Drenched in different colours

Popularly known as ‘Cul Week’, this intra-collegiate fest is designed exclusively for Carmelites to help them bring their talents to the fore.

But this time Cul Week differed from other fests. Instead of the usual Western themes, this time the Carmelites opted for a ‘swadeshi’ theme. “We wanted to show our love for our country,” says Soumi Bhattacharjee, cultural secretary of the college. “What better way to do it than to make it the theme for one of our fest,” she added.

The three-day fest had a dress code for each of the three days. ‘Handloom’ on day one had students and teachers wear khadi, jute or cotton dresses and sport trendy hand-embroidered bags.

‘Swap your ethnicity’ was the dress code for day two. This drew a good response with a large number of students wearing clothes of different ethnic backgrounds. Even international students were seen wearing saris and bindis. ‘Tricolour’ was the theme on the last day where students and teachers sported tricolour in their accessories, clothes and footwear.

Anala R Narayan, the assistant cultural secretary said, “We wanted to rekindle patriotism in each and every student in our college and we hope that a sense of patriotism would bring about a feeling of oneness throughout the college. The fest was successful in achieving this.”

The college was drenched in huge pictures of the national emblem, animal and bird, models of the Taj Mahal and a spinning wheel. The words Cul Week was written in many Indian languages.

As part of the fest, all the associations conducted various events like ‘Patang making’, ‘Kryptic’, ‘Paint the Hat’, where students gave a whole new definition to the Nehru hat by painting it with funky colours and psychedelic designs; ‘samriddhi’ had students performing various dances that portrayed the rich traditions of the country. And then there were the more quirky contests like ‘Design your own Alien, where the students could create an alien for an imaginary planet, ‘The Ultimate Bollywood Quiz’, and ‘Decibels’ had students croon to the theme of ‘Friendship’.

Karthika Nair, vice-president said, “The best part was the girls enthusiastically participated in all the events and most importantly, the theme-based traditional events drew maximum participation. This fest was successful in bringing the Carmelites together.” Varsha Jain, a final year student said, “I had a lot of fun. I wish it didn’t end this fast.” Many other students echoed her sentiments.