Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Eight Point Someones
|
On the eve of another edition of Saarang, SUDHISH KAMATH goes behind the scenes to catch up with the junta at IIT
|
PHOTO: SHAJU JOHN
THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS IITans get ready for the "mother of all festivals"
Licky now has young girls calling him all the time. Well, the perks of being `Cul-Sec' of the mother of all festivals, that has only grown in size, year after year. Gillette, the other Cul-Sec, too won his friends back. "Elections, we lose friends. Saarang, we win friends," he says. You know how things work at IIT. The seniors baptise you with a name, and it sticks for good. No matter how unmentionable or embarrassing the history behind the baptism is.
Anyway, this story is about a bunch of boys led by Licky and Gillette, who are working overtime to sign off their campus life in style. `Saarang,' clearly, is the climax of their golden years at IIT. So when Licky and Gillette, earlier named by their respective parents as Amit Shahani and S. Shivashankar, jointly took charge as cultural secretaries for Saarang 2007, a couple of months after last year's edition, they resolved to make it bigger than ever. "We wanted to increase participation. Quality participation. Not just from the South Zone but also from the North," says Gillette. "We wanted to change the basic layout and structure. Make it more organised. This time, we have online portals documenting all departments and monitoring all the work in progress," says Licky. The boys already have received 1,250 registrations. "A thousand have already confirmed," he adds. After all, Desba and Sidd (IITian for Vishwanath and Siddharth Parthasarathy), the core team for external publicity and ticket sales, personally visited 180 colleges during their winter break. "We sent invites to 800 colleges all around the country," says Sidd. "But we also personally visited campuses in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Allahabad, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Manipal, Surathkal, Bangalore and Andhra Pradesh," adds Desba. "We are going to close registrations soon. We have accommodation only for 350 girls and our hostels are already booked for them. But people can still register, we can suggest alternate accommodation," says Licky. In co-ordination with Events, the external publicity team is planning to reimburse one-way travel tickets for finalists of 18 out of the 50 major events, says Desba. "The fest is increasing in size and we have managed to come up with sponsorship greater than last time. It is our policy not to disclose figures," says Stick, who probably introduced himself as Rajiv Murali to potential sponsors. "Airtel is our main sponsor and they have a Saarang Download package with ringtones, wallpapers and quiz preparatory package that will go on air soon." Given that last year's fest was estimated at half a crore, this time around, it's much more. Unauthorised photography is not permitted on campus and there will be seven security cameras scanning the region for miscreants and troublemakers. "Our security budget per day is about Rs.60,000," says Licky.
"We have four international bands performing during the pro-shows this time. We've also increased the prize money by 50 per cent," says Monty, Events-Core. "We have a lot of new events. The multilingual laughter challenge (stand-up comedy) in Hindi, English and Tamil, Whose Line Is It Anyway, short film making competition and photography contest to name a few, apart from late-night informals for the benefit of outstation participants. They don't have much to do after the pro-shows," says Monty a.k.a. Abhijeet Mohanty, who also plays Hari in Nikhila Kesavan's stage adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's "Five Point Someone". The play will be staged on January 27 at the ICSR auditorium and streamed live on LCD screens for the benefit of those who don't manage to get seats. "It is a free show by Madras Players and we have limited seating, so we are streaming it live." With most of them multi-tasking, over 500 IITians will still find it difficult to sleep because of all the excitement during the next one week. They have the rest of their life already figured out. They've all been placed. "I owe my job to Saarang," says Licky. "We all have jobs." How different is the world at IIT-Madras from Chetan Bhagat's book, we ask. "I'm not a five pointer," says Monty. "I have a GPA of 8.89. But yes, there are under-performers. There are many who haven't got into IIT who are coming to Saarang," he adds. "There's this guy from Bangalore who tried to get into IIT three times, he's coming," says Gillette, who has an aggregate of 7.9. "I'm the lowest of the lot. Mine is only 7.01," says Licky. The flip side of being Cul-Sec. "Also, there is no professor's daughter here like in the book," one of them points out. The boys laugh and share jokes into the night. It is 10.45 p.m. And, it's certainly not end of day's play. Or work. There's so much action waiting to explode when world-music band Global Rhythms takes the stage on Thursday evening. And, if A.R. Rahman is in town, he has a promise to keep: an appearance there. The curtains will go up. The roof will come down.
* * *
PRO-SHOWS
January 25 Global Rhythms — world music; entry free
January 26 Sukhwinder Singh — popular music (tickets: Rs.200/300/500)
January 27 Choreo Night - Fund-raiser (tickets: Rs. 70/120)
January 28 Decibels, finals of light music and Western music; entry free
January 29 French band Merzhin — rock show (tickets: Rs.120/200)
January 30 Swedish band Mynta; R&B by TVOA (tickets: Rs.50
(The concert on January 30 is part of post-Saarang celebrations)
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
