CG's Ramblings

I don't know how to fill the blank in the title. In some ways I was just a spectator. But that word detaches you from the whole thing - makes you a mere observer, with no part to play. And yet - even though I didn't have any "active" participation in Sat - I still felt being a part of it. Anyway, I am still confused about what word to use - so just use your imagination to fill in the blank, and send me the answer.

After six long years, if finally happened – Saturnalia, “the fest” at TIET. I’d never believed it could happen while we were still there. Kudos to all who made this possible. Here's an account of my own experiences at Sat. Its a highly personal post. Its all about the events I attended, my opinions on them and recollections. Being a very lazy person, I didn't attend many events - in fact, I didn't go to the audi till the very last day - so there's not gonna be a lot to tell about. Plus I hardly took part in anything - mostly raves and rants of an "audience". Still, I feel like writing about it - so here it is.

Day 1 – Thursday, March 23, 2006
Sat begin on Thursday evening. The inauguration ceremony (and a couple of performances) I missed, but the rest of the evening went great. All these events happened in the sports ground – a nearly 8-foot high stage was setup inside the sports track. The main draw of the evening was Vogue, the fashion show contest. But there was more than that. Apart from a few fillers, there was the Bhangra, and the Western dance, both of which were good enough, although the western dance did have its share of bloopers. However, the skit (or was it a twisted movie? I just can’t remember) by first year students was a complete waste of time. If any one's offended, I am sorry, but this event didn’t even deserve to be in Mudra, much less Sat, and that too on the first night. A skit performed by freshers, and that too for the first time… come on guys, that’s not what you do on the first night your college hosts a fest after six years.

Sorry for being so sarcastic, but this is how this overwhelmingly free and bored final year student bides his time. Anyway, moving on, there was another skit by ours and Waterloo students. That was much better, but still a bit boring at times (note to those with steam jets in their ears: only a bit and at times). Getting more positive, the Bhangra by our college girls was really good, and the solo dance by that Waterloo dude(Mexican one?) was amazing, and certainly the best dance performance I’ve watched at the college. Moreover, the anchor, whom I didn’t rate very highly at first, turned out to be really good.

On to the fashion show now, and it was… great. Firstly, the number of entries (eight) was much more than I had expected. It was amazing to have so many colleges participate, especially after so many years. Hats off to the organizers!! And the show itself was really good. Our college put on a much better show than I had expected. And almost every college put on an amazing show. (ok, so this was the first “fashion” show I attended, I have no frame of reference). But the result was a no-show, really. While TIET was great, no way did we deserve a podium position, IMHO. And for the college that got first, well, seems like the winning funda was to show a lot of skin (certainly by TIET’s standards). Not that they didn’t deserve a top three finish, but I really liked a couple of other shows a lot more.

And thus ended the first night of Sat, amidst Bhangra(ours, i.e. – thanks to the dry grass, it gave rise to a lot of dust, and choked us a lot, at times) and all of what’s written above. Despite all the cynicism, that night really was my best night in college in four years. Period.

Day 2 – Friday, March 24, 2006
The technical events started on Friday. Didn't bother much with events other than those related to EC that day. Teamed up with Garg(the great bhoru of our gang) in Digimania. We didn’t expect much, and didn’t get much. After that, it was 8085 programming, but couldn’t participate in that (really wanted to), or any other event (‘cause I was trying to apply - very late - for a company’s recruitment test). This was all I did till the evening (told you I was lazy).

But what an evening it was. It was the rock night. Quite a few rock bands from North India came for the contest (and the booty of course). Five bands got to the final round. And boy, did they rock. The pick of the lot were, for me, D E Innovators, who were, in fact, the winners. I don’t have a very sophisticated taste for music, but their Vande Mataram really got me going. And others were good too. The last band had a knack for producing 4-letter words every other line, but I don’t think anyone did mind (apart from the admin of course).

