After three days of fun, frolic and festivity, Thomso 2013, a cultural fest of IIT Roorkee, themed on live Free Die Hard, culminated here on Sunday.
There were more than 100 colleges from all over India that participated in various competitions. Over 30 sponsorship deals were cracked to orgainse the cultural night by comedian Ehsaan Qureshi, and rock concerts by EKA band and actor Farhan Akhtar. All this was done by the students of this institute.
Farhan Akhtar’s rock concert left an everlasting impact in the hearts of all those present. The day also saw many off-beat events like Angry Birds which included hitting the target with a lifesize man-made catapult, test your knowledge on popular TV shows and series, laser tag competition, Tangram which was an origami competition, and various literary events like Just a Minute and Spelling Bee were also organised.
Pradipta Banerji, director, IIT Roorkee, said: “ In 1853, IIT Roorkee was known as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering which later became the the University of Roorkee in 1948. It was in 2001, that the university was converted into IIT Roorkee. Thus the name Thomso cultural fest. After the wait of three years, the institute has organised this fest and made it a grand affair.
For the convener of this fest too it was a huge task. But the success of the event more than made up for all his hard work. “We can say that Thomso 2013 has returned with a bang. Organising a college fest was a great experience that will stay with us for the life time. There were many challenges but my team managed to keep the situation under control. Getting sponsors to cough out money was the most daunting of all tasks which took us about three months. Managing security was another challenge especially for Farhan Akhtar’s live performance. The team has to be credited for everything. They did everything possible to make this cultural fest a huge success,” Anirudh Yadav, says.
Thomso 2013 was all the more special when Farhan Akhtar made a visit to IIT Roorkee’s Anushruti K-12 school which is a special school for the hearing impaired. “It was a wonderful experience meeting these children. Their art and craft work which was showcased for display was very impressive and I wish them all the luck in life,” Akhtar said.