Amidst the lush green lawns and under the historic BMCC roof, youngsters from colleges across the city will converge to celebrate Indian heritage, to celebrate our belonging, our ‘astitva’! Astitva has a core purpose of making people realise the extraordinary brilliance of Indian heritage, unmatchable intricacy of our monuments, wide diversity of Indian flora and fauna, and integrity of our culture.
The annual college fest organised by BMCC Heritage Collective titled Astitva, which will be entering its ninth year soon, is proud to have consistently accomplished its purpose of promoting Indian heritage and propounding the grandeur of India. Every year, it hosts several inter-college competitions, each with the essence of tradition as its theme.
Various prominent personalities like Indian vocalist Mahesh Kale, Marathi actor-director, Subodh Bhave, accomplished archaeologist Dr GB Deglurkar, Marathi author P K Ghanekar and others have graced the event as chief guests in the past. Eminent artists like Ramdas Palsule, Milind Dheere, Vishwajeet Naik, Tejas Modak and several others have judged the competition in the bygone years. This year, Anand Bhate, a well-known Indian classical vocalist and recipient of several eminent awards including National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer, will be the chief guest.
Astitva is organised at an extensive level covering all the city colleges. It has witnessed multi-fold increase in the number of participants over the years hosting over 1200 participants in 2017. This year, the event will be held on August 24 and will see youngsters vying for the top ranks in 10 competitions namely Nrityalankar (sance), Vadyalankar (instrumental), Shabdalankar (essay), Ranganubhav (painting), Rekhatan (sketching), Hastarang (mehendi), MahaQuiz (quiz), Clickathon (photography), Fruit-carving (phalakruti), and Logo Tag (logo designing).
Astitva 2018 will have interesting themes and fresh new competitions. The dance competition, Nrityalankar will revolve around the theme ‘Performance based on historical events or mythology’. The performances are envisaged to bring creative illustration of legends and events.
The rhythms of ragas and taals will fill the air and the campus grounds at the Vadyalankar competition. One of the essay topics of Shabdalankar is, ‘Indianisation of education — need of the hour’. This may provoke the college youth to think about the possible ways to reform the education system by crawling back to our roots.
To pay tribute to famous writer and humorist, Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Rekhatan will have students making his portrait and other artwork revolving around him. That is one of the themes of the sketching competition.
While, the themes for Ranganubhav are ‘Horizon and Seasons’, MahaQuiz is based on ‘Majestic Maharashtra’, which will impart the spectators with rich knowledge about the state.
Given the discussions on generation gap, Astitva has tried to convey the beauty of such relationships through one of the Clickathon themes, ‘Generations’.
To foster the statewide plastic ban, Logo Designing competition has ‘Plastic Free Zone’ as one of its themes. Another step taken in the direction is going ‘Plastic Free’ entirely. Astitva has not just reduced but discontinued further plastic consumption. It has reused the plastic material of previous years and has given the non-reusable things to recycling units. The strict adherence to the principle of 3Rs — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — is evident at this year’s event.
Astitva has persistently shown endeavour to explore new ideas and hunt fresh talent. This year, it has introduced Fruit Carving and Logo Tag to widen the competition scope.
Adding another flavour to the competition, Astitva brings to you ‘Fashion Show’ showcasing elegant and ethnic Indian attires on the ramp. So, get ready to be a part of this journey as BMCC Heritage Collective Team welcomes you to join in the celebrations.