The experience that was Ragam 07

Many would know Ragam as the cultural festival of NIT Calicut, some would know about it as the biggest fest in Kerala, others will know it as the place where big names perform in the pro show. But to know what it really is one must go there and feel what it is. It's all about Feeling the excitement rather than getting to know it from people who went for it. Fortunately a small group of students from GECB wanted 1st hand knowledge about all the hype surrounding Ragam. I was fortunate to be the team captain and i found it to be among the best days of my life. Special mention should be made that we went with ZERO preparation for the program and still had a respectable position at the end of 3 hectic days of competitions.

There were just 17 of us. 4 gals, one parent and 12 guys. We started on 14th evening. When we reached the station to board the Kannur express to Calicut, we were shocked to see the large number of students from CET and MBT. When i asked around i got the info that there are more than 200 students from MBT and about 150 from CET. When they asked me all i could say was a handful 17. The trip started off on a good note when we had not many problems in getting our seats close to each other. Since we had booked the tickets just 2 days before the journey the seats weren't close and we had to coax people to shift atleast so that the ladies would be close to each other. We reached Calicut station at 6:10 in the morning and we reached the campus by 7:30 thanks to the fast buses and the taxi that the ladies took.

We registered and the guys were huddled into 1 room in the Men's hostel and from what i heard the ladies had a better stay with just 4 in a room. We guys had a room right next to the bathroom and we thought it will be reeking with bad smell. BUT the best thing about the NITC Campus was the food and the toilets. The food was available round the clock and i mean 24/7 courtesy the mini canteen near the hostel and even though the canteen had not much space the menu was filled with all kinda mouth watering delicacies. We enjoyed eating under the shade of trees around the campus and making friends with people who may never be seen again.

After freshening up we came to the Main Building and the road leading to the main building was bustling with people in all colours, shapes and sizes.

Rajpath-The main road to the campus

Main Building-All lit up for Ragam

After this we went to the prelims of a few events and DAY one ended on a high note for us when we heard that Ananthalakshmy had won the 1st prize in Light music. After this we went and saw the dance in the OAT and stayed there till 2 AM and when we reached the canteen, it was still open and serving hot plates of noodles and omelettes. We had a sumptuous meal and came back to the room by 230 AM and found some sleep.

Sleep-We hardly had any time for it!

The 2nd day started off with the odd events. Items like Vegetable Carving, Clay Modelling and all were slotted for this day. Some of us participated in these and won prizes in this too. Me and Madhuri got into the finals of the senate debate competition. It was a good experience but we didn't win any prize. We had to represent a nation regarding a issue about Arms trade in a UN conference. Due to time constrains they cut short the event and it was pretty bad since we spent all afternoon preparing for this even without having lunch. In addition we had the prelims of some other events too. In short day 2 was pretty hectic.

Prize winners with their creation(Arun Mathew, Aneesh and Razim)

Sadly no prizes for this

At the end of the 2nd day the Shaan Concert was to be held and we didn't think of it as a good way to spend 200 buks. Even otherwise we had lot to SEE and admire in the campus. So we preffered to stay outside the OAT and just loitered around the campus. We found the various departments, the labs, the beautiful PEOPLE roaming around hand in hand. On the 2nd day night we had a conference in the MH and were enlightened on the various actions that a man will undergo after marriage by none other than our Jyothiraj. His beliefs made us laugh like hell and even surprised us at times. By the way he was the one who thought that Ragam had Tech events and had come preparing for that. When he reached here, he found that the only thing closest to a tech event was the rock show and he took a ticket for it and got in on the 3rd day. He was among the LUCKY FEW who saw the rock show by Evergreen AND the fashion show.

Evanvare rock FANaayi

The end of 2nd day we had nothing except the prizes in Light music 1st and the 2nd in vegetable carving. We just were damn tired at the end of day 2 and it was 1 am when we reached the hostel.

He can sleep anytime anywhere........

If day 2 was hectic then day 3 was hell. Many of us had so many events simultaneously that all we managed to do was to rush from one venue to the other. I had 4 event prelims at the same time. Had to call the coords and fix the events 1 after the other and it was a bad time for me to run around from one room to another, especially with my 90 odd kgs. We got into the finals of Adzap, Triple mash and Madhuri got into the finals of Ms Ragam. We got the first prize in Classical music when Anathalakshmy managed to sing a beautiful melody. Thus we had 3 event finals and i thought we stood a good chance in all of them. We also had Rangoli, cartooning and Mono act.

