Lesser known Harvest Festivals of India

India is a land of festivities and various different festivals are celebrated. Being the colorful nation that India is, the most vibrant harvest festivals of India involve interesting mythological legends and joyous celebrations. They are incredible and diverse just like its people and landscapes and let’s one experience the beauty of the Indian culture.

Some of the lesser knowns of these harvest festivals are :

Jallikattu also known as eru thazhuvuthal and manju virattu, is one of those traditional spectacles(started from about 100 BC) in which a Pulikulam or Kangayam bull is released into a crowd of people, and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump on the bull’s back with both arms and hang on to it while the bull attempts to escape. Participants are supposed to hold onto the hump for as long as possible, in an attempt to bring the bull to a stop. In some cases, participants must ride long enough to remove flags on the bull’s horns.

Image Source: youthkiawaaz.com

 

Pulikkali originated from the state of Kerala as a recreational folk art. It is performed by trained artists to entertain people on the occasion of Onam, an annual harvest festival. The fourth day of Onam witnesses (Nalaam Onam) where performers painted like tigers and hunters in bright yellow, red, and black dance to the beats of instruments like Udukku and Thakil. The literal meaning of Pulikkali is the ‘play of the Tigers’ hence the performance revolves around the theme of tiger hunting. The origin of Pulikkali dates back to over 200 years when  Maharaja Thampuran od Cochin is said to have introduced the folk art, who wanted to celebrate Onam with a dance that reflected the wild and macho spirit of the force.

Image Source:  http://www.arnabmaity.com/2013/01/experiencing-onam-at-thrissur-keralas-cultural-capital-all-about-grand-meals-and-giant-tummies.html

 

Madai festival is one festival originating from Chhattisgarh. The festival reflects the rich culture and tradition of the state, celebrated by the Gond Tribe from the month of December to March and tours from one place of the state to another.  The local tribes of the state along with other communities worship the presiding deity during the festival. The tribal people of Chhattisgarh launch a procession in the beginning on an open field where a large number of devotees and general tourists gather to witness the rituals, followed by the Puja ceremony where the priest or similar figure starts worshiping the goddess. When the worshiping finishes, several cultural events like folk dance, drama, songs etc. start taking place in the open space.

Image Source: https://htoindia.com/blog/madai-festival-tribal-event-full-fun-joy/

 

Mim Kut Festival is a post-harvest festival celebrated in Nagaland and also in parts of Mizoram by the Kuki Nagas. It is one of the many popular festivals of Nagaland. It expresses exhilaration and triumphant over the harvest of Mim (Maize), which is the last harvest crop for the season. The Kuki people hold strong belief that the souls of their deceased ancestors rise from their graves and visit their family homes. The people offer tribute to the dead souls in form of wine that is naturally prepped from rice at every home. These dead souls are also worshiped by the villagers. The Mim Kut festival like most festivals of Nagas includes tradition singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and proud display of culture.

Image Source: netourism.shillong.com

 

Vautha Fair originating from Gujarat is one where tens of thousands of donkeys, as well as hundreds of camels, adorned in an array of colors and bright embellishments, are brought where they are traded on the fairgrounds at the Sangam tirtha. For some, this place is as divine as the Sangam in Allahabad, while many communities consider this fair even more important than Diwali. This is the meeting place of seven holy rivers: the Vatrak merges with the Meshwo, Hathmati, Shedhi, Majum, and Khari before it then meets the Sabarmati, so the locals call it Saptasangam (i.e. the meeting of seven).

Image Source: dainikbhaskar.com

 

These were a few. If the same tingles your inquisitive self then follow the link for more https://traveltriangle.com/blog/harvest-festivals-of-india/.

Image Source Of Featured Pic: fantasticpixcool

 

8 Conspiracy Theories That Will Make You Look Differently At The World

The world is a strange place and there are a lot of unanswered questions that make you wonder the truth. Which is how conspiracy theories come into existence, in order to discover the actual truth that is hidden from the ‘truth’ that is being presented to the masses. Like, did Titanic really went down or not? Below are eight conspiracy theories that are super interesting and many of these people actually believe to be true.

1. Titanic Never Went Down!

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Well, a ship definitely went down but, it wasn’t the Titanic. As per the theory, it was the Olympic. The shipbuilding company White Star has been accused of committing insurance fraud by fixing up the Olympic, an identical ship, and claiming it to be the Titanic. Also, there were a large number of last-minute cancellations for the Olympic by many rich peeps. Maybe, because they were aware of the switch?

