RaZZm@TaZZ

Come 27th and we are celebrating our Hostel day. Yes this probably would be the end of my journey as the Joint Hostel Secretary of H8. Tagore Bhavan has always been and will be an enigma for me. Right from the initial deal of fitting 360 students when the capacity is 190 to dealing with such an enormous crowd of people, a batch of people who comes from various backgrounds, religion, castes with different life styles and tastes and with different temperaments. It has always been an enjoyable challenge.

Razzmatazz

All in all it has been a journey i would never want to and will forget. I have learned so much as time has passed, made many new friends, had weirdest of experiences and most of all I believe I have had the experience to affect the lives of 400 people. If somebody asks me what would be the most memorable thing this whole year, then i would instantly say that the power  to administer such a big place, manage 400 guys and then doing it for their improvement and welfare effectively would have been my greatest joy. There have been times when we faced many a difficult situations, like water problems, mess menu, health and hygiene issues, minimising the food tarriffs and ensuring them to be lowest in the whole campus and for that matter still maintaining that interest among the batchies. We tried our best to ensure the above problems.

The other problem was the prejudice with which we came into the hostel and took up its charge. The hostel since its inception had had the image of an unruly place, a place where nothing would go good or successful, be it the last years or the year before that Hostel days, be it last years sports events or even the caretakers it has got. We had an uphill task of transforming the image. Well one thing i would definitely say about my whole experience is that we surely did change the mindset of the people towards TAGORE BHAVAN. We were hosts to some of the most successful and famous events throughout the year, be it the Ganesh Utsav, Kabaddi tournament, kavi sammelan or even the forthcoming Hostel Day.

Yes, today we get into the groove to celebrate our Hostel day. A day almost every other person in the hostel is looking forward to. As i sit and write about it, i havent slept since the last 2 days properly, havent taken bath in the morning today and anticipate the event to start in a few hours. I still write here to express my excitement and my feelings on how special this year has been. Wish me Good Luck. Its time for R@zzMaTaZZ.

Hardcore Holi 2.0

Colors

“The self biased binary multivibrator. Its characteristics are.. ”, and suddenly there is a shrill cry from far end of the hostel, “They are coming… They are coming… Close all doors.”. I peeped out of my room window to the usually calm street lying below opposite to my hostel and saw a big, no huge crowd of around 150 boys all only in their pants of shorts marching towards our hostel, crying out slogans of ‘bahar niklo.. bahar niklo.’

Sulay was all white and his reflex was to bolt the doors of the room. The alleyway of the BS block, once all bustling was pitch silent and empty. The shouts continued for several seconds, maybe half a minute and later they broke the defence of the doors and broke in. Our ranks were infiltrated!! (As they say in war). They filled whole hostel and were kicking the doors of the rooms of their seniors. The inmates were made to bath in the colours when they like innocent riot victims were just … innocent. Yes it was a riot out there. Like people don’t look whether it’s a man or woman or for that case which caste, they were not concerned whether it was their senior or an incognito person. Sulay and I were numbly silent and frozen in the room. We were in no mood to relent to the hysteria, having exams the next day onwards and knowing the wildness and raveness with which the people celebrate it here. Yes, wild!! They tear off all upper waist clothes for everyone and for those who are famous or for that case infamous, they have to let go of their pants as well. So practically once you are caught in the commotion, you ought to go half naked and if you’re unlucky to be famous, you may well roam around in boxers or briefs!!

Welcome to S.V.N.I.T. This is the place of cross-cultural, multi composite and multi lingual public, ‘JANTA’ as I term them. We maybe from different states and some from diff countries, but when it comes to real enjoyement, we have our own Ishtyle, Tashan or way of life. Well to be frank, we all were on for a low key holi due to the exams the next day onwards, but as they say, “Life finds a way, howsoever you suppress it.”

So there we were, waiting for whole ‘rangmanch krida’ to get over without the crooked fingers being pointed on us. I would compare the situation to a famous hindi movie- GADAR. Particularly the seen where the heroine (who is a moslem) is being chased by hindu fanatics or riot victims for their avenge. The protagonist comes and gives cover to the running girl. But the dialogue and the amount of shouting and intensity we witness is of remembrance. It’s a diff. matter that they marry there itself on the railway tracks in front of the vulture faced people. “ Sab jagah gadare machi thi.. ”. So finally people painted the whole of the hostel and proceeded towards the canteen. As the coast got cleared, we came out and suddenly… Couple of friendly faces poster my face, clothes and hair. It all went down to nothing. I was finally down the drain hole.

