Edited by: S.Vishal

Design by: Shreethiga G.

January 2021. Monsoon had passed and the characteristic cool sea breeze had made its presence felt in the coastal city, showing signs of winter in crescendo. But it was a welcome change; after months of scorching heat and humid weather, Chennai’s Mediterranean climate meant that the winters were some of the most delightful parts of the year.

The dog days were over, and students returned to campus, fresh off the winter break between the even and odd semesters. “These are just a few of the reasons why the window before the start of the new semester in January is the perfect time to host both the cultural and tech fests”, Jack mused as he fell face-first on his bed, after a rather draining Day 0 – the test day before the big show. The following day was D Day, and he needed to get as much sleep as possible. To completely eliminate the possibility that he overslept, he set a specialised ringtone, which was a floppy disk (multiple ones tuned to different frequencies) rendition of The Imperial March.

Don’t ask me how exactly the piece was recorded, but I can tell you this much: it was a cacophonic monstrosity capable of frightening a deaf man out of his bed and hurling him six yards away. And so the next day, he woke up in similar fashion, put on his best clothes (well, at least compared to the shirt-short routine he’d become so accustomed to) and mounted his bicycle.

As he rode uphill, the fruits of the Ambience team’s labour slowly started to materialise in front of him. Although the whole road was deserted at this wee hour of dawn, save for the few men setting up food stalls in front of OAT, the sheer amount of decorative work flanking the road enraptured him. He jack-staposed this tranquil setting with the pomp and circumstance that was to follow in a few hours’ time, when crowds would buzz about in a festive atmosphere, as he let go of the handlebar, speeding downhill… till a twig lying a few metres ahead caught between the cycle spokes, cutting his epiphany short. Jack was thrown off his bike, and there was a big SPLASH as he fell into a nearby puddle of water.

When he tried to stand up, he felt a soft cushion under him, followed by a quick upward glance that revealed a roof above his head. An empty bottle lay on the bed. That’s when it struck him that the water bottle had fallen on him from the nearby table, waking him up.

At once, he realised that he was not on the road to CLT, but far far away. He was home, far away from his adopted home – IITM – where his heart lay.

Reminiscing insti

Sigh, who would’ve thought back in March 2020, that the lockdown would extend any longer than the summer break. Fast forward a year, and we’re still here, yearning to get back to our normal lives. Specifically, one question continues to plague the minds of thousands of insti students: when will we get back to insti! One year is a huge amount of time, considering the fact that most programs last up to five years at most. So many dreams and aspirations washed down the drown, so many prospective memories hindered. I deem two particular sets of people most unfortunate in this regard: the freshmen and the final year students. Both the groups are at pivotal stages of their lives, with the freshers just starting out their journey at insti, and the graduands longing for a few more days on campus before they bid their final adieux. Honestly, I can’t imagine myself in either of their shoes in these trying times.

The Fests: Shaastra & Saarang

Shaastra and Saarang have earned the prestigious reputation of being one of South Asia’s biggest tech and cultural fests respectively. With the advent of an online odd semester, it was high time people started to turn towards the elephant in the room. What if lockdown extended beyond December into the New Year? What would be the repercussions?

For some people, Saarang and Shaastra are merely flagship events that happen at a particular time of the year, where they take part in different activities, meet new people and have a lot of fun in general. But on the other side of the spectrum, there are others whose entire insti lives are defined by their involvement in the respective fests. They are the ones who work throughout the year, to ensure quality events, a good crowd, world-class performers, legendary panelists, and smooth and safe passage of the fortnight. A lot of people will tell you that being involved in Saarang or Shaastra was one of the best things that happened to them in insti. Now all of a sudden, there was a looming cloud of doubt; would the fests happen at all?

At some point, the possibility of having an online fest had to be entertained. Now the online mode of functioning was a very alien concept for both professors and students alike initially. It posed a lot of constraints and challenges for the organizing team, as quite a few things had to be sacrificed. It was going to be a herculean task to organize fests of this magnitude in a completely new manner. In order to decipher how exactly the two fests were planned and executed, we interviewed:

1. Pranav Hari (4th year Civil Engineering) – Evolve Core, who oversaw Spotlight, Summit-Architech, and Upskill
2. Arjun Bharat (4th year Computer Science Engineering) – Events Core, who ensured the smooth functioning of 8 verticals, 43 events, 25 student workshops
3. Unnikrishnan PV (4th year Mechanical Engineering) – Executive Head of Saarang and Sangam

who broke down their entire preparation over the course of a year. I will paraphrase their thoughts and opinions recorded during the interviews in the following sections.

Saarang

By summer 2020, an offline Saarang was still on the cards as they predicted an offline even semester. But with cases only shooting up all over the country, this was in serious jeopardy. As a result, two plans were formulated for budgeting and moving forward: online and offline modes with equal likelihood. And by the end of the Summer break, it became quite evident that the latter was the way to go.

