Students of Dayanand Public School perform at Mixterious Beats, a rock band contest, at Narbheram Hansraj English School in Jamshedpur on Friday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

Narbheram Hansraj English School in Jamshedpur is bathed in a silver glow.

With good reason. The premier ICSE-affiliated cradle at Bistupur celebrated its ongoing silver jubilee year with a daylong inter-school fest titled Argentum, the Latin word for silver, at its sprawling campus in the heart of the city.

Around 450 students of 19 city schools trooped to the Bistupur cradle to take part in computer gaming, Java programming, dance and fashion shows, a cricket quiz, PowerPoint presentation, Sudoku and impromptu speaking contests and more.

In all, there were 14 events in which participants could pit their wits against each other.

Nakul D. Kamani, president of the school managing committee, was the chief guest at the event, which was attended by the principal, teachers and students of the host cradle.

The school had completed 25 years of existence in July and since then had organised an inter-school elocution contest in July and a folk dance programme Gujarat Darpan in November.

“Since we complete 25 years of our journey on the path of academic excellence, we wanted it to be special and share our joy with children of other schools in the city, which is why we hosted today’s mega event,” said principal Paramita Roy Choudhury.

So apart from traditional contests like painting, there were new-age events such as Junk Funk where students had to make something out of waste and Centrifuge, a choreography event.

But the top attraction of the day was Mixterious Beats, the medley of school bands that presented hard rock, jazz and Bollywood numbers.

“When we decided to name the fest Argentum, we thought that the event must bring a sparkle to every student’s eye,” said Manju Verma, a co-ordinator at the school.

She added that teachers and students brainstormed together to come up with the innovative events.

“We decided to have contests and events that students could enjoy to the fullest. It is not only about competition. We wanted students to get a platform of learning. Our students have chipped in with some great ideas and displayed organisation skills,” she said.