CULTURAL COUNCIL

MID TERM REPORT

(2014-2014)

Submitted by

Shaleen Mandowara, General Secretary,

Cultural Council

Introduction

The council mainly functions through six clubs to conduct various activities. The structure of the Council Council is given

below with the names of club coordinators.

Cultural Council

Dance Club

Dramatics Club

Music Club

Discussion and

Debating Society

Fine Arts Club

Literary Society

Quiz Club

Dance Club

SUMMER WORKSHOP:

During summers a HIP-HOP workshop was

organized by the club in which all the campus

junta was introduced with basic and higher level

HIP-HOP routines. A team of professional

choreographers was invited to take the

workshop.

SALSA AND JAZZ WORKSHOP

Professionals: By Caroline D’Souza and Jishan Ali, Kanpur

Dance Club began its tenure with the most

awaited workshop – The Salsa and Jazz

Workshop. It became an instant hit and saw a

participation of over 70 people which included

both UG and PG students as well as the Faculty

members. The workshop went over a period of

a fortnight and the participation didn’t come

down till the last day.

DANDIYA NITE: On the occasion of Navratri, dance club organized a gathering in which people are provided with dandiya sticks so that they can go along with the dandiya beat. People came in large numbers in GH-1 grounds to enjoy the event. A Durga puja ceremony and DJ was also arranged.

FRESHER’S NITE: A well-choreographed performance was given by the newly joined dance club members (Y14 batch). The routine was taught by senior members. Great involvement was seen during this performance.

RESULTS OF INTERCOLLEGIATE

COMPETITIONS

Achievements

- Runner-up in Antaragni'14 Street Dance

- Secured 3rd position in Antaragni'14 Jitterbug (Group

Dance)

NEW INITIATIVES

WORKSHOPS FOR PRAYAS STUDENTS :

Dance Classes for Prayas students on the occasion of their annual function regular dance

classes was held in our dance room to prepare a performance for the prayas children. A

basic routine of dancing was taught to the kids.

FLASH MOB :

Performed a Flash Mob on World

Environment Day at Rave Moti mall

on the occasion of world

environment Day a Flash Mob

followed by a question and answer

round was held by club members. A

huge crowd was attracted and a

message of 'Clean and Green' world

was delivered.

Dramatics Club

Initiatives

1) Self-written play in summer

workshop DAIRY.

2) NUKKAD WORKSHOP - by Shilpi

Marhawa

3) PG PARTICIPATION IN DRAM EVE

AND ANTARAGNI

4) Self-written Fresher skit

5) Performed Nukkad in Kanpur City,

Kakadeo.

6) Performed Play “Vasansi Jeernani” in

Merchant Chamber, Kanpur City.

ANTARAGNI

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FzO4BPqH99ynO26TnS5G0gbrUUeGHo2veCNnAvgjMfc/edit?usp=sharing

English Literary Society

Initiatives/Activities

Summer 2014 at IIT Kanpur:

Practice sessions of Dumb Charades, JAM, Word Games and Creative Writing over

weekends, mainly for Y13. We also held a literary discussion on the movie ‘Into the Wild’

after getting it screened by FMC in the OAT, New SAC.

An informal summary of the summer activities is given in this blogpost:

http://elsiitk.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/summer-wrap-up/

Freshers’ Night:

ELS conducted compering auditions for Freshers’ Night (for Y14). Four students were

selected who prepared under the guidance of ELS seniors delivering an excellent

performance on the occasion. ELS also conducted an online freshers creative writing

competition, the prizes of which were announced on the Freshers’ Night. The best

entries were also posted on the ELS blog.

Treasure Hunt:

This event was conducted in association with Quiz Club, Hindi Sahitya Sabha and Antaragni

’14. It saw a massive turnout of Y14 students (more than 150 teams registered for the event)

and was a tremendous success.

An informal description of the event can be found on the blog:

http://elsiitk.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/the-dawn-of-justice/

Freshers’ Frolica:

Two events were conducted as a part of the Freshers’ Frolica (for Y14) - Dumb Charades and

a creative writing competition. Dumb Charades saw an enthusiastic response from the Y14

while those with a penchant for writing tried their hands at creative writing. Best entries were

posted on the blog.

Run up to Antaragni:

Dumb Charades, JAM and Word Games were the three events that were conducted to prepare

for Antaragni ’14 ELE. These workshops allowed experienced members of the club to catch

up on practice and introduced the events to the beginners. Each of these events registered an

overwhelming turnout and overall, it served as a very successful collection of practice events

which later reaped outstanding results in Antaragni ’14 ELE.

Miscellaneous:

Among the significant miscellaneous activities of ELS, one of the most important one was

starting of the ELS blog (http://elsiitk.wordpress.com/). The blog is updated regularly

with quality content and has a very healthy traffic.

