Anwesha

The tradition & historical record

Anwesha is the annual cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology Patna. It is a three-day-long event that is usually held at the start of February each year. The fest hosts cultural, literary, ecological and management events. The first edition of Anwesha took place in 2008. It draws a footfall of about 45,000 from more than 250 colleges across the country. Management events such as Stock Mart, B-quiz, Vendre and ecological events like Eco-debate, Green quiz give participants ample scope to showcase their talents. Anwesha enjoys a cult status among the youths of Bihar. Eminent personalities such as chief minister Nitish Kumar, Padma Vibhushan, G. Madhavan Nair, Ravindra Kumar Sinha (the Dolphin Man of India), have been part of Anwesha in the past. The theme for the 2025 edition of the festival was Echoes of the Abyss. ¹

The event name is derived from the Sanskrit word Anwesha, meaning quest. The first took place in March, 2010 with the aim of helping students gain experience and providing them with a showcase. It was opened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and featured a Hindi rock band comprising IITP students. The 2011 event was the first to have a corporate co-sponsor: Reliance Communications supported its Pro-Night featuring Sifar. The involvement of the Campus Ambassador Program for the 2014 event saw the event reach beyond the city of Patna to 250 colleges across India. A total of 52 events were organised, with 17 technical events, 13 cultural events, 9 ecological events and 7 literary events. Six new management events were also introduced in 2014 edition. The tenth event is scheduled to take place from 1–3 February 2019. ¹

Over the years, pro-nights have starred various artists, rock bands and personalities. These have included the rock bands Sifar (2011), Swarathma (2015) and Euphoria (2016), together with classical music performances from the likes of Kamala Shankar (2012) and Priya Venkataraman (2013). The most famous poet Dr. Kumar Vishwas performed in 2012. Other attendees have included an audience with Miss India International 2013 Gurleen Grewal (2014) and Miss India Earth 2013 Sobhita Dhulipala (2015). ¹

Anwesha is an entirely student-run non-profit organization composed of students from over 10 departments selected through several rounds of interviews and appraisal of work history. The entire team is divided into committees - Events, Sponsorship & Marketing, Web & App, and Hospitality to name a few. For instance the Events committee focuses on formulation and on-site execution of all the events, workshops, and lectures conducted throughout the fest. On the other hand, Web & App caters to technological necessities associated with the same. Each committee further consists of a panel of Coordinators from the Junior Year followed by a group of Sub-Coordinators from the Sophomore Year. First Years form the Volunteers team where they get introduced to various aspects of event management. The Previous Year’s Core Team act as an Advisory Committee and are responsible for guidance and support over important issues. The Fest Coordinator (or FC) from the Junior Year is the overall in charge and is responsible for gluing together all the committees. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Anwesha”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Anwesha is annual cultural festival at IIT, Patna, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²