THE INCEPTION OF NEBULA

Nebula 2011, Getting down to earth!  It was an idea which we as B.sc Students had during our final days of Second Year.  An idea, wherein we could unite students through a medium not entirely cultural but educational as well keeping in mind the subject of Geology, this idea faded away initially as time was not of the essence and time was what we actually needed to get our act together and actually pull off the event! The change in tide came when we as T.Y.B.Sc students realized that this can be very well accomplished considering the enormous support we had from the department.

That very moment, we as a group of students, rushed to the professors and discussed the event details at length. The response we received was positive however, the challenge of executing the event was all in our hands. Pragat Naik and Ramesh Jaggal joined along in the plan of execution and the very initial challenge was funding as the idea would remain a distant thought had the funding not come through. It was a lengthy and tiring process to the point wherein we doubted the very execution of the event. As they say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going and Pragat Naik struck us a sweet deal with DS Naik developers just near the college campus. This led to other deals coming through as well and along with a college funding; we were set to get the ball rolling with the event.

The event ideas were not easy to come by considering the interlocking of recreational events with Geology however, after hundreds of brainstorming sessions with other classmates. I had an event plan ready. We decided to launch ahead with a 2 minute talk, quiz, Article writing, Photography, Poster making and a Geology Spellathon (might I add that the spellathon would be my favorite event)

Once we had the draft, we really got into our grooves and began distributing invites to various colleges and herein lay another challenge considering it was a new idea which we had to pitch to various institutional heads without the factor of skepticism coming in. The next task was a crucial one as we had to decide the timeslots so that every event would flow smoothly followed by selecting venues, preparing in depth event plans, finalizing individual event coordinators, and finally inventory planning. As a whole unit, we did have our differences, discussions and debates however, we settled each dispute with the main aim of getting the event rolling.

Come the day before the event and we were on our toes to get the layouts ready and deck all the event areas along with making contingency plans should anything go wrong (touchwood for sure!)

The event took us all by surprise as the participation, excitement and amount of competition was way beyond what we expected! There were a few initial jitters but c’mon, who does not have a few eh? After the start, we had a rollicking flow and the ultimate winners of Nebula 2011 were Dhempe College of Arts and Science.

All in all, Nebula was more than an event. It was our way of leaving a mark, a mark of an idea conceived by the students of the T.Y.B.Sc 2010-2011 batch.

Savius Fernandes

Coordinator, Nebula 2011