Cultural activities exploded onto the scene at BITS, Pilani - Dubai with the weeklong cultural extravaganza christened 'Sparks '09'! Spread over five days (15th - 19th March 2009), the intra-college event had 19 competitions spread all over the cultural activities spectrum and saw participation from more than 300 students.
The event was inaugurated by the Director BPD - Prof. (Dr.) M. Ramachandran with the lighting of the lamp accompanied by a classical dance performance by BPD students. On the first day, the elimination round for BPD's inter college quiz competition - B'Quizzed was held, to select the college team for the event. More than 150 students participated to get a chance to win the coveted B'Quizzed trophy and the amazing array of prizes that goes with it. Also on Day 1 were the Collage Making competition and a literary competition named Poetica. For the collage making competition, the participants had an on the spot choice between two themes - "Recycling" and "Environmental Consciousness in Everyday Life" The participants were provided magazines and newspapers by the student organizers. Poetica provided a 1952 painting called 'The Quest' by artist Brother Elmer Paul Catts, Jr. as stimulus to get the participants' creative juices flowing. The participants were also provided a rhyme scheme and asked to write a poem about their interpretation of the visual stimulus. The portrait, depicting a knight and his squire, symbolically expresses the noble pursuit of the human heart: to remain constant to the challenge of a lifelong search for Love, Honor and Truth.
On Day 2, the Sudoku competition was held, apart from the literary events JAM and Nanofiction and the drama events- Pantomime and Wring Zap. Sudoku competition saw the participation of about 70 students. The JAM session was organized by the literary club and was a fast paced, no holds barred, zero tolerance oratory contest in which each participant had to try to speak for the maximum time without giving the others a chance to JAM in with an objection. A valid objection could point out stuttering, stammering, repetition or prolonged pauses in the speaker's argument. After a valid objection, the student who objected began speaking. Contestants were given one point per second of speech, plus five points for a valid objection and minus five for an invalid objection. This innovative event was enthusiastically received by the student body. In Nanofiction, participants had to write a short story where every sentence had one word less than the previous one, and the last sentence - just one word!
Pantomime, as the name suggests, required the participants to put up an act without the use of any form of sound, which truly tested them in the field of Kinesics. Topics for this event included: 'Bus Stand' , 'Hospital Scene' etc.
The next event was 'Wring Zap', where the participants were judged on diction and creativity by fitting their own dialogues into a muted video clip to distort the original message of the clip. The audience was treated to a 'desi' Joker, comedic Spartans and weird beings of middle earth to name a few. The topics for both the events were given to the participants just two hours before the rounds commenced and yet they enthralled the audience with brilliant performances. These events were part of the Impulse Drama Challenge organized by the BPD Drama Club - Paribhasha. The third event in this competition was the MAD AD, which was held on Day 3 of Sparks. In this event, the participants had to sell the products given to them through the weirdest, crazy and nutty 'mad' advertisements. 'Products' included: 'Mama Memory Meter', 'Fair and Ugly', 'Jojo Height Increaser' and 'Dead Bull Sleeping Drink' to name a few.
Also on Day 3 was the Debate competition organized by the Debating Society at BITS, Pilani - Dubai. The topic for the debate was- Media Today: Sensationalism over content. The 8 finalists battled it out for the top spot with each participant given 4 minutes to speak and two minutes for rebuttal. The musical part of the fest also began on day 3 with the Solo Singing Competition. 20 participants were selected after auditioning more than 80 students in the BPD version of Indian Idol! Finalists enthralled the audience with songs like: Shanti shanti, teri ore from Singh is Kinng, piyu bole, and the classic aaj jaane ki zid na karo.
March 18 was a melting pot for the literary event of Riddler, the theatre event - Histrionics and the duet singing and dancing competitions.
In Riddler, participants were handed a total of sixteen questions, out of which they had to answer four (or one from each of the four channels) in order to avail the Einstein's Riddle, a creation of Albert Einstien, which is purportedly solvable by only 2% of the world's population. 50 students participated in the debut edition of this event.
In histrionics, six teams of 9 students each presented six plays each of which portrayed a different way of presenting a story to the audience - drama, thrill, romance, comedy and suspense. The plays covered a wide variety of themes with 'Aamir' portraying the story of a martyred Indian Army Soldier, 'Magic Box' telling the audience about a doctor who tried to cure four patients suffering from silly phobias and 'The Ode', being a Romantic Ballad, where the martyred lover travels back through the sands of time to see his love once again. This event clearly showcased the diverse interests, thought processes, interpretations and perspectives of BPD students through the common medium of dramatics.
If Histrionics catered to the intellectual side of the BPD students, the duet singing and dancing competition whetted their appetite for unadulterated masti! Both the competitions had enthusiastic, cheering audience who egged the participants (pun unintended) on to do better. Highlight of the day was a duet dance by Gurpreet and Viren, dressed in full traditional Punjabi attire, dancing to the beats of the very befitting 'Singh is Kinng'!
The best was reserved for the last with the group dance competition and the Battle of the Bands. These events drew the biggest crowds as the students thronged not only to watch their friends perform but also join in with a jig or two! In the Eastern Dance Category participants danced to predominantly bollywood tunes with Billo Barber, Singh is Kinng, Rock On and Delhi 6 being particular favourites. Khalnayak also made a surprising entry! In the western dance category, the zombie step seemed to be a particular favourite with almost all the groups doing it at least once. One group constructed a motorcycle out of its members(!!) much to the shock and awe of the audience. The last competition for the event was the much awaited Battle of the Bands, where a record breaking 17 bands competed for the top spot. The songs performed ranged from 'Roadhouse Blues' by 'The Doors' to 'Dhoom Pichak Dhoom' by 'Euphoria' to the instrumental version of 'Choli ke peeche' from Khalnayak!
All the events were judged by a mix of BPD faculty, alumni and eminent personalities in the field of music, dance and drama. RJ Charu from Radio 4, Play director Buman Da ,Dr. Rizvi, the owner of the production unit 'Pratibimbh' and Bhuman from Shaiamik Davar's Dance Troupe were a few of the external judges. Faculty judges included Dr. Tanmay Panda, Dr. Shazi ShahJabeen and Dr. Maneesha Bhagchandani among others. Alumni members who gave special dance performance include Sukriti, Muzaffar and Imran.
