Institute Cultural Events

2019-20

Cultural Clubs and Events: Sangam ​ Sangam is the agglomeration of the institute's cultural clubs.This year there was a major change in the structure of clubs under Sangam, and some of them were grouped under different umbrellas. This led to a more efficient organizational efficiency than the previous years. There was also the new model of having the Club Initiators after the Weekender happened in August. This was successful in introducing a huge number of first-year students to the cultural sphere on campus. There was an increase in the number of workshops made by the clubs this year as well. Sangam flagship events like Freshie Nite, Fandom Nite and Raagabop were also highly successful events. As long term investments, the Music Club also purchased a few instruments. Club-wise Highlights

Choreo Club ● Conducted LitSoc Freestyle Solo and LitSoc Hostel Choreo Nite (11 Hostel participated, highest so far) ● Performed at Alumni Meet organized by I&AR at Leela Palace ● FlashMob done at Himalaya to create awareness about the "Keep it Flowing" Campaign. (I&AR) ● Collaborated with Media Club to make Dance cover (received 10k+ views by the end of 1st month) ● Conducted a Special Dance Workshop as part of LEAP for School kids. (50+ participants) ● Conducted 4 FwF Sessions (3+1) ● Conducted a 4 class Salsa Workshop Series which concluded with a Salsa Social Event at OAT (80-150 participants for every session) ● Performed for Club Weekender and choreographed 16 minute Freshie Nite Dance performance. ● Choreographed a Dance routine for International students for International Day Performance. Choreo Team Performances Participated in 1. Saarang Choreo Nite (Placed 1st)

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2. Inter IIT Bombay (Placed 2nd) 3. IIT Cultural Fest - "Tirutsava" (Placed 1st) 4. WCC Cultural Fest 5. VNR VJIET Cultural Fest, Hyderabad - (Placed 1st)

Classical Arts Club ● Organised LitSoc events with participation from PGs, something that hadn’t happened satisfactorily for a while. ● Organised concerts in collaboration with the IIT Madras Music Club

Comedy & Oratory Club ● Trained a talented contingent of 15-20 members ● Performed a stand up comedy set during Freshie orientation ● Did pretty well in Inter IIT and received three medals ● Conducted many workshops for inculcating interests among newcomers ● Conducted 2 fresh events (Dumb Debates and Open Mic), very good participation ● Successfully created a debate contingent, half of which were freshies and conducted practice sessions. ● Organised 6 litsoc events smoothly

Design, Media & VFX Club ● Released a music video in collaboration with choreo club which got more than 10 k views on YouTube ● Successfully organised the litsoc photography event ● Regularly conducted workshops related to media ● Conducted wildlife photography event successfully

Dramatics Club The Drama Club had an exciting year with a myriad of events that were delivered successfully. ● The club began the year with some games at the Club Weekender which was followed by a play comprising unusual theatre acts as part of the Initiator Event. ● It then conducted Play Offs- an evening comprising 4 short plays, which was a huge success. ● The Drama Contingent placed 2nd in the stage Play event while Sagarika placed first in Performance Poetry at the Inter IIT cultural meet held at IIT Bombay. 3

● The Thespian Vertical in Saarang conducted Dramatics, Street Play, English and Vernacular MonoActing and Performance Poetry. ● The events saw active participation and was a huge success. ● The Drama Club’s year closed with Litsoc Dramatics where hostels put up different plays. e-Sports Club ● Attracted gaming enthusiasts through stalls at Fandom Night ● Organised LitSoc events for FIFA and PUBG

Fine Arts Club ● Organised 4 litsoc events which had a lot of diversity(rangoli, multimedia,wall painting and doodling ) and enthusiastic participation. ● The freshie night performance grabbed a lot of eyeballs and a lot of beautiful tattoos and faces were made at fandom night. ● The tenure also consisted of two workshops microart and manga. ● Managed to conduct an NCA that had a well structured curriculum good enough to train the freshies to contingent level.

