FAC, not FAQ

FAC is the acronym for the Fine Arts Club of IIT Delhi. My association with this club was probably the best part of my non-academic life in these 2 years. What started in the first year as an attempt to explore the active extra-curricular life of the campus, turned into a responsibility in the second year.

The initiation had to wait till late in the first semester because of the ban barring the freshers from indulging in any extra-curricular activity till Rendezvous. Post the cultural extravaganza, all of the freshers were summoned by our hostel seniors for some real healthy interaction. Thus, the mysteries of BRCA, BSA, BSP and God knows how many Bs were revealed to us, a universe so enchanting that many shining knights sacrificed their careers, to bask in the glory of their deeds for more than the standard 4/5 years. When the time came to declare ourselves available at the beck and call of the seniors, I was one of the very few bakras to have volunteered for the creative club.

One of the many advantages of being alloted a newly constructed hostel, apart from the spacious rooms and clean bathrooms, is the opportunity to be the 'one-eyed king in the land of the blind'. So, one day, me and another such bakra were pitted against the legendary wolfs of the art fraternity of the campus in a water-painting comp-event, to save the hostel from earning negative points in case of no entry from the hostel. Having offered my services many times by participating in almost all the events of the club, sometimes even at the expense of academics, I had become the fac-faccha of the hostel, expected to attend to the creative demands of other clubs as well, be it designing posters for NSS, or to paint the gigantic backdrops for the glamorous Dance and Dramatics club events.

When the time of reckoning came, I was among the top-runners for the dreaded post of the FAC representative of the hostel for the next session. However, one of the other fac-facchas also felt that he deserved one year of devotion to the hostel and the motivation to take a detour from academics. After uncountable sessions of funde from the seniors of the rival factions in hostel politics, I was pumped up to take the plunge for the sake of a better future. I had to skip some lectures on the day of the elections to go for the last minute door-to-door campaigning in the entire hostel of more than 350 residents. After pestering every voter in the queue to tick my name in the list, for the 2 hours of voting, I managed to scrape past the other candidate to bag the coveted job.

Now, I had become the official bakra of the hostel for the next year. The first major duty was staring me in the face barely 2 weeks before the major exams. I was decreed to manage the entire theme based decoration for the House Day of the hostel, a day when we bid farewell to the passing out batch of the hostel. Somehow, I coaxed my batchmates to assist me in proving ourselves to the seniors that we were ready to handle our junior batch, waiting to join us a few months later. After days of pure dedication of some guys who shared my burden, we managed to create a supernatural environment to give a glimpse of the things to come.

Having accomplished my first task, I was already making devious plans for the next year, when reality struck hard, and I ended up faring horribly in the major exams. With no need to wait for the obvious results, I ran away home the very next day after the exams ended. After all, I had to prepare myself to bear the burden of hunting for fresh meat to raise to the sacred altar of the hostel next year.

The Reunion

The 2005 batch of Manav Mangal School, Panchkula had its first ever reunion on 14th June, 2009. Those not from the Chandigarh tricity might have heard the name for the first time, since its not in the league of DPS or DAVs, which can be found in every nook and cranny of the country. But, for me, this is the first name that comes to my mind while talking about schools. After all, I spent the 12 years of my school life in the same place, the effects of which can be seen in my one-dimensional personality.

While everybody went their separate ways after class 10 and ended up in different institutes 2 years later, those memorable days of school life still reminded us of each other. While some of us bumped into each other during the course of life, many were reduced to a bundle of memories of cute little faces, with eyes full of mischief and minds bubbling with innocent pranks. Sometimes, some suggested to have a get-together to relive those moments, but the very next moment, the idea would be lost in the quest for learning formulas and grappling with monstrous equations.

However, some days ago, the angry-young-man of our batch, a name he earned because of his phenomenal height, came up with the idea of having a reunion of our batch. Since I was desperate for a break from the monotony of the summers, I agreed to play my part. So, a google group was formed, and thus began the first step of locating and contacting the folks online. Though many of them had the customary Orkut profiles, though none on Facebook, only a few of them came online often. Somehow, a date was finalized and based on the vague confirmations, a disc was booked by the party-guy for 30 people, the minimum number for making a booking there.

Finally, the D-Day arrived, and some of us who had gone back home specially for the day, headed to the venue following the Indian Standard time. However, we were surprised to see that we were the first ones to land there. With the managers of the disc breathing down our necks, we made some frantic calls here and there, getting the standard on-my-way response from the few whose contact numbers were actually working. As some others trickled in, we went inside to take a feel of The Reunion, sans the batchmates. Though the party was a bit short on the glam quotient, because of some last-minute withdrawals, the beats of Punjabi pop-numbers kept up the tempo. After the lavish dinner, ordered for 30, reminding us of some fancy weddings, finally we settled down for some rounds of reliving the good old school-days.

