Paramarsh is a national level, non-technical college fiesta, organized by the students of Faculty of Technology and Engineering, M. S. University, Vadodara, Gujarat. This 3 day gala, usually held in the month of September and also attracts an annual crowd of 22,000 students from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Started in 2001, Paramarsh is now in its 18th consecutive year with the distinction of being one of the biggest of its kind in the entire West zone.
Introduction
The word Paramarsh has its roots in the Sanskrit language, meaning ‘Supreme Thought’. The 3-day long festival aims at improving soft skills among students for excellence in the corporate world. Conducted and managed by the budding engineers of M. S. University, Paramarsh is a non-profit organization that intends to inculcate the 7 commandments of corporate excellence: ‘Leadership’, ‘Team Spirit’, ‘Sportsmanship’, ‘Creativity’, ‘The Spirit of Adventure’, ‘The art of Oration’ and the ‘Science of Deduction’.
History
The dawn of the new millennium brought about a change in the hiring strategy of companies. The recruiters now focused not only on technical knowledge but also emphasized communication skills, confidence, spontaneous thinking and the capability of working under pressure. An absence of this aptitude would affect the odds of recruitment. Working towards the amelioration of these prowesses, Paramarsh was started by a group of students as an intra-college event with just one event focusing on group discussion. Today, Paramarsh stands prodigious with 18 events under 7 categories which comprise a wide range of events focusing on various soft skills basically required in the corporate and industrial sector.
Through the years, Paramarsh has evolved and thrived, surpassing its previous edition by miles. And over this time period, there have been some significant events that have only contributed to the growing popularity of this festival. 2007 saw a guest performance by Gaurav Dagaonkar, the IIM-A graduate of ‘College Days’ fame. In 2008, Ankit Fadia, the bestselling author of ‘FASTER: 100 ways of improving your digital life’ and subsequent YouTube and MTV shows like ‘What The Hack’, came to Gujarat for the very first time to conduct a workshop on ‘Ethical hacking’. Another first time performers that Paramarsh gave to Gujarat were ‘Bombay Rockers’ in 2009. This Indian/Danish band with a five-time platinum album enthralled the audience with their hit songs. The same year also saw a riveting performance by the band ‘Agnee’ of Splitsvilla and Roadies fame.
In 2010, the musical instrument maestro Raghav Sachar was the highlight of the event. The 2011 edition of Paramarsh saw a mesmerizing live performance by Suraj Jagan who is famous for his song ‘Give Me Some Sunshine’ from the movie '3 Idiots. 2012 not only witnessed the presence of famous TV and theatre artist Deven Bhojani to judge ‘Goonj-A Street Play Competition’ but also saw a live performance by the famous Bollywood singer, Benny Dayal.
2013 was a year of high points with Tiku Talsania, the TV and movie artist judging ‘Goonj-A Street Play Competition’ and a confluence of 3 live performances by Paradigm Shift, a progressive rock band, Aditi Singh Sharma, Bollywood playback singer and the Indian God of Rock, Parikrama. The star attraction of this edition was a panel discussion titled ‘Follow Your Dreams’, held for the first time ever in Gujarat. The panellists were, Mr. Charu Sharma, an Indian commentator and quizmaster; Dr. Madhu Mehta, pioneer of the Indian Telecom Industry; Mr. Nitin Gupta, a stand-up comedy artist and founder and CEO of Entertainment Engineers and Dr. Anil Kane, the visionary behind Kalpasar Project and a corporate juggernaut.
Paramarsh 2014 with ‘Colosseum of Superheroes’ as its theme had a series of guest lectures by Dr.Kiran Bedi, the first woman IPS officer on the topic ‘Youth: Catalyst of Indian Revolution’ and Hussain Zaidi, the author of ‘Dongri To Dubai’ and other such books. He is also renowned for being the only journalist to interview Dawood Ibrahim after he left India. Siddharth Rajhans, a Google Analyst and founder of Spacify Incorporated, was present for an interactive session ‘Bridle the Bull’, which was aimed towards boosting entrepreneurship skills among engineers. ‘Tennets for a Shutterbug’ brought Money Sharma, a National Geographic Moments Award III winner, who took a 2-day workshop on photography. This edition of Paramarsh hosted the ‘Raghu Dixit Project’, a multi-lingual folk band, which captivated the audience with a passionate rendering of their songs.