be it the cosmopolitan symbiosis or the bastion of maharashtian culture s p college but the first major event on any college calendar has to be the oneact play intercollege competition purushottam karandak whats unique about the competition which begins in midaugust and continues till the first week of september is the total student participation even in the designing of sets handling of lights and sound coordination the only outside help a student participant can avail of is with writing the script but even this the organisers want to do away with they have been encouraging students to write their own scripts and have also instituted special prizes for student playwrights the highlyvibrant competition has had its impact with some big stage names as well as those on the small and big screen having participated at some time in these plays these names include satish alekar playwright and director of the lalit kala kendra mohan agashe actor and director of the film and television institute of india ftii dr jabbar patel wellknown theatre and film director rajiv khandagale this years state award winner for the best film and wellknown film and tv personalities sonali kulkarni vikram gokhale and the late mohan gokhale the high level of competition can be gauged from the fact that some purushottam freaks begin the search for a kadak script no sooner has the curtain fallen on one years competition however students usually wait for their annual exams to get over before looking for a script by the first week of july the scripts are mostly ready then begins the gruelling practice sessions speaking to punetimes jamil sheikh of symbiosis law college says the first 10 or 15 days is spent only in play reading with practice sessions of two or three hours and when the actual rehearsals begin the sessions stretch to anything between eight and ten hours breakfast lunch and dinner is then at the college canteens we draw inspiration and sustenance power from endless cups of tea and wada pavs he smiles omkar arjunwadkar who is directing the play of symbiosis arts and commerce says the fun is more in preparing for the contest than the actual contest itself sometimes we are so engrossed in the rehearsals that we forget to eat our lunchboxes he points out niranjan joshi of fergusson college who is directing the play written by himself likens the purshottam contest to wimbledon you can get every title you may want but this remains the most coveted he claims my college has had a long tradition of winning the trophy and we are going allout to win again this year joshi lauds the maturity of the college crowd attending the plays despite the high level of competition you will not hear any hooting or sloganeering while a play is on he points out the best compliments for the competition come from khandagale going down memory lane he says purushottam taught me every aspect of theatre and meticulously