Magic from the streets

The magic of the streets came alive during this edition of NIFT’s annual festival, ‘Spectrum — 2012’.

The entire event was organised around a tafri theme, and sought to showcase the beauty of the streets, the nukkads and the chor bazaars. Predictably, the students of the college channelised their artistic talents into decking the entire campus for the two-day festival. The end result — a series of colourful banners and posters stuck up around the college and amphitheatre — was a sight to behold.

Everything about the festival spelled different. In fact, rather than being inaugurated with the traditional lamp-lighting, ‘Spectrum — 2012’ was kicked off with three beats of a dhol.

Shrishti, one of the organisers of the festival, explained to the audience who had gathered at the amphitheatre about the amount of effort which had gone into planning the event. The itinerary for the next two days was read out by a sari-clad student who the college fondly referred to as mausi, and her wannabe-punk son Pappu. After this, a few students kept the audience entertained with an energetic and colourful dance set to a medley of popular Bollywood tunes, including a number from Agneepath.

Colleges such as New Horizon, IISc, IBMR, Christ University, Raffles Millenium International and JNC took part in the various events.

A styling event was also held during the fest, which was comically named Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Sticking to the tafri theme, the participants had to style a model according to this look, and then modify the garment to give it a more sophisticated edge.

In the rock band event, colleges like RV College of Engineering, Christ University and RNSIT took part. The first prize went to the band called ‘DESAT’, from New Horizon College, while the second went to ‘THRASH’, from RNSIT. A dance competition was also held, during which the students shook a leg to popular Bollywood numbers like Ainveyee Ainvayee and O Re Piya. JNC won the first prize, whereas the second one went to the team from NIFT.

The photography competition, titled Ishmyl Pleeje, also attracted plenty of participants who were given four hours to snap a picture that best depicted the theme Mela. Paras Rai, from NIFT, stole the prize in this event. Some of the students had also set up stalls around the amphitheatre, showcasing products they had designed themselves. Mridul, a first year student who was manning a clothing stall, said, “These include some clothes which we’ve designed, and others that we’ve sourced from outside.

There are some maxis, dresses and jumpsuits. The average price is about Rs 1,100 per piece.”