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!

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!