Dimapur, March 26 (MExN): The National Institute of Technology, Nagaland, is set to hold its annual techno-cultural fest, Ekarikthin. The three day fest will kick off on March 31 with Parliamentary Secretary Higher and Technical Education Deo Nukhu as Chief Guest, a press release informed.
Organisers of the fest hope to push the boundaries of entertainment and expect the audience turnout from all parts of Nagaland and the entire North-East region to increase significantly.
Apart from all the events that were organized in the previous years, the number of events and competitions has been increased this year with the addition of a plethora of cultural and technical events.
Preparations for the third edition of Ekarikthin are in full swing at the institute and the excitement can be clearly seen in the students of the college. Encompassing everyone from fashion enthusiasts to nerdy engineers and from musical gurus to scientific folks, the organisers assure that Ekarikthin has something to offer to everyone.
The highlight of Ekarikthin this year will be Cosplay on April 1 organized by Nagaland Anime Junkies – their first on a grand scale in Dimapur.
Another innovative and enthralling event to be held this year will be Nagaland Beatbox Battle in collaboration with Indihut on the same day. The event will be judged by internationally acclaimed beatboxer and CEO of Beatbox Without Borders, MC Eucalips. The other judges of this event will be Ishan Nagia, the 1st runner up of India Beatbox national championship, and Yanpvou Kikon, founder of India Beatbox championship.
A number of bands from all over India will also be performing during the fest. The Magdalene, a rock band from Mizoram will be setting up the temperament for the fest while SPUNK band with their power packed and high energy gigs will be performing on April 1. The highlight of the musical section of the fest will be Alobo Naga who will perform on April 2.
In the fashion segment, the third edition of Ritzy, a pivotal event for aspiring male and female models, will be held on March 31. The contest will be a three round competition - cultural wear, casual, and formal wear. The competition will be judged by Gihutoli Khulu, director of Ethnic Trendzana, Nzanthung Ngullie, Deputy Registrar of NIT Nagaland, and Alika Zhimomi, 1st Runner-Up Miss Nagaland 2014.
The designer for the event will be Odiren Walling and Sanjeev Tamang. Chow Poran J. Gogoi who is a fashion associate at IECEN Milano, Milan, Italy for the North-East zone will groom the contestants and be the choreographer for Ritzy.
The winners will be presented with cash prizes and a glut of gift hampers (including designer wears) for a number of sections.
Mornings and afternoons will be filled with dance and singing competitions to encompass the competitors with tangible voices and proficient movements.
Apart from this, there are a number of events for school and college students like pencil sketching, science exhibition, origami competition, spellcraft, variety of quizzes, treasure hunt and a lot more.
Keeping the tradition intact, Ekarikthin will be presenting Rockville (battle of the band) on April 2, an arena where bands from the entire north-east will be participating. Cash prizes worth Rs. 50,000 will be given to the winners. The three-day fest will conclude with a DJ night.
NIT Nagaland being a technical college, the engineering and scientific events form a major part of Ekarikthin. Students and engineers from all over Nagaland as well as from other NIT’s and colleges from North-east are expected to participate in the technical part of the fest.
Autonomous mobile robotics competition is the highlight of the technical events in which an automatic line follower robot is designed by the students and set for competition. A quadcopter designed by the students of NIT Nagaland will also be put on display.
A number of other robotic events like pick and place, mud race and other manual and automatic robotic competitions will be held.
For the gaming aficionados, NIT Nagaland is hosting gaming carnages with a surplus of computer games like FIFA, counter strike, DOTA and a lot more running on the state of the art computers of NIT Nagaland.
For the hackers all over the country, Ekarikthin has a number of coding championships with winners being presented with cash prizes.
And if this collection of technical and cultural events were not enough, Ekarikthin has other miscellaneous events like Roadies, treasure hunt, gully cricket, type master and many more which will challenge the participants in a variety of fields.
“NIT Nagaland understands that while enjoying and partying is necessary it is imperative to look towards our society and return what we have been endowed with,” the release informed. In this regard, a number of social initiatives like Blood Donation camp and “Coin for a Smile” have been organized, it stated.
In addition, this year Ekarikthin have Food Carnival, it informed assuring that the crowds won’t enjoy the fest with empty bellies.
“With this collection of events and considering the organization of the previous two editions, Ekarikthin 2017 is expected to beguile the people in Nagaland and the entire North-East for there is no harm in taking a break once in awhile and adding a tinge of excitement and merriment,” the press release stated.
The National Institute of Technology Nagaland was set up by the Central Government as part of the eleventh five-year plan for imparting technical education in the state of Nagaland and bring about all round development in technical field in Nagaland and the entire North-East. It is one of the 31 institutes of national importance in India and the first centrally funded institute in Nagaland.
