ZEITGEIST- Embodiment Of Awesomeness

It is often assumed that being in IITs is all about being immersed in books all day long, coding on our laptops all night and good grades but it is not actually so. IITs are home to some of the biggest cultural extravaganzas of our country like the rendezvous and mood indigo among others.

And in continuing with the trend IIT Ropar organizes its own cultural festival.

ZEITGEIST- “The spirit of times”.

ZEITGEIST is a German word which literally means the spirit of a particular period or time. Coming into existence in the year 2010 with the sheer hard work and rigorous efforts of our pioneer batch of 2008. And from 2010 onwards it has become the largest and most popular college festival of Punjab recording an average footfall of around 20000 people excluding the participants.

It is 3-4 day festival which is organized every year. There are many events which are organized ranging from dance, music, literature to drama and gaming.

EVENTS

ZEITGEIST plays host to some very prestigious and popular events which are

  1. Lashkara - It's the fashion show where teams from different colleges participate and show their fashion skills and creativity. The action and excitement of this event is unparalleled.
  2. Mr. and Mrs. ZEITGEIST- This competition invites individual entries and is an amazing and exciting event for both the audience and the participants. The prestige of this competition can be seen in the fact that last year's winners got to star in a TV advertisement.
  3. Torque - The war of bands is one of the most exhilarating and mesmerizing events in the ZEITGEIST calendar. Playing host to some of the best and upcoming bands of India this is one of the must watch events of ZEITGEIST.
  4. Tarang - The group dance event is a really awesome and captivating experience with some of the most fantabulous performances from dance groups all over North India.
  5. Smack That- The street dance event is one of a kind which invites the best street dancing squads to prove their mettle and capture the audience's imagination with their dancing.

    6. STAR NIGHTS

    ZEITGEIST is not only about events and participants but as a tradition every night after all the events are finished we have a star night which is the best part of the ZEITGEIST. ZEITGEIST in its 7 years of existence has been home to some of the biggest, most popular and talented stars of Bollywood and the music industry including Mohit Chauhan, Gajendra Verma, Sharry Mann and Zephyrtone among others.

    Personal experience

    Zeitgeist 2k17 was my first experience at observing a college fest so closely. The best part of the fest is when all the work we did to organise the fest didn't go waste. The preparations for the fest started much before the date of the event.
    Initially the students who were willing to work for the festival were divided into 3 teams that are

    1. Sponsorship team
    2. Event Management team
    3. Creativity team

      4. I was in the sponsorship team and we started the work well before hand as we were required to contact different companies so that they could sponsor the event. Working in the sponsorship team was a learning curve for me since it helped me learn how to talk and deal with the people from corporate sector and improved my conversing and convincing skills. It was a very new and quite enriching experience for me personally.

      The creativity team started their work a week before the ZEITGEIST and they did their job wonderfully well and the decorations put up in the campus were exquisite. The theme of the fest was “Elixir of darkness” and in accordance with the theme the creativity team put up caricatures of scary creatures and things all around the campus thus giving a eerie touch the campus which was complementing the theme fantastically well.

      While the event management started it's work 2-3 months prior to the ZEITGEIST as each team had to contact and invite participants for their respective events and worked really hard to make ZEITGEIST a grand success. I was a part of the fun events team where we were to play fun games with the people who had come to watch the fest and it was fun to interact with different people.

      The campus atmosphere became less studious and the mood of fun and excitement set in a week before. Even the most studious of the lot came out to work and participate and make ZEITGEIST great. The joy and pleasure which we derived while working for ZEITGEIST and then see that our work was brought to fruition was unmatched. That feeling of awesomeness was indescribable and is the one which should be experienced by everyone atleast once.

      During the festival days I was part of the security team so I stood near the barricades right in the front of the stage during the Mohit Chauhan concert and believe me when I tell you that the experience is unforgettable and imbibes in your mind forever.The crowd was really ecstatic and they went crazy dancing to Mohit chauhan’s tunes the crowd became so crazy that they almost went out of control with the barricades on the verge of breaking The beats of the musical instruments and the vibrations in the atmosphere mixed with people celebrating and dancing all around truly was a sight to behold.

      The vibe during the fest was awesome and the fun we had during the fest was the zenith of what we had ever imagined All in all the fest time was one of the most fantastic and captivating times of my college life and it surely gave me the feeling of the spirit of times making me truly ZEITGEIST.

      - Ahsaas Sharma (2016 Batch Mechanical Engineering)