2. Airlines want you to die

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Yup! You read that right. In case, you find yourself amidst of a plane crash and make out alive. Chances are you are probably going to sue the airline and likely to win big. To make sure you die during such an event, the brace position airlines tell you to get in will end in death because if you are in that position during the collision, your head will bang into the seat in front of you and snap your neck. Many passengers have also claimed to see flight attendants taking on a different position.

3. Princess Diana SAS ‘assassination plot’

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Princess Diana’s sudden death shook the entire world and even after two decades since that fatal car crash, one theory about her death is still doing rounds. According to it, the SAS was involved in Diana’s death and an ex- SAS soldier has said to have told his wife that a special forces hit squad flashed a light to blind Diana’s driver and caused her death crash. It is a technique developed to ­combat terrorists and the said soldier had gone missing days before he was due to be quizzed by the police.

4. Harry Potter wasn’t written by J.K. Rowling

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In 2005, a Norwegian film director Nina Grünfeld made the claim that Rowling was actually a ghostwriter. She was well- paid to play up her rags to riches story to build interest in Harry Potter. Ghostwriting is not a new concept in the world of writing and while this could very well be true.

5. The Flintstones is set in Future

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Kids favourite cartoon show  ‘The Flintstones’ was apparently set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the remaining people recreate society. If you’ve watched the show, you know they have their very own variant of many present-day devices, such as a bird as a record player. They also celebrate Christmas. But how could they probably know of all of these cool devices to the point of recreating stuff?  Well, our entire childhood was a lie.

6. Crisis Actors Do Exist

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These actors are people who are paid and planted at horrific events like shootings, terrorist attacks, etc by the government in order to keep a check about what gets reported to the public and act as if they were there or are survivors.

7. Taylor Swift is a Satanist

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The reigning queen of music industry aka Taylor Swift, who was born in 1989, looks a lot like Zeena LaVey, who was born in 1953 and she was actually a Satanist. They look awfully similar in the picture and many people are convinced they’re clones but others just think they’re related. Maybe Zeena is Taylor’s actual mom? Who knows?

8. The Whole World was created last Thursday

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This mind-blowing theory is really very interesting and quite hard to understand. According to it, the whole universe was built just last Thursday, with the impression of being billions of years old. Everything that has happened in time actually happened between last Thursday and today, from major events in history to every single thing that’s ever happened to you.

Peeps, these are all ‘theories’, so have fun reading and searching for them. None of them are true facts.

Featured Image- Source

7 Shocking News You Will Only Find in India!

India is a culturally diverse and a huge nation and its citizens, as well as authorities, never fail to entertain the countrymen, thanks to some bizarre personalities and strange orders of authorities. Below are seven news which will shock you and rock you!

1. Doctors Do Surgical Strike!

Doctors at New Delhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital performed a surgery to remove 12 pounds of metal objects from a patient’s abdomen. What they found inside during the three-hour-long surgery was totally unexpected – nut bolts, chains, 263 coins and around 100 nails. ( Maybe, he was our very own superhero Metal Man?)

2. Smelly Socks Takes Man to Jail!

Shockingly, a passenger travelling in a bus going from Dharamsala to Delhi was taken by the police when co-passengers complained that they were having a hard time to bear the stench coming from his smelly socks! So, guys take a note and wash those stinking socks of yours before you hitch a ride.

3. A Bond Beyond Boundaries and….Species

A one-and-a-half year boy befriends monkeys and feeds monkeys regularly in Hubli. The toddler is woken up by monkey gang every day at six in the morning and is dropped back after playing and being fed by them. Moreover, they have never bitten him. Talk of True Friendship!

4. Get Rid of Your Phones or Get Fined!

In an unprogressive step, the Panchayat of Mathura’s Madora village decided to impose a fine of twenty-one thousand on girls who will be seen using mobile phones while walking on the street, in order to reduce the rate of crime against girls and encourages elopement. (Logic: Error 404)

5.  Asses Land in Jail!

Eight donkeys In U.P. ‘s Jalaun district had to spend four days behind bars. What was their crime? Apparently, these four-legged species feasted on expensive plants outside the jail compound which reportedly cost jail authorities several lakhs. Well, ‘Kanoon Andha Hai! “

6. Actor Gets E-Challan for Taking Selfie!

Mumbai Police issued e-challan via twitter to actor Varun Dhawan for taking a selfie with a fan as he was leaning out of the car window and wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. Talk about the power of twitterati!

7. Stuffs Mouth with Straws, Man Sets Record!

Odisha’s Manoj Kum created a rather strange Guinness World Record by stuffing an astounding 459 drinking straws into his mouth at once.  P.S. A great idea to do something good for those who love to open their mouth for wrong reasons.

