After a gap of five years, Mount Carmel College's inter-collegiate French Fest, Franco-Feel 2020 is back and how! The theme is La Vie en Rose, borrowing directly from popular French singer and performer Edith Piaf's song. This classic singer struggled through her life and this inspired students to support a cause. The French students of Mount Carmel College, Autonomous, Bengaluru have taken up the mantle to spread awareness about breast cancer, especially among students.
Life in pink
Head of Sponsorship Mridula Raghunandan tells us how two to three hours of intense debate followed by a vote enabled them to zero down on the theme La Vie en Rose. "While the literal meaning of the song is 'life through rose-tinted glasses', we want to convey the thought that despite all the problems we are facing, ecological and otherwise, we must not lose hope and remain positive," she explains. They have also partnered with Chennai-based, The Cherian Foundation to spread breast cancer awareness. They are going to conduct a hair donation drive Gift Hair, Gift Confidence. Nestle India is their main sponsor.
Coming to the typical fest elements, they have more than nine competitions lined up which include a fashion show, creative writing, group singing and so on — all laced with the theme “La Vie en Rose”. They have added new elements like a French teacher workshop by Geetanjali Shrivastava, a Bangalore-based FLE expert. While the college itself has a strength of 8,000 students on a good day, apart from this, the organisers are expecting 200 participants from 8-10 schools and colleges to compete in the different competitions.
Speeches to expect
Another highlight is that Deirdre Fernandes Dominic, former teacher, Department of French, MCC in the times of whom the fest was instituted, will be present too. The Guest of Honour for the day will be Dr. Mohit Chandna, Assistant Professor, Department of French and Francophone Studies, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Special guest, Trustee of The Cherian Foundation, Sara Benjamin Cherian will deliver the inaugural address at this fest run by sponsorships acquired by students.
Talking about her personal experience organising the fest, Mridula says that they started working since the third week of November and since then, "have given our blood, sweat and tears to make this work," she says. The most important lesson she has learnt from this is teamwork. "I used to be the kind to do all the work myself, but I have learnt the art of delegation. And our Head of the Department, Rebecca Vedavathy has been extremely helpful," she concludes.
