Youngsters as explorers of culture

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) creates platforms for students to practice their extracurricular skills, which are considered as important as academic knowledge in the contemporary world. The students have established a club where students can be more than just students, they can be explorers of culture and practitioner of arts. This club has been named BUP Cultural Forum, BUPCF in short.

The club and its events

BUP Cultural Forum is the community of BUP students to encourage, support the cultural practice, and uplift the heritage. These practices are not only confined within the members but reach out to the entire student body, faculty and administrative class. The club strives to flourish the young minds with a sense of creativity and cultural enrichment. BUPCF has an eventful calendar. Every year, they organise multiple events such as Boshonto Boron Utshob, Borsho Boron Utshob and their signature event, the Inter-University Cultural Fest.

This year, the club has successfully added one more event to the list, Sfuron, which was organised in collaboration with BUP Photography Society.

Recruitment of the members

The club recruits its members through a nonconventional recruitment process. A multi-tiered, multi-dimensional process evaluates every possible aspect of the capability of the student to join the club. This club homes members who work both on-stage and back-stage, so the tasks have to be open to all applicants.

 BUP Inter-University Cultural Fest 2018

The club recently hosted BUP Inter-University Cultural Fest 2018, the fifth in the series. It was a three-day event.

On the first day, nine universities from across the country came together to display their performance and compete for the championship. The participating universities were Army Institute of Business Administration, South East University, Dhaka University, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Notre Dame University Bangladesh, East West University, United International University and Bangladesh University of Professionals. The performance was evaluated by Anisur Rahman Milon (actor), Nafeez Al Amin (drummer, Arbovirus), Ziaur Rahman Zia (bassist, Shironamhin) and Puja Sengupta (performance artist).

On the second day, the club arranged a concert to celebrate the completion of the first phase and add more vigour to the fest. Three in-house bands-- Bhrom, Rewind and Shomikoron-- started the programme and entertained the crowd. Gracing the stage next was Indalo, the headliner. The crowd went frenetic when one of BUP's very own students, a member of the club, was called up on stage to perform one of their most popular tracks, ‘Obosheshe’ with the band. At a point, the voices of the audience singing along was louder than the bands.

 All the participating universities were invited for the closing ceremony. The event started with a speech from the president of the club, followed by a display of cultural acts from students of BUP and other participants. The rests were announced, and the event ended with a speech from the vice chancellor and chief guest, Major General Md Emdad-Ul-Bari. Two special mention awards were handed to two directors, one from BUP and the other from Notre Dame University Bangladesh, for their outstanding direction. University of Dhaka secured the second runner-up position, while BUP and Notre Dame University, together were awarded as first runner-ups. East West University took the champion's trophy home. 

The writer is the president of BUP Cultural Forum and  a final year student of the BBA (General) Department at Bangladesh University of Professionals. She can be reached at [email protected]