The month of April at BGR was lavish with incessant cultural fests and celebrations, starting from the 'Bhasha Utsav' to 'Nritta'. Academic and cocurricular activities went hand-in-hand necessitating the vitality of experiential learning.
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-Director, BGR Campus
" Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit" - Jawaharlal Nehru
On 1 April 2022, the most awaited event of the year, Bhasha Utsav took place. The event started from the quadrangle at 9:00 am in the morning. After the fun-filled procession by the first years circling the campus accompanied by energizing performances by different dance groups in the auditorium. A DJ was set up at the entrance of the Audi block, where everyone shook their legs for the musical beats.
The participants of the procession included our beacon of enthusiasm, the Director Dr Father Biju K C, Dean Dr Jyoti Kumar followed by the representatives of different centres and associations on the campus, the SWO, CUSBMA, CSA etc. The procession also had the first years as participants. The procession came to an end when the chenda performers made their way to the main auditorium accompanied by the chief guest on the third floor.
The event in the Main Auditorium started with a performance by the University’s classical dance group Natya Vriksha. The Chief Guest for the event was the celebrity actor and danseuse Ms Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, who lit the lamp accompanied by the dignitaries. This included Dr Fr Abraham Vettiyankal Mani, Dr Fr Biju K C, Dr Jyothi Kumar, SWO Faculty In-Charge Sindhu M, and the SWO Heads. The ceremony was followed by a welcome address by Ms Sindhu who talked about India’s rich heritage and culture. Dr Jyothi Kumar preceded the Vice Chancellor’s address and commended the efforts of the students and highlighted the importance of knowing local culture during Bhasha Utsav.
The Vice-Chancellor Dr Fr Abraham VM highlighted the significance of the fest and spoke about appreciating various cultures. The event then proceeded to be addressed by the Chief Guest who talked about the importance of knowing and appreciating one's own culture and the dangers of being unaware of it. The beginning of the event was marked by the traditional Beating of the Drum by the dignitaries followed by a performance by Chenda Melam which left the audience hyped with enthusiasm.
The first performance of the event was by Banjaras who portrayed the Gujarathi culture of Garba and Raas while dancing to traditional Gujarati Music. They were followed by Insolito. They danced to Marathi songs and performed the traditional Lavani for the audience. The best of Kerala and Tamil Nadu was brought by Soul City with their Thalam and Kuthu. The Tamilian Culture was shown off by team Vadacurry followed by another performance of the Gujarathi culture by team Aikyam. Dancing to the beats of Telugu folk songs was team Jaati Ratnaalu followed by a performance by the International Students. There was a surprise performance by the Housekeeping and Maintenance staff which received the loudest applause from the audience. The results were announced by the Director Dr Fr Biju K C. The winners were Aikyam followed by Vadacurry and Banjaras. The vote of thanks was delivered by the SWO Heads that marked the conclusion of the event.
Blossoms is an Intra deanery event organized by CHRIST (Deemed to be University). It is an event that gives students the opportunity to showcase their talents and prove their fortitude against a large number of talented individuals. With a total of 9 deaneries formed across the 3 campuses, Blossoms provides a platform for these deaneries to compete and be crowned as the best deanery of the university. Blossoms’ tagline is “be the best” which encourages both the deanery and the individual students to try their best and be the best version of themselves. It is divided into different phases: Phase 1 is intra-deanery, whereby each deanery seeks out the greatest talent within its ranks to represent them in the later phases. Blossoms' second phase is inter-deanery rivalry, in which the deaneries compete to distinguish themselves as the greatest on campus.
Blossoms’ events are conducted in two phases; the preliminary rounds which are at the intra-deanery level and the final rounds which are inter-deanery. Students are given the opportunity and are encouraged to showcase their many talents by participating in multiple events. Blossoms’ are divided into 9 teams from their deaneries as follows; Arts and Humanities & Social Sciences, Education, Science, Commerce, Management studies with Hotel Management, School of Law, Christ University Institute of Management (MBA - Central Campus), Bangalore Kengeri Campus (All courses - Including MBA, Psychology, BBA), Department of Professional Studies, and Bangalore BGR Campus (All courses).
Blossoms is conducted based on three categories that are Art Events, Literary Events, and Stage Events. Students are encouraged to show off their talents in all the categories and also receive participation certificates to show their recognition.
The Art Events help the students show off their artistic sides with their unique and diverse ideas portrayed in different styles and perspectives. An exhibition of creativity and imaginative sides through Painting, Sketching, Photography, Greeting card making, Mandala Art making, and Digital Art.
