“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.”
–Walter Lippmann

Continuing with our series of ‘In House with the Newly Crowned Cons’, this time around we have with us the Sayan (Genesis-dance crew- Convenor), Rajat Shukla (SAE Convenor) and Arpit (HESC Convenor) to talk about the current situation and effects of lockdown on their clubs and the future course of action.

Sayan – Convenor, Genesis NITK

– How is the situation different this semester from last year in the functioning of the club? 

This pandemic hit everyone hard, and we at NITK Dance Crew weren’t exempt to this. Needless to say, things are quite different from last year. Our work relies heavily on the physical presence of our members and conducting practices over Zoom, although possible, are not as effective as practices in person. Apart from the inconvenience of online practices, a lot of members don’t have space or the freedom to dance, to practice, which puts us in a tough spot. The two main things the DC works towards every year are the Engi and Inci inaugural functions, but with no such events in the foreseeable future, we’ve shifted our focus to solidifying our social media presence and giving our members a platform to showcase their talents. Our best memories come from our quaint, old dance room and that is definitely something we all miss.

–  How is the team collaborating given the current situation?

We’re all a part of this virtual world now. Our communications have shifted to online platforms such as teams, and google meets and our WhatsApp group remains ever active. We hold regular calls, just to catch up with everyone and to remain the close-knit group that we are. Timings are decided based on everyone’s convenience, and we ensure that our members don’t feel stressed out. This is absolutely true that at times things get harder but we all are together in this and the teamwork makes it a bit easier and we hope to come out stronger.

– What events from the club are in the pipeline?

This pandemic has changed all our lifestyles and social media, which was once a small part of our lives, now plays an important role. We’ve been working on keeping our handles active and hope to strengthen our media presence over the course of the online semester, the first step of which was renaming our crew Genesis NITK, symbolic of a new start. Our future plans include conducting workshops and posting tutorials, not just for our club members, but for the NITK community as a whole. Our members have been active through the lockdown period, constantly practising, and our Instagram page is a mere reflection of their hard work. This semester, social media becomes our stage, and we intend to put on a stellar performance. Stay tuned to our Instagram page for further updates!

– As the new convenor, things that you would like to change in the club?

I joined the Dance crew in 2018 and from day one, I have been an active member. Right from participation to the organization, I’ve always given my 100% for the betterment of the crew. I was introduced to the crew in my second year and almost immediately it became an integral part of my life. 

Coming to being the convenor, I’m well aware of the fact that this is a huge responsibility and an honour. I would like to highlight a few points about the things I would like to modify and retain in the club. First and foremost would be to strengthen our bond as a team, to take what we already have, a bunch of talented people, to greater heights. I have an amazing team to work with and I hope I can do justice to my role as a convenor. I also promise to introduce new members to the team and make sure each of them gets the opportunity to actively participate.

This crew is a family to me and as a senior member of the team, I’ll always be there to help the juniors when they need. Apart from these, I also have plans for the expansion of the team on social media platforms. Dance tutorials, workshops, etc. are also included in my to-do list for the crew. Hopefully, things get better with time, and we can put all our ideas together to help Genesis flourish.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nitkdancecrew?igshid=wpn807s0r4no

Rajat Shukla – Convener, SAE

– What are your plans for the Club/Team in the upcoming year? 

We are planning to design and build an EV if the college opens. Also, SAE has formed 3 new SIGS, which will do projects related to them. We have a planned weekly schedule for blogs. We will release our 2nd edition of SAE Techbuzz magazine. SAE has also started its YouTube channel, where we will conduct theme-based live tutorials. We are also planning to conduct a couple of events, KEPs, etc.

– What do you expect of the SAE club members? 

I expect them to –

  • Work as a team with clarity 
  • Respect every member 
  • Respect the deadlines 
  • Work wholeheartedly for the club 
  • Get tangible benefits out of their projects
  • Take the club to greater heights

– What do you think will be your new responsibilities as the convenor for SAE? 

  • To coordinate with the administration for the Annual Budget, Event Details, and other required activities.
  •  To coordinate with the Faculty Advisor and the Student Council and report the annual activities of the club.
  • To conduct General Meetings and motivate for better inter/intra-club events.
  • To coordinate with the President/ Convener of other clubs and push for collaborative events.
  • To coordinate with SAEINDIA and SAE Bangalore for more events and competitions
  • To work towards the general betterment of the club.

– Any new upcoming events that we can expect from SAE? 

Our club conducted the virtual expo from 11th to 13th Aug, wherein we presented four different projects. The uncertainties due to the pandemic were worrying but I am proud of the way the team pulled it off. The projects on energy management in EVs using ANN, lithium-ion battery pack thermal model,  disc brake design and analysis, and our media related projects like our annual magazine and blogs were showcased. We look forward to conducting our recruitments which would be open for all the branches, and then we have several exciting projects lined up this year. We would be taking projects from our new members as well. We are focusing a lot more on the EV projects. The media team will be actively working on blogs, YouTube channel, and 2nd edition of our annual magazine. 

We’re also planning to launch our website this year where all our blogs, projects and other events will be updated.

Social Media: https://linktr.ee/sae_nitk
Website: https://saenitk.wordpress.com/

Arpit Jadia – Convenor, HESC

– What are your plans for the Club/Team in the upcoming year? 

We will try to make everyone work together so that the presence of Hindi along with other literature can become more prominent in college.

Also, we plan to conduct some sessions on technical topics so that academics/field of interest can also go along with literary and cultural stuff. We also plan to increase reach and activity of our social media pages.

– What problems do you think the club will face this semester due to the online sem? 

In open mics, the feel of the crowd won’t be there. Apart from this, some extra burden is there on the Media team, which the Media team is handling very efficiently.

It can be seen at our official Instagram handle which will be linked down below.

– Any new upcoming events that we can expect from HESC? 

Yes, Hindi Pakhwada in  September and Kalakriti in October.

Hindi Pakhwada will be a series of literary events such as captioning the image, poetry competitions,quiz etc. It will be done in online mode.

We are planning Kalakriti, a series of interactive events, obviously involving literature and Hindi along with a theme based on the festivals around that time.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hescnitk/