A battle well fought

What one never misses at every fest at the Mount Carmel College (MCC) is the fresh talent, energy and enthusiasm that come out.

Esplendida, the inter-collegiate fest of the Pre-University College of MCC, saw the best colleges in the City battle it out for the top slot.

The competition was intense and the talent amazing.

There were 67 events put up by over 20 associations in the college. Western dance, personality contest, quiz , Indian singing and Indian dance, the battle of the bands and the fashion show saw the maximum participants.

The Carmelites refrained from participation and played the perfect host.

The personality contest saw the judges throw some wacky but intelligent questions at the participants. And the answers were no less smart.

The students knew exactly what to say and how to put it across.

Neil Newton, a second PU student of St Joseph’s Pre-University College, who was declared Mr Esplendida at the personality contest, not only did well in answering the judges’ queries but also managed to garner huge crowd support, “You have to keep your cool on stage. I must say that crowd support really boosts your morale. All the questions had something to do with reality. It was no fiction or something that was just made up. That made all the difference,” said Neil.

Radhika Dutt, a PUC (II year) student of Christ College, said she got to participate in some unique and interesting events such as ‘Spelling Bee’, ‘Crack Your Skulls’ and ‘Blues Clues’.

“You don’t get to participate in such events very often. The atmosphere is not only competitive but energetic as well,” she says.

Participants in the Western and Indian dance categories did well to integrate different styles of dance.

“We had practised for more than a week. There are many who understand dance styles, so you can’t really mess around with your steps for you’ll get booed on stage,” says Senthil Kumar of Jain College.

 What people really looked forward to was the battle of the bands that saw music bands from different colleges participate in full strength.

Each of the bands played popular numbers in addition to their own little compositions.

Karan Kapur of St Joseph’s, who participated in the ‘Ice-breaker’ and the ‘Air-crash’, says he got the best exposure he can ask for.

“The competition is tough and we realised that we are competing with the
same people from different colleges. So we are more friends than competitors,”
he says.

Tanya Bhalla of MCC says the best part of the fest were performances by music band Beat Gurus and Kryptos “These are the two bands people look froward to at the fest,” she says.