For her to dance!

The stage was set for her to play

Her role was etched on a slate of clay

There should be no improvisations they said

Follow the music wherever it takes you

Follow till you reach the land of dead

While she hid her face under a veil

The glow in her eyes she couldn't conceal

And this is what bothered the director

"You must not go any skelter

We have promises to keep, you must agree

Despite of your potential we all can see"

The audience defined us ages ago

And your desires you must forego

For they expect us to take the path laid out

There is no meandering permitted here, no wavering about

Yet there she was, beaten not defeated

Coz a long time ago she had cheated

The path they saw was just an illusion

Her breaking the barrier was a forgone conclusion

Coz under the veil, her eyes that glowed

Were not to be swayed, not to be towed

She never followed the rhythm that people had set

She did her drumming, and her stage was set

For her to dance, all conventions she thawed

For the audience to eventually applaud

Applaud they may or may not, she didn't care

For she did her bass, her cymbals, her snare

Megha

Hats, Heels and the Likes! - by Tanya Joshi: Striped Out!!

Hats, Heels and the Likes! - by Tanya Joshi: Striped Out!!: As Blair Waldorf (of Gossip Girl fame) once said, “ Fashion is the most powerful art there is. Its movement, design and architecture all ...

Performing Arts Festival aka PAF

Prologue: PAF or the “Performing Arts Festival” was the experience of a lifetime! Okay so I might be all high on senti on it, but I am not exaggerating it one inch. I might even be incapable of summarizing the “God-giri” of the entire scheme of things in one post.

Technical background: The spring semester is witness to the biggest Dram-Dance jamboree of IIT Bombay called PAF. 13 hostels (and Tansa house) are divided into 4 teams that lose their wits to put up a 40 minute performance!

Snapshots of this extravaganza…

• Nightouts
• My first encounter with the insti lingo..something that I now use so often its almost running in my veins
• A moment when I exclaimed “God-giri” and truly meant it
• An experience that made me re-establish my faith in [Quote] Impossible is nothing [Unquote]..
• Insomnia and the zombie look derived thereof
• Ridiculously long script quarrels carrying the fate of a hermit
• Missing lectures to catch up with some sleep
• Fighting with batchmates to postpone a quiz/seminar
• Standing on the OAT centre stage (with your hands up, zonked expressions, et al.) when you are the last person who anyone would look at (yeah that’s true...my first PAF)
• As an audience to your rivals- Chanting Daya-Daya with all the devotion you could gather… (yes…we believe in team spirit, believe in it, take it personally, let it blow our sense and logic into shreds)
• Endless discussions on some legendary (both in positive and negative light) PAFs the insti has seen
• “Impact toh yahin aa gaya”/ “Ye toh fight hai”/ “Delta effort”/ “Scope hai yeh toh”!!!
• Amazing dialogues, senti people and standing ovation…sigh…
• InSight PAF review video and its aftereffects (Read: Re-forming your opinion on some of the famous faces of the insti)
• Harmless “jasusi” on your opponents’ theme/script/casting/prod/whatever comes
• Hearing “Ab aise PAFs kahaan hote hain” for the 156th time and still putting your heart and soul into the “task” at hand
• Mind blowing prods: Golden temple, 2-storey bank, bus, mike (!), a replica of the coffee shack, a university….
• Prod-Junta: This breed was the real soldier of the block. A GOD PAF called “Déjà vu” offered a slice from the typical “Prod-Junta” conversation (“Poore OAT mein badal barsadenge” to exemplify!)
• Rumors of your script being circulated in the entire insti
• Rehearsals, scene improvisation
• Gorging on idlis (Courtesy- Maddu Mess) at 5 in the morning after a night long rehearsal session
• PAF analysis by self-proclaimed “experts in the craft”
• Huge monochromic backdrops
• There are 2 kinds of people involved in the making of a PAF: a. FA (Fine arts) Junta; b. Rest of the world. Only the former can differentiate a certain “Chrome yellow” from a “Metallic yellow” (Yikes!). For the “rest” (that features yours truly!)- There is only one yellow in VIBGYOR!
• I had the fortune of being a part of two “extreme” PAF teams..:P…I have even been slightly envious of people who were part of 4/5 PAFs even if they happen to be my friends
• PAF treats
• Fundae sessions with freshies, describing them the “momentousness” of a PAF in your life
• And BEFORE all that- fighting to get the best hostels in your team
• Even BEFORE that- Hostel cultural council discussions on which team to fight for (Uska Dram God hai, uska music, aur FA punters toh humari hi team mein hona chahiye)
• But first: RE: Fundae sessions (when you are a freshie), being described the “momentousness” of a PAF in your senior’s life
• Makes you rethink what “impact” means right?

