies, books and almost anything you can imagine.

Then the gaming craze started afresh. We started DOTA n WOW within our hostel now rather than going all the way to Octa. (It would be known to all those gaming freaks like me. If you aren’t one, then do click on the links to know more). We guys played day n night like mad. Then came Festember- NITT’s Cultural Fest. It was one of the best ever.

Festember posts

* Day-0

* Kuraloviyam

We guys had dinner almost everyday in the Dhaba – the roadside food-haven. It was far more better than our so-called mess. The mess food was crap and was the worse than what we had in the previous years. So if one guy felt like eating outside he’d drag everyone around him to have a enjoyable time together having dinner.

I got my Laptop – ‘ACER – Travelmate’ this semester. Spent a lot of time ‘loading’ data into it. I also spent most of my time watching sitcoms n movies. Amid all these things, I lost my mobile too. My Motorola – SLVR L7.. It was one of the things which i could never have lived without. Lost thousands of phone numbers. But Life does go on in spite of all these incidents. So yet another wonderful semester came to an end. Hoping for a better one ahead.

Water Trouble Yet again

Water tanks in our hostels dry out pretty fast thanks to the water-guzzling beasts residing in them. And frequent power shutdowns in Trichy ensured that the tanks are not re-filled to their full capacities.

We woke up today morning only to find all the guys hurrying here and there with mugs in their hands searching for the least amount of water available. No water to brush, no water to drink. After finding some water in a bottle and brushing, I went to eat only to find that even the mess didn’t have any water to wash our hands. Thankfully one of the nearby hostels had some water supply to satisfy our drying throats and to overcome the ‘basic needs’.

This happens so often and dunno when the campus infrastructure is going to be enhanced in order to avert any such situation in the future.

Exam Time

Here comes that part of the year when most college students will be glued to their books and will die hard to get the best marks and grades. Our lab exams began today and theory exams are scheduled to start next week. This week saw most of the guys doing ‘night-outs’ to complete their observations(obsi as we call it), records and assignments. You can’t find a single soul in NITT who didn’t look totally worn-out n exhausted. It was indeed a difficult time.

The worst part of this was that one of our department faculty didn’t even check my obsi and told on the day of submission that it was sufficient if one guy from each batch submits it. (We had a Mr.’Write-it-All’ kind of guy in our batch. He is generally the first one in the class to finish writing a record assignment or anything remotely related to writing. So it was his obsi which went for checking and got corrected.) Then the surprising part was that each of us were told to write a record instead of the obsi. We had wasted a full day writing obsi and were now told to write the whole thing again..!! True test of patience.

Now the writing-for-marks time has ended and the studying-for-grade time begins. A few guys seem to have been preparing for the semesters right from the day they were born. These are the ‘know-it-all’ group of guys. You can always rely upon them to gather information. Of course there are a few guys who will keep their rooms locked and make ‘Relative Grading’, a truly dangerous aspect. Most of the other guys (that includes me) have tried to begin the sem preparations but were prevented from doing that due to a long list of reasons.

Starting preparations hopefully from this very minute, it is going to be hectic and tiring. It is gonna be full of books, notes, xerox materials, detailed discussions, doubts, clarifications, unverified doubts and much more. Hoping to get a good GPA this time in order to boost my CGPA.

Kuraloviyam at Festember

This was another event which attracted huge crowds during Festember 08. Basically it is a Tamil speech competition which had two rounds. The preliminary was a elocution competition and the finals was of the debate format. The finals was conducted by the Tamil Mandram guys in a format similar to the Pattimandram shows in TV. The judge we had for this event was Mr. Raja. He himself is a famous speaker in pattimandram shows.

The topic given to the three groups of finalists was – What does the youth of today wish for? Is it for a lover? Is it for an oversees job? Or is it for family and social recognition? Each of the teams had to speak from one of these three. The contestants from various colleges of Tamil Nadu, spoke very well and impressed. They had done more than what was expected out of them. Mr.Raja listen to each of them during the first round and gave then positive as well as constructive comments. He, then gave them another chance to speak and asked them to conclude. This was yet again formidable. He concluded saying that though a youth may yearn for love and an oversees job it the most important thing which he asks for is social recognition and a good family. And the other two may be means to achieve this.

The entire event had a festive feel to it. The comic interludes given by the judge and the contestants between their talks kept the audience tied to their seats. This event, which was widely praised, demonstrated yet again that Festember was one of the best student-run college culturals in India.

A R Rahman

The name needs no introduction. From humble beginnings in Chennai, this man now rules the music empire. He made the world listen to Indian music. Even though he is a quiet guy he commands respect from musicians and music lovers. He has great technical expertise. He knows what his fans expect and connects well with all his audience. His music has changed the face of music in India. He is a guy who keeps changing well with time and brings out the best.

Well, for a music freak like me ARR is the Lord. Even after listening to his creation innumerable number of times one would never get tired. It is a magical experience. It boosts the spirits of everyone.

Many say “What’s life without music?”. Even I agree with that but I would like to add – “What’s music without ARR?” This was proved at our cultural fest, Festember too. Most of the events had the participants either singing ARR hits or dancing to his tunes. Pro Nite was an event which saw two prominent personalities, Drummer Sivamani and Singer Karthik performing at NIT Trichy. The 1hr long solo concert by Sivamani had him performing to various evergreen tunes of ARR. It was a truly interactive experience with his playing dexterity shining through. Even the next concert by singer Karthik had him singing from the diverse collection of ARR Hits. Truly, music is nothing without ARR.

Festember

Festember, the most expected event of the semester, began a bit late as usual. The Dance Troupe of NITT performed three dance sequences to entertain the audience and gather the crowds. That was used as a ‘Crowd-Pulling Technique.’ Soon after their performance we had the inaugural ceremony.

Then we had quite a bit of delay due to various technical errors. First, the publicity video about the previous editions which was played in the Barn got stuck in the middle and created a lot of trouble for the audio-visual team. Then the attempt to play it again was abandoned. Then we had the white screen in the grand old Barn falling down suddenly due to yet another error. It took quite a lot of manpower and consumed much time to remove it and fix it properly.

So, after all these delays the Light Music event Tarangini started. The judge for this event was Singer Benny Dayal ( singer of quite a few songs in new Tamil movies). He began by doing a performance himself. He sang the song ‘Taxi Taxi’ from the yet-to-be-released movie Sakkarakatti. Showing much enthusiasm and vigor, he tried to make the crowd crazy.

The event saw a list of participants from various places. Beginning at around 7 30pm it came to an end at about 12 midnight. Most of the performances were good and this time again it was SASTRA which wont the top slot. The second slot was snatched by JIPMER. (NIT T had won the first position in JIPMER’s Cultural Fest Spandan earlier this month). The third position was awarded to Thiagaraja College Madurai.

The day ended at midnight after the results were announced and the Director gave a memento to Benny Dayal for his presence.

Festember Day 1 begins today and has variety of events to entertain and enthrall everyone.

Tune In, Drop Out

NIT Trichy presents FESTEMBER 08 , the cultural festival that is one of South India’s biggest in its genre.

It is not just about a plethora of events or for that matter a treasure trove of prizes- for this is where the moods and the motley crowds merge to embark on a journey bordering on creativity and imagination. Festember, as has been its tradition, this time too promises to eclipse what its previous editions achieved.

Come September 2008, and you’ll see a generation tune in, in an attempt to connect with the milieu and letting their spirits drop out, to discover their singularity.

Plan your stay in Trichy from18th to 21st September.

FESTEMBER

~~Tune IN~~
~~Drop OUT~~

www.festember.org