A journey through time

There’s something special about one’s college life. It could be your friends, your respective course or a club that you’re a part of but the one thing that every college has in common is that it brings everyone together with its big, vibrant cultural fest. And this time, it’s one of the most popular college fests in the country that had the City talking — ‘Cul-Ah 2016’ at Mount Carmel College (MCC).

While every year the respective unions work throughout the academic year to bring something magical during the three-day long celebration, they seemed to have raised the bar yet again with this year’s preparation. With a theme ‘Journey Through the Ages’, the fest witnessed a range of programmes and celebrations.

Nivedita, the General Secretary of MCC 2015-16 said, “We wanted to capture the evolution of time with the celebration this year and that’s why we chose this particular theme. So we started off with the pre-historic time to the medieval and the techno. It took us a couple of months to decide on this, and then we had to get together the technical support and production going on. But we’re glad our hard work paid off, everything was a grand success.”

While there were 3,000 colleges from all over the country, Bengaluru alone had 300 colleges participating. The day-time saw many shows and inter-college competitions like debates to rock shows to slam poetry. Sandalwood actors Sriimurali and Radhika Pandit also stopped by for the event as guests. For their valedictorian session, actress and politician Ramya was present.

Towards the evening, there were well-known personalities and bands like Kannan Gill, DJ Answer and ‘The Best Kept Secret’ who entertained the crowd. The final day, which was much awaited, showcased the talent of the fashion team of MCC who walked the ramp with grace and elegance. Taking one back to the medieval times were the painted faces of the models and the colourful neon clothes representing the present day trend. Mithilesh Nyathappa, the choreographer of the team said, “This year’s show was in focus to the future Indian look with a twist. It had a lot of pop colours and gave an edge to the tribal prints.” 

But the major event that set ‘Cul-Ah’ apart from all the other fests is their attempt to create a Guinness World Record for opening the most number of soft drink can with 900 students. They broke the previous record created by Ltd CidoGrupa (Latvia) in Ligatne, Latvia, on August 2, 2014 which involved 689 people. Dipanjan, a student from CMRIT said, “‘Cul-Ah’ is definitely one of the greatest fests and I love being a part of it. All the programs, competitions and shows that happen during this time gets better each year. I can’t wait to see what next year has in store as it’s going to be the last year for me as a student as well.