When NALSAR invited us for Summons 2010, their cultural and literary fest, not many who could share their experience of Summons with the new contingent were around. It had been quite a few years since we had last been in Shameerpet for a cult fest.
The looming Ayodhya verdict at almost the same time added to the apprehension. I had to handle frantic calls from worried parents wherein I was told a number of times that I wasn't a parent yet and as such it wasn't easy for me to understand a parent's anxiety. Well, I almost felt like one that day notwithstanding that I am only in my third year of college. Wishing them all the luck and giving almost parent like advice, we bade the contingent farewell and what happened thereafter was a roller coaster of a ride on which Vineet Bhalla and Gagana NV take us:
In spite of the fact that most of our parents kept on rambling about how the looming Ayodhya verdict might lead to riots and bandhs and that it wasn't safe for us to travel all the way to Hyderabad just to take part in a college fest, we all went ahead for Summons anyways. Most of us were first-years going to their very first college fest, and nothing could dampen our sunny spirits, not even a potential battle between religious fundamentalists and the danger it posed to our lives!
Since we had an early train to catch, we had been instructed to be ready with our luggage outside by 6 a.m. sharp. True to NUJS spirit, the entire contingent was out only by 6:50, after urgent phone calls to the two main culprits who kept us all waiting for so long, Shruthee and Gagana. We bid our good-byes and boarded the fleet of taxis that had come to pick us up, kicking off the journey in right earnest.
Some of us were honored and some (unfortunately) scandalized to have the DC committee, i.e., 'Daru and Cigarette' committee accompanying our Summons contingent. Other than terrorising the NLU-Orrissa kids in the train, the DC club also effortlessly kept the eunuchs away. And all through the train journey, Chick-magnet a.k.a. Vaibhav was trying furiously not to blush in view of the fact that he was reunited with his dearest, ahem…’friend’ after a long time. Highlight of the train journey though was ShooMon Da’s spectacles flying away from his face and out of the bogey door (only his glasses could have pulled that off!!) as a result of which ShooMon Da became, er, visually challenged for a whole day-and-a-half. The eventful 26-hour long train journey ended once we reached Secunderabad, and a two-hour long bus journey later, we were left standing outside ‘Celebrity Resort’ in the middle of wilderness. Even though our 30-member contingent had to squeeze into the three-bed room (15 into one room, in case of the first year guys) villa, none of us complained much because, well, there was air-conditioning!!
While everyone else was unwinding and resting, the determined-to-see-the-sights-of-Hyderabad-while-they-could fivesome of Shoumendu, ShooMon Da, Bhagi, Bhalla and Yash sneaked off from the villa to Hyderabad. At that time trivial matters such as commuting back from Hyderabad to our resort-in-the-middle-of-nowhere at night didn’t strike their genius minds. As it turned out, they got stuck in Secunderabad for two harrowing hours while returning, running after buses and autos in the middle of a heavy downpour and begging and pleading them to drop them near our villa. After some 268 blunt refusals of this humble request, one noble autowallah finally helped them out of their ordeal. Back in the villa, the rest of the contingent members were busy threatening to sue the owners of a nearby restaurant for illegally charging extra tax on the dinner (We are budding lawyers, after all!).
The fest didn’t start on such a high note for us, what with Sidhaant, who was registered to take part in poster-making competition, disappearing minutes before the event was supposed to start and pissing everyone off by turning up late (Pulling off such shenanigans throughout the trip didn’t exactly get him brownie points from the rest of the contingent). Arnab turned up wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Hey Gunjan ! Where’s your roommate?’ to annoy a ‘special someone’ who happened to be a NALSAR-ite. The numerous food stalls that abounded sold some pretty ordinary food at inflated prices (the rolls there were half the size and double the price of what one gets in good ole’ Kolkata).
Coming to the competitions, the first of the four challenges for the Theatre team, the Movie Spoof, was scheduled early up on the first day. The plotline for this had been conceptualized during the train journey by Shashvat and Bhalla, and the former had written the entire script the previous night only. Still, the fact that we came first means that a) the judges must have really liked our heady concoction of Inception, Twilight, Kaminey, Ghajini, Dabangg and Taare Zameen Par, and b) our theatre team is pretty damn good.
No one in our contingent had planned to take part in Solo Dance, but Avichal bravely volunteered to participate in order to earn our contingent some participation points. We all felt bad for the chap, for he had not prepared anything, and would be dancing unrehearsed. But he stunned everyone with his mind-blowing, impromptu performance to 'Khai ke paan Banaras wala' and walked away with the second position. Surely the story of the fest, his victory provided us not only with merry cheer, but also a great moral boost. Avichals’s promise of a grand treat to us all remains unfulfilled, but that’s another story. A guy from NLU-O, who also had his birthday that day, came first. Due to this, most of our contingent got friendly with him, wishing and congratulating him in the hope of getting a birthday-first prize double treat. When that didn’t seem like materializing, we showed our true colors and gave him a small dose of the NUJS B’Day Celebration, Boys Hostel style!