Testing the Waters-

This was a first, so the waters had to be tested before any major decision was taken. Hence, the odd semester’s LitSoc season served as a guinea pig where they asked different clubs to experiment and run wild with ideas about the events they’d like to conduct and explore feasible options. LitSoc had the Amazing Race format where each club conducted one flagship event, which went about pretty smoothly without much hassle. A tentative window for Saarang in February was scheduled but there was an air of scepticism till about a month before the event. But the event that really got everyone’s spirits up was the Saarang Theme Release, which received an amazing response from students, freshers in particular. The chat box in the zoom call was buzzing with enthu freshers reacting positively to literally everything the hosts were talking about. Another factor that put a spring in everyone’s step was the confirmation of Airmeet as the official platform through which events would be conducted (besides, Airmeet was more than just a mere video conferencing platform – it would give Saarang that sense of coherence, rather than just a bunch of independent events).

Graphics, Quizzes, Music and More- the Saarang experience!

Coming to the fest itself, this Saarang witnessed an assortment of new events from all the clubs. One big observation from this Saarang was the fact that the minnow clubs that are usually overlooked gained much more traction due to the online format. The design team in particular has been historically overshadowed, but an online fest was their time. Moreover, with events like Motion Graphic Illustration, UIUX workshop, Digital Face Painting and Comic Competition, they got a lot more participation this time.

Another noteworthy addition to this list is the Classical Arts Club. Normally it hasn’t had much visibility in the past, but the young and charismatic convenors pulled off an amazing job, starting with follower engagement on the Instagram page a month before Saarang. In fact, this year had the highest ever turnout for classical arts!

On the contrary, few other clubs that are usually crowd-pullers and steal the show in an offline Saarang, slightly underperformed in terms of the number of participants. Essentially, this was a Saarang that levelled the playing field, and all clubs enjoyed their ups and downs. Well, almost all. Unfortunately, Ambience, FR and Security teams were basically unemployed, thanks to the format. Con, they became volunteers for other clubs.

Moving on to competitive literary events, the Quiz Club was without a doubt the biggest winner (was there ever a question?), with more than 250 registrations for each event, from all over the country; a normal Saarang would get a maximum of 100 participants, limited to South India. Dramatics events got more participation than usual owing to some innovative events like Stage Design, Radio Play and the workshop on Decoding a Play. Oratory and Comedy enjoyed usual participation as the change in format hardly affects their events. Apart from the usual lineup of Crossie, WTGW and Scrabble, Pun off – a newly introduced event – was well received by everyone who took part. Writing Club came up with a bunch of new events like Lights Camera Fiction (flash fiction with a screenplay element), Haibun (a new variant of Haiku) Workshop, and Talking Tolkien, which was a word building magazine. Overall, most events had a lot more participation compared to an offline event, particularly from North India, as the constraint of travel was practically nonexistent. Quiz and Gaming events were streamed on Youtube, which made them accessible to audiences around the world.

Choreo and Music events were the most affected ones, with a considerable drop in registrations. Choreo especially suffered a 60% drop, compared to the 400 odd participants from around 20 teams that take part in Choreo Night – one of the most sought after events.

Sponsorship concerns plagued most clubs, but the prize money for Music events was heavily dented… until a Messiah arrived in the form of Hum It – a startup company – that made a deal with the club for Decibels, the battle of the bands competition. They came up with the concept of 30 seconds of fame and opened the contest to Semi-Professional artists as well. As a result, prize money was boosted and high profile musicians were roped in to judge the event.

For the Not-so-Competitive people :3

When it came to the Non-Competitive Events, Spotlight was arguably the highlight of the show as it managed to draw an audience in excess of 400. Not to mention the star-studded lineup comprising Viswanathan Anand, Gautam Vasudev Menon, Ramachandra Guha, and the team of SCAM 1992 (groovy theme starts playing)! Despite working on a zero-budget model, the Meraki team, which facilitated the vintage car exhibition last year, managed to get some pretty good gigs, most of which were interactive workshops. All in all, the fest concluded successfully and the whole team pulled off the impossible: an online Saarang.

One of the biggest pros of an online fest is how the hassle of confirming a venue for a particular event is completely eliminated.

Furthermore, this also removed the constraint on parallel events. This in turn greatly reduced delay, with almost all events going as per schedule, with the odd 10-minute delay here and there. And all events were accessible at the tip of one’s fingers, without having to move around from place to place! Another heartening outcome of the fest was the increased bonding among team members, one that was lacking thanks to the online semesters and no proper face-to-face contact.

Lastly, but most importantly, the freshers played a huge part in the success of the fest, be it with their help as volunteers, or merely their zealous participation in every event. And if you’ve missed out on any of the action from Saarang, rest assured! All the content will be put up on the Saarang social media pages soon!

