By Akanksha Mittal:
So, it’s time for universities to show off all its skills! Be it advertising, marketing, financing, acting, dancing, singing, debating, tattoo making, painting, eating, cheating, chatting, screaming, demeaning, loving, fighting… You name it, and it is all there! Where? At the much awaited college fests! Now, this would not have been very hard to guess! Oh, a recent addition to my “ing” list — Facebooking! Yes, Facebook has now found its way even to the Cultural College Fests. It takes plain genius for a telecom company to organize an informal Facebooking event on its stall in a College fest! Well, we love it! So, no issues at all! What makes it even better is the fact that we get paid for Facebooking! Talk about unconventional ways of earning money!
Coming back to the college fests, the way the organization of fests has changed over time has mixed reactions. While the whole idea of students going out there, interacting with the big shots of companies to get sponsors and take up the responsibility of organizing a huge event is awe inspiring, the whole idea of students sometimes misusing the power acts as blots on the otherwise beautiful picture. The college fests have undoubtedly seen a complete overhaul from being just another “school-type-fete” funded by the authorities and attended by a meager few to mega star studded events, high on oomph and life!
It is quite a liberating feeling to be able to handle tons of money and believe that you have wisely used it. It brings the students out of their cocoon of being “students”. Without getting into the whole debate on the changing dynamics of youth, we cannot disagree with the fact that the current larger than life stature of college fests does help in building responsible adults.
However, we cannot overlook the disturbance caused by the cultural fests to the cultural scenario. The mad race by students to get the most popular celebrity to perform in their college gets even more madder as the prices charged by the celebrities are ever increasing! Yes, we fall in the trap of materialism. Yes, we compromise our dignity when we plead to these celebrities to reduce their “charges” and oblige us with their presence in our college. But no, we are not ashamed. At least most of us are not. Or maybe, some of us are not!
Here, a completely off track point that needs to be brought to notice is the security arrangements at fests. While the security men frisk the students as if they were gangsters, the overly excited students have no choice but to hold their hanging- by — the — waist bone- pants with their hands! Every college has its own security policy. While some are kind enough to let students enter with their college identity cards, some believe in the policy of “prevention is better than cure” and do not let students enter without a pass. Well, I refuse to comment on this. All, I want to say about this is, as long as both the parties (security men and students) do not spoil the taste of the cake called fests, we have no complaints.
Ending on a rather festive note, for we are all in the mood for some fun, here is what I want to say — During the times when our morals and ethical values are going through a complete overhaul, we do not know what to hold on to and what to discard. All we know is that we can go with the flow and see where it takes us!
Image courtesy: http://indianrockmp3.com/2009/08/01/reprise-interview-heretic-cochin/