“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”
- C.G. Jung The 2015 edition of Anugooj, cultural fest of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, saw enthusiastic participation from all the constituent affiliated institutions. Held in the University’s main campus, the year’s fest saw a legion of thousands of students, including both the participants and the spectators. In the midst of music pulsating throughout the campus, various literary events saw students show up and represent their respective colleges, all engrossed in a battle of wits against each other.

Organized over a span of three days, events such as Debates in both Hindi and English, Creative writing, and the Quiz were held. Keeping with the characteristic format, the students who participated in these events were the ones who had qualified from the preliminary rounds in their colleges.

Day One saw the poetry competitions being held, with poets showcasing their work in either Hindi or English. With the soft, ambient glow of the auditorium lights, the environment was comfortingly conducive to the recitation. Most of the poets chose to present their original work to the audience, with their chosen topics covering a diverse range of themes – from the contrast between the current and the ideal state of women in our contemporary society, to simple self-reflection, to a consciousness of our natural environment. Thought-provoking and unique, Shubhangi of Chandra Prabhu Jain College and Gunvardhan of AIACT&R took home the awards for the English and the Hindi poems respectively.

The debates were held parallel to the poetry sessions, with a total of 12 teams representing their colleges, presenting their point of views on the topics allotted. While the English debate required its participants to speak on the topic ‘Autonomy of the Media’, the Hindi debate posed the question of whether the death sentence ought to be awarded to those convicted of committing rape. The winners were Aahat and Deepansh of MAIT in the English category and Saurabh Singh and Rashmi Sharma of AIMT in the Hindi category.

Day Two, discerned the conduction of the just-a-minute and the quiz sessions. Various problem- and situation- based topics were given to the participants for the JAM events, with the intent of testing the participant’s ability to put forward a coherent articulation for the topic within the given minute. Shivam Chhabra from BPIT and Rashmi Kumari from USS were the winners for the event, for the English and Hindi sessions respectively.

The Quiz had 12 teams participating, in groups of 3 each. It consisted of a written elimination round, from which 6 teams advanced to the finale. The final round had audio clips being played to the audience, who had to then answer questions based on them. The team consisting of Shonali, Varun, and Mithun emerged triumphant in the competition.

The final literary event, the creative writing competition, was held on Day Three of the fest, and was organized to accommodate opinions in both English and Hindi. While the topic for the Hindi segment was ‘Development in India- the Current State and the Direction’, the English competition asked its participants to write about Valentine’s Day as an institution, a topic as unexpected as it was unconventional. The winners were Aishwarya Borgohain from USS, and Suraj Kumar Pathak from GEC Jaffarpur, for English and Hindi respectively, with Vrishti (MSIT) and Tanya Aneja (USS) emerging as the runners-up for the competition.

The juxtaposition of various ideas of the students, and the availability of a platform to express the same, were what made the string of events successful on the whole, with students expressing the hope for continuing importance being accorded to such events.
Till next year.