Thinking out of the box

The department of French at Mount Carmel College recently organised its annual French fest titled, ‘Franco – Feel 2013’. More than 10 colleges took part in the various events, which were all woven around the theme of France.

The campus wore a festive look; every nook and corner was decorated with posters of French sayings, prose and poetry. After a short inauguration ceremony, the day began with an event titled, Mots Croises, which is cooking French food without fire. There was also Pub Folie — meaning ‘Mad Ads’ — which had only one participant. In another event, ‘Photographie’, the students were asked to take a picture of anything around them and explain why they had chosen that particular subject. The quiz included questions that were woven around the history of France, a rapid-fire round and a final audio-visual round. The students were also given ‘change’ as a topic and asked to write or create a collage around that. The day ended with ‘Defile’, a fashion show, where the students were given a free hand to choose a costume; those who had chosen a personality had to talk about it as well.

Sharing her experience of organising the fest, Smitha K R, a second-year BCom student, says, “It’s a great learning experience. There’s so much effort that goes into planning and organising a fest. This is the first time it has been conducted on such a large scale.” Nandini, another student of the college and a volunteer during the fest, adds, “I didn’t know there were so many people who were well-versed in everything about France. It’s only when you mix and mingle with students from other colleges that you realise how little you know.”

The students of other colleges say that the events at the fest were well-structured. Nirvan, a first-year student of arts at Christ University, lived abroad until he relocated to India a year ago. “I found the discussion and quiz very interesting. I am thrilled by the many prizes and certificates I’ve been winning,” says Nirvan. Sidharth Kamana, Gautam S and Srinidhi Pithani — all high school students of Canadian International School — were participating in an event outside their school for the very first time. Sidharth feels, ‘For the school level, I think we did really well. Most of the events were quite competitive, but we were able to crack the tough parts.” Gautam thinks the events were chalked out in a challenging format and did well to provoke the students to think beyond the classroom. The evening drew to a close with a fashion show, that had students experiment with all combinations of attire to churn out something creative.