Sports and games are something that are inseparable from the young-blooded youth who have the flames of energy and the sporting spirit of Hercules. This is why Zest is the most awaited festival of CoEP where students from all over Maharashtra come and participate to show-case their talent in sports.
This year marks the 15th year of Zest. Since its premiere, the event has gone from strength-to-strength and has only seen an enhancement in its magnitude. Every year, it sees more and more participants from several places. This year, it saw an overall participation of Footfall registrations of 15,000 students from 271 different colleges of Mumbai, Nashik, Nanded, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra. Participants from 13 different states of India were also present! These numbers are truly overwhelming. The festival united students from all parts of India, in line with the theme “Hope. Play. Inspire. Unite.” Unlike other sports-festivals, Zest is not just confined to the main- stream sports of Football, Cricket and Basketball. It encompasses in its spectrum a wide range of rare, unconventional and dynamic sports such as Box-Cricket, Baseball, Lawn Tennis, Swimming and Water-Polo. It furthermore included in its scope the traditional sports of India viz. Kabaddi and Kho-Kho and games that need mental skills such as Chess and Carrom.
The festival commenced on one of the most important day for our country, 26th of January. The event was inaugurated in the evening by the veteran cricketer and the former Captain of the Indian National Cricket Team, Chandu Borde. He shared his valuable insights on the game of Cricket and sports in general. His wise words proved to be inspiring and motivating for the audiences. Later, there was an interactive session where students asked him their questions and he shared his unforgettable anecdotes, challenging situations and glorious moments that he had experienced. After the inauguration, there was a parade by all sportsmen and sportswomen representing CoEP along with their team. It was a unique show of team spirit, co-operation and something which instilled pride in the minds of every CoEPian. Soon after that, Mrs. Shalini Raina of Dominoes gave a captivating speech and presentation and Akashwani Deputy Director, Ashish Bhatnagar kept the spirits up with a stimulating speech on the importance of sports. This was followed up by a stunning Flash Mob Dance which was a feast to everyone’s eyes. Then there was a spectacular Football Demonstration by Chaitanya Deshpande which got the whole crowd on their toes cheering out loud. On each day of the festival, there would be a crowd gathering show that would escalate the excitement in the crowd; be it the Malkhamb-event, or the Magic Show, or the Body-Building Competition.
The Eat-street, which was a food stall was setup, where delicious appetizers to traditional Punjabi Parathas, Kebabs And Samosas, and even fast-food such as wraps, soft-drinks and Italian Pizza.
To be able to organise an event of such a grand scale requires the college to make several preparations in the aspects of infrastructure, hospitality and finance. These aspects were appropriately taken care and well thought of by groups of students who worked tremendously hard and made this event possible. The Finance Team was successfully able to draw sponsors and the Infrastructure Team arranged for all the facilities such as water-needs, seating arrangements, decorations, sound-systems, etc. Also, participants from outside of Pune were accommodated in the CoEP hostels. This was taken care of by the Hospitality Team. The entire ground even had access to free Wi-Fi.
Cummin’s College of Pune, emerged as the deserving victor of the Zest’17 Championship. All the thrilling matches were then followed by the Valedictory Ceremony, which included the Prize Distribution, to which Mr. Atul Gotsurve was the Chief Guest.
The event has engraved unforgettable memories in our minds which are perhaps the best 4 days of the year and left us with an indelible mark in our hearts. Having successfully completed the event, we COEPians are eagerly waiting for Zest’18! Where again, victory will be the only vice!