Kanpur IITians keep the fire of Antaragni roaring
IIT Kanpur celebrated the 44th edition of its annual cultural festival Antaragni with great zeal, dispelling the myth about IITians being nerds who don’t know how to have fun.
The festival, which ran from October 21 to 24 this year, had ‘homage to Indian cinema’ as its theme with competitions, events, and talks. One of the flagship events of Antaragni was the India Inspired panel discussion which saw the likes of Telugu film director Shekhar Kammula, theatre and TV actor Lalit Parimoo, singer and actress Vasundhara Das and film actor Saurabh Shukla debate and discuss ‘Indian cinema: A source for entertainment or a medium for social change’. The discussion attracted a crowd of nearly 500 students.
Antaragni '10 witnessed the participation of 1,500 external college students and had an estimated budget of Rs58 lakh. The festival was inaugurated by celebrated filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, while the inaugural night ‘Prima Nocte’ saw the staging of the play Love Letters starring Rajat Kapoor and Shernaz Patel. The closing night of the festival saw a performance by band Sitar Funk led by fusion musician Niladri Kumar followed by a performance by Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan.
A highlight of this year's Antaragni was the Model United Nations (MUN), which saw 100 participants from colleges all over India, and simulated three councils of the UN — the General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and the UNFCCC.
“My perception of IITs has completely changed," said Saket Mani, a Std XII student from The Hyderabad Public School. "Though I was the youngest participant at the IIT Kanpur MUN and Antaragini, I had a lot of fun. IIT Kanpur organised MUN for the first time, but it was still of a very high standard. Antaragni gave me a glimpse of how college life would be.”
The festival also organised short certificate courses on still p