Winner of the Musicals

In the afternoon we got our product for Adzap. It was an energy drink and we had time till 4 pm to make an ad and other features for our drink. We fixed G-Spot as the name. The tagline was TRIGGER THE SPOT IN YOU. We had it like an abbreviation with G-spot standing for Get the spot, where spot was Stimulating Power Oriented Thanni ( i think this was it, not sure). We had a very raunchy ad for the drink and thought we were pretty good with it. Before the Adzap we had the Mr n Ms Ragam finals and Madhuri was the 1st participant on stage. She did well in the 1st round to get the crowd into the arena with a superb dance. Immediately after this we went for the Adzap finals and we had a very good judge who made us all sweat a lot in that small classroom.

G-Spot the drink that we made famous

In Triple Mash we got the 4th position and same was the case with AdZap. At the end of this the ladies in our team left for Trivandrum and we 12 guys were left to loaf around the campus for the last night @ NIT-C. We heard at 6pm that the 2nd in cartooning was for Jinto from our college and at around 7 pm we got the news that Madhuri had won the Ms Ragam title. Even though it didn't have any points or cash prize the title is a big thing and it was pretty good when people were telling that a gal from GECB got the Ms Ragam title.

The 3rd night @ Ragam had Evergreen performing and after this was A La Mode the fashion show. Many of us who were outside were disappointed that we came all the way from Tvm and couldn't witness the mother of all events- Fashion show. But then we had a good time in the campus.

The NOKIA stall was all ours on the last day

Round table conf 2-No xplanations for th awkward look on my face

The time we spent on the benches outside the main lobby proved to be pretty good since the teams going for the fashion show walked right in front of us! So it was PAISA WASOOL for us! We sat there till 2 am or so, then went to the mini canteen, had hot plates of noodles or fried rice and packed our stuff for the next day's trip back home. It was a sad feeling to leave this paradise and get back to the monotonous life of being a GECian. Compared to the fun we guys had there the life as a GECian is nothing! For those who didn't show up, you ppl missed a LOT. Things that i have said till now and many more that you're free to come up and ask anytime you want.

The trip back started on a slow tone. The train was at 840AM and most of the gentlemen had just got up from the beds at 630 and 7AM. The coord's had arranged for 2 buses to drop the crowd of participants back to the railway station. The crowd included the MBTians and CETians who were crowned overall champs. The dejected look on MBTians was a sight to see. They had come with this large contingent to win the title back to back, but the CETians would have none of it and there was also competition from Amrita.

The train ride back was fun and we were all huddled in a general compartment from Calicut till Tvm in the Parasuram Express. It was hard at first when the whole train was filled with students. It was fun to watch people in jeans jostling for space and guys having guitars and cymbals in their hands in the small wooden seats.

Seatillathe DOORil thoongi

Ithinu Oru captionum seriaavilla

Avasana Thullivare njan Nakkum

We had some company on the ride back and the ride was filled with moments of fun and some special moments were:

JK Drinking the last drops off the Maaza bottle
Jyothiraj wearing shoes of 2 different kinds
Karthik in a desp mood clinging onto JK
Dennis and JK not getting to eat anything while all of us had food
Playing DumbC on the ride back and getting amused looks on the face of co-passengers
Jyothiraj ordering everything from Vada's to Sambharam to fill his stomach
Sasi's friend who was silent till Kottayam getting a gal to give her number to him and then they moving out from our seat and finding some PRIVATE moments.

Evane Poovittu Poojikenam

This pic on JKs Demand

We had a jolly good time till Tvm in the jam packed train and met a few INTERESTING people as well. We reached Tvm at 640 in the evening and parted ways with sweet memories about the experience that was Ragam 07.

We came to a respectable 13th Postion(that's what i heard from the reg desk when we checked out). Now one might say what's so good in being 13th. I shall say its damn good for a bunch of people who came to know about the events on the train to Calicut, its good to be 13th when many colleges with 2-3 times more participants managed to get nothing and we had 2 first prizes, 2 second prizes, some 8 finalists and the Ms Ragam title.

