All set for Spandan kick off

August 30, 2015 12:00 am | Updated March 29, 2016 06:09 pm IST

The stage is set for high-voltage performances this week at Jipmer for theinter-collegiate festival Spandan 2015 in Puducherry.— Photo: S.S. Kumar

The stage is set for high-voltage performances this week at Jipmer for theinter-collegiate festival Spandan 2015 in Puducherry.— Photo: S.S. Kumar

t is that time of the year when medicos put away their lab coats, bookmark Gray’s Anatomy, and divert their minds from tasks such as making a differential diagnosis when different conditions present similar symptoms.

The stage is set for ‘Spandan’, billed as one of the biggest medical college festivals in the south, when a carnival atmosphere permeates Jipmer’s sprawling campus.

‘Spandan 2015’, a seven-day medical collegiate extravaganza hosted by the Jipmer Students’ Association, launches with the Endurance 3.0 marathon run on August 30.

The third edition of this cross-city marathon featuring participants in the school, college and open categories will be flagged off from the Jipmer ground.

The marathon will criss-cross the streets of the city and will conclude at the iconic Gandhi Thidal on the Promenade Beach.

Besides serving as a curtain-raiser for the Spandan festival, Endurance 3.0 is also promoting the noble act of eye donation this year.

As a prelude to the curtain-raiser, Jipmer’s 2012 MBBS batch had organised a flash mob on the beach last Sunday. The Spandan posters were also released at the flash mob event, which incidentally, was the first gig to be taken out of the Jipmer campus.

“We are giving away prizes worth over Rs. 1 lakh to winners of the marathon,” said Ritvik Janardhanan, general secretary of the Jipmer Students’ Association.

From August 31, all the action shifts to Jipmer campus as students from medical colleges across the country engage in a variety of contests to be held across multiple venues.

It is no tall boast when organisers state that Spandan has over the years turned into an event that is marked out in the calendar of medicos across the country.

Last year, Spandan attracted a footfall in excess of 7,000 and the numbers are expected to surpass that during this year’s edition.

Spandan serves out an eclectic potpourri —medicine-based quiz, rock n’ roll, fashion show and Indian music and dance segments. Live acts by bands popular among youth are also part of the experience.

First off the block on August 31 is La Lutte, the mediquiz conducted every year in Spandan, which draws some of the brightest medical students across the country.

Tinnitus (September 4) is one of the hotly contested events of the ‘Culturals’ bringing together amateur bands specialised in genres such as rock n’ roll, pop, jazz or metal.

Chorea, the Spandan dance competition is another popular event that gets under way on September 1 while Alaap, the Indian music competition featuring a line-up of talented medicos from colleges all around India is scheduled for September 3.

For the first time, an open general knowledge quiz has been scheduled on September 5 as a way of raising a toast to the city’s quizzing culture. Major Chandrakant Nair has been roped in for the Jipmer Open Quiz.

Spandan will also host a whole range of other sports, cultural and literary events. According to organisers, these tournaments are the soul of Spandan, which started out many decades ago as a humble hockey tournament.

The live gigs this year will have Benny Dayal (September 2), Balabhaskar and his band Balaleela (September 3), Girish and The Chronicles, a Sikkim based four-piece band (September 4) and a DJ night with Kash Trivedi (September 5).

We are giving away prizes worth over Rs. 1 lakh to winners of the marathon”

Ritvik Janardhanan

general secretary of the Jipmer Students’ Association

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