Informals Club ● The Freshie Treasure Hunt hosted by the club had a record percentage of participation by the freshies compared to every other year. ● Introduced freshies to the board games culture in insti through our event, Board Games Night. ● Facilitated increased interaction between students through socializing events like Let’s Talk. ● Conducted Freshie Cluedo which introduced freshies to the competitive events in the cultural sphere. ● Selected and groomed a number of freshers for emceeing throughout Freshie Night. ● Conducted three Litsoc events throughout the year which witnessed increased participation than the previous year. Apogee round in Litsoc QOS had a record percentage participation. 4

● Ideated and organized a themed Halloween Event with a cosplay contest for the first time in the history of Fandom Night.

Lifestyle Club ● Successfully conducted Rampwalk in Club Weekender and Freshie Night ● Successfully conducted Mr and Mrs Freshie competition in Freshie Night ● Trained a batch of freshmen to prepare them for contingent ● Hosted and won 2nd prize in Panache, Saarang which saw an increase in audience and event quality ● Secured 1st position in Online Modelling and 5th position in Fashion show atInter IIT Cultural Meet ● The club’s first ever Litsoc competition, fashion designing was held

Music Club ● Formed the contingent inclusive of Indian music vocalists for the first time. ● Had a record participation in Freshie Night with around 8 band performances over an hour. ● Conducted music festival Raagabop with performances by contingent and professional bands. Served as a signature music concert for Sangam. ● Conducted Karaoke and Acoustic Nights. ● Collaborated with I&AR to compose song for the Keep It Flowing campaign. ● Collaborated with SGS and Samitis to conduct a music concert in Ethnic Day.

Quiz Club ● Successfully conducted 5 LitSoc events with record participation in the SciTech Quiz. ● Regularly conducted Quiz Club Meets to promote Quizzing culture within the institute. ● Brought back the historically popular Travel & Living Quiz at Saarang. ● Successfully groomed a batch of freshmen, making them contingent quality quizzers. 5

● Hosted and placed 1st in Nihilanth, the annual Inter IIT-IIM Quiz Festival. Word Games Club ● Successfully conducted 3 LitSoc events with larger participation than usual. ● Conducted Freshie WTGW to promote word games culture among the freshmen. ● Successfully groomed an exceptional batch of freshmen, bringing them to contingent level. ● Placed 2nd and 7th at the annual Inter IIT meet's word games event.

Writing Club ● Conducted three LitSoc events which saw excellent participation and submissions from the student body. ● Hosted multiple Inklings sessions to foster the writing community in the institute. ● Held 2 competitive events and one workshop at Saarang with great reviews. ● Sent an extremely talented contingent, for the first time, to various fests around the city, especially to Inter-IIT Culturals, placing third in Creative Writing. ● First time inclusion of WC paraphernalia distribution. ● Curated LITERATI, a literary magazine, which consisted of all the prize winning entries from LitSoc events throughout the year. ● Carried out active Instagram updation.

Inter-Hostel Cultural competitions: LitSoc ​ LitSoc is IITM’s annual series of inter-hostel cultural competitions. LitSoc stands for Literary Society. In its formative years, it started with only literary competitions, but with time, it grew bigger and brought under its wings multiple cultural competitions. But since people had come to associate ‘LitSoc’ with this year-long competition, the name stuck. Today, LitSoc events are conducted by the clubs that come under ‘Sangam’. Each club conducts certain events which are ‘LitSoc events’. The winners and runner ups of each event get awarded a certain number of points. These points get added to the LitSoc points tally of the hostel of the winner(s). At the end of the year, the LitSoc points earned by each hostel are compared and the hostel with the most points wins the LitSoc Shield, the title of ‘LitSoc Champion’. LitSoc had a very good start this year, with Queen of Sheba (QoS) in September. This event had a lot of participation from UG hostels and 1 PG hostel and the general 6

enthusiasm of the student body towards LitSoc went up and saw participation generally going up in the odd sem. The odd semester season culminated with Ganga leading the LitSoc table with Sharavathi, Godavari and Saraswathi not too far behind. The even semester kicked off with a treasure hunt, followed by a couple of other big-group events like LitSoc Choreo and Dramatics. With the 2019-2020 season coming to an unexpected break owing to the unfortunate pandemic outbreak, Ganga leads the points table with Sharavathi and Godavari close behind. Position Hostel Total Points 1 Ganga 262 2 Sharavati 254 3 Saraswathi 213.1666667 4 Godavari 169.5 5 Narmada 97 6 Tapti 83 7 Brahmaputra 79.33333333 8 Sarayu 78.5 9 Tunga 75.5 10 Jamuna 73 11 Alakananda 67 12 Cauvery 61 13 Sabarmati 22 14 Sindhu 9 15 Mahanadhi 8 16 Bhadra 5 17 Tamiraparani 5 18 Krishna 0 19 Pampa 0