Sreya and Sidhaant, apart from sharing a 'joking' relationship with each other, possess very, very creative hands. They teamed up and came first in all the fine-arts events except for cartooning. That's because the cartoon strip which they, along with Gagana, drew was a very upright and hilarious comparison of the curfew timings of NUJS and NALSAR (the curfew timing of NALSAR being 7pm!). Obviously it didn’t go down very well with the judges.
The Symbiosis contingent, our main competitor, was huge, with more than 50 wannabes. There was a lot of banter between us and them, most of it of the not-very-polite variety. This kicked off a series of highly entertaining and intense tussles between NUJS and Symbi and the competition turned fiercer and fiercer every minute, culminating in a bitter face-off on the final day between the two contingents that almost turned ugly.
Brassic bhai, our 'elusive' contingent leader ('elusive' because he used to go missing every time someone needed him) and ‘renowned’ rapper won the hearts of every NALSAR-ite with his remarkable performance (in which he spoke very highly of NALSAR) during the Western Solo competition. On the DJ night, we had to make do with a terrible excuse for a DJ who had no sense of music at all. He kept playing boring songs to which no one felt like dancing (I mean, who can dance to the Mario background theme??). But we danced and enjoyed anyways.
Our street play, with a Naxalism-based theme, was a huge success and very well-received by the audience. Every single member gave a power packed performance. Swaroop, who played a mentally and physically handicapped villager, actually moved some of the audiences to tears! (Nah, just kidding! But he was pretty much awesome). The Stage Theatre event provided us with two images that we will probably never forget: One, of Shashvat playing a gay Yamraj, Yammi, complete with Bhalla’s ridiculous yellow-and-red pajamas; and two, of Bhalla, who had already played a girl in the Mad Ad, taking it a step further and donning a proper sari for the role of Rakhi ‘Saawan’! Looking very lovely and feminine, he attracted many wide-eyed stares and even requests for his number from some NALSAR guys! (OK, I made up the last bit, but whatever, the guy wore a SARI, for God’s sake!!)
Other than that, Shruthee got lucky in Tambola and earned 400 bucks (we’re awaiting a treat from her too), although the Tambola game will be remembered more for Brassic Bhai’s impressive dive towards the caller with a full house claim that proved to be a bogey! Bhalla, on his third college fest within five weeks, won the creative writing contest, much to the delightful surprise of everyone, including himself. He claims to have written a ‘psychological thriller’ on one of the stipulated topics, ‘Man in the Towel’ (We don’t believe him either). D aka Divyanshu, Bhagi and Shashvat cleared the Dumb Charades prelims by guessing a book, a movie and a famous figure, all within 25 seconds. They ultimately came second in the finals.
Besides all these victories, there were some other fun moments too. Like the Group Dance Competition, during which the crowd oohed and aahed for Pranav, Krishanu and Antara who enthralled the audience with their impressive stunts and of course dance! Or the Paper Dance, in which Bhalla and Shruthee did admirably to reach the fifth round, wherein Bhalla could only stand with one foot on the paper with Shruthee perched on his shoulders. At this point Bhalla’s foot, like his mouth, proved to be too big for his own good. In 'Race Against Time', Shruthee, Gagana and Sidhaant ran around the campus like mad dogs searching for stupid clues. In the Parliamentary Debate, Khosla set it up quite nicely only for Gaind to mess it up (As it is, there’s no love lost between the two). And when no one wished to participate in the Hairstyling Competition, it was ShooMon Da who valiantly stood up, picking an unwilling Vaibhav ‘Chicky’ Verma as his muse. Suffice to say, the resulting hairdo was anything but pleasing to the eye.
The last day, though, belonged to Madhav ‘Slowhand’ Khosla, who was part of all three NUJS victories that day. First, he won Turncoat. Then, he virtually carried D and Bhalla along with him to the first place in the Entertainment Quiz. And in the evening, he came second in the Mastermind-style quiz. The fest finally concluded with a mesmerizing performance by Lucky Ali and his band, which had a very pretty 19-year old as its lead guitarist (with her and three wives, Lucky certainly deserves his name!) In the end, Symbi won the best contingent award, much to our dismay, and we came second best. Still, we did pretty well for ourselves, and could manage to feel proud about our exploits in NALSAR.
Looking back at Summons, we won’t only remember it for the seven first places or the five second places that our contingent got. We will also remember it for many other priceless moments, such as the idle frolic and the stupid games invented and played with friends during marathon train journeys; the group singing sessions during our bus trips, tirelessly orchestrated by the first-year CR, Akshay; cramming up 12-13 guys to sleep in a room with just two beds
; fighting for who gets to use each of the three bathrooms next while getting ready in the mornings; all the guys literally jumping like a pack of wolves on the food that Shruthee brought from her friend’s place; cheering and shouting and goading and applauding each other during the various competitions, and feeling so proud and happy for each other and for the fact that we’re Noojies. The euphoria of winning, the disappointment of losing, the gossiping, the laughing, the hard work put in those practice sessions and much more; these are the memories of what was, for many of us, our very first college fest that we will cherish. To sum it up then, there were some periods of lull, but on the whole, Summons was great fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment