Call it the last chance to shine for the fourth year students or the pride of our ECE (Electronics and Communication Engineering), every student of our department holds the departmental fest dear to our heart.

As soon as the classes of our even sem commence after the long semester break, the whole departmental floor of ECE, Techno Main Salt Lake, gets hyped up suddenly. While attending classes and understanding the syllabi of the new sets of subjects, we get divided into management, cultural and décor teams. The classrooms become unusually quiet during the off-periods and lunch-breaks while our ideas and plans would take physical forms in the laboratory. The Analog lab that we dread the most throughout the year, becomes our favourite spot and gets filled with newspapers, coloured chart papers, gums, and scissors.

The Intra-departmental tech fest- E-merge- the Departmental fest of Electronics and Communication Engineering department of our college, takes place on a Saturday. In the year 2019, it was on 15th February but for us, it became a week-long program this year thanks to our hard-working and dedicated seniors. The fourth-year students arranged different intra-departmental contests for us this time. Throughout the week, as soon as we finished our classes for that day, we gathered up and participated in different fun events like tech quizzes Inquizzitive, circuit making the contest Circuitrix, coding contest Code-A-Thon and more. On Friday, the day before Emerge, the final stages of the contests were held. In Circuitrix, 10 students from each of the second and third years were selected and each second-year students were paired up with third-year students by lottery and different sets of innovative questions were assigned to them. The seniors, teachers even the pass-out students who were free that afternoon and were present in the city- came to evaluate us.

Our teachers organized another event named Titbits where retired and soon-to-be-transferred teachers and alumnus came to our class, advised us in different ways, told us about their works and how they choose their stream after graduation and filled us with crucial information and experiences about the industry. This particular event continued for two to three weeks depending on the availability of the guests. It was fun to see passed out students standing on the podium while the Teachers sat on the benches along with us while the alumnus told us about their college life and work life.

The D-day- Then came the D-Day of E-merge. Students who lived in the locality, at the hostels or as paying guests, gathered in front of the seminar hall in the early morning. Some blew the balloons and hung other decorative items, some made the rangoli using coloured chalks and others arranged the chairs, tables, bouquets and hung the banners.

The day started with a speech from our principle followed by that of our Head of the Department. Then we had the Mr. and Ms. ECE event where five girls and five boys who were shortlisted beforehand, got two minutes each to showcase their talents. They sang some mesmerizing songs and danced, some recited, one painted a sunset scene just in a couple of minutes, one made everyone amazed with his magic. There came the rapid-fire round and they answered the questions our seniors asked them. The alumnus and the teachers were the judges of the event. After that, we held a quiz event for the alumnus. A long chain of performances of our students followed this throughout the day like group dancing, beatboxing, singing, skits, band, etc. At lunchtime, we had the photography exhibition of the best photos clicked by students and alumnus and the project-display of the students. The present alumnus told us stories about their college life and some other alumnus had sent us video recordings of them reminiscing about their college days and wishing good luck for the present students.

Finally,

All of us have different personalities, hobbies, life-goals to pursue. But when we work together and put all of our energy and enthusiasm into the same thing, miracles can happen. Our college lives are very limited, but its impacts are life-long. The friendships we develop while dealing with everyday problems and having fun together in the early stages of our lives are really important for us. Giving the seniors a chance to reunite, share a glimpse of college life again and letting them proud-fully give thanks to their alma mater after being established in their own lives- are priceless. Life never stops for anybody. But in the moments of distress, devastation, and miseries; it is the sweet memories that give us the strength to fight back. And for the students, watching their efforts and hard-works being successful is certainly one of these.

Disclaimer: The facts & opinions of this post are written by the author in his personal capacity. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Edukeeda and Edukeeda does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.