Verba Maximus (abbreviated VM) is the annual literary festival of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. It is one of the 4 fests (Controversial) conducted in the college, the other 3 being Atmos, Pearl and Arena. It is a national event, held usually in the last weeks of January or the first week of February. Regional rounds, preceding the main fest in Hyderabad, are generally conducted in major metropolitan cities like Bengaluru,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

and

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and feature events like Just a Minute (JAM), spell bee, and

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

History

Eight editions of the fest have been conducted over the years, the latest of which was held over 19–21 January 2018. The multi-lingual fest is organised by English Language Activities Society (ELAS), Journal Club and Hindi Tarang, which are student organisations at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. The first edition of the fest took place in 2011, less than three years after the campus became fully operational.

Verba Maximus 2016

Verba Maximus 2016 (VM16) was held on 30th and 31 January 2016. VM16 had events like ''Yin Yang'' (writing two sides of the same story), ''Words of a Feather'' (weaving a story around words that are announced one at a time), ''Picture Perspective'' (writing stories around a picture shown), apart from the regular events lit-quiz, group discussion and debate. Harimohan Paruvu, cricketeer and author, hosted a session at the fest. Stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath performed at VM16, which features a stand-up show every year.

Verba Maximus 2017

Verba Maximus 2017 (VM17) was held from 4–6 February 2017 and featured authors

Ashwin Sanghi Ashwin Sanghi (born 25 January 1969) is an Indian writer and author of the novels: '' The Rozabal Line'', '' Chanakya's Chant'', '' The Krishna Key'', Sialkot Saga, Keepers Of The Kalachakra, The Vault of Vishnu and The Magicians of Mazda. ...

and Indu Balachandran, popular

Quora Quora () is a social question-and-answer website based in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25, 2009, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can collaborate by editing questions and commenting on answers that ...

n Balaji Vishwanathan as well as a show by stand-up comedian

Kenny Sebastian Kenneth Mathew Sebastian (born 31 December 1990) is an Indian stand-up comedian, musician and filmmaker. He first rose to prominence through a YouTube channel that broadcasts clips of his stand-up shows, devotional song covers, in addition to o ...

Events

The fest has literary events like picture perspective (writing about a picture or image that is presented), a

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

mock parliament called the "Youth Sabha", lit-quiz, debate, group discussion and Sherlocked, an investigative journalism event in which participants have to investigate a crime based on hints given to them. Some editions of the fest also had events like '''Pada Vinayasam','' a Telugu crossword and writing event. Recent editions of the fest, including Verba Maximus 2018, have newer events like Man from Amorium (write a story around a given skeletal plot), Symphonies of the Soul (write about a clip of music that is played) and Devil's Advocate (defend an unpopular opinion or ideology).

External links

bitsvm.in
- official website of Verba Maximus
Instagram Handle

References

{{Reflist Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Hyderabad Campus Literary festivals in India Festivals in Hyderabad, India Festivals established in 2011 2011 establishments in Andhra Pradesh