Gardenia Fest

Scintillating contests, innovative stalls, loads of competition and never-ending stream of enthusiastic youngsters brimming with creative energy. Gardenia 2011, the Annual All-India Inter Collegiate Fest had all these and much more as students from the city and across the country converged at the Garden City College campus to pit their creative skills at the week-long mega showcase.
Billed as the biggest fest with a running theme, "Let a million hearts bloom", the fest lived to its reputation as the most eagerly awaited fest in the college calendar. As many as 136 colleges took part in the events with some coming from as far-flung places as Chennai and Coimbatore to give the fest a national outlook. The requests and students going live on Campus Radio made the 14th episode all the more interesting. But how did the host college manage to keep the students engaged for such a long period? To begin with, there were contests lined up by as many as twenty departments with events spread across diverse disciplines. Treasure Hunt, Fashion Show, Quiz, Gaming, Radio Jockeying, Innovative Cultural Dances including Salsa, were some of the activities showcased during the fest. Other innovative additions were, the stalls that hosted exhibitions, fashion, culinary contests, radio jockeying, amongst others. At the end of each day's events, the participants donned their costumes to stir the audience with dance forms and eye catching fashion shows. The skills on display, lively commentary, the camaraderie, ensured the audience the fun that has come to be associated with fests.
For the record, Gardenia was inaugurated by Dr. Ali Irani, President of the Indian Physiotherapist Association and former Physio-Indian Cricket team who came in from Mumbai. He called the participating students to use the opportunity to discover their latent talent by making use of an amalgam of events rolled before them. Dr. Ali Irani said, 'It is important that you all try something outside the field of academia, have fun and excel in all that you do, but in all this, let me underscore the value of discipline. The inaugural address was followed by the release of the special issue of the student's monthly magazine, "GCC World".