The journey began when I was in my 1st sem ! October 2009. I’m one of those few who has been associated with the Cultural Team throughout Engineering life.
It was my 1st Parichay and we had our seniors coming to our class to discuss events. I was just listening. I had always been more of an introvert throughout School and PUC , and now I decided to come out of my shell.
Next day , I took a paper,scale,pen,events sheet and went around asking people in my deptartment to sign up for a few events. I neatly wrote down their names and submitted it to the Cultural committee. Only to realise later , that I was the only one to have done a good job at it and everyone took notice.
In the following days , we in our dept. (EEE) formed a dance team and we actually performed onstage ( Much to our surprise , considering how awesome our steps were :P ) The adrenaline rush on the stage was too good to be forgotten. I still remember , how we forgot the steps and randomly started doing tapanguchi for a Michael Jackson song. The crowd was like ‘ WTF ‘. HAHAHA. What an experience it was !
My first Pantheon happened in the 2nd sem ( March ,2010 ). I had been to New Horizon college along with Shashank ,Deepthi , Anusha and Gautham ( who were in 4th sem ) to campaign and oh boy, we did a great job! The bonds that were created that day are still going strong. Two days before pantheon I stayed back In college to help out a little, not realising I just begun my journey as a member of CAT! My seniors Bopanna , Milind , Chandan , Surabhi , Malavika , Aneesh , Sushanth , Anand , Ajay , Veena and many more were just amazing!
We did a CAT dance after Pantheon to some really old Hindi songs. It was fun. After the fest we went to Guhantara and it was then I realised that I had become a member of CAT.
The following year , 3rd and 4th sems were the best in my Engineering life. Why ? Because I made so many friends in college , almost all my good friends were pre-final or final year students. Who went on to be my mentors and great friends! All thanks to Pantheon!
My next Pantheon was in 2012 and with it came huge responsibility! I was in the core committee and I was given the responsibility to handle all the volunteers. Ok , what you need to understand here is , this is the first time we had someone solely responsible for volunteers. I had two subordinates to work with on this, Harish and Shubham. Together , we defined a structure to assign and handle all the volunteers.There were more than a 100 people who had signed up to volunteer. We had to assign volunteers for each event , provide volunteers to any emergency situation if arisen ( Juke box, crowd control , adjusting banners , checking on guests , follow up on results , food coupons , co-ordinating with event co-ordinators and the reasons went on … ). Literally , the entire ground control was ours! This was an experience of a life time! I understood so much about people , I interacted with so many juniors . Handling so many people , organizing it , working together ... Pantheon literally taught me the most essential life skills ! There were appreciations from all corners. Well , Pantheon 2012 was a huge HIT !!
The above work gave me enough confidence to initiate my own branch fest and also when I took over as the Vice President of the Mountaineering Club , I could spearhead a new event called the RNS ROAD RUN. It happened to be one of the highlights of the year , because of nearly 230+ people participating in the presence of our Chairman Dr. RN Shetty. All thanks to what I learnt while being a part of the Cultural team!!
I literally went through every possible emotion during my 4 year long association with the cultural team. Inspiration , Love , Hate , friendship , Jealousy , Care! Almost everyone I’m in touch with right now is because of CAT. Many juniors sent me personal messages on fb/watsapp appreciating and thanking me for a lot of reasons. That feeling can be understood only when experienced!
All this is made me think as to what I want in Life. I understood my strengths and weaknesses. I had the confidence to give up my placement offer with a Tier-1 software MNC. I joined an International Sales company and now I’m in a Top startup doing exactly what I want to do!!! The cultural team has always meant a lot to me and it always will !!
I call upon all juniors to come in large numbers and participate , support your branch and in turn your college. Organising a fest is not as simple as it looks , so please forgive the errors if at all you find any. I wish the Secretaries and their team all the very best for the upcoming Parichay!!
WE WILL BE THERE TO WITNESS ANOTHER SPECTACLE !!
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