Fest-O-Fun

The three-day festival started on Friday with annual events like Think India Think,a sports quiz,mock IPL,antakshari,street theatre,salsa workshop and paintball. Not surprisingly,the antakshari was among the most popular,attracting the largest crowd.

However,walk into the PEC Campus,and one cannot miss the serious cause that the festival has adopted. Red ribbons adorn T-shirts of all students. “We want to spread awareness about AIDS. We are adopting different ways to get the message through,from putting awareness posters on the CITCO buses to hosting a quiz on the theme,” says Vinay Parnami of the organising team. A debate on “Sex Education is Overrated” is also part of the festival.

Rohit Sahi,convener of the fest,shows us around the fest arena that’s packed with stalls of eateries and takes us to the Parliamentary Debate. “Being hosted for the first time,12 teams are participating from across the region,” says Sidhant Punj,member of the PR team. An Art of Living course is also a first,as is Heart Talk. “Heart Talk will see students talks about relationships,” he says.

This year,the number of entrepreneurial and management games have gone up to nine. “Apart from Real Estate Tycoon,there is Marketing Challenge and Stock-Trading Conference,” says Mukul Kaura,one of the organising members. He says this has been done to increase the entrepreneurial efforts of engineers. “This is in keeping with PEC’s efforts to help students become self-employed,” adds Kaura. The objective of the Mock IPL auction,too,has a similar motive,he adds. “While the auction will test their negotiating skills,another event Apprentice will test their salesman spirit,” chips in Ratul Arora,another member.

And after a day of haggling and cutting mock deals,it will be time to party. On the agenda are performances by Bally Sagoo,a rock nite by bands from Germany and Bangalore and a fashion show.