Aspiring to be the best

Of the few hotel management colleges in the City, one of the most promising appears to be MS Ramaiah College of Hotel Management, which is on a winning spree at various college fests. Metrolife speaks to student representatives of the college about winning the overall trophy at fests like ‘Zeal’ (PESIT) and ‘Concours’ (KLE Society’s Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Tech).

“We have a core team of around 15 students who participate in different fests in technical, culture and sports events. But the options are fairly limited for us as being a hotel management college, it is mainly the technical events like cooking, service etc that we have niche knowledge of,” says Rohan J, to which Madhuri Venkatesh adds, “We have participated in non-technical events at BMS College of Engineering and Jyoti Nivas College but our skill sets are meant for certain kinds of competitions.”

When asked on what basis the participants were selected for each fest, Shelly Jacob explains, “It’s an internal process. We have a college mail that informs us about fests. Anyone interested in an event is allowed to volunteer and prove their credibility through a filtering process. The teachers pick the students in an unbiased manner based on their efforts.” 

Sreejith S and Mohammed Dawood Kazia, the group’s choreographers, find their role challenging but fun. “The level of competition is quite high but we practise hard, which is what the results show,” smiles Mohammed. “The college is very co-operative and gives us the space and time to do rehearsals during college hours. As for the classes that we miss, the teachers offer extra classes after college to make up for it,” notes Sreejith.

The college is extremely supportive in general, points out Madhusudhan Kashyap. He elaborates, “The faculty and staff are encouraging when it comes to participation in extracurricular activities. Even our batchmates offer their inputs, which come handy.”Varun Raj, the culinary expert of the group, shares that the biggest takeaway from college is working within deadlines.

“We are so used to finishing our work in a set time that in events like cooking, we have an added advantage. At PESIT, I was the only second-year participant while the others were in fourth-year. But I won because I worked around the deadline. I’ve also interned in hotels as part of the course, which helps too,” he says.Sreesudha and Heena B, who often win competitions like vegetable carving, icing and towel folding as a team, say that course-related events are more interesting to participate in.

“More than cultural events, we prefer the technical ones because that’s where our expertise lies,” says Sreesudha, while Heena adds, “Even though we can participate in all college fests, we prefer choosing the ones that have events which help us put our theoretical knowledge to practice.”

Do they see themselves as the best hotel management college team in the City? “We’re among the top and aspiring to be the best,” they say in unison.