It was an exciting time at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow from 30th October through 2nd November, as the institute hosted its annual festival – OJAS 2013. The event celebrates vigour and vitality within each individual through a mix of events that bring together students from all over the country. Director Prof. Dr. S. R. Musanna, Associate Dean Kavita Pathak and Student Affairs Chairperson Prof. Amit Sharma formally inaugurated OJAS 2013 with the lighting of lamp and Dr. Musana’s inaugural speech

Day 1

‘A Feast for Your Senses’, a mesmerising Kathak performance under the aegis of SPICMACAY by Visharad Manisha Mishra from the Banaras Gharana, was an auspicious beginning to the event. Her compositions were astounding and ranged from Goddess Durga killing her enemies, to a Radha-Krishna prastuti. ‘Ashayein’ was a scintillating performance by the children of Ashayein, an NGO working in the field of empowerment of special children — from street children, to girl children – and palliative care for children, especially those suffering from Autism. Ms. Bhawna Kapoor, MD Ashayein, sensitised the students to the needs of these special children and urged them to volunteer time for the cause. “Seeing these children today has been a very emotional experience for me. I definitely want to do something for them and will find ways to be associated with the cause”, said Shubhi Tripathy, PGDM Batch of 2013-2015, from Jaipuria Lucknow.

Stage performance by the children of Ashayein	Inaugural dance by Visharad Manisha Mishra

Day 2

The second day saw the Rangoli competition, which was built around the theme of ‘Save the girl child’ and other than Jaipuria Institutes of Management, it saw participation from IMS Lucknow, SRMS Lucknow, Goyal College, and Avadh Degree College.
This was followed by a Collage making competition, which was centered on the issues of the girl child, the Uttarakhand tragedy and women’s empowerment.
Buffet Mania, a competition hosted by the Finance Club, saw 23 participants making as much money as possible by trading and using effective strategies to multiply the initial amount of Rs.1, 00, 00,000. The winner, obviously, was the one who earned the most.
Business Idea and Housie by the IRC committee also created a lot of excitement.
Creative Writing events in English and Hindi were held, using the themes of ‘The Green Revolution’ and ‘Practice What You Preach’.
Blindfold was a game organised by the Marketing Club, in which contestants were blindfolded and were supposed to recognise products by touching them.
Finally, there were the much appreciated singing and dancing events that had the audience singing along. “What I loved most was that the dances had socially relevant themes like ‘Good vs. Evil’ and ‘Child Labour’”, said Shalvi Shekhar, PGDM Batch 2013-2015. The War of Bands was the last event of day 2, which saw performances by Astitva from Seth M. R. Jaipuria School’s band, Swabhumi from Bhatkhande Music University, Yukti from Amity University, Metabrigade from DPS Kanpur and the RJ Arish Hasan Band.

Rangoli contest on “Save the girl child”

Day 3

Exciting dramatic performances, such as Tajmahal ka Tender and Baap re Baap were staged on the third day of the evnt. Both satires were put up by BIMS and Avadh Degree College respectively.
A Face-painting competition was held over the theme of ‘Food Waste’ and subtheme of ‘Save the Planet – Save Food’.
The Diya painting competition, organised by the Social Service Club, attracted a huge crowd, while the seniors and juniors came together to participate in the Treasure Hunt competition and Blast the Balloon game. The topic for the Debate competition was “Food Security Bill – The solution for poverty in India?” and saw participants from many colleges, such as SRMS, ICCMRT, Avadh Degree College and Jaipuria Lucknow.
The ET Quiz was organised by the Finance Club and nine teams of four members each took part. Another quiz, ‘Mastishq Manthan’, was organized by the Research Committee; it was a business quiz that consisted of three rounds, including logo identification and video recognition rounds. There was also an IT quiz, ‘Tech-bytes’, organised by the IT club. It saw participation from Amity, Goel, ICCMRT and JIML. The event saw the hard-working teams running around the college campus to decipher the given clues.
But the main attraction of the day, and one that everyone had been waiting for, was ‘Fashionista’, the fashion show put up by Jaipuria Lucknow. The crowd cheered the models on and finally carried the frenzy to the dance floor, where the DJ enthralled them.

The Ojas attendees		Among the winning teams

Day 4

The last day of OJAS was kick-started with street plays. Lucknow University MBA did a street play around the issue of dowry, while Avadh Degree College tried to convey the message of ‘Follow the traffic rules’.
The ‘Marketing Games’ was another thrilling event to watch, where four teams with four members each competed for the 1st position, facing questions of general awareness and theory.
The age-old Antakshari saw huge participation from JIML, IMS-Lucknow, ICCMRT and Avadh Degree College.
Finally, it was time for the festival to end on the valediction. Jaipuria Lucknow bagged several prizes, along with Avadh Degree College, SMS Varanasi, BIMS, and LU MBE.
OJAS 2013 concluded with a celebrity night that included a performance by everybody’s favourite contestant of Indian Idol Season One, Amit Sana. His energetic and mellifluous renditions had everybody swaying to his tunes and asking for more.
OJAS promises to be back next year with bigger and better offerings!

Amit Sana rocking the stage		Happy faces of Ojas 2013

Shubhi Tripathy, Deepti Bansal and Soumya Sharma
PGDM 2013-2015