Delhi college-goers will be aware of how taxing March and April get due to the most awaited time for students across the city. For the uninitiated, it is the Delhi University (DU) fest season! For years, these two months have been the time when students from different institutions across Delhi-NCR can forget about assignment deadlines, skip classes, hang out with their friends, and have the time of their college lives. Amid a two-year temporary closure of colleges, the anticipated annual cultural fests remained cancelled, due to which many students were deprived of this experience. Now that colleges across Delhi-NCR have finally opened up for students, the fest season is back with gaiety.
A slew of events
One of the few fests that kicked off this year’s season is Taarangana, the annual, cultural fest of Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), Kashmere Gate. Commencing on April 5, this two-day festival had a set of exciting events. On the first day, students witnessed a number of college societies participating in events such as Ms & Mr Taaranagana, a beauty pageant; a Rap Battle with Delhi-based artist Hemant Dhyani aka MC Heam as judge; Urban Thump, a Western dance group competition organised by the Western dance society; Aaghaz, the street play competition; and others.
Back in the game
We witnessed a huge crowd of students from across Delhi University on day one. At one of the events, we met Radhika Verma and Shruti Aggarwal, third-year students of Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW), Civil Lines. “We were only able to attend one fest season in our first year so comparatively, it is quite an overwhelming feeling. However, the heat is slightly suffocating,” mentioned Verma.
Still going strong
Although the first day of the festival was to end with a performance by playback singer Javed Ali, the show was cancelled due to crowd management issues. Our experience on day one showed that the organisers, who probably did not anticipate the huge crowd, found it difficult to manage the event. Despite how the event transpired on Tuesday, Taarangana still continued, though the college decided to allow festival entry only to IGDTUW students and participants from other colleges on day two. Although there were exciting events lined up for Wednesday, it was unfortunate that many students could not be a part of it. However, one can still state that the fest was a success with a slew of youngsters all geared up and ready to dive into college life with excitement.