It takes three to tangelo at Jamia

TECHNO FEST

When a bunch of students of Faculty of Engineering & Technology at Jamia Millia Islamia sat down to brainstorm about their annual festival, they realised that technological events and competitions ruled the show.

They thus decided to add more colour and fervour to the fest through cultural programmes and launched the event, TANGELO TOWN’13 on a much larger scale.

A combination of cultural, technical, sports, literary and art events, the extravagant festival showcased the talent of students in the three day festival that included a variety of events ranging from dance and drama to robowars and LAN gaming! It was thus a blend of technical and cultural events but the latter turned out to be more popular among youngsters.

The initial events of the fest commenced on January 14 with Tangelo Sports League. Held at the University Sports Complex, the week-long event witnessed eight sporting events including cricket and basketball. On the actual days, January 18-20, thunderstorm welcomed the opening day of Tangelo Town fest with a bang.

The competitions on day one saw an overwhelming response from students across Delhi. While the international conference on sustainable technologies saw participation of delegates from across the border, the nukkad natak competition had scintillating performances by participants on prevailing social issues. The latter was won by Dramatics society of PGDAV college, Rudra.

The theme of their street play was sex education and was titled Ye Gandi Baat Hai. Omair Ahmad, a Ist year student of PGDAV shares, “The chapter of reproduction in CBSE syllabus is often overlooked by teachers who ask the students to read it at home. When teenagers inquire from their parents about it, they are told ki ye gandi baat hai and thus young minds resort to other means of receiving information on sex. One such source is the internet which can be misleading.”  

Other events such as snakes and ladders and dance on beats attracted large crowds. But the rock band performance and manhunt in the evening was the biggest crowd puller. It was almost a stampede situation at the entry gate of amphitheatre as hoards struggled to gain entry through a narrow passage. Once in, all swayed to renditions of Lucky Ali’s O Sanam and Dum Gutku from Coke Studio played by young rock bands.

The day also had treasure hunt, slow bike race, solo and group dance competition, poetry (in English, Urdu and Hindi) in cultural segment. The technical events on the other hand included roborace, robo-soccer, programming champ and general quiz. The closing ceremony and prize distribution was supposed to have cricketer Virender Sehwag, an alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia, as the Chief Guest but his sudden change in plan dissapointed many students.