Technical Festivals in India

Before we move on to academic and cultural college festivals it is important to see why we have festivals at all! Ancient Egyptians believed festivals to be the chance for ´breaking out of the daily routine´ which later gave way to religious and seasonal festivals like the ones we have today. Modern festivals are high on cultural relevance and especially in India, most of them are of religious significance.

But sticking ourselves to the good Egyptians who were instrumental in shaping the global culture as we perceive it was a few centuries ago, I think the best reason to celebrate a festival is to ´break away from the routine´. College festivals are instituted for this very purpose of giving the students a break from the regular academic life. But does it still remain to be so?

To answer it in a single phrase, ´Not quite´.

Today cultural festivals are all about huge sums of money and exhibition of one´s wealth and prosperity. Someone who perfers to not decorate and illuminate the exterior of his house on the occasion of a festival is sending a silent signal of his bad financial state, thereby raising concerns among his well-wishers and raising the anxiety among his creditors and lenders. On the other hand someone who spends lavishly on a festival is inviting envy of his neighbours on his success.

This trend has percolated into academic festivals as well where money and exhibition of the institution´s success has taken the front seat in conducting of festivals. The ´organisational budget´ and ´prize money´ have gone on to define the success of a festival. With a pre-established competition among the colleges in our country to attract the best brains from the millions, the annual festivals are not spared from being drawn to this cat and dog ´war´! To see a glimpse of how bad things can get visit here.

But then again shouldn´t science and technology get the upper hand in technical festivals? I am afraid that is not the case with them. Neither are they simply a means to break off from the routine. There is cut throat competition out there and a lot of money involved in them! Infact some people make a good living off contests and events with each one offering around Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 . Corporate firms are also involved in this business by ensuring that they invest in the most profitable festival so that they get maximum publicity for the money they give. Once again branding becomes prominent and we have surveys that rank technical festivals on account of popularity and money. Techfest is the established leader among these festivals followed by Shaastra, Pragyan and Kshitij.

However bad it may look, there is a brighter aspect to these technical festivals too. Before coming to that, it is advantageous to discuss the major differences between Indian colleges and the ones in the west. Firstly, we are driven by competition of numbers and population. Secondly none of them, with a few exceptions, are known for invention oriented research or famous scientists and researchers. And hence as a matter of fact their only means of reaching out to the world is through their alumni. It is the alumni of IITs who settled in the Silicon Valley who made the brand IIT. Unfortunately that brand has been unbeaten for decades together now indicating unparalleled research orientation of the IITs and also inability of other institutes to catch up with them.

Technical festivals provide a platform for these tier2 and tier 3 colleges to reach out to the international community of elite luminaries. Pragyan has been pivotal in acquainting legends like Noam Chomsky and Jimmy Wales with NIT Trichy. Similar is the case with many other colleges too. No other aspect can draw the attention of such great people towards our relatively incompetent and red tape bound colleges.

Besides this, the healthy competition that prevails among the institutions and the prestige that automatically gets attached to these technical festivals, encourages a lot of young students to develop the entrepreneurial spirit. Every technical festival involves planning and execution of diverse faculties including brainstorming for ideas, planning, designing and publicising, marketing to corporates, negotiating, deal making and execution. Besides it also gives these students a real experience of organisational culture and intra-organisational stress management.

We all know about the stress and tension that appears in an employee, especially a dedicated one, when he is overlooked for a promotion inspite of the fact that he has put in as much effort as the one who is selected. A lot many books have been written on this plot. A friend of mine who worked in one such festival tells me that he could experience a very similar tension when his best friend and classmate was chosen to lead the festival overlooking him. However the ability to recover from this depression quite quickly has helped him realise the importance of being detached from appraisals and promotions, and also provides him an opportunity for self-analysis on what made him not be chosen for the top post. This might sound silly, but anyone who has experienced the similar stress at thirty can tell you how invaluable this experience can be for someone about to enter the organisational circles.

Another important training that a person receives is that of being a boss. It is difficult to take up the top post in a company without being mauled by the sudden sense of responsibility and without falling prey to the desperate measures adopted by subordinates intending to win your favour. While I have myself been in a top post in a technical festival, I have seen how some people try to extend motive-driven favours and support to win my goodwill. Because of the prestige that is associated with these top positions and the money involved, it is a matter of pride for any college student to be associated with such festivals in a big scale. Naturally there needs no more justification why people crave for these positions and resort to measures that supplement their wishes.

Handling the media and maintaining brand image are two things that an individual generally faces after ten years of service. As an organiser of one of these technical festivals, these students get to experience and learn it at a very young age giving them a competitive edge over others for top positions in their future organisations.

Last but not the least, a great deal of imbalance is generally experienced between the demands of the organisers and the deliverables of the administration of the institutions they represent. With a wide difference in age and lack of technical adeptness among these administrators, this is a genuine experience of ´the boss pressure´ for these students as they battle it out to get their ideas across to these administrators while still remaining in the receiving end.

Technical festivals provide a platform for the overall development of these students and it ceases to remain just another day off from the academic routine. The experience is more like that of running a business and managing your people. But how much do colleges encourage these activities? It is an irregular space. While some college provide these students with complete free-hand in organising the festivals some provide them absolutely no freedom. Some have lavish budgets while someothers have to make do with a part of those amounts.

However still, these technical festivals are providing the much needed avenue for Indian institutes to exhibit their expertise to the outside world and with the passing years they are attracting more and more participants from outside the country too! Another important thing to mention here is about those large number of people who have carved a niche for themselves in this upcoming industry by starting up companies that organise shows and workshops. These people make a large sum of money for every festival and no wonder that this industry is booming irrespective of the recession!

All in all, technical festivals in India are not just chillers from daily routine. They are a unique experience for the young students, a medium of promotion of the Indian educational system, a platform for Indian colleges to show their expertise and draw popularity across the globe and also the means of livelihood for many young people dependend on such festivals for workshops and stage shows.

So did you really think it was a child´s play?