Kaju Kand

Login: gpo.iitb.ac.in
Inbox (1): From: Dr. K.K. Rao
To: all@btc.iitb.ac.in
Subject: “I really don’t remember man…”
Time: “Ditto”
All,
This is to convey that from now onwards, eatables are STRICTLY not allowed in the department. Anybody seen consuming food inside laboratories (including the UG lab) will be severely dealt with.

Best,
Dr. K.K. Rao
Head of Department

Hola everyone! Writing after a looooong time....oh..that mail you are asking? Yeah..This is what my insti mail inbox read roughly 24 hours post the infamous KAJU (Devnagri for Cashew nut) KAND!

Moving back….like 24-28 hrs behind:
Its the Microbiology lab you are looking at (Via the text…Come on now..fuel your imagination fella…)..Steaming autoclaves…smell of 70% ethanol, culture media (yuck though)…UV hoods turned on…me randomly hovering around my classmates...fighting for pipettes…trying to figure stuff out!

So it was a regular day in the lab basically.
Course: Microbiology Lab…Credits: 10…Instructor: Prof.P.P.
Time: Post lunch

A friend (a fellow musketeer) got this Kaju box from home…She was always a regular with getting Parsi food…(Special emphasis on Parsi mind you). But obviously lab decorum kind of prohibited us to have it while plating microbes on their nutrient beds! But where there is a will there is a way my friend…and a hungry mind is a genius planner!

So we went inside this store-room…10X10 (Approximation..) or even smaller room with a PC, cupboards et al., with the 10 (Approximation again…) of us inside. While the sensible majority was busy gorging on all the kajus that they could, silly me was busy locating my house on google earth!

A little background here would go on to explain a lot. Since the time I left Delhi, I was incredibly home sick! In fact, anything remotely related to my amazing city had the potential to light up my otherwise ordinary looking face!

So obviously, a real time view of Delhi was a treat to say the least! We were all so absorbed in the revelry that ensued, that the fact that we are in a lab and stuff just blew off our minds.
While I was busy locating the playground where my brother plays football (and making others see it too…whether or not they were femto-interested in it was not my concern!), others were probably busy enjoying the yummy kajus Diana got.

Enter Prof. P.P. (who was christened with the name of “Batman” eventually...for those of you who love the superhero, forgive my classmates…they were kind people)
Mood: Gloomy (my guess…otherwise he wouldn’t have created a battleship out of a poor kaju!)

So probably noticing thin air and no students, he followed his student-preying instincts to discover our hideout!
There he stood, at the doorway, our only escape from the wrath of our dear professor! The windows were sealed and so were our chances of getting away!

For what I figure, his temper was so bad that he couldn’t utter a single word…what followed eventually is hazy...but I remember him throwing off some of my friends out of the lab and generally creating a scene!
Our grades were an honest reflection of his grudges!

This laid the foundation for eventual bitching sessions, general class bonding, discussions revolving around Batman (minus Robin..bad joke I know…but its high time you got used to it!), threat mails from the HOD (the content aforementioned).

We even devised a plan to teach the poor fellow a lesson…now that its all a thing of the past, I might as well spill the beans! It was mutually decided to gift Batman (oh did I tell you that he was also referred to as Prof. Snape)with a box of Kaju Barfi on the day we leave the insti (yeah like rob and flee). And not just gift it the conventional way, but by feeding it to the hydrocarbon degrading microbes of his lab (simply put- spoiling the culture media). We left it at that though…that plan was never executed..(Excuse me…we didn’t chicken out or anything…but like I said, my classmates were kind people!)

