Music and dance marked the celebration of Dyal Singh Evening College Festival. The fest season has begun in Delhi University and students are ready to douse themselves in colours of music, dance and cultural activities.

From inter-college competition to celebrity gigs, these annual fests have it all. Building up the festive mood, it was Dyal Singh Evening College (DSEC) that hosted its 24th fest Rajnigandha.

The packed amphitheatre at the college reverberated with roars, whistles and standing ovations as the three-day festival commenced with a wide array of events like street plays, skits, a fine arts competition, classical music concert, western and folk dances.

The festival kicked off with dramatics and fine art where students of Jesus and Mary College (JMC), Gargi College, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIP), PGDAV, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) to name only a few, participated.

In fact, dramatics, music and fine arts formed the core of the first two days. In the drama competition, out of 11 colleges, JMC bagged the first prize for Main Main Karti Bakri which portrayed the selfishness of humans whereas IP stood second for Sedition. Students of Indraprastha College, North Campus were also the winners in fine arts category. They drew evocative pictures depicting sufferings of women, importance of education and other social issues.

The second day of the festival was dedicated to music. In the group singing competition, girls from Lady Shri Ram College, Faculty of Music and Maitreyi College participated alongside IP, JMC and PGDAV. Since film songs were not allowed the girls sang folk numbers and classical tracks. The festival also had a rock music competition for Western music lovers, which saw the presence of bands from North and South campus colleges.

On the last day, the riveting stage performances ranging from traditional to Western dance created a virtual inferno. In the traditional dance category, boys of SGTB Khalsa College and girls of Kamla Nehru College entertained students with Punjabi folk dance Bhangra and Gidda whereas Sri Venkateswara College students performed dandiya.

The crowd cheered and grooved to the fast-paced music. The student crowd was brought to its feet when girls of Gargi College, Daulat Ram College and Sri Venkateswara College performed on hits like Gangnam Style.

Adding colour to the festivity was a special programme by Dr Aniz Ahmed Khan from Urdu Academy, who presented a few ghazals, a qawwali and sufi music. A hasya kavi sammelan by Dinesh Raghuvanshi of Hindi Academy was also presented.

The festival also celebrated the 24th year of Deepak Malhotra as the principal of the college. “I remember the first festival of the college was held at Sapru House and it had lasted only two hours,” reminisces Malhotra. “Being a principal of the college for many years I have always tried to channelise the energy of the students by organising the annual fest on scale bigger than the previous year. Next year, we will celebrate the silver jubilee with even more fanfare.”