Students perform at Kaleidoscope. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

A true kaleidoscope of talent emerged at the annual fest of Lady Brabourne College (LBC). Kaleidoscope 2007, held on December 14 and 15 in association with The Telegraph, featured competitions on everything from creative writing to choreography, packing in something for everyone.

Day One opened with a gripping Just a Minute contest where Nilanjan Chatterjee and Siddharth Chakraborty of Presidency College bagged the first prize followed by Ankita Saha of St Xavier’s College (SXC) and Samyak Ghosh of Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur. SXC also won the only prize in Jugalbandi, the eastern instrumental music competition. Off-stage events on the day included creative writing competition where students of Jadavpur University, RKM Narendrapur and Scottish Church College won the first, second and third place.

The fun went on with the eastern solo dance competition Lashya. Ramyani Chatterjee of SXC enthralled the audience with an interpretation of a free-spirited woman who likes being one with nature. Swagata Banerjee of LBC and Atanu Das of Prafulla Chandra College tied at second place while Pooja Guin of Jaipuria College secured third place. “I think the audience from a girls’ college tends to understand dance better,” smiled Pooja.

The western solo vocals followed and the strains of Green Day’s Time Of Your Life and Wake Me Up had the audience asking for more. Sreemoyee Singh of LBC was the obvious house favourite with her rendition of Dido’s White Flag. Varun Gujadhur of Jadavpur University secured second place with his soulful rendition of U2’s One. Kiran Porey of Prafulla Chandra College won third place with RKMC’s Rideep Chakraborty. “Wake Me Up was my best prepared song and I got really nervous when the technical fault happened. I was really grateful to be given the chance to start again,” said Kiran. LBC’s auditorium sang along with Rideep’s rendition of Eagle’s Love Will Keep Us Alive.

LBC’s picturesque grounds saw some more action when Cacophonix, the war of the college bands, started. Department of law, Calcutta University, had the girls swooning with their harmonised version of Leaving On A Jet Plane which won them first place. Jaipuria College impressed with Cranberries’s Zombie and Sheryl Crow’s version of Sweet Child of Mine. And along with Surajit of Bhoomi fame, t2’s own rising rockers Second Earth were also seen watching the mini rock extravaganza at the college.

Guest band Dohar rocked LBC next. Sighed Dibyashree Chatterjee, first-year student of LBC: “The entire college danced to the tunes of Sadher lau.”

On the second day, entertaining mind-benders like “Why is there no Nobel Prize for mathematics?” had the audience hooked during the quiz programme. “Because Alfred Nobel’s wife ran away with a mathematician” turned out to be the unlikely but correct answer! SXC and LBC bagged first and second place while Presidency and Scottish Church tied at third place. Be a Rebel, the debate, was a war of wits on the topic “Do we really need reality TV shows?” where SXC and Presidency secured first and second place with the best speaker award going to Anup Dhar of SXC.

There was more fun to be had at Theatronix the skit competition, in which LBC bagged first prize. The judge for the event Mir had only nice things to stay about the college. “I came here with the notion that I would learn something new on my first visit to LBC. I wasn’t disappointed. I’m very impressed by LBC’s stellar performance,” he said.

And with Tanzen, the choreography event won by the home gang for its visually pleasing fusion dance inspired by Kathak and Odissi styles, the college’s excitement knew no bounds. Fashion show, RJ hunt and guest performance by band Ragaz followed. “It was a lot of fun. I danced like crazy when they played Ashaye ashaye. And I loved it when they played a medley of Mohiner Ghoruguli’s Prithibi and James’s Bheegi bheegi,” said Dibyashree.