Shaastra

If Saarang started off the month in style, Shaastra topped it off with a bang. Here’s what Arjun Bharat and Pranav Hari had to share about the fest this year.

Akin to Saarang, Shaastra was in the same boat regarding the feasibility of an offline fest. Consequently, when the shift to online was finalised, Shaastra decided to take things to the next level: to create a global brand out of the fest.

Warm-up(s)

And in order to do that, it was imperative to continue to engage with relevant audiences throughout the year, not just the couple of months before the fest. Events team heads were selected in the month of April, followed by coordinators in the month of May. A general plan was discussed in a team meeting between cores and heads, where ideas were laid out. Problem statements were formulated and were analysed by heads before cores checked for feasibility, budget and possible sponsorship shortcomings in an online event. Once this was finalised, the question of sponsorship arose.

In general, the Events and Spons teams enjoy a symbiotic relationship, with pitching starting around May and culminating in September. With a few offline events in the build-up to Shaastra cancelled this year, the finance team then approved the budget for pre-Shaastra and Shaastra events.

Kicking things off, the Lockdown Stay@Home Lecture series was launched in the month of June, presenting a lineup boasting the likes of former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, former ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair, Quantum Computer Scientist Giles Brassard, to name a few. The lectures were a huge hit, amassing views in excess of 40,000! The whole series helped double the number of subscribers to the Shaastra Youtube channel, generating massive publicity for the fest. Riding this high, Shaastra Spark was organized, which consisted of events like quizzes and coding competitions. Next up, Shaastra Juniors was held on the 24th and 25th of October, which was a Mini Shaastra for school children. This consisted of lectures and competitions like Brainsqueeze, Case Study, Reverse Coding and an Online Scavenger Hunt, along with a series of 4 workshops on Web Development with Python, Geometric Creativity, 3D modelling and competition that required students to come up with the best Paper Plane design!

This event served as a trial run, and by the end, all teams were very well equipped to handle the real McCoy.

By December, an online Shaastra was planned for the month of February, thus capping off all the mini-events in style. A meeting was held to draft the overall budget with the cores and finance team, and they coordinated with the Design team for posters by the end of the month. A continuous content review process was established for the workshops, where respective coordinators examined the content and suggested changes. After the workshop trainers were selected through a specifically designed application process, the coordinators signed MoUs with the former and a revenue-sharing agreement was established and attested by the Dean. Various hackathons, Industry-defined Problem competitions and moot courts were finalised in January. As the big week drew closer, the publicity team recruited students from across the country as a part of their Campus Ambassador Program, who in turn publicised the fest throughout the month of February.

The big day finally arrived. There were a total of 43 events and 25 student workshops, coordinated by 8 verticals.

Alternate Realities! Infinite Possibilities!

Aerofest had drone-based events and aircraft modelling. After a brief period of absence, Biogen returned to Shaastra this year with competitions centred around a broad theme of COVID. The B-Events vertical, true to its name, conducted business events consisting of real-life case studies, consulting, and supply chain management events,  mainly targeted at MBA students. The Coding and Logic vertical offered an assortment of events, attracting hardcore coders and puzzle lovers alike. The former had multiple hackathons and programming contests to prove their mettle, while the rest of them competed in puzzle events involving deciphering patterns and a couple of quizzes. The Design and Build team usually conducts hands-on activities involving mechanical constructions, real life prototypes and robotic models, all held on the ground and topped off by the iconic RoboWars. But this year, they had to adapt and stick to CAD modelling. Similarly, ElecFest events like circuit design, arduino programming were adapted to the online format, where participants ran simulations on software like LTspice and EAGLE. Ignite was another new addition this year, presenting a line of events – from large scale industrial problems to the blitz chess tournament, conducted in collaboration with the Chess Club.

They also organized the 4th edition of the Intellectual Moot Court, where an actual courtroom was simulated, and presided by eminent judges from the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court of India. Surana and Surana, a law firm, were partners in conducting Moot Court

 

Shaastra presented a lineup of 25 workshops – 22 student-run and 3 company run. The student workshop trainers were mostly CFI regulars, selected through an application process. Programming, 3D Modelling, AI and Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Mars Rover Design were some of the workshops run by students. Among the company run ones, Generative Design, Signal Processing and CryptoCurrency workshops were held by Autodesk, Matlab and Traklabs respectively.

A highlight of this year’s fest was the Shaastra Smart City Challenge.

After the UN declared 2021 as the year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, that was the key theme explored this year. There were seven different events, each corresponding to one of the 7 verticals and consequently one area of development towards building a smart city. Acknowledged and appraised by UNESCO, this event was a huge success.

