Asmita 2017: A Compilation of Culture and Celebrations

From culinary explorations to fashion shows, sangeet to rangoli, Asmita 2017 kickstarts on an enthusiastic note.

It was nine in the morning and everyone was already on their toes to make the inauguration ceremony of Asmita 2017 a grand one. Hundreds of volunteers were worked up while handling thousands of enthusiastic students. The 500 seats of Thakorbhai Hall were already occupied by the audience, who came there to hear renowned screenwriter Abhijat Joshi, dean of NRIBM (GLS MBA) Avani Desai, registrar of GLS Balchandra Joshi, President of GLS Sudhir Nanavati, and other supreme delegates of GLS. The event started with a lamp lighting ceremony followed by a graceful Indian classical dance performance by a group of students, and culminated with an excellent speech by Abhijat Joshi on the plot of ‘3 Idiots’. While discussing his journey in writing some of Bollywood’s most influential movies, he said, “You will never know where and when you are going to use a scene. The climax of ‘3 Idiots’, where Rancho uses the Virus Inverter for the labour operation, was actually ideated for ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’. Ultimately the key to creativity is to remember the right scene at the right time to make a right trap.”

The crowd was soon shifted to the gigantic campus of GLS, as the students were extremely excited, in anticipation of the creative happenings of Asmita 2017. Curiosity about ‘what’s next’ was sufficed after the first activity of the day, Rangoli-making, began. Rangoli which signifies the initiation of a celebration charmed the whole event into a festivity. During a parallel poster-making competition, student Divisha Jain explained to CY, “I have always seen myself as a social contributor and envisioned my creations making a positive difference in society.” While making a poster on global warming, she went on, “I feel my vibrant poster depicts my ideology.”

To savour the original essence of Gujarati literature, students enthusiastically crowded at the GLS auditorium during the SugamSangeet Competition. Elsewhere, at the Master Chef competition, judge Purvi Joshipura, said, “Every activity has a different flavour but cooking certainly tingles all our senses. A delicacy should be visually appealing, easy to touch and handle, consist of a mesmerizing aroma and of course, have a mouth-watering taste.” Meanwhile, at the fashion show, Vishwa Patel, a participant who was dressed to kill, told us about the reason of her unique dress and the show’s concept in these words, “Our theme is based on the core vision of Asmita i.e. feeling pride on oneself for what he/she is. The colourfully dressed are matched alongside participants dressed in dark clothes, portraying the holistic concept of triumph of the vibrant over the dark.”

The festival will continue till February 6, 2017, and there are many more enriching happenings scheduled in the coming days. One of the major attractions of it includes street play, skit, mime, face painting, poetry recitation, instrumental recital, creative writing and a lot more. GLS has not left a single chance of connecting with variant genres of creativity, which makes it one of Ahmedabad’s most encompassing Youth Festival. Stay tuned with Creative Yatra to know more about the GLSites and their enriching activities.

Correspondent : Himanshu Nainani