Dhanak: Bizarre, but interesting events

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The third day of Dhanak fest, the Inter-collegiate Cultural Festival organised by Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), was illuminated by spirited performance from the Delhi-based band Kaash.  The musical fiesta, which lasted for more than two hours, enthralled the music lovers with some fast western numbers intermixed with traditional Indian numbers based on folk tradition. In addition to the stage performance, various other games were also organised. The programmes on the third day started off with a quiz based on films. The key attraction of the day was a treasure hunt competition, named ‘Call of booty’. The preliminary round of this programme had witnessed a surge of participants. After the preliminary round, top six teams were selected for the final round. Many of the events were unconventional in their format. ‘Trashmorphing’, a unique event where the contestants had to transform the trash provided to them into meaningful materials, was well-received by the contestants. Some of the events like T-shirt painting and hairstyling seemed to go down well with the participants. Participants of the T-shirt painting competition were provided with blank white T-shirts and dyes. The contestants merrily threw colours at the priced T-shirts in the run for the prizes. Various materials, including tomatoes and potatoes, were used by the participants of the hairstyling competition to deck up their tresses. This bizarre, but enthusiastic, event was the most cherished item of the day as the spectators had something to cheer about after glancing at the newly-morphed look of their pals. Later in the evening, the students, including girls, trouped to the basketball court and took part in ‘Gully cricket’ and ‘Street football’. These games were radical in their format as the very norms paralleled the conventional game practices. The games were tailored to provide entertainment. A screening of short films made by the students from various institutions was also held. The Festival will conclude on Monday.