Verba Maximus (abbreviated VM) is the annual literary festival of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.
Regional rounds, preceding the main fest in Hyderabad, are generally conducted in major metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam and feature events like Just a Minute (JAM), spell bee, and debate.
[9][10][8] Verba Maximus 2017 (VM17) was held from 4–6 February 2017 and featured authors Ashwin Sanghi and Indu Balachandran, popular Quoran Balaji Vishwanathan as well as a show by stand-up comedian Kenny Sebastian.
[11][12] The fest has literary events like picture perspective (writing about a picture or image that is presented), a Hindi 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.
[13] 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).