Students juggled exam schedules, sacrificed sleep and overcame loss to give their best in the preliminary rounds of Subhas Bose Institute of Hotel Management presents TTIS Challenge 2020, powered by Winkies The Cake Specialist, on Thursday and Friday.
A band of five teenagers from Hindmotor High School reached the Kund area of City Centre Salt Lake, the fest venue, well before 10am on Thursday. They kept jamming for Unconventional Orchestra till the event started after 2pm.
“We did not get much time to practise. We lost our lead percussionist, Subhamoy Sengupta, a few days ago. His sudden death forced us to opt out of Fusion Band, but we still wanted to participate in Unconventional Orchestra. We are in shock but our music will be a tribute to our friend. Winning or losing doesn’t matter,” said Judhajit Bhattacharjee of Class XII, a band member.
Winning came second for several participants at this year’s TTIS Challenge. As the prelims ended on Friday, many were glad for the experience and also for getting a voice through the fest.
Medha Parnasree of BDM International had a bright scar painted on one side of her face. “I will walk as an acid-attack survivor. Our fashion parade is all about inclusion. One of my friends will walk as a member of the third gender. We believe fashion is for all,” she said.
The Class XI student, along with her friends, attended the morning classes in school before rushing to City Centre. “It was difficult preparing for exams and practising for the Challenge. But the cause is important,” Medha said.
In Fusion Dance, students of Maria Memorial High School portrayed women’s safety and raised their voice against rape. “We rehearsed for a week. This is a good platform to raise our voice against abuse,” said Rajoshini Mondol of Class VII.
Shreya Adak of Contai Public School woke up at 4.15am on Thursday to reach the Salt Lake mall from her home in the Digha area.
“This is my first time here. I love writing but more than that women’s empowerment is close to my heart. I was glad I got to voice my opinion on women’s security in Creative Writing (English),” she said.
For Avanti Basu of Assembly of Christ School, it was all about having fun. The Class XI girl impressed the audience with her rendition of raga Todi in the Eastern Solo prelims.
Another first-timer, Nandini Sharma of Sunrise English Medium School, took part in B-boying mainly for the exposure and to test her break-dancing skills. Ritesh Sarkar and Chandril Saha of Adamas International School came to know of TTIS Challenge five days ago through Facebook and decided to take part in Unconventional Orchestra.
“Our viva voce exams were on. We finished it and came here to make music with tin cans, pipes and sticks. We wanted to show the world that passion is as important as classroom lessons,” said Ritesh of Class XI.
Last year’s Champion of Champions student Yubasana Kapas enrolled as a last-minute surprise in mask-making.
“I studied till 2am for my exam, slept for two hours, and came here to voice my dissent against CAA through art,” said the Class X student at Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School. Yubasana’s schoolmate, Meghamala Mitra, had to convince her parents hard before she could perform in Eastern Solo.
Sayoni Das and Sourodeep Dhar of Mother International School, Konnagar, and their friends pleaded with the teachers to postpone their exams so that they could participate in Fusion Dance on Friday. “We will write our exams later. Participating in TTIS Challenge is as important to us. We are also looking forward to making it to the finals. We don’t mind the distance and the travel it involves. Performing on Sunday at an energetic venue such as this will be a treat for which no sacrifice is enough,” said Sourodeep Dhar of Class XI.
Around eight teams will be shortlisted for every group event and 10 students will make it to every individual event in the finals that will be held over the weekend at the same venue. The results will be declared on Sunday.
