“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain”
– Bob Marley Music is one of the most pleasing activity mankind offers; it is said to be the language of the soul. It is in the chirping of the birds, jingling of the bells, pitter-patter of the raindrops; and everywhere else.

Anugoonj has always prided itself on its promotion of young music talent. With a total of 5 competitions designed to discover talent, Anugoonj gives its participants and viewers a joyous ride. This year too, Anugoonj managed to catch the eyes of the University’s talent.

A total of 11 teams participated in the ‘Classical Vocal Solo’ event, the only musical event that was to be held on the first day of the fest. The time limit was 5+2 minutes, where 5 minutes was the performance time and 2 extra minutes were allotted for their preparation. It saw some beautiful performances by the students of IITM, Institute of Information Technology and Management and USS, University School of Studies but Bineet, a participant from Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute beat the rest and stood first followed by Madurima, a participant from Bhartiya Vidya College of Engineering.

Last minute venue changes for the musical events took place on the second day due to incessant rain. “We are calling every participant and informing them about the change”, replied Prashant Kaushik, Head Coordinator, when asked about the management of the situation. 8 teams participated in ‘Indian Group Song’ which had to take place on Stage 2 but was eventually shifted to the D-Block auditorium. Sudhanshu Sharma, an artist from Doordarshan and Sayan Chatterjee, faculty, University School of Basic and Applied Science formed the elite panel of judges. GTBIT proved their mettle once again and got the first position whereas Amity Law School stood second.

The second event of the day was the ‘Light Indian Vocal’, Kailash Kher’s “Teri Deewani” came out to be the most popular choice among participants. Finally a team got the better of GTBIT; USS’s Sarim Ali won the first prize followed by GTBIT’s Riti Singh. Ms Manisha Sharma, faculty member, Performing Arts and Ms Reena Gupta, faculty member, University School of Information and Communication Technology, adjudged the competition.

The ‘Light Indian Vocal’ event was followed by the ‘Western Solo’ event, which saw a participation of 13 students. Within minutes of the start of the event, the C-block auditorium was jam-packed with people. Participants with songs like “Here Without You”, “Stay With Me”, “All of Me” drowned everyone in a pool of emotions, “It was phenomenal, the whole feel of this event!” said Sarthak Agarwal. The panel of judges included Dr Pumposh, faculty member, USS and Ms Manisha Sharma. Bhavna added another trophy to the USS’s kitty whereas Rahul from GTBIT stood second. Nine teams took part in ‘Vocal Western Group Song’ event. Tanvi Upadhaya, playback singer and Prof Neela Sinha were the judges for the event. Contests were given a time limit of 10 minutes, out of which 2 minutes were allotted to set up the stage. Swaranjali, a student of Northern Indian Engineering College sang a medley of “All of Me” and “Demons”. The atmosphere was kept alive by the filler performances of Ansh and Anupam of IITM. The performance by the students of IITM received much appreciation from the audience and they won the competition, for the fourth time in a row, followed by Amity Law School which won the second prize.