It was definitely one of “those” incidents that you would laugh at “10 years down the line”. I could not wait for that long though..started giggling (and hysterically at that!) immediately after we left the lab! And not just me…people who were detained exhibited similar behavior!

Right…those were indeed the days!

MJ Signing off!

H-11 Presents “Be positive” (Comedy Play'07)

Situation: Interhostel comedy play…first major dram GC event (our first as cult council folks more like..)

Mood: Nothing to lose really…our reputation was not the brightest in the town…we were not even expected to show up on the D-day! So we were pretty relaxed so to speak…but full-on enthu mind you! Plus confusion..loads of it!

What was at stake: Umm..well I could stretch the truth a bit, hammer it to make it more exciting, but like I said, (or wrote morelike…) we had NOTHING to lose.

Players involved: Cult council (we hardly knew each other…little did we realize that this would pave way for the infamous “rowdy group” of Chatravaas -11)..some buddies (part of the rowdy group too)...a group of enthu freshies

Outcome: Go on and read fella!

Day 1: We (me with my two fellow musketeers) are just about to get started with a fairly decent meal at a friend’s hostel..(Manchurian, noodles and the like…no that ain’t too fancy, but for us hostel dwellers, it was MAGIC!). A phone call interrupts the feast (if I may say so)..Prags on the other end (Prajna- Cult co. as in the cultural council head, the craziest of our lot, that we eventually discovered)

Prags: “Megha, we were supposed to start scripting today! Where the hell are you?”
Me: (with my mouth full)“Err…Hostel 13..having dinner” (shouldn’t have said that)
Prags: “So when do you suppose we should start preparing for comedy play? Only two weeks to go mind you!”
(Shit! Two weeks!! Man..are we in deep shit or what…Scripting, set, actors, everything…two weeks is too little!)

This is how it started! Not the best of starts no…but as a wise (read amazing) actor once said…”End mein..sab theek ho jaata hai..”..The end of course was beyond anybody's guess!

We start scripting…hilarious (read crazy) ideas..we jotted anything remotely funny that came our way!

Confession time: Me and my friends have an overdeveloped funny bone (or who knows, there would be two-three of them) it figures…We can laugh (and I mean hysterically laugh) on something that would not be even remotely (read light years away) amusing to a normal person!

So we were not really sure as to how will something that WE found funny, would generate mass appeal. (with “mass” I mean the insti audience, that can be real brutal if not catered with something worthy of their infinitely lukkha time)

The plot unfolds” A really loser of a person, Udasini, has a crush on an even bigger loser (Anand..names were given intentionally) who works with her in a downtrodden publishing house called “Godbole Publisers” (name & wrong spelling fully intentional)..Anand, however has a thing for Chikini (her name was kept undisclosed!) who obviously is loathed by our heroine (Udasini..if you have not figured it out yet!)…Udasini messes up in the office, is fired by her boss and goes to this psychic crystal ball reader (“Change your destiny in 60 seconds” her signboard reads-supported with illustration mind you!) who gives her ummm..an “object” that houses a powerful djinni (pronounced as jinni) from the other world! Our naïve heroine falls for that. Now the djinni is not the usual type..it is summoned only when you play Bon Jovi’s “Its my life” (!!!) and casts its spell by dancing to the tunes of Black Eyed Peas ‘ “Bebot”! The djinni, however, suffers from jet lag (blaming the time zone shift from one dimension to the other) and twists most of the orders given to her (leading to major consequences- e.g. Anand being transported mentally into his past life, where he was some Mughal Emperor, with Chikini as his Begum!!) …how Udasini learns her lesson, bags a leading role in an Ekta Kapoor’s soap (titled : Kahani saas ke bahu ke bhai ke damaad ke (further relations) ki)and lives happily ever after is what follows!”

Funny right?