Unfortunately though, our college’s very own band, LOOP, didn’t get through. I missed their prelims performance, but from what I know, a sound system botch up ruined it. Although it was a great night, it would have been even better if our very own had been up there too. And they are no slouches – as good as most of them. Really missed watching them perform.

And that was the end of the second day – but not before topless TIET males sang BC Sutta right underneath DOSA’s nose during the awards ceremony. It was an evening of vicious head-banging (followed by a morning of strained necks). Things were really coming up good.

Day 3 – Saturday, March 25, 2006
Saturday morning, in the technical events, I had to make a choice between MATLAB and On the Spot Programming Contest (in C/C++). Since I am (or atleast I used to think so) pretty decent in C, I decided to go in for that. What a shocker that was – we couldn’t even clear the prelims. This was bad, really bad. Bansal and I had teamed up for that, and I thought we had done quite well… but maybe the rest have gone too far ahead. Too much Lisping for me I guess…

Anyway, apart from that, I didn’t attend any cultural events that morning. The one event in the evening that I should have seen (but missed) was the choreography. Many of my friends were in that, and it was basically the same thing they had performed (to win) at the Izhaar (based on an oft-repeated theme, religious (dis)harmony). From what I heard, this time was much better than the last. Umm… should have seen it.

Its evening again, and tonight was Euphoria night. This was the same band that had performed at Sat six years ago. I, personally, was a bit disappointed that someone among the newer bands were not called, but I guess most have too high a price tag. Overall it was good, though I didn’t have as much fun as at rock night. Their own songs were really good, some of the English songs were not. One of the coolest things was that they sang, for the first time ever on stage, their latest track, Sohniye – six years after they performed Maaeri for the very first time at TIET itself. Overall, it was a heady mix of their own, other Hindi, and English songs. But it was cut short by the rain, which would have ruined the sound system. That’s how the third night of Sat ended.

One thing, though, it was sad that the administration - after what I believe must have been two days of utmost restraint - reverted to the old practice of seperating the guys and the gals. This time, instead of the guards, it was the discipline committee formed the border. Quite an embarrasing situation for an inter-college fest, and Palash Sen couldn't help joking that things were the same six years ago. Heck, when will TIET get over this 12th century thinking??

Day 4 – Sunday, March 26, 2006
The last day of Sat. And finally I did go to the audi. It was for the skit competition. The English skit (by TIET) I missed, but I did see the Punjabi one (again by TIET). It was based upon a family’s trauma of having an eunuch kid. A good one, it was. But there was a bit too much clapping at times, making many of the dialogues inaudible. These were the only two skits – and the Punjabi skit won.

After that, it was another programming contest – by the Mechanchis. Again teamed up with Bansal, again came up with nothing. But I’ll lay the blame on him this time – dude apne fundae yaad rakho. Logic nahin to program nahin. He knows this of course, but I feel much better now all the same. Another event that interested me was the Counter-Strike contest. Even though I “retired” from CS this sem, I still had a lot of interest in these matches. Partly ‘cause of my former clan members, and partly to watch a clan from Jalandhar(my place) who were real good – one of the top in the country. They won, of course, but my own clan-mates lost in the semi-finals to the “other/rival” clan of TIET. That was sad.

And yet again, my laziness made me miss another event I really wanted to see – the Western Dance. Arrived a bit late at the audi – and whoops, it was all houseful. No entry – so it was Tambola time for me. A bit of fun it was, but no prizes for me again.

There was no nite on the last day. Not even a DP. So that was about it – on Sunday evening Sat ended with the awards ceremony. I won’t ramble much – just say that it was great to finally have Saturnalia before leaving the college. ‘Cause it was the first time it happened since I joined TIET, there’s nothing I can compare it to. But all in all, it was a great experience. Highly enjoyable – and for the first time, gave me a feeling of belonging to this place.

I really wanted to post some pics from Sat but couldn't get my hands on any. If there are some pics online do gimme the link. I'll post the links here.

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