Still recovering from the shock, eh?

 

#MeToo- The Revolution Of The Silent

Since sunday, the cry of #MeToo has been rallying across our social media feed. It’s no longer a viral campaign but a movement taking the internet on storm! The cry  resonates with each heart, ripe with the petrifying ordeal of sexual harassment and assault. More than half a million, women and some men, tagged their profile for being sexually assaulted, confirmed by Twitter.

How It Started!

The movement started in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the American film
producer, who is accused of bulldozing eminent actors for non-consensual sex. The star from the sitcom- ‘Who’s the boss’, Alyssa Milano’s tweet gained the movement its momentum, it needed.

Milano’s tweet, instigated an onrush of famous women and many not so famous; and even men, who tweeted  their experience of such encounters with the #MeToo.

 

The Origin- An Activist and a Victim!!

Milano’s call out to the victims was “so we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem”, actually started 10 years back with Activist Tarana Burke. Burke is the program director for Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity. Its goal is to empower young women of color. The seeds for this movement, were sown back in 1996, after an encounter with a young girl, afflicted by the atrocities, inflicted on by her stepdaddy. Burke couldn’t help her and so she sent her to another activist, who, according to her would help the girl better. However the eyes, screaming of the monstrous deeds, her developing body had faced, was unforgettable!

Tarana Burke- The Activist in a Me Too t-shirt, sharing the story.

“The shock of being rejected, the pain of opening a wound only to have it abruptly forced closed again — it was all on her face,” Burke wrote.

That was the genesis of the movement — to help young women of color who had survived sexual abuse, assault and exploitation.

“On one side, it’s a bold declarative statement that ‘I’m not ashamed’ and ‘I’m not alone.’ On the other side, it’s a statement from survivor to survivor that says ‘I see you, I hear you, I understand you and I’m here for you or I get it,'” she told CNN.

Read the whole story on CNN, click here.

With over 12 Million comments, shares and posts on Facebook, more than 300,000 Instagram posts and 800,000 tweets; this movement is paving a way for everyone irrespective of gender, to have a voice. It’s promoting a ground of empathy and making one feel that you are not alone in this.

Stand-up-comedian Malika Dua shared her #MeToo story

But what saddens me is the fact that the perpetrators are still out there, shaming and molesting another woman, man or the LGBTs, while you read this article. The ‘Nirbhaya case’, :The gurgaon rape case’ and the many unnamed, unrecorded and unjust cases, that vanish into the thin air; continue to torment every soul. It’s time to introspect where we are going wrong as a nation, a society, a family member, a bystander, or more importantly as humans.

“Why is our society so?
People sit with facade faces in a row,
They sigh and sympathize giving fake hopes.
Oh mother why did you allow me to be a part of this pathetic world?
With no true feelings and word!”

( An excerpt from my poem – The fear of being! , I wrote as a 16-year-old, shook by The Nirbhaya case)

I feel the world at large is, perplexed and confused. On one hand we objectify women in superhit songs, teaching our sons- ” Zyada padh liya hai toh pankh nikal aae hai, mutthi me rakhna isey”. And on the other, considering the fairer sex, as ‘khuli tijori’, lashing them at the commands of the so called society; in order to protect them from the lustful eyes? The most disgusting irony is that we worship Maa Durga, Maa Laxmi and what are we doing about our ghar ki laxmi- betiyaan?No wonder, You are a strong woman, ready to fight, to carve your niche, to be an example. No matter what you are- a young woman, an adolescent, an old woman or a new-born; the fact that you are a woman, makes you a perpetual victim.

It’s time for a change! To propagate – ‘No Means No‘! And the change begins with each of us pledging to Say No to – elicit/ propagate/ participate/ be insensitive and initiate  any spark that would burn the very foundation of a safe, just and liberal society.

 

The #HowIWillChange hashtag kicked off last night, with Sydney-based writer Benjamin Law calling for men to share how they will help tackle the culture of sexual harassment.

“Guys, it’s our turn,” he wrote on Twitter.

It was a welcoming stream, where men stepped out in support of the #MeToo movement, accounting zillion stories of assault and pain. Some used #IHearYou while some used #MenToo and some pledged to stop this all!

The need of the hour, a dire need I’d say; a Revolution! An anonymously created spreadsheet got men from media circles,  shaking in their Vans, is being passed around, listing “Shitty Media Men” accused of everything from sending creepy direct messages to violent sexual assault. Finally the world seems to take up arms ( Social Media platform) against the hypocrites, so-called powerful men, to end their reign.

