Students of IEM college put their books away one weekend and expressed themselves through song, dance, art, and sports. It was the 33rd edition of their annual cultural fest, Iempact, and lots were in store.
Those like Adrija Acharya had a ball on stage. She took part in the music contest Westwood, a word formed by amalgamating “western” and “Bollywood”. “I sang Ghar more pardesia (from the film Kalank),” said the IEM student who has been learning classical music since she was three.
“Education is important at our age for stability in life, but music has no age and can be pursued lifelong. This is why despite having tech fests we long for cultural fests with music and dance,” said the student, who with her friends also presented an out-of-contest fusion take on songs like Naam gum jayega and Laal ishq.
Blindfolded dance
The blindfolded dance
The dancers put up exciting shows too. Prerona Paul’s team performed part of their piece blindfolded. “We were showcasing rural Bengal and dancing to folk numbers. We depicted the daily activities of farmers such as ploughing and using the tubewell. And to show their blind faith in moneylenders we presented that portion with blindfolds,” said the BCA student.
It was a challenge but the girls had counted the steps beforehand to ensure they faced the audience at all times.
An absorbing off-stage event was the debate, which drew more than 20 participants. “The topic for the preliminary round was space colonisation and the final was on preventing access to violent video games,” said Sneha Biswas, a core member of the organising committee.
Reeswav Chatterjee of Bankura University argued that it was quite impossible to block out violence. “The Tom and Jerry cartoon is violent but can you block that? And in today’s world, it is not possible to block anything. Youths find a way to it. The details of World War II, that they study in history, are as gory as they can get so why deny them the same in games? A world without violence is an impossible utopia,” said the boy who bagged the top prize.
Prof Sanghamitra Poddar, dean of student affairs and alumni relations, said this fest was an outlet for students who are otherwise occupied with academics round the year. “This is why it has remained popular in its 33rd year,” said the faculty member who has been heading the event for 16 years. “We keep it fresh by introducing new events like beatboxing and face painting,” she added.
Faces as canvas
The winners of the face-painting contest
The live art canvases for face painting were a delight to watch. The topics were nature and Indian folk art, and Roshni Kundu had painted the sunset on her own face, Shreyasi Nag had painted half her face as Shiva and the other half as Parvati. The winner was Farah Ali of Sister Nivedita University who had painted her friend Adnan Nadeem.
“I interpreted Nature as life and death. So half his face was bright and sunny with a 3D butterfly model stuck to it. The other half was dark with a 3D spider,” explained Farah.
There was three-a-side futsal too that saw participation from alumni as well. “The teams do not have to be college-specific. The event is open to anyone till the age of 25 so several alumni, who were star footballers during their time in IEM, returned,” said one of the co-ordinators, Pritha Saha.
One such was Anagh Ghosh, a 2022 passout. “I love playing soccer and play tournaments across the city, be it in Dum Dum or Salt Lake’s FD or BH blocks. Our group Brazil Kolkata fielded three teams at Iempact and we won all top three top slots,” smiled the student, who is now preparing for higher studies.
The headline act for the fest was by Arkaprava and the Creekz, whose vocalist Arkaprava Paul was a fourth-year computer science student of IEM. “We played Bollywood fusion songs like Dil se re (Dil Se), Har kisi ko (Janbaaz) and Ramta yogi (Taal),” said the music club head of the college. “It’s a special feeling to be playing in one’s own campus and the crowd enjoyed it too.”