Hansraj’s digital event rocks campus
Students of Hansraj College hosted a digital event recently, which had actors, sports personalities and even musicians as speakers, who spoke about their life journey.
When actors, sports personalities and entrepreneurs spoke candidly about the struggles they faced in their journey, it was nothing short of a shot of inspiration to the college students facing the pandemic. “Jeevan jeene ka maza tab hi hai jab struggle hoti hai... We brought such stories, and conducted this program digitally amid a pandemic against all odds, which also is the theme of the program,” says Rama, principal, Hansraj College.
At the recently held fourth TEDx event, the first edition of the series to ever be conducted online, there were many a celebrities, who shared their life struggles and the students in attendance filled the comments section with messages such as ‘Hansraj OP’, ‘This event is so lit’, and ‘Go Hansraj!”
With most events shifting to the digital space, students worked hard to make the reel experience as exciting as the real one. And, must say, they achieved quite a feat! “We knew we had even bigger shoes to fill than expected with bringing an event as big as TEDx to a large remote audience this year. But, it has been a rewarding experience, and we managed to garner an audience of over 500,” says Anurag Gupta, president of the organising committee. And managing all the coordination from home, Keshav Gupta, general secretary of the organising committee, adds, “It was challenging to bond with the team and collaborate virtually. But all this has forced us to think out of the box.”
At the start of the event, gymnast Dipa Karmarkar spoke about her life challenges in the first segment. “I persevered through tough times. Tripura didn’t have so many facilities to train but my coach used to tell me, even if you don’t have a lot, focus on what you have and build on from there,” she said. Her session was followed by a beatbox performance from Dilip Beatboxer, and an interesting talk by IAS Sonal Goel — on her journey as a woman from Haryana where she battled patriarchy to becoming an IAS officer, to present day challenges of being a female in a work place.
Actor Annup Sonii, who was also part of the event, received repeated request from the students to recite the popular dialogue: “Savdhaan rahe, satark rahe” in his style! And singer Manmeet Singh spoke about him going against all odds, by not joining his family business, to go to Mumbai to make music.
Shyam Pathak, popular for portraying the character of Popatlal from the comedy TV show Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, spoke about his journey from living in a chawl in Ghatkopar to becoming popular for his role in the series. “Dua kare ki is saal popatlal ki shaadi zaroor ho jaaye,” he said jokingly while talking to the audience.
The digital event found footing among most of the students of the college, despite being an online event. “Students enjoyed a lot and even came up to us later and thanked us,” says Aryan Azad, general secretary of the organising committee.
Students worked hard at making the reel experience as exciting as the real one! “Since it’s online this year, its quite different but the organising team has really worked hard to keep up to the set standards,” says Shivam Goenka, Executive Producer, of the organising committee.
It takes no guesses that which talk garnered the highest audience! Students enjoyed Singh humming the Hangover song! “The TEDx talk by Manmeet Singh was lapped up by the attendees. His inspiring story and humble nature garnered everyone’s attention,” says Keshav Singhania, vice president of the organising committee.
Author tweets @FizzyBuddha