I feel gifted to be a woman and am proud of my naari shakti. To all  the brave women out there here’s a thank you from my side-

Coming out strong, with your harrowing encounters, is a brave thing to do. Your courage, will help many victims to voice out their similar experiences. It will give wings to the lost confidence, it will ignite the lost fire to live, in the hearts of those who felt their voices were crushed under the stings of patriarchy and strangled at the hands of the society, which shames the victims. I am thankful to you all, that i got the strength to discuss about my fears and experiences as a woman, through this article!

!!Keep Fighting!!

For the Students, By the Students, Of the Students

If you are provided with a space to display and strut your own stuff that’s designed for you, what would you do? Showcase it. Well, that’s obvious, right? So let’s delve into a little story about this very concept.

In a land not very very far away, resided a hub for all College events. This hub was connected to few Colleges and it was happy. Yet, something was amiss! It tried finding out what, went far and wide to do research. Finally, it was discovered. It missed the presence of College Students around it. It immediately embraced itself for buzz and fizz.

And lo and behold! The first thing it did was create a Video Contest for people to participate in. People participated, connections happened, communities got built! And the little hub became the Happiest Hub ever!

Well, let’s talk fables to tables with the same cable now. TheCollegeFever has a motto of consolidating the student community for the greater good. Here, we decided to provide a platform to students to represent us, because the facilitation of students is what we stand for! We decided on User Generated Content to be a significant factor for our relaunched website.

When encountered with problems of finding the right content for the masses, who would you rather ask? The masses, obviously. So the Video Competition had a few rules of pertaining to certain resolutions, time limit and depicted College Life — the awesome things in and around your college. That was the theme. We got in great responses, indeed!

Initially, we didn’t quite get a huge traction. It happened slowly. A video of a monkey inside the college premises was the first one. Although it didn’t quite represent what we wanted but we were really happy because we saw participation. Later, we saw the crowds coming in for putting their content out to the world.

Finally arrived the tick and we announced the winners. We would like to mention about the winners of this Contest and this one is specially about them. They are pretty cool people!

So here’s about the winner:

Rohan Reddy is a 3rd year student of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, pursuing his B.Tech in Computer Science and M.S. in Exact Humanities. He is passionate about photography and cinematography.

Being the head of photography club in his college, this was his first attempt at recording and compiling a legit video. Their college festival provided a great opportunity to capture expressions and emotions of people and the subtlety in how things create these auras.

The entire video has mostly been recorded and edited by him. He had been aided by two juniors, namely Shanmukh Ale and Yaswanth Naidu Singampalli in the making of it. This awesome video deserves accolades, indeed. No wonder it presently runs in the recently re-launched website of TheCollegeFever.

And about the Runners Up:

Gourav Goel, a 2nd year student of Computer Science in BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus is a very creative person and a part of the Department of Photography, BITS Goa. He credits the entire Department for this amazing video and specially mentions Mayank, Pranay and Sravya. So the story behind the video goes like this:

The farewell for Seniors was coming up and Gourav saw a video from Coldplay (The Scientist) where from he was inspired to create a ‘reverse video’ for the Farewell. So Gourav and his friend, Pranay imagined shots in reverse and improvised on them. Mayank pulled in contacts and made arrangements for shots. Sravya and Arpita aided in the shots picked from the Girls’ Hostel. The entire video took more than a month to shoot and edit (done by Gourav).

There was a moment half-way where Gourav thought about dropping the idea. Mayank and Pranay urged him to go on with compiling the video. Gourav had his Lab exam on the very final day (in which he basically got a ‘0’ 😛 ) Finally, after exams the entire video came up. The struggles through the making proved successful when the video received a standing ovation from the audience, the first ever for a Farewell video in their college history. More than 53,000 views on Facebook was the final outcome because the entire College Fraternity including all Alumni loved his efforts. Soon, it will run as a homepage video for TheCollegeFever in the upcoming months.

We are proud to have them as winners because their efforts show in the videos. We congratulate all the participants for their wonderful contribution. A special congratulations go to Surya Midatala of IIT Kharagpur and Sudhanshu Srivastava of Manipal Institute of Technology for running a bid to the winners list.

P.S.- The famous phrase by Abraham Lincoln, “…of the people, by the people, for the people…” inspired the title of this article. Since majority of students won’t support convention, so doesn’t TheCollegeFever. Hence, we rolled it out backwards. Rolled out what? The Title, of course! 🙂

Disclaimer: The videos winning the awards have originally been part of a larger video decorated for college event and as nostalgia video for a farewell respectively and links to the same are below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsh223vKByo

https://www.facebook.com/DoPY.BITSGoa/videos/1039104429500048/

The Clock goes tick, which Event to pick?