The Literary events help look into the ideas, imagination, creativity, and vision in literature and test the verbal, auditory, and agility in thinking on your feet. The event helps the students show their vision and agility to think and come up with ideas on the spot through events like Pot Puri, Debate, Essay Writing, Poetry Writing, Short Story Writing, Quiz, and Spoken Work Poetry.
The Stage Events help the students to showcase their more expressive talents through different forms such as their vocal, dance, and acting skills. The event helps the students showcase their talents through events such as Mime, Western electric Group, Western Acapella, Indian Classical dance, Indian Dance group, Indian Music Group, and Short Film.
The Blossoms Intra Deanery fest has come to a successful end keeping the audience on the edge of their seats by building excitement and curiosity for the upcoming inter-Deanery fest from 7th to 9th April 2022 where one can see more talented, unique, and imaginative performances.
In the Blossoms Finale, the Bannerghatta Road Campus was declared as the Overall Champions for Blossoms’ 2022 as they led the tables with 665 points with the Deanery of Arts and Humanities and Department of Professional Studies securing 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
“Advertere” was an Advertisement and Marketing Psychology-oriented event that tested the creative, analytic, reconstructive, and communicative potentials of the participants and involved both verbal and performance tasks. The event contained multiple dimensions which had a psychological basis. The event also challenged the participant’s ability to attract and convince the viewers as well as judges, with their innovative pieces of work and effective communication strategies. The Judges were Mr Munna RS , former alumni of CHRIST University, Ms Ekta Thakur, a freelancer and consultant in content creation, and Mr Tejas Girish, a performance marker, advertisement specialist and brand strategist at 9 PINN DIGITAL MEDIA.
The students participated in groups of 3 members for this event which consisted of 4 rounds in total in which their various ideas and skills were equally weighed. The event was headed by Shilpitha GR, Amina and Arsh Kaur. The first place was won by Team Gucci and the second place was won by Team Zara.
The judge of the event was Mr Kalyan, an alumnus of the BSc Psychology (Honours) programme at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bannerghatta Road Campus. He is currently pursuing his Master’s of Science in Clinical Psychology from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus. Kalyan is an avid gamer, has great knowledge about the medium, and is able to understand video games through a psychological lens.
The event started after 11:30 when the lore of the fictional world was narrated to the participants. Participants were asked to divide themselves into six teams of five, sit together, and come up with team names. Using chit-picking, teams were assigned a number of characters and given handouts describing the characters and the lore. Rules for the round were explained again. Three of the teams were given a scenario while the other three teams were given another scenario. The event broke for lunch which was also the time assigned for preparation.
Presentations started after the break. Only five teams presented as team 3 were disqualified due to team members not reporting back after the lunch break. After each presentation, internal judges asked questions and judged according to rubrics. All the presentations concluded by 3:06. Judges compiled their scores and announced two winning teams, whose members would advance to the next round.
The second day consisted of the second round, where the external judge arrived at 10:30. He was briefed about the round and its rules and judging criteria. All participants presented their arguments and were questioned by the judge. Winners were decided based on the judge’s evaluation and announced during the valedictory function
The event started at 05:00 PM in the Main Auditorium and it promised to be a celebration of movement. It started by the emcees greeting the audience and a small performance by Shivin Suri singing a popular movie song. The event then proceeded to a welcome address by Ms Krithika Balaji, the SWO coordinator, who quoted the Natyashastra and appreciated the hard work of the dance teams.
The first performance was by Central campus in their Black and White costumes that set the bar high for the event. The following performance by the contemporary dance team from BGR depicted the true meaning of love. Their enthralling performance was soon followed by a classical dance performance by students from the Kengeri Campus. They started with diyas in their hands and lit up the stage with their graceful movements. The Fourth dance was performed by yet another team from Central campus who depicted Nritya, Nritta and Naatya. The BGR folk dance followed this performance with a combination of Garba, Bhangra, Lavani Ghondhal and Koli Dance.
The Central campus boys depicted feminine energy in an effort to break stereotypes and earned a standing ovation for their chiseled moves and effortless gymnastics. The dance performance by Kengeri left the audience grooving to them to their moves. The audience was then addressed by Dr Fr Biju and then moved on to a fusion dance by Central Campus. The event finale was the BGR team which was welcomed and sent off with loud cheers and applause from the audience. The event concluded with the Vote of Thanks and the after movie.
Mr Reji Ulahannan, the Chief Executive Officer at OGES Infotech was the resource speaker of the session held on 4 April 2022. He started his talk with the steps of setting up a company with a thorough explanation of each one of them He gave a task to find out the two missing components from these steps.
