Literature and life go hand in hand. After all, we all live for art. With the same idea, the English Department of St. Xavier’s College Ahmedabad inaugurated the Literature and Life Club, also known as LnL Club, on 26th March 2022. This club aims to bring literature closer to life through various activities – on and off campus. In today’s time, it has become essential to show sensitivity towards people from different sections.
On Saturday, 23rd March 2022, the club organised its first Open Mic event, ‘Mehfil: A Stage to Express.’ In recent years the concept of Open Mic has become popular among the youth. The crucial reason behind it is its versatile nature. Open Mic allows showcasing performers’ talents without being influenced by their peers. In colleges, students feel more pressure on both academic and extracurricular fronts. Therefore, they with a ‘Pressure Free’ stage. The Literature and Life club included musical performances, mono acting, poetry recitation, stand-up comedy, and storytelling.
Students and professors filled with excitement gathered in St. Xavier’s XICA Hall where the event was to take place. Soon, the event began with a poetry performance by Aarohi Vaidya. Each poetry piece performed had a diverse and deep thought. Be it the poem by Gatha Modi inspired by the unconditional love of Meera, Laila-Majnu, or Heer-Ranjha, or the poem by Aditi Jain through the medium presented her thoughts. Their performance left the audience with no words.
Parmi Thacker held the audience spell-bound with her expressions, dialogue delivery, and body language. She beautifully delivered the message that the Spiritual Soul is immortal.
Zillion stories revolve around each one of us. Some stories affect us, while the rest remains as stories. Charmi Goswami, with her storytelling skills, successfully stressed a sensitive topic such as Alzheimer’s. She also included fantastical elements in her story.
Musical performances always have the power to entertain the audience. Melodious performances by Neti Vyas, The लय group, Priyal Dixit, Aaron Khambhata, Brendan Xavier, Shouveek Das, and Krishnadipsinh Parmar set the bar for the event. Aaron Khambhata’s Powerful Tabla Performance on the song ‘Silsila Chahat Ka’ was too good to be true. You would surely get goosebumps hearing his magical fingers strike the tabla, just like raindrops hitting the ground.