Attend Events, Enhance your persona!

One. Two. Plenty! There are numerous events on the rostrum these days. Events related to literally anything in the world! Want to learn a skill or just display your talent, gain knowledge about topics or free your mind of all thoughts that stress you out? Nowadays everything is available for the grabs.

So among the gazillions of hues in your color palette, which one will you pick to be your favorite? And which one should you let go? Difficult deciding? You want to be able to prioritize! Here’s a little help from TheCollegeFever to take that decision —

1. Your Interests

That is obviously the foremost reason you take up a particular topic and attend any event related to it. Be it a workshop to learn about a certain matter, a competition to test yourself about that subject, or just a conference you want to be a part of — it should definitely be around a theme which intrigues and inspires you!

Events could range in the following segments —conferences where you need to submit papers and await results for papers to be selected and presented. Another one being workshops, where you need to attend it, no preparation required, just get the skills. A third kind could be a festival in colleges/schools or elsewhere. You could go to participate in the competitions held or could just go and witness the star performers and groove to the tunes of the DJ. Now that we are sure of the different sectors, let’s understand why interests are important.

A gripping point to be noted here is that interests change with time. People just take more time to realize or they don’t realize it at all. Let’s say, your hobbies as a teenager were reading novels and playing chess. So does that mean you retain only those two for the rest of your life? Sure those are good stuff and you should have those hobbies/habits for life. But why not learn a new skill and adapt to it as well? It’s an added feature to enhance your persona. Go for it!

2. Scope of the Event

A very important aspect of deciding for an event could be the worth of the event itself! Yes,

• The authenticity and value of the Certificate received and also, the prizes, if any.
• The number of attendees to the event(check past records of the event and try to get a rough figure of how popular it is).
• The participation coverage (is it a local event or is it open to participants from all over?). Also, how far it can accommodate people from far-off places or it’s at your own expense — that needs to be known.

3. Speakers/Performers for the Event

Excellent speakers/performers will deliver the highest quality content, whether it be in terms of a lecture session or a cultural/stand-up performance. This is one of the sole reasons why we would attend an event! Agree? Well, I think many would nod a yes to this.

4. Organizers

The organizers of the event should themselves be authentic. Imagine the event is cancelled after you reach the spot. Disappointing, very very disheartening! For obvious reasons, do a background check on the genuineness of the event and its organizers.

5. The “Grow Your Network” Effect

The event that you are likely to participate could be one that gives you exposure to a multitude of professionals or people around your line of interest. Socializing with them could help you develop your connections to get to the right path. Attend an event if it helps you grow as a person and also expand your horizon of opportunities.

Meet. Greet. Fleet. Meet new people, greet them, and make your own fleet of associations!

6. Time for preparation (Optional)

Just like with great power comes great responsibilities, with great events upcoming, comes great preparations! If your event requires preparation, check the time you have for gearing up. If it’s sufficient enough, go for it without a doubt! Here’s your opportunity calling out to you!

7. Accessibility of the event

Check if it’s an Open-to-all event, the criteria for attending it and the location and climate of the place. Also, check whether this event is will give you the platform or the skill you were looking for. Some events are exclusive. So be careful on that front. Many events are also listed on TheCollegeFever, do check them out! They might be the ones you would have been looking out for.

A whole new world awaits you as you decide to attend an event. Go for the opportunities. They are calling out to you! The world is waiting, events are happening everywhere. Are you embracing the right ones?

This has been penned down by Armeen Shahneela for TheCollegeFever

The Relaunch tale of TheCollegeFever-how it all happened

2 a.m.: Workplace, having dinner and candid moments.

3 a.m.: Work resumed, till the morning lights.

The above is a small excerpt from the life of our team-mates during development stages. Night-outs in work-space, endless efforts and endeavors! Yes, that is how it was built. And the greatest part of this was, they enjoyed every bit of it. No complaints. They took it in their stride to complete the work and do it well on time. Here’s how-

The entire team revised the complete design, development and implementation of TheCollegeFever website. After several discards and rejection of alternatives, this present design was ascertained upon.

Once the design was fixed and implemented, the product head handed it over to the technical team. The Tech people then worked on making the website live within a span of weeks!

The threads of fragments started weaving up. But ‘To Err is Human’. The time for bug fixes came around. And bugs are bugging! Finally release approached and the nurtured seed was let out for the world to see. The product culminated to give way to the facilities and power to the hands of students.

So there are plenitude of features now vested to the students. You can check them out here goo.gl/VleCKU

TheCollegeFever stands for providing ample opportunities to students.