Even more fun was preparing for it…putting two and two together, cracking our heads over improvising the scenes, struggling with the crazy wrestling ring (Udasini and Chikini wrestle too!)we made, shopping for the stuff needed on stage (which included avoiding eye contact with people who looked at our purchases with the most bewildered expressions their pretty faces could carry), making the prod, trying to control our laughter while rehearsing for it(did not succeed to say the least!), shifting all the prod (from the hostel to the LT and back) and above all--- Creating magic on stage! (And off it)

So bringing back the “happys endings” talk, we did witness it. Third prize, best prod (that shook us up! Honestly!), best actor and memories for a life time! Key highlight of our show was the music, which was carefully chosen to map each and every expression/ situation. And the icing on the cake was the “Tipu Sultan” theme song to illustrate a time zone mind shift for Anand!

But the BEST part about the event was that it brought us together..My hostel buddies!…Friends for life, not just a summer or spring (Ref: Rendezvous with Simi Grewal- Theme Song)

And just so you may know, we call it “GODgiri”!

Yeah baby. Finally got it!!

Finally the D-day arrived! I was gearing up for the one thing that was giving me sleepless nights since weeks…I left bed early…another sleepless night! A zombie looked at me from the mirror…dark circles (Induced by lack of sleep. Scientifically proven), anxiety written all over my face! What am I going to do? There was no escape…I had come of age and it was time for my first magic lesson…I had to summon “it” (can’t take its name…family secret!) from the other dimension…It was time!
Apart from the joy some cheap thrills offer, the above paragraph was my dedication to a book by Jonathan Stroud, “Amulet of Samarkand”, that I am currently reading. It’s the story of an apprentice (Nathaniel- hope he grows up to be a wise wizard) and a djinn (pronounced as jinni), Bartimaeus (comes up with these really sarcastic ones..awesome!) and their journey in lala land…

Ok so after grabbing u’r attention, may I get on with my story??!!??!!
After a long week of work, it was WEEKEND!! YAY!!! Not that I hate my work or anything…I mean its pretty decent stuff, challenging and intellectually stimulating if I may say so…but the arrival of those two blissful days (that constitute a “weekend” in the worldwide approved calendar) always lights me up! :D

So like every weekend, my conscious mind had great plans! My subconscious would be having some of its own plans too, but I really can’t tell you that…No there is no secret or anything, its hard to tap it out at your own will (how do I even come up with these?) We had to go shopping. (had to?) My sis got an internship and needed a formal wardrobe. The good thing about that place is that you develop a perspective..(much like “Dekhna Maa, ek din main bhi ye Roberto Cavalli shades khareedoonga!!”..) You meet your inspiration so to speak. (I know what you must be thinking of me..yeah..i am a material girl)..

And a “not so” good thing about such places is that, I hardly know about stuff! So who cares, we shopped and shopped until we caught the sight of this really humble (except for the moolah it demanded) eatery called “Sushiya” (or something like that)…It serves sushi (had it for the first time!..mmmm..) and all kinds of it.
For those of you who entered late- this link might be of some help- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi)

So great, the foodie that I am and the love that my family has for me, we dugged in! Except, it had to be taken in with chopsticks!!
No there was no rule written on an archaic stone or something and they were definitely not going to kill us if we used our glorious hands (perfectly manicured et al.) to help ourselves with the meal! We took it as an opportunity to learn how to use that rather haughty, finely chopped out of a tree, “stick 1” that I caught whispering to his twin (stick 2) “lets see how she tames us?”

Legend has it that chopsticks paid no heed to their masters (they even hated their name I figure...had a certain aversion to the word “sticks”) until a great warrior called Hong Kong Fui- III (forgive me people!) pulled out the “Sword of Submission” from the “Rock of Feast” on the “Island of Appetite”. That sort of paved way for human dominance over inanimate objects used as tools assisting food consumption. (spoons, fork, knife, chopsticks the works…)

Since then, chopsticks have accepted their name (like they had an option!) and have served mankind (without any major resistance movement recorded in history).

Still, you might just feel a spark of dislike on their rather cold faces! You just have to give a good eye to them and you’ll get what I’m trying to say!