Though it was evident that the turnout was way less than expected, when the gals decided to leave, the host-cum-manager turned into a modern day Don Quixote and collected their contry amounts as decided earlier. However, full repercussions of that act of chivalry were driven home when we were reminded of the actual amount to be paid. Since some other lucky dudes had already left at the first sign of opportunity, citing some personal reasons and handing over their share as well, the remaining ones had to bear the brunt. After some animated discussions and a session of accounting and borrowings, we managed to pay off the moolah and walked out as free men.

Hence ended our ordeal which made up for all the lost time. After all, reunions are supposed to be memorable affairs, and this one made sure that we would never forget those 4 years.

PS: Before I delve deeper into history, I need some feedback on my current attempts. So, please give your genuine comments on this and the previous posts.

Summer of 09, so far...

The summers of 2009, i.e, after spending 2 years of my life in IITD, were expected to be a bit different from the pedestrian one of 08, when I had left for home the day after my exams were over, and waited eagerly to come back to the active life of the campus. Guess why? Because I had to stay here in the campus only to do a SURA project during the summers.

For the uninitiated, SURA is the acronym for Summer Undergraduate Research Award, which was started to dissuade the ambitious 2nd year students from spamming the Profs. abroad for summer internships. Though it was not such a huge success, still it was considered quite prestigious to get a SURA in the initial years, to the extent that one could have his degree extended if the project was not completed on time. But over the years, the relaxed norms didn't help much in retaining the prestige associated with it. Infact, this year, out of the 49 odd 'fully-sponsored-foreign-trip-cum-internship-dreams-shattered' people like me, who had applied for it, 43 managed to get it, illustrating how easy it has become to get it nowadays.

Anyways, this time also, I ran away to home after the exams, and came back after the results were declared, thus saving myself from the anxiety of waiting for the grades. The initial days were spent digesting the fact that while some of our lucky batchmates would be enjoying in some firangi land, lesser mortals like us would have to endure yet another cycle of Indian summers. Adding salt to injury was the excitement of the folks taking French lessons for their exchange programme for the next semester. The only saving grace was the prospect of being able to do a project of my choice freely with none of the tensions of a regular hectic semester.

Thus began yet another chapter of my life here. The first half of that is already gone by now, ending in yet another visit home, to be in time for my dad's birthday and the first ever reunion of our school batch. So, the first half was just as monotonous as last years', except for the fact that this time, I had started going to the sports fields to try to undo some of the damages of the last 2 years. That was just about the only thing I did regularly these 4 weeks. Otherwise, everything was as erratic as it could have gone. As for the SURA project, my project partner would testify happily that he had expected much more efforts from me.

However, I did manage to finish all the seasons of Prison Break, even if it included going to other hostels to find the older seasons. HIMYM, 30 Rock and Seinfeld also got their share. In between, I also read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The time spent online on Orkut and Facebook and chatting with folks on gtalk also increased radically, so did my sleeping hours. The only break from this monotony was when me and some Jwala guys decided one Saturday to check out the newly constructed Metro museum. However, it turned out to be a mere exhibition of some facts regarding Delhi Metro at the Patel Chowk station, to give the bored passengers 15 minutes of information. So, we decided to go to a real museum, and ended up in National Museum, where we spent the rest of our day, making the most of our Re. 1 Students' tickets, clicking pics every now and then, for which we had to pay 20 bucks.

So, now that the first half is well behind, I think its time to make the summers more interesting or productive, if I have to ever complete my project. However, only time will tell what's actually gonna happen.

Hello World

Its been a while since I created this blog in a moment of inspiration. I had forgotten it entirely and happened to 'stumble upon' it somehow today. So, its better I start writing something, isn't it?

As the subtitle says, it was created as 'an attempt to relive some of the most eventful days of my life so far'. The aim was to jot down some moments of my 2 years of life in IIT Delhi that I'll want to remember. However, it was such a Herculean task that almost everytime I thought of penning something down, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I can write about almost everyday I've spent so far in these 2 years. That would have required a dedication that may even make my JEE preparation days look like fun. Besides, the monotonous summer vacations, with apparently no motivation to do anything except to catch up with lost sleep, coupled with the worst summer season I've ever seen, ensured that things like blogging would have to wait a bit more.

Anyways, in yet another such moment that led to the birth of this blog, I ended up making my first ever own official web page exceeding more than a couple of lines yesterday night. However, that also resulted in yet another sleepless Thursday night/Friday morning, after last Friday's early morning adventure that led me to 'discover' a nice little forest in my hostel's backyard and explore the natural beauty of the campus. So, after lying idle in the bed for a while, I decided to pick up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons to force myself to sleep with its plots isomorphic to almost all of his other novels. The trick apparently worked, as I was snoring half an hour later :)
So, now I have decided to first focus on some of the events of this boring summers and carry it forward with some random recollections of 'arbit' events of the last 2 years, if I ever again get motivated enough somehow. Till then, just be satisfied with my 'Hello World' to the universe of blogging...