COALESCENCE’16

As the world seems to be moving towards a start-up culture, India also doesn’t lag behind. To ensure that, BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus announces Coalescence’16:

Going Zero to One, targeted at being one of India’s finest e- summits. It will take place on September 4 and 5. The summit is aimed at providing one platform where the budding entrepreneurs of the country will get ample opportunities to showcase their talent in front of the experts from various industries. The participants will also get the opportunity to get their ideas funded by the partner incubators.

ACT, The Conference

ACT is committed towards being a stage where the flow of ideas and inspiration flows endlessly. After all, who can beat the power of an idea, especially when the inspiration comes from someone who has seen it all, and achieved a success story of his own! ACT hosts a panel of successful entrepreneurs of the country, who share their stories with the attendees, in order to inspire them and to create new stories. Some of the speakers from the past editions are:

• Rahul Yadav (Co-founder, Housing.com)
• Pawan Agrawal (CEO, Mumbai Dabbawalas)
• Vijay Nair (Founder, Only Much Louder)
• Kunal Shah (Founder, Freecharge)
• Naveen and Jeetu (Actors, TVF Pitchers
• Hussain Zaidi (Investigative journalist, Author)
• A Muruganantham (Founder, Jayshree Industries)
• Taapsee Pannu (Bollywood Actress, Entrepreneur)
• Rajat Kapoor (Actor, Director, Writer)
• Alok Shetty (Founder, Bhumiputra)
• Biswa Kalyan Rath (Engineer and Standup Comedian)
• Sanjay Nath (Co-Founder, Blume Ventures)

Novatia

Coalescence 2016 brings to you the third edition of its B-plan competition, Novatia. It is one of the hallmark events of Coalescence. Novatia is that one platform that bridges the gap between the startups and the potential investors. The competition takes place in three rounds. After sorting out 200+ entries including those from teams from prestigious institutions like IITs and IIMs, the top notch innovators are given an opportunity to present their business models to panel of experts from various industries. The previous edition awarded the winners prizes worth 1,50,000 INR. With grander partners confirmed this year such as Kae Capital, Venture Studio, Ide-in Ventures, Forum Synergies to name a few, Novatia is all set to be the next level competition for those committed to entrepreneurial thinking. The finalists will be provided with a two-month long mentorship period. The registrations are open till 18 th June 2016. Register now at www.coalescence.in and get a chance to win prizes worth INR 2 lacs and seed funding up to INR 3 million!

For queries and information, reach out at novatia@coalescence.in

Start-up expo is the first of its kind start-up exhibition that provides a platform to start-ups to exhibit their products in front of its potential customers. The expo encourages individuals to associate with the growing start-ups of the country. It serves as a great meeting ground for the talented entrepreneurs, who encourage each other to tap the potential of ideas that count. The start-ups also get to recruit talented individuals who have the zeal to ideate and innovate. The start-ups are offered a marketing stall for displaying their products. The start-ups get to interact with the VCs and investors of well-known firms.

To participate in the Startup Expo, write to us at startupexpo@coalescence.in

Workshops

Along with an idea, a team also requires a proper skill set in order to present its idea effectively. At Coalescence, the workshops are targeted at achieving the same. The attendees get to learn various skills that are necessary for raising a successful start-up.

The previous edition hosted four workshops out of which two hosted by Knolskape and 91springboard aimed at enhancing the ideation, business decision making and pitching skills.

Sunday Lunch, a fun Punch!

What better way to spend a Sunday than to make it a Fun Day! It was a gala time for the entire team of The College Fever on the past Sunday when we met up with one of our Investors, Durga Das. Such important lessons to take away home and work upon, yet nothing in a rigid or structured environment. The conclave took place in Century Club, Bangalore, one of the oldest and respected clubs out here. Live gigs of the olden Bollywood days accompanied by delectable food and beverages and ending on delicious desserts isn’t all to this meet! There’s more.

Now let’s first divulge a little about this amazing lady we went to meet. Quite amicable, so ready to share the best of her knowledge and resources at disposal that we felt more like meeting a friend for advice. A great businesswoman, Durga Das is currently the wicket-keeping captain of the All Women’s American-Canadian cricket team in the US, named ‘Canam’. She was keen on the workings of The College Fever and offered one of the best advice. She would like every entrepreneur to take up workings of business like a sport. “Life is, after all, like a game. The sports ground is where I learned my entrepreneurship skills”, she remarked. The knacks of business can all be learnt from the sports field. Technically, there are lessons on dedication, hard-work, team spirit and fairness.