ELS also conducted a session of discussion with Ms. Shweta Taneja, the author of a few

acclaimed books (http://staneja.com/), who was in the campus for a couple of weeks.

ELS also conducted essay and poetry competitions as a part of the National Education Day

celebrations on 11th November.

Antaragni ‘14:

Members of the club participated in various events in Antaragni. Following were the results

- Word Games: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place.

- Mixed Bag- 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place.

- DumbC- 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place.

- JAM- 1st and 2nd Place.

Hindi Sahitya Sabha

Initiatives and Activities:

Hindi Learning Classes:

In summers' 14 and during the 1st semester, Hindi Learning Classes were organized for non-

Hindi speaking community of the campus. These classes were taken by secretaries of the

club- Arindam Raj, Abhay Kumar Singh, Garima Siradhana.

Nirvaak

The final design of first edition of Nirvaak, a

views letter focusing on campus issues, was

completed and the final print is awaited. The

main vision of Nirvaak is to give voice to

those issues of our campus which have been

highly ignored. We not only aim to bring out

the issues but also to make sure that a well thought solution to the problem is

implemented.

Freshers’ Night

After not giving any performances last year on Freshers’ night, Hindi Sahitya Sabha was back

with a bang to perform a skit for the freshers and by the freshers on the Freshers’ Night. The

skit was highly appreciated by the freshers’ who went roaring during the performance. This

was only possible due to tremendous efforts put in by the secretaries of the club.

Poetry Meet

A regular meet is being called for the progressive writers and the poetic enthusiasts of the

campus to discuss works of legendary writers. In the coming semester, this meet would be

opened to all.

Workshop on Creative Writing

Dr. Pankaj Prashun, Yuva Ratna awardee

at Lucknow Mahotsav, was invited for

the lecture on "Confluence of Poetry and

Science". The focus of the lecture was on

the various forms of literature.

Hindi Pakhwada

Literary competitions were conducted with the help of

Institute Hindi Cell in the month of September to mark the

occasion of Hindi Divas. These competitions included

Panel Discussions, Kavyanjali, Debates etc. other

competitions. The main aim of the event is to promote the

activities among the non-active members of the club and

faculties.

Treasure Hunt

The treasure hunt was organized in association with English Literary Society and Quiz club. This night long event

witnessed a participation of more than 400 students making it one of the most popular event conducted for the

Freshers’ this year.

Creative Writing Competition for Freshers

A creative writing competition was held for 1st year students in order to bring out the talent of writing in them. Most

of the entries received were excellent, showing the presence of literary genius in the freshmen of our institute.

Hall Level Group Discussions

For the development of good communication skills, Hindi Sahitya Sabha took an initiative of conducting Hall level

Group discussions which were open for all.

Shaam-e-Masti

A fun-filled evening for the first year students was conducted which saw participation of students in activities like

Dumb Charades, Word Games, JAM etc. This served as a great way to relax for the students in the tensed

environment of quizzes and preparation for end sems.

Achivements:

Members of Hindi Sahitya Sabha went on to win various Prizes in Hindi Literary Competitions at Antaragni’14

Drishtikon

3rd- Aditya Raj Somani

Aamne saamne

1st-Nishant Singh

3rd – Aditya Pratap Singh

Pratyay

1st- Aditya Raj somani

3rd Ravi Meena

Kirdaar

1st Aditya Raj Somani & Nishant Singh

Kavyanjali

1st-Nishant Singh

3rd- Aditya Raj Somani

Shabdrang

1st- Akashdeep, Saswat Panda, Preyansh

3rd- Devendra Mandan, Vijay Deora, Divyanshu Pal

GupChup

1st- Akashdeep, Saswat Panda, Karandeep

2nd- Raunak Raj, Ramanish Singh, Rohit Verma

Fine Arts Club

Please go the following link :-

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iAiXljSVbuDXRGDctinqpLG4-I-

yDB6YbTX1kMfD18Y/edit

Music Club

Initiatives and Achievements a) Summer workshops :

Organized vocals , synthesizer, guitar and drums workshop during summers 2014. A professional, Mr. S.L Bhatt, was called to conduct the vocals workshop. In total, the workshops saw participation from more than 120 people.

b) Independence Day: Performed in the Independence day celebration of IIT Kanpur.

b) Musical Extravaganza

Organized the Musical Extravaganza which was held on 19th October, 2014 at the OAT. The show comprised of 14 songs which encompassed a whole variety of genres had an audience of more than 300 people.

c) Performances in Orientation, Freshers’ Night

Prevention day and World Environment day:

○ Orientation Music Club performed a song infront of the Y14 batch during the orientation in the main auditorium.

