A few days ago, as the Gachibowli campus of IIIT was all decked up to host its prestigious annual tech-fest Felicity, the surroundings hinted at a theme, Magic and Mystery. Ideas were pouring in from several corners, mysterious theories were being spouted, and predictably, Harry Potter was a major draw. It was a big day for Jeevan Chowdhary, a third year engineering student who’d given his heart and soul to organising the event. Besides being actively involved in its behind-the-scene activity with his team for eight months, he was also a founder of a startup, so leadership came more naturally to him than others.
“There were campus elections that I had to surpass to lead the organising team. We had to ready a manifesto, talk on the mistakes our seniors had made in the past, what I could bring to the table and circulate it throughout the college,” recalls Jeevan. As the fest comprising, as many as 200 events took off, it was impossible for him to be there at all venues so he had to delegate different tasks to his batchmates and juniors.
Around the same time, Sai Ram Tangirala, the secretary of the annual lit-fest, Verba Maximus at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad was busy catching up with friends from IIT, Madras who had gathered at his college. He had met them at the IIT campus, the previous year. “I always looked forward to the fest to interact with students from other colleges. We get to bond with people coming from Chennai, Mumbai and several parts of the country. This works as a good student-exchange strategy among ourselves to attend fests,” he opines.
From facilitating and enhancing networking skills to helping students get better at man-management and speaking skills , this season of college fests provide students, a great learning curve, amassing things they’d label as ‘wonderful memories’ after they graduate. “The learning that happens at a fest, be it the experience of being a team player, is no match to a classroom atmosphere. It builds the feeling that you’re part of the college. You’ll find yourself in moments like these, your interests, culture, fine arts or even literature,” says Anjana, a final year degree student at St Francis Begumpet.
Though this is also a time when ego clashes happen, students learn, perhaps the hard way that there’s a fine line to be maintained to ensure equations aren’t strained. Jeevan and his core team had a plan to counter this. “We made it a point to recognise people for their strength in front of all the batch members. We insisted that they be the face of the fest and that we’ll only be in the background and set the platform for them. We made sure the work was very organised besides ensuring the volunteers, due credit.” On the other hand Anjana opines that the honesty with co organisers is what counts, it’s a balance between being diplomatic yet tactful.
Then there are students who’re just finding their way, like Aishwarya, a first year student of CBIT, looking forward to fests for a possible direction. “I’ve attended three fests at different colleges now. It was challenging to know to the standards I’ve to match up to. Having ambitions to lead and organise such fests myself, I felt it necessary to be a part of them.”
On sponsors, celebrities controlling fests
“Fests, alike a product, are brands of sorts. The number of years the fest was successful, the intra-college freedom are huge factors that sponsors look at. There needs to be a structure in place to ensure that campus politics, celebrity presence don’t dilute them”- Vasant Kumar Jurru, Founder of Arts Club, Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology
“We have a strict policy of not bringing celebrities to colleges. The personality takes over the attention and it’ll be doing grave injustice to the efforts, that hundreds of volunteers together would have put.”- Jeevan Chowdary, Organiser, Felcity, IIIT
“We only invite celebrities at the concluding stages of the fests so that there’s some relaxation happening too. So, the question of celebrity earning more attention than the fest doesn’t arise.”- Sai Ram Tangirala, BITS-Hyderabad