 

The Spotlight Lecture series of 2020 had 3 international panelists, all of them acquired rather serendipitously. But this year, more international panelists and some top-level Indian panelists could be targeted without due to lesser constraints. Unlike an offline fest, where they have to travel to the venue, they could deliver the lecture from the comfort of their home. Besides, travel costs were also saved this time around. The dream team of panelists consisted of not one, but three Nobel laureates, along with stalwarts from Alphabet, WHO and ISRO. This was also the first-ever Shaastra to witness a lecture demonstration of RoboThespian and Cleo, the world’s first humanoid acting robots. Moreover, all the lectures were done on a completely pro bono basis! Both these and the Stay@Home lecture series were Fireside chats, where the panelists were interviewed by coordinators instead of a monologue by the former, which was another first for the fest. Speakers also answered crowd-sourced questions in a casual QnA session.

Not Atta, it is Atthah!

One of the highlights of this Shaastra was Atthah: a VR platform that simulated the whole campus (including deers and monkeys) and had portals corresponding to locations like CLT, OAT, SAC, where different events would take place. In a way, this gave the whole fest a decent dose of insti feels. And for the first time ever, a tech fest had a comedy show as Kenny Sebastian lit up the evening with an interactive and fun-filled session. As Saarang didn’t have a comedy show this year, Shaastra was able to check that box and uphold the collective experience of both the fests. Apart from a few hiccups on the first day due to the massive load on the virtual platform server, the fest went more or less as planned. On the whole, everyone was satisfied with how it all panned out. To top it off, this edition recorded more than 20,000 participants – the highest ever turnout in the history of Shaastra

Nevertheless, there were a few pitfalls that the online mode presented.

There is definitely a lack of a festive atmosphere. But apart from that, an online event also meant that they’d be competing with the Internet; participants sitting at home would have access to different forms of entertainment at their fingertips, be it the India-England Test series or Netflix.

In consequence, there is a diluted attention span. Arjun feels that participants couldn’t get the best out of workshops in the online format when compared to the hands-on experience with prototypes otherwise. Excess screen time can also induce strain in the participants, which may prove to be detrimental. Plagiarism is another issue that continues to plague online competitions of any sort and to counter this, the team has come up with proctoring software to counter any form of cheating. Internet connectivity and bandwidth issues are unavoidable, especially with large numbers of people taking part from all around the country. He also bemoans that unlike an offline fest, where one can see the fruits of one’s labours and get acknowledged by people face-to-face, that aspect is completely lost, with zoom meetings ending abruptly after an event.

On the other hand, Arjun felt the lack of travel and travel costs provided students from all around the country more incentive to take part. Moreover, the passport fee for all of the events was completely waived off this time! This was also a great opportunity for content and design teams to experiment on ways to increase online following, evaluate the pros and cons, and employ similar strategies next year. Overall, this was a great chance to showcase the institute’s grandeur as a technical institution and set a good precedent for hybrid models in the future. Unlike yesteryears, people can also avail all of Shaastra’s recorded workshops throughout March right here: shaastraworkshops.podia.com!

There were quite a few takeaways too. Pranav strongly believes that the effects of the online fest will pervade the tenets of fest organization well after the pandemic has subsided. Video conferencing as a lecturing format will become more prevalent as it opens the door to a huge number of international panelists, along with the added benefit of optimised costs. The future cores can also consider shifting the Publicity team’s Shaastra Live (a couple of workshops and events before Shaastra to build up the hype before the main event) to an online format.

The current team had greater bonding compared to the ones that handled the offline format due to the continuous build-up of mini-events leading to the magnum opus. This year went on to show that even in the face of a large number of adversities, they could pull off a fest of this magnitude with great success.

And lastly, they would like to extend their sincere gratitude to every coord and head involved in Shaastra this year.

Conclusion

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was that time of the year when everyone is usually buzzing about from place to place, getting things done at the last minute, finalising venues and timings. It was also the time of lockdown, social distancing, and seemingly perpetual boredom and monotony. Could an online fest really replicate the spectacles that are Shaastra and Saarang? Airmeet calls and discord channels replaced bustling mornings at CRC and cold nights at OAT.

Waking up and sitting in front of a screen for the entire day isn’t exactly festive, especially after having attended class that very morning!

The current batch of freshies is one of the most enthu ones, evident from their participation in the Theme Reveals. And this partly stems from the fact that they haven’t set foot on campus yet, which results in an intense FOMO. But the moment the Proshows vignette was played during the Saarang Theme reveals, the chat box was flooded with a string of ‘F’s. One does feel for them though.

What they wouldn’t give to revel amidst the lights and music at OAT during Rock or EDM night! Nonetheless, the fests managed to take place at particularly testing times, and despite all the sacrifices and minor issues, they went down as long weekends worth remembering. They brought together people from all parts of the country, who convened to contribute to the success of the event and thus strengthening the bond within different teams. The effects of these online fests will continue to have an impact on future events.

Next year, as much as one hopes to get back to insti, offline or online – the show will go on.