Mr Reji then talked about the various Industrial revolutions and automation. All of these concepts and connections were explained in great detail
After giving a solid foundation he then moved on to explain what is an ERP. ERP is a type of software that integrates the management of day to day business operations. It delivers an integrated suite of business applications.
It covers broad and deep operational end to end processes such as Finance, HR, Distribution, Manufacturing and Supply chain. ERP Modules cover a broad array of processes such as Finance, Procurement, Manufacturing, Inventory Management, Order Management, Warehouse Management, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Project Service Resource Management, Workforce Management, HR Management, E-Commerce and Market Automation.
Mr Reji also discussed the Evolution of ERP from 1960 to 2010. He explained in detail the benefits of Cloud ERP deployment, On-Premise ERP deployment and Hybrid ERP deployment. He explained their differences and which one has an edge over the others.
Mr Reji Ulahannan also explained ERP’s extended functions and features via a series of easy to understand and interesting slides. with some interesting facts and statistics related to ERP and elaborations on the future of ERP and Digitalisation. He talked at length about the past, present and future of automation through ERP.
The session ended with two thought-provoking questions
Can fashion and consumer good brands like Adidas, H&M etc move to a virtual store with help of MetaVerse and other AR VR platforms to cut their costs of offline stores and to bring in a better user experience? and
How do you choose which ERP is suitable for a particular organization especially organisations with smaller turnover?
Both these questions were promptly answered by the speaker. The Vote of Thanks was given out to conclude the session.
Christ University Students from Main Campus, Bannerghatta Campus and Kengeri Campus participated in this event which was judged by Ms Sherin Susan and Ms Nithya J Rao.
Ms Sherin Susan Suresh is a psychologist at Manasa neuropsychiatric hospital, and has been an experienced professional, and is trained in various therapy techniques like Cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, and dialectical behaviour therapy.
Ms Nithya J Rao is a certified rehabilitation psychologist and is the Co-Founder of Heart it Out, Bangalore. She is also the co-creator of Lahe Lahe, a performing arts space, and also one of the founding members of Katharsis Productions which is a theatre production house. She has also been a TEDx speaker and is a Social Entrepreneur.
Dr. Psygnosis is the clinical psychology event of Aroha that engages participants in three main aspects of the mental healthcare field – interpersonal skills (counselling skills), ethics, and clinical work (case conceptualisation and diagnosis). The event heads of Dr Psygnosis were Swarn and Saivya of 6 PSYH and Preethy of 4 PSYH A. Rounds 1 and 2 were held on 12th April 2022 in Room 502. Round 3 was an overnight round, held on 13th April 2022 in the Seminar Hall
The League of Maestro was a musical event in which bands of different genres competed with the aim of facilitating creativity, exploration, and empowerment. The goal was to use music as a medium to promote mental health awareness.
The event began with an address by the emcees, Sufi Kang (2 PSYH A) and Ezra Varghese (6 PSYH), after which the performances began. Before performing their piece, each band recited a personal experience or memory as a part of the event. A total of six teams competed (Pink Ivy, Brake Fast, One Man Down, The Wave, Sargam, The Moodboard) and displayed spectacular performances.
The results were announced by the judge, Mr. Lebin Tom, a Bengaluru-based professional drummer who has played gospel, metalcore, bollywood and so on. He was named 'Best Drummer 2009 at R.V. Engineering College,' 'Best Drummer 2010 at Youthopia,' 'Best Drummer 2011 at St.Medical John's College,' and 'Best Drummer 2011 at NITK Suratakal,' among other accolades. The band 'One Man Down' took the first position, followed by The Moodboard with The Wave receiving a special mention.
The topic was introduced by the speaker to the students by discussing the relevant terms that can be brought under the umbrella of urban informality. The main aim of the talk as expressed by the speaker was to address the issue of urban informality beyond the realms of definitions and to acknowledge the presence of it. The talk further extended by taking a step to conceptualize informality under critical lens. Terms like exclusionary urbanism, informal finance, E-Shram, interdisciplinarity and intersectionality were introduced to the students through different examples.
The discussion then covered the definitions of informalising the labour market and the origin of the concept of informality. Organizations relevant to urban informality were introduced to the students. This included discussions about, International Labour Organization (ILO), Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WEIGO), Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), National Account Statistics (NAS), National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). The event involved participation from students in terms of brainstorming ideas to address the inadequacy of proper definition and enumeration of the informal economy. Definition of informal economy and the different status of employment under informal work was also a part of the discussion. The speaker Dr Neethi Padmanabhan, Senior Consultant – Academics & Research, Indian Institute of Human Settlement, instilled a knowledge about the difference between criticism and critique and highlighted the importance of being a critique. The talk came to an end with a Q&A session.
