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?

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”!