So this is what we get when we go with Zero preparation. So if we can manage to prepare decently for Ragam 08, am sure we too can give a good fight for the top teams. Only thing that saddens me is that i won't be there to witness that. It was a great feeling to be the team captain of such a small bunch of students and still get to a respectable position.

What happened to our Intra Collegiate competitions??

Isn't "All-round development" the keyword for any educational institution? What extra/co- curricular activities are actually happening in the college? The only activity of any importance is probably the Quiz club. And that too has seen a steady decline in participants. Maybe because of a lack of a proper room where this can regularly be conducted.But other than this ... ZILCH ! Isn't it high time we actually organised a common forum where the talents of the students can be recognised and utilised? For those who don't know this, and I'm quite sure that there are quite a few, we have been overall champions at Dhwani three times in a row. So there is no questioning the talent of the students. We have a very good store of raw undiscovered talent. But how can this be discovered if they have no platform to show them? And on top of all this, we have a management that promotes only studies and a PTA that serves no actual purpose than to collect a hefty sum from freshers each and every year. Where does all the money that the PTA collects go? There has been no significant contribution to encouraging extra curricular activities of any kind by this association.
Lets take a "Sector Wise" approach to this .. Firstly - Sports
A few years back, there were promises from the then Principal that cricket nets and a badminton court were due very shortly... .well Sir, you've just redefined "shortly". Its been three years for crying out loud! The first year students may be unaware of this fact but at the time I joined GEC, ie in 2003, there used to be an inter class football tournament every semester.This was also one of the best places where an intense bonding and friendship developed between students of various semesters. It wasnt something of grand proportions but it was fun. There used to be an intense passion in every single game that was played. They were played basically for bragging rights. But isnt that what college life is all about? Shouldn't healthy competition be encouraged? There was also an ever rolling trophy for the champions. There was even a "best player" award. There was also an inter class cricket tournament. Whatever happened to all of this? With zero support, or rather with a large amount of discouragement from the "management" these have slowly vanished. And probably the greatest shame of them all.... We now don't even have an annual sports meet. A shame indeed. We have 3 college teams for sports. Lets take a look at them
1) Football.
With no inter class tournament, talent scouting becomes that much harder. Students are rarely informed about selections (if any actually happen).And when a bunch of good players are finally selected, it'll be too late, because the selections happen a day before a tournament actually starts. So that leaves out practice and coaching. Oh ... wait a minute!! We don't have a coach!! Wait... we do have someone responsible for physical educations don't we? (For those who don't know that fact, you're forgiven. He rarely shows up in college).And unfortunately the half decent football ground that we have now looks like the site of an archaeological excavation site where the battered remains of an ancient city now lay, with just a few pillars remaining.
2) Cricket.
Same as above. Don't think our college has any equipment of its own.We have 1 or 2 district players in the team, but no coaching provided at GEC .. no sir!
3) Basketball
This is probably the only team that actually practises and has any team coordination at all. No thanks to the administration. These boys formed the team on their own, practise whole heartedly with no external support, they scout for talent with every new batch in the college and they've had their share of bright moments. Again, don't think the college has even a basketball.
4) Volleyball
We had a team once in 2003, played one tournament with zero practice. End of story.
5) Indoor Sports.
Non-Existent. How hard is it to actually construct one small room with a couple of ping pong tables and a few chess boards and carrom boards?
Second category...
Technical events at fests
Now being a government college, our college has an abundant supply of intelligent students.And this has been proven time and again.The winner of the US technology promoted Brains at War competition is from GEC.We have a few (Three I believe) very good quiz teams, that have won prizes at many fests. A couple of people take part in debates sometimes. Now the difference between these two are that there is actually a quiz club where the best in the college actually get together regularly and fine tune their skills (Thank you for your support Mr. Abhilash Suryan).
A "debating club" was started a while back but vanished immediately. It was a very good step in the right direction in starting it, but unfortunately it din't take off, probably because of a lack of cooperation. The college is now churning out brilliant engineers who are not confindent in public because of a lack of exposure. I have to admit though that there have been a few instances where the college authorities have taken the initiative and conducted workshops and presentations but with a discouraging response from the student community.