Mr Ritopriya Saha, Contemporary Visual Artist at TRIPPINK Art & Culture Studio, and Ms Anita Saran, a renowned Artist and Writer were the judges for Mode'. Mode' was a fashion psychology event that incorporated advertising, marketing, and consumer and cultural psychology. Mode aimed to understand how colour, style, and fashion are used to express yourselves.
The event happened in 3 rounds. The first round consisted of a face painting round. Each group was given a theme for example, strength, inspiration, courage, and the participants were supposed to depict a story of the music on their face. The participants were given a chance to present the story in front of the judges. They were given 45 minutes to come up with the story and paint the storyline. The art requirements such as paints and brushes were all provided to the participants. The scoring criteria emphasized creativity, apt presentation, time management, and the meaning of the elements used. There were a total of three teams that participated in the event. Team Mystique presented for 3 mins 15 secs, Team Meraki took 5 mins 15 secs and Team Stylistics presented for 3 mins 25 secs. The judges enjoyed the way the stories were depicted according to the topics chosen and the way it was presented more than the explanation. The winning team of the event was Team Mystique and Team Stylistics bagged the second prize.
Navarasa was an event to show off the nine classical emotions that can be subjected to one's audience during any persuasive performance. The event was headed by Akhila from 6 PSYH A and Vikesh Koul and Gavril Sam George from 4 PSYH A. The event judges included Mr Suneel R, Independent filmmaker and Director, Quiver Productions and Mr Ananth J Nair, Dance Instructor and Choreographer, Amazon, the E-commerce company. The event took place from 2:45 P.M. to 4:45 P.M. in the main auditorium of the Christ University BGR campus.
A monologue or background dialogues were expected, and there was freedom regarding the language and choice of music. Props were to be also showcased and used appropriately. The inappropriate use of language was strictly prohibited. The time limit for each of these slots was 5 + 1 minute. The teams were to distinctively produce any 1 of the nine pairs of themes of Navarasas, including Hasya & Karuna, Veera & Sringara, Shanta & Raudra, etc.
The MC for the event, Shreya Talwar, gave the audience an introduction to the event followed by the opening of the judges. Anasthesia- Rise from the ashes was the inspiration behind the event. The event started on time, and the audience cheered in support of their friends. The groups include Ad-hoc, Nuts and Bolts, Hridaayam, Mohini Leela, Ek Taali and Abba Labba. All the groups took up a social issue of grave importance to convey their act to the audience. The precise use of music and lighting added to the enthralling experience. Nuts and Bolts put up a mime act that spread the idea of saving water and the issues people face due to the wastage of the same. Hridaayam focused their act on feminism and equality by showing a parallel in issues faced by the modern and the medieval woman. Mohini Leela portrayed an event from the epic Ramayana, which focused on greed, with utmost grace. Abba Labba, the final performance for the day, aimed at showing the severe issues of marriage and family disownment from a humorous perspective.
The event was indeed a grand success. The results for the event were announced by the event head, Akhila, during the valedictory session. Nuts and Bolts received first place, and Abba Labba were the runner-ups for the event.
The chief speakers, Mr. Hemant Albert Soreng and Mr. Rajesh Nair are a part of Rustik Travels. They mainly focused on the travel and tourism sector. They shared their experiences about their recent expedition of travelling around the country, i.e.; INDIA. Their team explored 28 states and 8 union territories.
Exploring these places, they spoke about the historic sites, handicraft goods, food, and road travel. They had a road trip and they measured accessibility and laid some ground rules respecting safety and assurance. They had very fewer finances so they spoke about negotiations, sponsorships, and kind development.
Travelling amidst covid, precautions were maintained. They covered every state and UT only following the feasibility action. They explored 5 UT because some were closed for tourism.
Students asked many questions and sailed the session till the very end. They asked about problems, sustainability-related questions, travel measures, road rules, and culture concentration.
The event was concluded with a formal vote of thanks.
UnSub had a preliminary round on 11th April which involved participants solving assertion-reasoning and logical reasoning questions, in order to filter the participant pool. On 12th April, the event started at 10:30, with Anika Gupte (Senior Officer at UnSub) briefing the participants, who are the new recruits. Tvisha Singh (Director of UnSub) gave her address to the participants.