Participating in competitions: IITM Cultural Contingent ​ Having a dedicated contingent head and club contingent captains made things easier and the process was much smoother this year. This made sure there was a streamlined process for selecting club contingents. But on the downside, first years being barred from participating in fests outside IITM immensely affected the results we 7

could have made, and also our participation. We also managed to bag the 6th position at the Inter IIT Cultural Meet which was held at IIT Bombay this year. This is a considerable improvement as compared to our performance in 2018. Apart from Inter IIT Cultural meet, our contingent showed it’s prowess in other intercollegiate fests like Festember (NIT Trichy), InBloom (Christ College, Benguluru), Spandan (JIPMER Pondicherry), (IIT Bombay). A consolidated contingent was sent to Inter IIT Cultural Meet and Festember. Link ​ to list of students who participated in Inter IIT Cultural Meet Link ​ to list of students who participated in Festember

Result Highlights

Event Team size Position

Western Solo Singing 1 1st Competition

English Poetry Slam 1 1st

Stand Up Comedy 1 1st

Online Modelling Contest 5 1st

MELA Quiz 3 1st

Word Games Quiz 3 2nd

Stage Play 12 2nd

Group Dance 28 2nd

Band Competition 10 3rd

Indian Singing Competition 1 3rd

Final Standings 8

Skill Development: National Cultural Appreciation(NCA) ​ This is the newest addition to the list of streams the first years students can choose, having started the year before. NCA strives to provide great opportunities for students to hone their skill in a cultural activity of their choice or even learn an entirely new skill. NCA gave the option of choosing between Fine Arts, Dance, Guitar, Keyboard and Theatre. Students were selected not only based on their skill level but also their enthusiasm and inclination to learn so that students with no prior experience have a fair chance. The classes were held once or twice a week, depending on the vertical and availability of instructors. In a credit system similar to NSS, students are given credits for the classes they attend. Talking about arts, a number of workshops were conducted on varying styles: glass painting, charcoal pencil sketching, coffee painting, acrylic on T-shirt and clay modelling to name a few. The materials required for these were provided to the students. Dance included styles like classical, contemporary, jazz ballet, bhangra, etc. One month or 4 classes will be dedicated to each style. The first classes focussed on style, technique, choreography and skills like improv. The musically inclined had 2 musical instruments to pick from: guitar and keyboard. The Trinity curriculum was followed for both streams and aimed to teach students till grade 1 or 2 so that iInterested students could pick up from here later. The students who took up theatre were trained in improv, script analysis, etc. At the end of the year, the students were supposed to put up a play so as to get a feel of what 9

ultimately goes into it, but unfortunately this could not happen due to the pandemic crisis.

Stakeholder Analysis: Team Members and Participants ​ The Organising Team:

Position Number of position holders

Cores 3

Conveners 24

Cultural Outreach Committee members 5

Coordinators 108

Link to ​Team-wise contact details

Impact through Sangam

Club Number of students*

Dramatics 95

Oratory and Comedy 50

Writing 23

Quiz and Word Games 45

Classical Arts 10

Fine Arts 142

Music 317

Lifestyle 100

eSports 135

Media 103

Design 24

Choreo 275

Informals 1400**

Total 2719*** 10

Link to ​Club-wise impact​ with names and roll numbers of students categorised into various events. *The number of students is not exact and the actual number is more than the count from the collected data. ** This is an approximation based on the number of students who took part in LitSoc Queen of Sheba, a big-group inter-hostel competition ***The overlap of participants has not been accounted for in the total count.

Sangam Budget & Expenditure

Link to ​Sangam 2019-20 Expenditures