Sector 3
Arts
We have just won the overall championship at this year's Aufait. But let's admit it, there wasnt much of a competition. So why is it that a college that has been a 3 time Dhwani winner still cant give CET and MBT a run for their money at various fests. It most definitely isn't a lack of talent. I would say that it is a lack of organization among the student community. No one knows who is good at what. Isn't it the duty of the Arts club secretary to actually identify talented people and give them the necessary encouragement? We still see only a very small number of students (which does not include the arts club secretary himself) actually participating in the fests. There are probably more talented people sitting undiscovered in this college. We need a combined effort by the students as a whole to be able to score any points in major inter collegiate fests such as Dhwani and Crossroads. And what can the administration of the college do about this?
Well, perhaps a small portion of the massive amount that the PTA demands every year for God only knows what, could be used to provide some basic facilities for the students. For example, how about a room dedicated to arts? Where the students could practice after working hours? And how about a cd player so that songs can be played so that dances can be practiced? Now that surely is not going to hurt the PTA is it ? Lets do some basic arithmetic here.
Number of incoming students per year = 180
Amount collected per year by the PTA = 3000 (2000 for my batch)
Amount collected per year = 3000 x 180 = 5,40,000
Total collected in the 4 years I have been in college = 5,40,000 x 3 + (2000x 180)
= A WHOPPING 19,80,000. Almost 20 lakhs.
Cost of half decent cd player and speaker set = Negligible
Ok now some personal experience. This college has a band. (Please no comments about the quality please :D). We've had our ups and downs but we've never ever had the support from college. As is the plight with any endeavor that our students embark upon. Students from various batches represented our college at Rosebowl's Dhoom. This is probably the first ever time that we've had a gropu representing our college that comprised of students of various batches. But that was totally their own initiative and hard work.And you have to give them a hand for stayin after working hours in college and practicing even with narrow minded people around who think a few boys and girls sittin in a classroom together is a crime.
(Some people may remember incidents which happened in 2003 during dhwani dance practices where a senior staff member showed us how brilliantly narrow minded he was)
Hopefully this year we'll be having an arts fest. (Union... atleast give us an arts fest! No sports day, no annual day ... please? atleast an arts fest?)

Ok.. now Im tired. So please if someone else can talk about how we can improve the situation before major fests like cervello and crossroads, I could sit in front of my PC relaxing and listening to some music and growing fat.
But before I leave, some suggestions to the Principal, PTA, union and students

A) Dear Principal...
1) Allow arts fest
2) Allow sports day
3) Allow Annual day
4) Allow football and cricket tournaments
5) Give us a table tennis room atleast.
6) Hire a football and cricket and basketball coach?
7) GIVE US A BREAK !!

B) Dear PTA,
1) Utilise some of the funds you receive for the betterment of the students
2) Maybe some sporting equipment?
3) Maybe a couple of instruments and audio system for an AV and music room?

If you're funds have been utilized in the construction of the nearly completed new building, the you have my apologies and i retract my statements.But if that money is in the banks accruing interest for no purpose at all, you should be ashamed of yourself.( By the way, why were we forced to give Rs 1500 for the construction of the new classroom blocks?)

C) Dear College union (To the new one to be elected on the 9th)
1) Actually organize something !
2) Think about the possibility of an arts fest happening
3) Maybe a sports day as well?
4) Atleast an annual day? Cmon.. I mean.. which college doesnt have an annual day?

D)Dear students
1) Organise something yourselves
2) Take part in events. It's for your own good. You'll develop confidence.
3) Your batchmates arn't the only ones in the college. Your seniors and juniors can be your teammates. That would lead to a better team.
4) Utilize what you have. Join the quiz club. Join debating and public speaking clubs if they are formed. You have nothing to lose.
5) Let's give a decent performance at crossroads.

My batch will be completing our engineering studies in June (Hopefully). So it's upto the juniors to carry the torch forward. Make it burn brighter. And lets hope that we get an administration ready to promote education and not just textbook studies.

Fests and more fests!

In the light of the different inter-college programs being planned by the 3 dept's of the college, i would like to hear from you all about what all you think is good with the present plans; ie about the 3 depts going separately with their independent events.

Would it have been better if all branches did the programs together??
Would it be possible for the 3 events to get funding with the reputation of the college??
Will it be a good reflection on the image of the college??
Will it cause any rift between the students of the college??

I had some more questions in my mind, but can't remember them all!

So waiting for the replies or more queries!

Hope that atleast this will create some active posts or comments!