Apart from Illumination, there is also a rangoli competition held on campus. "Gigantic rangolis (around 12' by 12') of detail, and shading are constructed using coloured powders, crushed bangles, pebbles, etc," the Illumination page says.
For the past few years, messages of a quiet Diwali with not too many firecrackers, as it affects infants and pets, have floated around mainstream, and social media. While the Mumbai police commissioner on Thursday issued an order to ban the bursting of fire-crackers after 10pm on October 29, and 12pm on October 30
While there have been a number of individuals who have adhered to the practice of a noise-free Diwali, a group of students from IIT Kharagpur started a festival called 'Illumination' to celebrate the festival in a unique way. The festival was initially started as a Diwali celebration, but later became a competition.
While Illumination 2016 is scheduled to happen on Sunday, its 2015 images have once again gone viral on social media. The images by Facebook user Chandan Kawat had over 1500 shares when he posted them last year, and it looks like, for the sake of nostalgia, the images are getting shared once again.
IIT, while speaking of the event says that Illumination is organised in a competitive environment, with all halls fighting for the prize. "As a part of the competition, the halls build vertical panels of bamboo (called chatais) on which thousands of lamps (diyas) are mounted forming outlines of people/things that illustrate an event or a place of importance. The chatais are sometimes even of the order of 20 feet in height, and overall some 20,000 lamps are lighted. Traditionally, themes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have been popular choices," the page says.
Apart from Illumination, there is also a rangoli competition held on campus. "Gigantic rangolis (around 12' by 12') of detail, and shading are constructed using coloured powders, crushed bangles, pebbles, etc," the Illumination page says.
And because it's IIT, there has to be some element of physics. The rangoli event also comprises the interplay of light and shadow, and ambient music are part of the display. "This is also fought for on an inter-hall basis."
Prizes, too, are innocent. The winning team gets a pot full of rasgullas and Rs 300, while the first runner-up gets Rs 200, and the second runner-up gets Rs 100. Given that they are engineering students and a close-knit IIT group, they'll probably share the prize as well.
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