So coming back, I grabbed hold of them. They couldn’t bite me ofcourse, but the hatred was beginning to show. My fingers fumbled.

Confession time: Dexterity is a virtue that I’ve never possessed. I have had a history of clumsy handling of objects (no major disasters mind you…), that have made me strong over the years. This embarrassment was not affecting me! I was already expecting a good fight. A thirty minute battle ensued and it could go either way (none of the sides were calling truce!)
I was sweating. The aroma of sushi was wearing me out…I couldn’t hold any longer…”MUST HAVE THE SUSHI!! MUST HAVE…” A guy sitting on the next table had already given up…my patience was leaving me…”MUST GET A BITE!!!..”…I almost dropped the chopsticks…I was contemplating to use my perfectly manicured hands…Fine…so whats the big deal? Nobody is perfect! :o

Suddenly, I saw Hong Kong Fui- III take form in front of me! (Crimson and Gold overcoat, impressive attire, fit for a king!) Was it his ghost or was it my hallucination, I can never tell, but I knew it meant business…The hazy figure was looking at me…I felt a rush…”YES!! I CAN DO IT!!..”....”LITTLE LONGER…PERSEVEARANCE PAYS…”..

Yes..I caught hold of it! The sushi was mine!! Chopsticks had given up to my resilience.
It tasted different…The “sea-weed with vinegar” combination was new to me. I felt a pat on my back…the moment I turned around to see who it was, I noticed something losing form… Hong Kong Fui- III was gone…
I felt goosebumps. Yet, I continued with my meal…Hmmm…the sweet taste of success!

Playback please!!

Of all the days that I have been a witness to in my 365X23.5 days of existence, my days at IIT Bombay were the most eventful (Gargi too, but it’ll require a separate post, or a bunch of it..more like..). Not that I have had Paris Hilton’s life so far, but relatively, one can always state!

So where should I start? You might discover sporadic entries that will eventually fill up this part of cyber space with anecdotes of my hostel life. Second semester followed by the fourth, then sudden references from the first and so on. That could have a lot to do with the enormity of those experiences (or a lack of chrono-logic in my system..whatever!..). So I’ll start with my official last day of Masters (flashback movies leave a bigger impact!)... I was miserable (understated of course), not because of my grades or anything, my profs loved me for being a fairly good student (that ain’t difficult in a batch of eleven..believe me!). I wanted those two years to play all over again, like a music piece I was beginning to love.

MJ (that’s me by the way, it’s the way I address myself out of sheer vanity) -after her stint at IIT was a different person (to say the least!)… She was a proud ex-cultural council member (who with her cult team managed to shatter some of the biggest notions existing in the insti- girls ain’t that good at comedy, hostel-11 has no enthu, to quote a few), a loved friend, a nine pointer (RE: that ain't difficult in a batch of eleven) and MOST IMPORTANTLY, a member of the “Neelas, Kales and Reddy’s family” (love u guys!). Mom was (she still is, to set the record straight) extremely proud of me..What more could I ask for man? So for all intents and purposes, I had a rocking time!

All those moments kept on featuring in my mind, in a typical Bollywood feature film style (something similar to flashes of “cute moments spent together” followed by the sudden..and almost expected..”Gosh!! I love him!!”) Everyone who mattered was there. It felt great to be a part of this “rowdy” group (yeah..this is how folks addressed us!). Obviously it was followed by watery eyed hugs (though I was literally howling…emotional variety that I am).

Throughout my time in the hostel, I kept on comparing Delhi to Mumbai, how home is a better place (on sentimental grounds, no rebut here) and how I would love to take the first flight to Delhi, after my semester gets over (ask my friends, they’ll tell you), etc.,etc. But that day, you could probably not recognize me (or you would have suspected split personality). I fell head over heels for my campus man! Natural!

I am aware of the “life moves on” and “there is life beyond campus” crap, but every student (can bet a fortune on that), goes through the same curve. All good things come to an end and (like hell yes) sooner that you expect. So quoting a dear friend “You can take me out of my insti, but you can’t take the insti out of me”. Period!