 |
NIHILANTH Nihilanth... the end of nothingness... the genesis of knowledge Nihilanth was envisaged as the Colosseum for the best brains of the country. Nihilanth is a quiz festival involving the seven IITs and six IIMs - the 13 premier institutes that form the backbone of India's future development in the business world, be it on the technology side or on the management front. As they will meet someday in business to challenge their own frontiers, it is only appropriate that they meet now at a common meeting ground where they can pit themselves against each other in a healthy competitive spirit. And that is what Nihilanth is all about. The unique aspect of Nihilanth is its rolling nature... the festival will go from one institute to another every year. No institute can claim ownership to the festival. It belongs as much to IIMI as to IITK. Nihilanth is thus positioned as the perfect event through which the goal of enhancing interaction between the IITs and the IIMs can be achieved. Nihilanth is a union of words from the most ancient of the languages, Latin and Sanskrit.
Nihil - Latin for nothing The Motif The logo for this year's Nihilanth is a symbolic depiction of the Bodhi tree under which Gautama Buddha attained Enlightenment. The Chinese character, which forms the trunk, stands for enlightenment. There are thirteen leaves, each standing for the participating institutes. The Event The inaugural edition of the festival was recently conducted in IIM Indore. The two-day event, held on October 4th and October 5th, featured six quizzes:
Participation The festival saw an overwhelming participation from all the institutes - with over 70 participants coming over to Indore to take part in the festival. The campus was abuzz with excitement and you could feel the adrenaline rush in everyone as each event was being announced and winners declared. The quizzes The quizzes were all keenly contested with teams fighting hard to win the top honours. Each final featured eight teams after a grueling preliminary round of questions to select the top participants. The highlight of the festival was the Overall Winners Trophy, which was bagged by the institute turning in the all-round best performance. Apart from this prestigious trophy, each quiz had its own bounty of rewards with the top three participants taking in cash prizes and lots of audience prizes. The Sports Quiz saw Arul Mani grilling the participants on topics ranging from cricket to Olympics to yachting and a keen tussle ended in IIM Calcutta bagging the top honours after piping IIT Madras in the final round. IIM Bangalore came in third. The Movies, Entertainment, Literature and Arts Quiz (MELA) was a thrilling quiz conducted by Satyajit Chetri. It was a treat for those with an artistic and literary bent of mind as the quizmaster tested the teams on connections between movies and books and art forms. The biz guys from IIM Ahmedabad turned in some late brilliance to push the IIT Delhites to the second place while IIT Bombay took the third spot. Mr. Gautam Ghosh kept the audience guessing and enthralled with his Business Quiz questions. The business quiz had questions from the realm of mergers to finance to ad campaigns and marketing and also featured a thrilling connections round, which was enjoyed by all. IIM Calcutta teams made it one-three between themselves while IIT Roorkee surprised many by turning in a superlative performance to come in second. IIM Lucknow was a joint third. The first quiz on the second morning was the Science & Technology Quiz, conducted by Mr. Arul Mani. Here too IIM Calcutta showed that they are no minnows when it comes to exploring the technology frontiers. They fought off a spirited challenge from the IIT teams to win the quiz. IIT Madras edged past their IIT Kanpur counterparts to take the second spot. The Lone Wolf Quiz - the test to find the champion quizzing brain of the festival - was next on the agenda. The eight finalists, chosen out of over 50 contestants, were tested by Mr. Gautam Ghosh on all topics - as mastery is demanded in all aspects of quizzing. After a keenly contested final, Siddhartha Banerjee from IIT Madras was crowned the Lone Wolf while Shreekant and Dushyant from IIM Bangalore secured the second and third spots respectively. The General Quiz was preceded by a brief press conference where the quiz masters fielded questions from the press. Mr. Siddhartha Basu admitted that he had never been on the other side of the table and opined that each quiz, be it the KBC or BBC Master Mind had its own thrill and appeal to the audience. The quiz masters agreed that today's generation is better informed because of greater media exposure and it would be unjust to compare the generations. Mr. Mani and Mr. Ghosh felt that being quizzers and quiz masters gave them the chance to experience the best of both worlds. The final quiz of the festival - the GE Commercial Finance General Quiz was the show piece event, conducted by the renowned quizmaster Mr. Siddhartha Basu. True to the reputation of the quizmaster, the event saw a heavy turnout as guests, patrons and students gathered in large numbers to savor the exciting moments. The set-up was magnificent with the quiz being conducted in an open air stage and the atmosphere was electrifying. With lots of audience prizes, Basu brought out the best from the onlookers even as the teams on stage battled for the honours. IIM Calcutta again showed their quizzing brilliance winning the event in style followed by IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore. Closing Ceremony All good things necessarily need to come to an end and so did our festival. A brief closing ceremony marked the end of the two-day event. The guests of honour for the occasion, Mr. Jayram Sampat, Head of Supply-Chain Management, TVS Electronics, Mr. Ranjit Nair, Vice-President and Head, GE Commercial Finance, and Mr. Achyutan, Vice President, Human Resources, GE Commercial Finance, joined Mr. Siddhartha Basu in giving away the certificates and cheques to the winners. The guests also spoke about their delight in being associated with Nihilanth, the first festival involving the IITs and IIMs, and commitment of their organizations towards promoting such events. The Chairman, PG Program in Management, IIM Indore, Prof. Kuldeep Singh, congratulated the organizers and the participants in making such an event successful. He then handed out the crystal Nihilanth Trophy to IIM Calcutta team - who were crowned the overall champions, true to their phenomenal performance of winning four out of the six quizzes. The festival ended with the Nihilanth coordinator, Mr. Surya Kiran Tatineni, thanking all the teams for their enthusiastic participation and also pledged on behalf of the entire IIT-IIM community to keep alive this spirit of competition alive in the days to come. NIHILANTH TROPHY WINNERS: IIM CALCUTTA
Contributed by: - |
 |
|
|
