Spreading the word about fest

The annual cultural fest of IIT Madras, Saarang, might be held in Chennai — but the students are trying hard to ensure maximum participation and spread awareness about the fest in the City.

A group of twelve students chose BMS College of Engineering to conduct Saarang Milan, in order to meet this objective. Auditions for several competitions like western music, free-style solo, quiz and light-music solo were held as part of it.

“After Bangalore, we are also going to Hyderabad to conduct the auditions there. These participants will then be competing with others at the prelims, which will be held at Chennai.

The main aim of bringing Saarang to different cities is to give students a platform to be noticed. We have got a great response online as well — many people have registered,” says Sachin, a second-year student from IIT-M.

The students have a campus ambassador in many colleges in the City, who have helped them spread the word about the fest. “The response has been good here in the City but we expected a better turnout — due to the festive season, many have gone home,” adds Sachin.

Niroop, a student of BMSCE, states that he is happy that IIT-M collaborated with their college since it has given them an opportunity to showcase their talents. “We are pretty excited about participating in the fest and hope that some of us get selected,” he adds.

Students could be seen giving their best shot at the auditions. Abhijit, who sang a popular song by Michael Jackson, did a good job, while others could be seen practising hard for the dance prelims.

Asmita, a student coordinator from IIT-M, states that some of the participants made good use of the chance to showcase their talents.

“Some of them are so good that they can be placed in the finals. We have seen some very talented people here and the fact that they have come up and participated is very encouraging for us,” she points out.

Students also add that some of the events, like the quiz prelims, were organised on public demand.

“We got many requests from the students of Bangalore to have a quiz prelim here and so, we organised one for them. The students here are very academically-inclined and many of them have registered for competitions like quiz and ‘Just a Minute (JAM),” says Supreet, from IIT-M.

Apparently, the IIT-M students are all set to take a few talented students from the City for the competition in Chennai.