SUC Report Cards 2019: Deep Shah
Written on December 28th, 2019 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}As of the First Semester 2019-20, the Cultural Secretary (Boys) has fulfilled 2/9 of his manifesto points, while 4/9 are in progress and 3/9 have not been fulfilled yet. You can find his manifesto here, on the Election Commission Facebook page.
NOSTALGIA BOOK (IN PROGRESS)
The main objective of the nostalgia book is to preserve the memories of all the events done over the year. The Cultural Secretary said that book is being passed on to clubs that have organised events and they can use it to store all the memorable moments they have from the event. The idea was inspired from the ELAS wall that has a collection of memories in the form of pictures from the past few years. The cultural secretary aims at providing a source for the preservation of our college days that can be looked at by our future self.
BITSCON (NOT FULFILLED)
Aimed at being BPHC's Mini-Comicon, exclusively for BITSians, the Cultural Secretary said that he plans to conduct the event in the coming semester. However, seeing that the dates for this haven't been announced yet and that there been no public announcement for the formation of an OC for this event, this point in the manifesto is clearly nowhere near fulfillment yet. The Cultural Secretary promised that the planning for this would happen over winter vacations, and that he is working on forming an organising committee (OC) that would be in charge of handling the publicity and sponsorship of this event. Deep further promised not to charge any money from the General Body (GB) for this event, and that the entirety of the event would be funded through sponsorship.
YOUTUBE CHANNELS (NOT FULFILLED)
Having our own YouTube channel will showcase our work to the public where it’ll be more appreciated and also will be a motivation for all the clubs. Even though most clubs already have their own channels; the dance club has the most subscribers. So, the Cultural Secretary is planning on making that channel a common platform for all the BPHC content and monetizing it. Of course, only with the complete agreement of the head of the Dance Club. Hopefully, this idea will be implemented in the coming semester.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW CULTURAL ACTIVITIES IN PEARL (IN PROGRESS)
The Cultural Secretary said that he is working on bringing new events to Pearl aimed at making the cultural festival more exciting. Inspired by the events held during Waves (BITS Goa's cultural fest), some of the planned events include rap battles, dance faceoffs, beatboxing faceoffs and a few more.
REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS (FULFILLED)
Organising cultural performing nights on regional festivals allow people to participate and celebrate their festivals wholeheartedly while giving them a platform to showcase their talents as well. Quite a few of the regional associations have been conducting cultural nights for a few festivals with inclusion of musical nights and jams. The Cultural Secretary is hopeful that this will also be implemented in the upcoming semesters.
DEDICATED OC TEAMS (FULFILLED)
OC teams have already been formed that will manage the organising, publicity and the complete working of events during pearl. These OC teams are headed by the 2nd yearites. The main objective of forming the OC teams was to decrease the workload on the other departments that usually handle all the work. It provides an efficient way of handling and managing the events. Deep Shah has confirmed that publicity, sponsorships and designing teams have already been formed.
GRAFFITI ART (NOT FULFILLED)
This point aimed at introducing Graffiti art in campus, aimed at making our campus look more beautiful and showcasing talent through art. However, the Cultural Secretary said that he has been unable to get permission to grafitti the walls yet, from the new Chief Warden, Prof. C P Kiran. He, however, claimed that he had convinced the earlier Chief Warden Prof. Kumar Pranav Narayan to allow for some grafitti at Nescafé lawn benches. With the appointment of the new chief warden, it is uncertain if this will happen at all anymore. However, Deep said that he would try to work on this throughout next semester as well.
CULTURAL OUTREACH TEAMS (IN PROGRESS)
DePP has the list of events and festivals in and around Hyderabad to inform the general body about all cultural events, cafe open mics and college fests happening in the city.
The Cultural Secretary has also appointed a few juniors who basically form the Cultural Outreach team who are working closely with DePP and ensuring that the work is being done.
EXCURSIONS AND TRIPS (IN PROGRESS)
Trips outside Hyderabad can be a wonderful time to spend with our friends and make the most of our college days. The cultural secretary has been talking with companies that arrange such excursions and is currently planning to organize it during the summer vacations. He has decided to consider the willingness of students by organising a poll, sometime in the coming semester.
A part of this point in the manifesto also talks about reimbursement of transport for students who participate and win in competitions off-campus events. Deep promised that these reimbursements would happen and the he would try to provide the campus transport bus for competitions held in the city.
Work Outside the Manifesto
SANSKRITI
Deep Shah said that this was the first Sanskriti to have a Formal Inauguration and a performance by rappers (Sanskriti 2019 played host to rappers StreetViolator and RapBox, who performed in a mix of English, Telugu and Hindi). Deep Shah believes that the inclusion of rappers was quite a huge progress as they were able to have someone from outside the campus contribute to the event in a significant way. Sadly, the logistical delays in these two events almost caused some student cultural performances to be cancelled.
RENAISSANCE
Renaissance 2019, the Inter-Bhavan Cultural Competitions, was organized this year after a gap of one year. Renaissance was conducted the last time in 2017 Semester 1, but did not happen in 2018.
PLANS TO REVIVE SHANGRILA
Deep Shah said that he intends to revive Shangrila next semester. Shangrila is the combination of Dance, Music and Dramatics Nights, all clubbed together in three consecutive days. The last time the Shangrila was organised this way was in November 2016. While music, dance and dramatics nights happened regularly over last two years as well, they were held on different, non-consecutive days spaced out throughout the semester. The Cultural Secretary plans to revive the three-day Shangrila and also add an extra day for non-performing clubs to showcase their work.