The following is an article written by a professor, expressing his views on Shaastra and Saarang.

“All work and no play make Jack and Jill dullards.  That is why sports and cultural events are essential for providing a platform for students' talents.  While there can be no doubt that academics are the centrepiece, these extra-curricular activities are a must for well-rounded development.  However, for an alarming number of students, the extra-curricular activities have occupied centre-stage and pushed academic activities to the periphery, thanks to Shaastra and Saarang.

Saarang's predecessor Mardi Gras came about to provide a platform to showcase amateur talent.  After metamorphosing into Saarang, it grew unhealthily big and now has become a monster event: obscene amounts of sponsorship money, bringing in big names and bigger names, etc., etc.  They are demanding months and months of behind-the-scenes work from students, affecting academics (supposedly the centrepiece) in a big way.  Since Saarang happens a few days before an approaching quiz week, studying for the quizzes happens only after they are over.  As a result, an already bad attendance during quiz week has now become even worse.

"I want to make my Saarang better than your Saarang" really translates to "My Saarang will be bigger by X lakhs than your Saarang", and is quickly leading this out of control.  "Oh, don't worry, we've put a cap on the money involved" is an often heard response.  This "cap" is, I am guessing, 50 lakhs.  If this is correct, then we have lost our perspective completely.

Most of what I've said of Saarang applies to Shaastra too.

Saarang and Shaastra have to be scaled down sharply.  My suggestion is that Saarang and Shaastra should come in alternate years, i.e., if it is Saarang this year, the next year it should be Shaastra, and so on.  Furthermore, it should be organized in the third week of December.  Only then will the tail (these festivals) not wag the dog (academics).  The objections to hosting them in December will be that these will clash with Inter-IIT Sports Meets.  A student has to make choices and participate in one or the other, for the price paid in the existing regime is unacceptably high.

Another aspect that simply does not appear to be acceptable is the roping in of first years as volunteers.  Even before they can settle down in a new place, calling first year students for volunteer meetings that go on late into the night is unconscionable.

We need to take a step back and look at these two events, seriously rethink them, and put them in their proper place, i.e., make them the showcase that they were for amateur talent, fun, and enjoyable, on a scale that is healthy and normal.”

- Prof. C.S.Ramalingam, Department of Electrical Engineering (http://www.ee.iitm.ac.in/~csr/)
Most students, on reading the above article would not agree with it. But there may be certain aspects of the article which are true.

The usual complaints about Shaastra and Saarang are -

1. Effect on Academics - Pretty evident from the fact that since the work for these festivals begins around 6 months before the festival itself, it does get in between academics. There are sufficient cases to prove that several people experienced a drop in their CGPA after becoming volunteers or coordinators.

2. Too much focus is given on organization, rather than demonstration of technical/literary/other abilities.

3. The entire process, right from selection of coordinators, to management of individual events is not as professional as it claims to be. There is a lot of politics, which goes on in coordinator selection, and many-a-times, deserving people are left out of the process.
There is a lot of mismanagement of funds which takes place.

4. People start looking for “Coreships”, “Coordships” etc. as a means to an end. They start involving themselves in the festival simply for getting a “Resume point”.

5. Several people are of the opinion that departments such as Facilities, Hospitality, etc. could be outsourced. “You don’t come to IIT to lift tables and chairs” say a lot of people (referring to GA volunteers). Outsourcing these departments could be beneficial in the long run, as the agencies handling them would be highly professional, and may end up doing a better job than most students.






The other side to the story, which most students argue -

1. Shaastra is a manifestation of the “tech culture in insti” (as the Co-CAS puts it)
It leads to advancement of technology and “strives continuously for excellence in student-student and student-industry interaction as well as promotes new frontiers of thought by the student community” (Vision of Shaastra)
It claims to be quite successful in this regard.

2. Shaastra and Saarang take the toll off a monotonous life in the institute. Both for the people involved in working for the festivals, as well as for those who simply participate in them.


3. People develop several skill-sets by working for various departments. Especially if departments such as QMS, Finance etc. are considered.
Event coordinators also learn management skills, and most of the time, are genuinely interested in their respective events.

4. Both the festivals provide a lot of PR and/or publicity for the institute. They are our “claim to fame” as some would put it.

5. Many people put the skills acquired to good use. In a lighter sense, it can be seen as “providing employment to a wide variety of jobless people”. Some of these positions do help students in getting placed.

6. Every year, Saarang holds a professional show, which is one of the biggest in India. Also, initiatives such as Shaastra/Saarang Impact, Symposium, and Big Plan actually make a  difference to the society.

Keeping all the above points in mind, we must objectively analyze the true importance of Shaastra and Saarang.

Till now, we mostly talked about how Shaastra and Saarang affect us on an individual level. Lets see how they affect our institute as a whole.

1. Shaastra does not fuel innovation to the scale that it claims to. Most of the SoEs do not see the market, and end up staying in the project stage. Institutes such as MIT, Harvard etc. have a lot more innovations. Competitions like FSAE, IARC, iGEM, DARPA, Robocon, FIRA serve this purpose in a much more meaningful manner. These competitions actually fuel a lot of research papers. The quality of participation in these events is way above the quality of participation seen in Shaastra.

2. If the quality of participation at Shaastra/Saarang is low, that reflects badly on the institute.

3. Is the effort put in for ISO certification justified? There is a lot of windowdressing done to get the ISO at times.

4. Why do we really need more PR for the institute? Why does the institute as a whole, require more exposure? Most of this publicity misdirected and is publicity for the sake of publicity.



One thing that does come to mind is that this particular method of conducting technical/cultural festivals is unique to our institute (or other IITs/other Indian institutes)

Universities abroad follow a different pattern when it comes to student-run festivals.

e.g. the system of “Open Day”

A particular day is designated as “Open Day” during which, the university in questions simply sets up stalls. These stalls are usually set up department wise. The research scholars/undergraduate students who are working on various projects display the work done by them. This gives an opportunity for many people to visit the campus, and get a good glimpse of the technological culture of the institute. This could include various companies, prospective students, or other interested people.

MIT recently had a festival called FAST (Festival of Arts, Science and Technology) which was a part of their MIT150 confluence of Art and Technology (celebrating 150 years)
It significantly differed from how Shaastra is generally run

1. The main organizers (analogous to our “core group”) were faculty members
- Tod Machover, Professor of Music and Media at MIT
- Meejin Yoon, Associate Professor of Architecture at MIT
- Leila W Kinney, Director of Art Initiatives at MIT


2. The whole festival was spread over a period of 3 months, mostly taking place on weekends. It did not consist of too many competitions as such, but had demonstrations of the kind that we have at Shaastra nights.

3. All these demonstrations were done by MIT faculty/students who were researching on them. These include Robotic Operas, Electronic Music, Kinetic illumination etc. (Mostly organized by MIT Media Labs)


Sources :

http://arts.mit.edu/fast

https://askcurtin.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/355/~/what-is-open-day%3F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaastra

http://www.ee.iitm.ac.in/~csr/