On the 29th of July 2021, the Literary Department launched their first event of the year, titled Ode to the Obscure. Ode to the Obscure was a creative writing/article writing competition which encouraged participants to delve deep into India’s history and identify revolutionary personalities who were instrumental in India’s struggle for freedom. The competition had two categories, namely ‘Letter to a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘Unsung Heroes’- The first was a means to address any freedom fighter of India and offer their own opinions, be it of admiration, critique, or praise. The second was an opportunity to write an article on a hero of India’s past whose work had gone unnoticed, and bring them into the spotlight that they deserve. 
The competition spanned from 29th July to 13th August and saw quite remarkable results! With 44 participants from 15 different institutions around the country, and a participant from Ukraine too, the competition brought in some wonderful works of literature and proved to be quite the challenge to judge. However, after much careful consideration by the student coordinators, Manaal Jahan and Shriya Gaur, 10 entries were shortlisted for the final round of judgement, out of which two winners were finalized. The winners were Siddhanth Srikanth from PES University, Bangalore and Debapriya Biswas from Amity Law School, Noida. Their results were announced on 15th August by Convenor Kashish Mathur during the event ‘Ensemble with Elysian’, which was The Elysian’s independence day celebration. The certificates were crafted with much precision for each participant by the Design team, and were sent out by the Operation Head on 24th August, 2021.