Discussions about how a team of motivated individuals could build something great and achieve pinnacles of success were on the table. Also, how taking up responsibility of the tasks undertaken by a person could render the working environment much focused got highlight. “Every person is responsible for one particular thing”. Yes, that should be channelized motive of every individual working in a start up. Multi-tasking is a great talent and people should set up goals for each day. When a person knows he can cover more than ten tasks a day, why do four? The zeal to keep up the development and encouragement to keep working towards better services and happy product users was valued and talked upon.

Many believe that a Start-up or business establishment can gather gold, if there is money coming in, or is it? Active involvement and sufficient key research on customer needs is of utmost importance. Never push it down their throats.

Also on the table was “A brighter and fresh feel of The College Fever” that’s soon brimming up. Well, well! Did we spill out something? Oh yes, we did! Check out this space for exciting attributes to come up. We are constantly striving to deliver the best from us to your kitty.

And it ended on the lines of watching West Indies women batting an excellent innings in the ICC Women’s World T20. Wait, did we tell you our investor herself is a top order batswoman?

As for working on our future commitments, we are trying to push ourselves to offer you the best of opportunities. Like Durga remarked, “You’ve got to keep the pressure on every minute.”

Vision Struck

Finding new opportunities has now become easier with this!

College is usually the place and period where transitions happen for most. A place where one discovers opportunities that are spread across the surroundings. A platform where one can choose a career path and also explore new ways to find what suits best. A medium to explore, develop and live a better life.

What if, everyone in this country was able to find opportunities to learn and grow by just having access to the internet? Doesn’t sound like anything different, does it? Well, here’s the catch! Age and educational qualifications become barrier no more to explore the world.

The College Fever is a product-based tech-driven startup. It was started two years ago, with a vision to ensure awareness to every individual about the occurrences in our country. Occurrences where people can seek knowledge, share their views, meet people with similar interests or even find a purpose to life. The College Fever promotes technical, cultural and sports events, creative workshops, exhibitions, festivals and any occasion that is useful and beneficial to students.

If you are planning an event and you think it has a purpose, The College Fever is the right place to promote it. Your event will be promoted without a doubt, irrespective of the venue, expense, or the scale of event. The College Fever believes that someone somewhere might find your event helpful.

Are you ticketing your event and need a portal? College fever has taken care of it. Their online registration facility is very advantageous. Now here is the second catch. In case you are an organizer, registration amount will be transferred to your account every week, until the day of closing. Meaning, you can have some cash upfront before the event and you need not break a sweat.

You can see what you chose to see. Yes! You can customize your search and look for events that meet your interests. Once you custom search, the events get categorized, making it simpler for you to browse through. A neat design, with detailed information and description of each occasion makes thecollegefever.com very user-friendly.

The Vision that this organization holds : every individual who has craving to learn and grow, irrespective of age and qualification, deserves to find the opportunities to do so. thecollegefever.com provides the most useful of information and helps them participate in events and activities, thus developing themselves and the society as a whole.

There are people who know what they want to do in life. They have a passion towards a particular attribute, a dream to follow. While some are still trying to figure out what they can do with their lives, trying to find their purpose of being here. And you are provided just that, but in a manner that none have done before. Because it is never too late to start seeking opportunities to learn and develop oneself, is it?

thecollegefever.com , endeavoring to create a better future!

~Goutham Ramesh (Did a research about this organisation and liked its workings. The results: he is a part of The College Fever as a Business Development Executive)

Image Courtesy: http://www.collegefashion.net/

Amplify your College Event reach — Shhh, some classified information here!

Details and plans for your upcoming event have been fixed. Event Website-ready. Core team-selected. Volunteers-already allotted responsibilities. All your College people are excited about it. Cool!

What next? You want more people apart from your college to participate. Unfortunately for you, the event isn’t going so viral as you expected. The reach isn’t big enough! Doesn’t seem so good now, does it?

Seeing all your efforts going down the drain? After all the sleepless nights, the turmoil, the hard work —your sweat and blood running down the very road from where you tried raising the event!

Well, now worry not. You can make your event reach to the masses by actually following a few simple steps. Here’s how —

1. Wising up to Social Media usage

What many people do — Postings on Social Media after event and website creation and a tad bit before the actual event, for promotions. What’s the guarantee of success for that process? Very less!

It’s wiser to be consistent about posts on Social Media rather than being all gung-ho at a time. Send personalized messages, use all options available like Email Marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and what not! There are plenty on your platter to explore.

2. Use Hashtags!

#hashtags could be the very thing that could get you your wide coverage!

Decide on the hashtags before starting marketing for your event. Ask people to use those hashtags and see the buzz around. Limit your usage of hashtags, don’t go overcrowding! Quality, not quantity is important, guys!