The qualifying round began, wherein recruits were given previous case files to make a presentation, which they had to present to the Director. During this time, the volunteers talked about UnSub as an institution, which helped in establishing it as a real academy to the participants.
At 12, pre-reading material was distributed to the recruits which would aid in solving the case. After a break, they were briefed about the case in focus. They were allowed to investigate the crime scene with a shadow accompanying them, and gather clues. They were also given post-mortem reports, statements, and other reports with regards to the case. Recruits were asked to submit a report that contained a summary of their observations, by 7pm.
On day 2, the event started at 9:30 with the interrogation round. Participants were allowed to choose 2 suspects out of 4, whom they could interview. They were asked to submit reports regarding the same, which was reviewed by the Director and Senior Officer. The top 3 recruits were chosen to progress to the final round. The honourable judge – Harsha NR, Assistant at ‘Looking for Clues Forensic Lab’ was present for the case presentation, as the 3 recruits provided various evidences to substantiate their case. Rachel Muthanna secured the 1st position for identifying the perpetrator, and Divita Gupta received the position of 1st runner-up.
Association of Christian Christies (ACC) conducted its first annual flagship event Yirah 2022 on April 11 with the help of 110 volunteers headed by four coordinators. The inauguration of the event was conducted at 9:45 am at the main auditorium. The event was presided over Dr Jyothi Kumar, dean, Christ University Bannerghatta road campus and inaugurated by Fr Jomon Kollencherey CMI, chancellor of Mandya diocese. After a magnificent dance performance by the Natyavriksha team, the congregation was welcomed to the event by Dr Roy Mathew, faculty in charge, ACC. The crowd was glad to hear the enlightening words from Fr Jomon Kolencherey CMI and Dr Jyothi Kumar. Student coordinator Merin Saji expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all the individuals present at the event. A token of gratitude was presented to the Chief guest, Dean, Faculty in charge, and Student coordinator.
The event had 300 competitors from 8 colleges all across Bangalore for 10 events. The events were as follows: sketching, mime, duet dance, western acoustics (group and solo), vernacular singing (group and solo), collage, air crash, bible quiz, relay writing, digital poster making. The participants were provided lunch by the university. By 6:00 pm, all the events were successfully concluded, and individual results and overall champions were also noted. The Valedictory ceremony was organized at the Mini Auditorium. The overall champions trophy was awarded to Kristu Jyanti College and the runner up trophy to St. Joseph’s College. Individual winners of all positions were awarded certificates, and gold and silver medals for first and second positions respectively. The participants enjoyed the truly enthralling event and gave their maximum potential to compete and win.
On April 23, 2022, at 10:30 a.m., the event was conducted in the Mini Auditorium, and the guest speakers, Mr. Anshuman Kamila IES and Ms. Ritika Bansal IES, shared their experiences and knowledge about the civil services examinations and the satisfaction gained by serving our country in online mode through the Cisco Webex Platform. It was an exciting session for all students since they learned a lot about the history of civil service and how to prepare for them in depth. The programme was a success because it instilled in the participants a new career path from which they may choose and explore a variety of prospects in the field of civil services
The Department of Economics brought forth a novel and unique cultural fest, Vrittee, that aimed exclusively at giving students the chance to showcase their talents in various fields. The event took place on 7th April 2022 and covered a range of competitions for the students to compete in. Ms Archana Murali of the BA Economics Honours batch of 2016-19, graced the occasion with her presence and was awarded the Pratibha Puraskar award by the Department. The fest proved to be a grand success owing to the enthusiastic participation of the students and their eagerness to showcase their skills on a larger platform
The event was a formal introduction to Christ University School of Business and Management Association and its activities planned for the current academic year 2021-22. The welcome performance for final years was performed by the band Parindey after which the c0ordinators announced the students engaged in leadership roles in the CUSBMA Core Committee as student representatives and extended his heartiest congratulations to the team.
The event proceeded with a motivating address by Dr. Jyothi Kumar, Dean, Bannerghatta Road Campus who emphasised the role played by each student of the School of Business and Management towards the success of the Association. Through her kind words she encouraged maximum participation and instilled a positive approach towards the forthcoming events. The Student Representatives Pranav Kumar and Ishita Saboo presented the Calendar of Events for all student-led associations on campus and their respective events planned for the current academic year. The Valedictory Ceremony came to a close with the Vote of Thanks delivered by Student Representative Vivek Darapu, after which the Christ Anthem was played. This was followed up with a gratitude session exclusively for third years, where four third year students expressed their gratitude to their experiences and the institution, accompanied by a performance by the band Brake Fast.