So now I decided to proceed to the canteen, get into the bandwagon and feel the procession. Also, the fact that we would get free mithai, food and Thandai was on the agenda of many incl. me. So there I was 10 min later, dancing and hugging all mates and friends amidst what seemed like a movie depiction of holi, with all boys without their shirts, some dancing, some singing, most colouring each other or a group plundering a single guy. ‘Dhol and naach’, that was the scene. We met people of other years and soon people attacked the food stalls. Imagine you are the server and 50 hands stretch, push you, snatch from you and you need to distribute the food peacefully. That was wrecking!!

Finally after a stint with the faculty, we all returned to our hostels, each hurrying more than the other, to be the first to clean up. It was of the impression ki the whole water supply of the area would be needed to let all bath properly. Back at the hostel, we fought our ways to the bathrooms and those who couldn’t get chance would clean up at the basin or the washroom. It was juxtapose to what we generally have it when people hardly take a bath.

I particularly remember forming a small poem in my mind for the whole celebration. It goes like,

Ragdo rang se

“Phook phook ke nikle hum iss holi pe khelne..                                                                                                                                                  Gulaal aisa uda ki hume poora rang diya…                                                                                                                                                              Peet peet ke khela rango se logo ne aise                                                                                                                                                           Exam ki daud aur haud ko bhula diya…                                                                                                                                                                  Ghoom ghoom ke log aisa naache                                                                                                                                                                           Ki saale badan ke baalo ne bhi HAPPY HOLI bol diya. ”

Under the Siege ! .

Hey lets name it, “Kabadi Taup ka Atank !! “. What followed the next 10 min was completely wacky. For those of who have read the book “Midnights childeren” by salman rushdie would know what ‘bizarre correlation’ means. So the plan for the next big event by DRISHTI was actually discussed at midnight under the skies besides a large water storage tank and by people who were war freaks, game maniacs of Age of Empires.    Hmm.. It actually came out very well.

Kabadi Taup ka Atank !!

Well our plan was simple. We wanted an event exclusively for enthusiasts like 1st yr; those who dont shy away thinking its very geeky, but actually believing all into the creative ideas and team work as a whole. It was not that difficult coming to the exact idea. We knew it would have to do with Junkyard wars and it would have a relation with AOE. Bingo !

But we were quite rusty. Not having carried out any events the whole new semester due to couple of prior engagements like ROBOCON and TECHFEST, it was actually a race against time, before the big fat round of events and membership drives start as a ritual in our college. We got our time as well, being exactly after the exams. The work put up by our working team was immense, right from Rahul, Mayuresh, Gautam and vishal. The whole arena, bots and materials were acquired. Vishal with a tiny bit by me made notices. Finally ‘marketing of the product’ as our orkut savvy faculty puts it, we went for an exclusive hostel drive among the other ways. We got an immense response and we were already going over the arranged teams. We got registrations from over 130 students. Next day we had to spend an extra grand for bringing extra resources and arena preparation.

5 pm DRISHTI LAB : People had started pouring in, with registrations and confirmations on the spot. People were so damn excited. Evening walkers, college couples and ATM visitors were clearly dumb struck by the magnitude of crowd outside drishti. The event began. Although it started with some mismanagement initially, i guess things ran smoothly hence. People even settled at the huge sand lumps and where not. The bank and post office were certainly

Hexapod

appreciated for once.

The participation

8.30 pm : We had kept the Hexapod on display. It was made by the second yr team for Techfest competition. But the amount of work they had put in and quality bot they had made, was really appreciated really well.

9.00 pm : The fights started. People had to catapult the marbles given to them in a span of a minute against the opposite teams bot and arena and earn the maximum points. So it tested the accuaracy and power as well. Almost every teams bot worked. Some well, some exceptionally well. New designs had come up and people made many innovations.  Finally at 11.3o pm the matches ended and we had a clear winner. The only team from 2nd yr had won convincingly. People still walked away with a lot of sense of adventure and fun.

So ya it was in all “Kabadi Taup ka atank” which actually made it to the record books as being probably the largest event in DRISHTI’s time.

It was really ‘14′

as they say.