○ Freshers’ 2014

Started with audition procedure, showed a participation of 300 Y14 students in 2 days, out of which 20 were selected. Music Club performed on stage. Performance consisted of 4 songs and 2 medleys.

d) Foundation Day

Music Club gave a guest performance in the Foundation Day celebration on 2nd November, 2014. The act consisted of a solo guitar performance and one band song.

e) Antaragni, 2014

Members of the music club took part in all the musical competitions in Antaragni.

f) Recording Studio The recording studio was used to arrange and record the following:

○ Antaragni theme song Music Club created the theme song for Antaragni which was a mix of genres like epic orchestral music, dubstep, pop and electronic dance music. It involved the overdubbing of more than 20 tracks. The recording and arrangement was done in the Music club. Here is the link to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gawit2sociE

○Song for AAP Music Club created a song to support AAP's candidate from Khandwa, Alok Agrawal. It was arranged and recorded in the Music Club. Here is the link to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyeUn_iVEhk&sns=fb

Quiz Club

Summer 2014 at IIT Kanpur:

Several Quiz Meets were held in the summers of 2014, some for the graduating batch of

seniors and others to give valuable experience to Y13 secys.

Freshers’ Quiz Week:

QC conducted a Freshers Quiz Week for the Y14 batch. The Quizzes included a SciTech

Quiz with Takneek, a Sports Quiz with Inferno and a MELA, India and Gen Quiz.

Treasure Hunt:

This event was conducted in association with English Literary Society, Hindi Sahitya Sabha

and Antaragni ’14. It saw a massive turnout of Y14 students (more than 150 teams registered

for the event) and was a tremendous success.

An informal description of the event can be found on the blog:

http://elsiitk.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/the-dawn-of-justice/

Quiz Meets:

Several informal Quiz Meets were held throughout the semester for enthusiasts who wanted

to make questions but did not have time to make complete Quizzes.

Run up to Antaragni:

A Quiz week was conducted to help prepare for Antaragni ’14 Quiz Events. These quizzes

allowed senior members of the club to get back in touch and introduced the events to the

beginners. The Quizzes showed a good turnout and had great feedback.

Junta Quizzes:

One of the newer initiatives was the conduction of ‘Junta Quizzes’ i.e. short quizzes

geared towards mass participation. The first Junta Quiz held this semester was a

‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ Quiz and a ‘Pink Floyd and Christopher Nolan’ Quiz is to be held soon.

QC Blog:

The Quiz Club runs it’s QC, IITK blog (qciitk.wordpress.com) which sees regularly updated

content and uploads of all quizzes conducted in the institute.

Note: The Quiz Club also joined hands with Freshers’ Inferno, Takneek and Spectrum to conduct quizzes in

the Inter-Hall events.

Freshers’ Night’14

Theme: “Eve De Magique”

Fresher’s Night organized on 9th August 2014 and 10th August 2014

was executed successfully. A variety of performances took place in

which the Freshers showed their talent. Every club of Cultural

Council put up their showcase. The theme, “Eve De Magique” was

well depicted by Fine Arts Club by Sand Art and Speed Painting. The

audience also witnessed a fashion show organized in collaboration

with Films and Media Council.

In-House Classical Music

Organized in association with spicmacay team, IIT Kanpur and Ms. Nandini Neelkanthan, Associate

Professor, Department of Mathematics and Scientific Computing. Dr. Mohua Banerjee , Prof. P.

Venkitnarayan along with a few students performed in this event.

Diwali Celebration (Lantern Festival)

In order to promote a crackerless, safe diwali, we organized a ‘Flying Lanterns Festival’ on the Diwali eve

which was highly appreciated by junta and the evening turned out to be mesmerizing.

Intercollegiate Cultural Competitions

All the clubs participated actively in intercollegiate competitions namely IIT Delhi’s Rendezvous., IIT Kanpur’s

Antaragni. The prizes won by them are listed in their respective sections. We will participate in the Asia’s

biggest cultural festival Mood-Indigo in December and Nilhanth and will also try for springfest, IIT Kharagpur

for the first time and will try to give the best out of us.

Budget Details

Please Click on the Link: -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FzO4BPqH99ynO26TnS5G0gbrUUeGHo2veCNnAvgjMfc/edit#gid

=0

Just to End

The council has loads of activities lined up for next semester. With scores of classes in store and events like

Galaxy, Dramatics Eve, Dance Extravaganza, Musical Extravaganza etc. coming up, the council will continue

to provide a platform to the students of this campus to showcase their talents and open up avenues for

students to learn and get exposed to new skills.

Upcoming events: Lit Fest, Spicmacay concert, Galaxy, Cultural Extravaganza.