Also, check out the popular hashtags(#mycollegeevent) and reach out to folks using that. This could help in generating interests and more attendees to your event.

3. Spread around like a disease!

Yes, you heard it right! Like a disease! Sure, you already have an audience, but where is the harm in getting more? Yeah, it could be harmful if you don’t want it to become more successful. That way, too harmful if you spread a disease!!

If you have a team of volunteers and workers, ask them all to share in their network. Send out emails, messages, posts in such a manner that all they have to do is either Copy-Paste links or use the share/retweet buttons! In fact, why only restrict to the workers, ask all your college people to share. Also, people you know and aren’t even in your college, but are in other colleges nearby your area-they might be interested to come to your event and even share stuff about it. Leave your links on different pages on Facebook, if possible.

Additionally, think about the possibilities of Local media partners (just like us). Nowadays, it’s common for event organisers to offer up a part of their registrations for a media partner sending out emails and other promotional stuff on their behalf. Plus, some media partners(for instance, TheCollegeFever) promotes it for free! Who doesn’t like free pizzas? Bring them on!

But make sure you control the marketing of your event. The creative choices you make are important and should be in line with the trend. Do not try too many new things if you haven’t widely investigated the potential backlash. After all, it should be a good disease to have. No?

4. Content is King.

Emphasize on the quality of your message, what goes out through your content. Make it accessible and easy-to-relate. Good marketing relies upon concise, descriptive content. Make sure that the content instantly, precisely, and passionately conveys the theme and purpose of the event. Content is king. Period.

5. Create Online Contests or Campaigns for Build-Up.

Run Contests on Social Networking sites. The more number of online contests, the more the participants, the more the publicity. Ask to add hashtags. Declare the winners. Feature it during your event. This will garner in more crowd, for sure. Examples are Selfie, Video, Photography Contests!

Also, the Celebrities and Bands roped in for the event could make videos of them coming to the event and share among their network.

6. Make your Ticket Store Appealing

If you have partnered with online ticketing hosts and you have an online ticket store(P.S.- TheCollegeFever provides it too) make it engaging. Add extra content, nice banners, posters, promos of your event on the display platform that they provide. Plus, to expand the extent of your event further, put up post-event content such as photos, awards, after-movies and recaps. This gives people more reasons to be back to attend your event the next year!

A few examples of building up the ground for a wider audience to the event have been mentioned here. Some might have been tried and tested. Some need to be discovered. Put in a word if you want to add on to these. Cheers to College Events!

Penned down by Armeen Shahneela for TheCollegeFever

Feature your event in TCF —why?

The Largest College Outside College

Your one stop destination to CHILL!

Check out new events

Hang around for activities

Integrate and Share Insights

Learn through workshops

Lay out your event

TheCollegeFever aims at creating a socially interactive college life for all the college students. It is your platform to connect and explore events, get your solution to finding tickets to attend any event across the nation, garner sponsorship, promote and sell event merchandise-all this at the convenience of your home or college.

Here’s what’s on the Menu

• Explore events, workshops, conferences across the country.
• See what you want to see — explore events based on your interests. Why take the trouble of searching one by one? Our filter system will aid you.
• Gear up for the event you want to attend! — Buy tickets & merchandise, find the location, know what’s in it for you. All of these in one place.
• Want TCF associated with your event? — Let us know about your event, feature it in our platform and watch the magic unravel!

Organizers to Attendees-there’s loads in store for all!

Place Your Event where it’s most visible

• Feature your event on our website and showcase it to the right audience.
• With large students engaging, our social media platforms serve you best.
• Moreover, TheCollegeFever is Social Media Integrated. This makes it easier for you as well as your attendees to share your event details on their social media platforms.
• Keeping a record of your attendees and promotions is tedious. Leave that work to us. TCF sends detailed report of your attendees and event promotions.
• Paperless tickets and QR Code Integration for your convenience.

Ticketing made easy as A-B-C

1. Create your event using a wonderful event creation experience. Tap-click, and your Event page is ready!
2. Manage your attendees through the dashboard-database of registered people and constant monitoring available.
3. QR Code integration-which means paperless tickets and no person-to-person checklist maintenance on event day.
4. International Transactions can also be processed through our platform.

Wear your merchandise with Pride

Want to use a big platform to sell your merchandise like hot cakes?

Here’s how you can do it-

• Give us your design and the sizes. We will handle all the rest.
• Sell your own goodies on our platform: T-shirts, Hoodies, Jerseys and Wristbands.
• Worry not about the Quality. It’s our assurance and commitment.