Genre Cultural Place Nagpur, India | Founded 1988 | |
 | ||
Type Student Run, Non-Profit Cultural Event Institute Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Website AAROHI's Official Website | ||
Aarohi is the annual cultural festival (Cultfest) of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India. It is the most anticipated youth event of the year in Central India. It is a week-long event organised every year, usually, during winter in February end. Students from all over the region take part in the events organised and gather in large numbers to witness the spectacles. Started by the pioneer batch of 1988 in VNIT [erstwhile VRCE (Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering)], the event continues to grow leaps and bounds each successive year.
Contents
Each year, Aarohi boasts of a multitude of participants in its various contests. The festival is completely student-organized and reputed firms sponsor the event each year. The main event runs for 3 days, while the elimination rounds for various contests begin a week in advance. Cultural Night acts as the curtain raiser and the proceeds of the event go to a charitable institute. Events include a Personality Contest, Singing, Quiz, Debate, Band Contest etc. This festival receives more than 3000 viewers every year. Out of the above, the Band Contest-Purple Haze is the flagship event of Aarohi attracting highest number of viewers and participants from all over the city. Aarohi 09 saw Shor Bazaar and Indigo Children, (formerly The Superfuzz, ) performing in front of a capacity crowd of 2000. Aarohi 11 saw Faridkot Also Amit Kumar and Sumit Kumar performed at cult Nite- the curtain raiser to Aarohi.
History
Conceptualized way back in 1988, Aarohi was held in 1989 for the first time by a bunch of college enthusiasts.
The name Aarohi signifies the ascent of emotions, creativity and capabilities. It originally means the ascending notes of Indian classical music. It truly justifies the ever increasing zeal and passion of Aarohians.
Some of the highlights of Aarohi are as follows: Appearance of Urmila Matondkar in 1994. Grand golden jubilee celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of VNIT in 2011. Appearance of Vinod Rathod, Avdhoot Gupte, Devaki Pandit and many more famous personalities in the event "Cultural nite"
Main events
With new additions every year, Abhivyakti, A La Danse, Cynosure, Pentathlon, Purple Haze and swar manzar are the few signature competitions organized at every Aarohi. Abhivyakti is the dramatics event which includes street plays with a social cause aka Halla bol and on stage plays. Over the years Aarohi has seen some of the finest play performancesA La Danse and swar manzar are the dancing and singing competitions which attract participants from different genre and dancing styles. The elimination rounds begin about 15 days prior to the event. Pentathlon, a group event with tasks ranging from a wide spectrum of area is a hit amongst the participants.
Cynosure is the personality contest consisting of various rounds that test their character and composure judged by a panel of jury from varied field.
Purple haze - Band contest
It is the flagship event of Aarohi which pulls a large chunk of music lovers.
VNIT has witnessed many high on bass head banging performances as well as innovative fusions.
some of the highlights are performance of Shor Bazaar and Indigo Children in 2009, Workshop band in 2010, Faridkot in 2011.
Etcetra
Apart from the main events several other events are organized with full vigor form shutter bug, a short film making to madhur antakshari; the big fight, debate to instrumentals. Iridescence, the art club of VNIT organizes various shades of events like graffiti, collage, charcoal painting, T shirt painting, street art and workshops like ink yourself, a tattoo making workshop. Art exhibition displays fine arts for three days of the event. Aarohi film festival is hosted every year screening many internationally acclaimed films under the moonlight.
Informals
They are the on-spot crazy and funny events that pull maximum participation of the crowd.
The main attractions are paintball, human fuusball, zorbing while many other events like 60 seconds, Rab ne Bana di jodi, Vahi pe Nigaahen Vahi pe Nishana etc. have been hit. In 2011, there were a total of 33 informals organized and all of them got good response.
Cult Nite
It is curtain raiser to Aarohi and is organized the night before Aarohi formally commences.
Passes for the show are sold prior to the event and the money collected henceforth is donated as charity. Many renowned personalities have performed in it viz. Hasya Kavi Sammelan was organized in 2009 with renowned artists like Surinder Sharma, Neeraj Puri, Pradeep Choubey; Nagpur hummed the tunes of Avadhoot gupte in 2010, golden hits of Kishore da were rejuvenated during K for Kishore nite in 2011.
In the recent edition (Aarohi 2016) Mahesh Kale performed at Cultural Nite and the proceeds went to Jeevan Ashray Seva Sansthan.
Social cause
As an attempt to return the debt of society, Aarohi the money collected from Cult nite as charity. It has funds donated to Baba Amte's Anandvan, Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi, Shraddhananda Anathalaya, Sweekar, CAFE and Kritadnyata and continues this practice of social responsibility.. Cycle ralley is organized every year in an attempt to promote cycling as a means to curb the menace of global warming as well to create awareness about various tempting issues.
Proshow
Proshows are the main attraction of Aarohi which has the performance of renowned bands and/or artists.Over the years various bands like Indigo Children, Parikrama, Agnee, Raghu Dixit Project have performed at Aarohi as a part of its proshow. Aarohi 2015 hosted Nagpur's first coke Studio and Sunburn. In Aarohi 2016, the 28th edition of Aarohi, popular hindi rock band Euphoria performed. Kenneth Sebastian a stand up comedian who performs on comedy show The Improv was part of the second proshow in Aarohi 2016.