JoyFest
Joyfest 2012 was held at TAPMI from the 17th to the 20th of October 2012 as a part of our celebrations of the Joy of Giving Week.
Joyfest involves the aspects of giving to the less fortunate and sharing a part of our lives with them. It is a ‘festival of philanthropy’ to show our concern for and to the less privileged lot.
The Social Endeavour Group of TAPMI believes that the youth of India should take the initiative to sensitize people on the issues/problems faced by the underprivileged. The basic idea was to involve the management students of TAPMI in teaching orphan children dance, music, arts and craft in campus and finally organize an event showcasing their talent on the 20th October, 2012.
Also, as part of Joyfest, we organized an NGO Mela at MIT food court on 19th Oct and at TAPMI campus on 20th Oct. Along with Namma Bhoomi, an NGO which sold its products in our campus last year, few more NGO’s and local women entrepreneurs showed interest in selling their products in the campus. Some of the products these NGO’s offered were Bakery Items, Ladies Garments, Tera cotta, jute & cotton products, Bio organic products, ayurvedic items. To promote the sales of the NGO’s a competition – ‘Parivartan’, marketing for a cause was organized. In the competition student teams from TAPMI were allocated an NGO and were asked to market their products in the TAPMI campus from 18:00 hrs of 18 Oct, 2012. The students very enthusiastically marketed their products, by putting up banners, posters at various places in the campus. One of the teams had stuck balloons on each and every table of canteen to promote the NGO’s product. The teams came up with many innovative ideas to help the NGO’s increase their revenues. The efforts certainly helped NGO’s increase their revenues. The competition was judged by Prof. Animesh Bahadur and Prof. Sushanta Kumar Sarma and Team Aasha comprising of Sandeep Kuberkar, Sankeertana, Pragati Jaiswal emerged as the winners while team F.R.I.E.N.D.S. comprising of Prapti Kuhikar, Mukund Holani, Sameer Chhappar emerged as the runners up.
Children from Shri Krishna Bal Niketan and Childrens’ Home, Nittur participated in the four day festival this year, while the kids were being trained in their domains of interest, a small surprise was planned for them on 18th Oct, TOM & JERRY was screened at the student centre. Genuine smiles on the faces of the delighted kids were worth a watch. A group of volunteers for each of the discipline facilitated their learning as their mentors, aiding them throughout the span of four days. On the final day i.e. 20th Oct, a performance was put up by the children who had been trained in the discipline of their choice, such as singing, dancing, arts, crafts and dramatics.
Close to 60 volunteers schooled the children in various aspects of dance, music and dramatics, and the children responded by putting up an excellent final-day performance in presence of chief guest Prof. K. Sankaran a graduate from the esteemed IIT Kharagpur, PGDM from IIM Bangalore and PhD from Kent State University, Ohio, USA and currently working as Director of Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management, Nitte, Udupi Dist., Karnataka. Staff and faculties of TAPMI, which included Prof. Sankalpa Bhatacharjee, Prof. Raghunath Rudran, Prof. Animesh Bahadur, Prof. Debmallya Chaterjee and family, Prof. P S James, Prof Vidya Pratap, Prof K J Jaims, Mr. N G Nayak graced the occasion to encourage the children.
During these four days, after getting permission from Shri Krishna Bal Niketan for bringing the children to TAPMI, a bus was arranged for transportation of the children and representatives through TAPMI administration. Snacks were arranged for the children and the representatives.
Simultaneously, a group of volunteers travelled to Childrens’ Home, Nittur to teach the disciplines to the children there. Leaving the college every day after classes at 5.30 pm, they would go to Nittur every evening to spend quality time with the children, and, in the process, teach the children the various disciplines of music, dance, drama, arts and craft.
Dance groups presented solo or group dance performances, as did the groups trained in music. The children trained in dramatics presented a series of highly humorous skits, and the children associated with the arts and craft put up an exhibition of their displays, all of which were highly appreciated.
The role played by some of our student colleagues who acted as translators cannot be overlooked, as they were facilitators for the close relationship that the children shared with their mentors.
The evening concluded with the felicitation of the participating children by the guests, followed by snacks and high tea. After that, the children returned with promises of coming back next year, a promise which we look forward to with great anticipation.