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to one conniving gray block inmate. The bigger problem was that the official website was
not ready and without this, the fest would lose outstation participation. Time was running
out, but the technical coordinator was in no hurry.
The story of Engineer 2013 begins in the early summer of ‘13. The transfer of power
in the tech clubs and the Students’ Council elections empowered a handful of NITKians
to form the core team of South India’s Second Biggest Technical Fest. Full of enthusiasm
and with an over-the-top plan for the fest, the team went into the summer vacation after
only one core meet hoping someone will get the work done.
Mid-summer, with almost no progress in marketing and with barely any interaction
amongst the core members, the team went on a rather optimistic endeavor, to invite Dr.
A P J Abdul Kalam as the chief guest for the inauguration of the fest. Acquiring sponsorships would have been a breeze if this had fallen into place but Dr Kalam was unfortunately too busy to accommodate the fest in his schedule. After a few mails were exchanged
and a few calls were made to potential sponsors, summer came to an end; a new semester
in NITK started and the core had no clue about the uphill climb that they faced.
All anyone could think of in the first few weeks of the semester was placements and
the number of people working for the fest was reduced to a single digit. It was about
now that the Con called on some expert advice from someone who later went on to be
the chairman of the fest. Calm and composed, filled with experience from organizing the
previous editions of the fest, the chairman kick started work, and activities were finally set
into motion. Money started trickling in when the marketing head began stalking the HR
executives of the companies which were on campus for recruitments.
Late September arrived and the various committees that made up the fest were charting out their month ahead and committees like Mech, Tronix and Technites were already
working in full swing. With a limited budget, each committee had to do their best with what
they had. More people were contributing to the fest and things were slowly falling into
place. Workshops were being confirmed, new events were being planned and the fest was
starting to take shape but there were a few major problems. Roping in a ‘Main Sponsor’ for
the fest was one problem. Committees’ lists were taking longer than it should have, thanks
The Engi’13 Diaries
Change The
Perspective
2003
2008
2007
First edition held after amalgamation of fests conducted
by student chapetrs of all the
technical societies in college
It was only a couple of weeks before the fest, on the eve
of the open meet, that the website finally went live. Armed
with an innovative website, the publicity team started working
in over drive, hoping to generate enough interest across the region. Engineer 2013 was one of the first fests in India to go one
up from the flash mobs to a freeze mob for publicity.
With just a week left for the fest, one could see that the
whole college was gearing up for the fest. The Artists’ Forum Engi logo in front of the civil department came up.
Facebook was filled with posts of everything Engi with the
‘#engiiscoming’ hashtag. Committee members were burning
the midnight oil. Registrations for various workshops started.
The core team was overwhelmed with work from general arrangements and food to scheduling the various events and satisfying the
needs of every committee. The Tronix committee put up the Engi
clock in the main building and the countdown began.
As the clock counted down, on the 23rd of October 2013, Engineer was finally here.
For the next few days, the college would become
as lively as it would ever be in the odd semester and all
of it was kicked off with the Inauguration. Along with
the usual string of addresses by various dignitaries and
an elaborate dance sequence, this edition’s inauguration
witnessed a math prodigy.
By Karthik Bhaskara