Memoirs: Antaragni' 09, The Final Fantasy :D

Scenes from all the Antaragnis I have been part of are etched in my mind, more so from this, the last edition I would witness as a part of the IITK student community (unless some mean professor decides otherwise). If you are reading this blog and wondering how details of my activities and perspective on Antaragni could interest a reader, I would like to point out to you that this is merely for personal record.

I will be following chronological order (more or less) from here on...

Day 1: A Nice Beginning!

As is the case every year, hordes of people start trickling in on Thursday (some of them have actually been here since Wednesday). I have just a single class in the morning but decide against visiting the SAC before the evening. Guess it didn't hurt too much. Come evening and the lot of us head for the SAC in a definitely-more-than-ordinary attire. And lo and behold! That amazing hustle-bustle: a motley crowd of guitar playing dudes, "bewildered at being in IITK" junta, sweet girls, naughty girls, "goth" chicks, woooo girls (seriously!!), a 10, a pair of 8s, a bevy of 6s... an indigestible assortment of the happening crowd! Had MJ been here, he would have shrieked... "This is it!"

Our ogling eyes having been satiated a bit, we move to the venue for the Opening Show. Ha! 4th year... no standing in queues. We get in... Advaita is nice, Sitar Funk is great! Kudos Niladri... but ya, we've seen u already, remember "Megabucks'08"... we move back to the SAC before the show reaches its climax. Hungry stomachs... we head to the food court; new resolution - any money spent on vegetarian stuff is a waste! A chicken lollipop here, a butter chicken there, a few roomali rotis thrown in for good measure... and we're full! Wait for the much awaited Antakshari... turns out to be a bit of a bummer, i get my singing opportunity and we manage to get 2 tees (size XXL)!

Some more time at the CCD stall... some more foodstuff... and we retire at about 3 a.m.

Day 2: Pretty Eventful!

Get up pretty early in the morning considering the last night's bed-time. Surprisingly, choose to skip the word games (had enough of lit events in my 4 yrs). Head off to see the 'designs' in the rangoli competition, on the recommendation of a friend - not really worth spending too much time. So, a detour to our favourite haunt : the SAC. Not the most crowded of places at this time of the day. I plan to participate in some musical events today - a first for me... get myself registered... have to wait till after lunch. During lunch I am coaxed into hosting a pretty lame event called "mallville - mafia wars". Around 3 pm, I finally get to perform in 'Geet' in the presence of quite a lot of my friends, brought together by loads of phone calls :D. Seems the outing was better than most had expected. After the usual lounging around, I reach the mall desk for the "mafia wars" thingy. The not-so-surprising time-delays ensure it begins only around 6. And what do we realise... that for some weird reason (still beyond my understanding), the event sees an all-male turnout. I crack some pretty lame jokes on stage, not that the event had any scope for me to "do well". After around 2 hrs, the painful game ends with my friends and I (!) winning the maximum we could have from the game (not that it mattered in the long run). With still some time at hand, I rush to the english vocals event... another entry - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', not too many ppl this time around but this one seemed to have gone well too. After this we flit from some event to SAC to food court and end the day at around 2 am again. Ya, I did sit through an incomprehensible flurry of questions called the "sports quiz" and left in a hurry!

One of the interesting happenings of the day was the nukkad event - Our team did brilliantly but that is not too much of a surprise really. What was more amusing were the ever-so-shockin' beginning some of the Nukkad entries had. One moment there was a small group sitting near you, quietly, and before you know it they just dash off to the centre shouting at the top of their voices. In a scarier one, I saw a girl heading in my direction, pointing her finger and the next moment she grabs the girl sitting next to me, drags her by her hair and both of them jostle for some reason... naaiice!!

Day 3: New day, new stories!

I will probably be a bit more concise with this day as most of our activities repeat themselves henceforth. Get up in the morning... have Hindi Dumb-C which doesn't seem to be a Dumb-C event at all. We are kicked out in round 2. See a bit of the JAM where jam-master J.Das emphatically announces that "self-banging" is allowed. The crowds find it too gross and leave (Ok! That is not true :D ). Gen Quiz takes place in the afternoon... we miss out by less than a mark - disppointing! Take a bit of rest... see the Mridaksh prelims on Mall Stage... find them extremely soporific.. exit. We enter the discotheque... 3 dudes... decide against dancing, begin to leave, meet two geeks (also close friends and cool people!) who are extremely enthusiastic to shake a leg : quorum complete... we head to the dance floor - an enjoyable hour follows! Time for the Bolly Quiz - new team, the quiz turns out to be a farce... we don't qualify again... but sit through as the "nOOb" quiz ends in a jiffy! Time running out to make our last Antaragni outing a quizzing success... retire late to bed again, after the usual hanging around! Some interesting Dumb-C participation late at night... acquainted to the "Thakur High-Five" - don't worry, that's an esoteric joke!

Day 4: That's all, folks!

Well, here it is... final day of the final edition of Antaragni! Another day with a fresh bit of hope that this day will be special! What do we do in the morning... hmmm... oh! the usual... return to the SAC for some more guy-guy hanging out. Oh ya, did i mention that every morning I woke up to the blaring tunes of Salsa numbers with pairs of boys and girls dancing, hands-over-hips, right in front of my room. Bhhaammm! It hits you... get out and get goin'. We miss the comics quiz and a mixed bag of word games... maybe I did repent that a bit... but as I said before enuf of those events for me, really! Then we get together for the MELA quiz with a junior completing the ranks with me and Raju. Did pretty well... As Raju put it, atleast we didn't go out for a duck like Sourav Dada! No prizes for us tho... a first for my Antaragni career.

Then came in the climax of the festival... the prof nite with KK on campus. Began with a disappointing opening by "Faridkot" but KK managed to take the fun a notch higher. Hung out with one set of friends for the first half and then met up with the quintessential geek group - An AIR 5 (now a Fulbright scholar), an AIR 10, a PhD student (female) who is about to get married Jan next yr and some other dudes who love to hang out but derive most of their humour from highly skilled wordplay. Not the group you would associate with the usual definition of "fun". But boy! Did we have some fun that night! It was an amazing show, not because KK was exceptional, but because everybody was so keen to have a good time and succeeded! Weird and hilarious dance moves, Venkat's "Uchcha Lamba Kadd" performance, and our dear friend Bong flashing (his receding hairline) on the giant screen... all elements for some moments to remember for a long time. Pretty tired, we come back to SAC... I meet my Student Guide (Baap), here for Antaragni, eat some food and then resort to playing Dumb-C again! Very unwillingly, we call it a day at around 3 and bid farewell to a not-entirely-awesome but definitely a special Antaragni!

P.S. I tried to write the above in the form of an ongoing commentary. As the events were already in the past by the time I wrote them, there might be tense inconsistencies at lots of places. If you give a damn about that, get a life!

A special mention for the little girl who hung out with our gang and actually went out of her way to dance with us on the prof nite inspite of her sociopath friends' efforts to dissuade her! Also to my MME buddy "ak100ak" for raising the 'fun' bar, his long sojourns to attend calls notwithstanding...

Ciaos Antaragni!