Always Coca-Cola!

This is rather late, but had problems publishing the post. Luckily it was all saved on notepad. Had originally finished it by about February fifth. Quite a long read, and I intend it as a personal memory, more than a post for all. Anyway, if you like, please read on...

This year's Saarang trip looked to be like a great time for me. For those ignorant, Saarang is IIT Madras' annual cultural festival. The crossword was waiting to be won by us, maybe WTGW and all too, to boot.

So we left last tuesday, a whole gang of twenty six, mostly second year guys... had a nice time on the train playing arbit games (actually, one wasn't so nice... really irritating). Reached the next day early morning, and peacefully arrived via an IITM bus at the control room by seven o' clock. Out of the whole group, only six of us registered for accommodation. The rest of them stayed in with their friends studying in IIT. The room we were alloted was part of a hostel STILL under construction, and meant for one person like any other IIT hostel room. Three of us had to stay in one. Great. Three sure is a crowd. Then, they give us just two uncovered mattresses and two pillows. This was a bad omen.Anyway, I go to have a bath and answer natures call, when I see the toilets are filthy.. and there's no mug!!! Oh Man, this really stinks. This direful state of affairs was to follow through out..

Day 1:
After the horrible shock due to the accommodation arrangements, Hrishikesh (my crossword teammate) and I hit our favourite morning activity: the daily crossword. We cracked it and won it, and that fueled our confidence.After that, I was free the whole day... watched the western music solos... Mount Carmel College was prominent in this one as always.Later on had the cluedo (remember the game?) prelims at two o' clock. That was a bad one.... totally arbitrary concept. Too far-fetched. Still somehow Siddharth and I made it to the finals, where we were utterly stumped (thats all of us) and the decision was based on ... college name! as far as I can tell, since no one cracked the case.After that I just hung around, meeting people and just soaking up the fact that I was at Saarang.

Day 2:
As usual, got up with a mind to go for the daily crossword. Went to the loo, and lo and behold, its clean!! And I look around to see if the hospitality people had installed buckets like I told them to, and instead I find.... an empty 1.5 litre bottle of Coca Cola!!!
AAAARRGH * this portion of the author's life brings too much trauma to attempt to describe *

Reached the events desk and found a completely belting crossword, took us three hours to solve, and finally had a third place to show for all the effort. Once that got over, went and watched our second year band perform in Powerchord, the college band competition. After that was the aforementioned Cluedo finals. The solution was the Detective did it!!! Awww man... thats cruel! A missing page was the clue! a MISSING object.Right after that (packed day, what?) was the crossword prelims, where for the first time in a year and a half, we were not the first to submit a written crossword. This was bad. We were to find it wasn't a stray happening.After that I was free, and watched some more of Powerchord... and a bit of the Extempore finals. The finals were baaaad. What do you think of when one says Extempore.... you think of people given five minutes to prepare a meaningful speech on a topic, and to present that speech in a convincing, maybe humorous, and grammatically correct way. Well, I sat there watching people making JAM style comments... that is, loaded with sexual innuendo and double meaning. Not even subtle, I should say. Some where outright blatant. One round was MockPress, and someone got to be Britney Spears, and all she goes on about was her breasts popping out.... using the same words almost. This stuff should have been left to JAM... where time is important, not the quality of content.Went out to Luz Corner and bought two paperbacks... 'A star called the Sun' by George Gamow and 'Get me to the wake on time', a compendium of short stories got together by Alfred Hitchcock. No, he didn't write them. Anyway, all that for a grand total of fifty Indian Rupees. Neat huh!

Day 3: A good day :)
And why, you may ask?.... BECAUSE WE HAD A MUG!!! Ok, that was a good thing, but other things happened too. Won the daily crossword, in a decent amount of time. Then went straight for the Sports and Entertainment quiz prelims, where I sat and stared at my teammates solving the damn thing. Never going for a quiz again. Then went and caught Decibels, the semi-pro music competition. ALso watched the play by IITM. Sahil Kini was simply amazing as a feminine version of Man Friday... awesome stuff man. Stayed for a few min, then went for the scrabble followed by WTGW prelims. Got thtough both. That was good.In the evening watched Decibels.... it was great, real good bands played. The best was Planetela, a blues/rock act that was really good and man did we dance to them! Sadly, the area in front of the stage was a seating area, the stands were not, so we had to head bang and all far away from the stage. And these IIT guys want to get into management.Following the Decibels finals was a performance by a french jazz band whose name I cannot spell. Anyway great stuff!!

Day 4: The truth dawns...
Wake up and the first thing we do.... nope, not the daily crossword.... its the Main Crossword Finals!! After losing for the first time in a long time, we had to make a come back. The crossword had three rounds... two grids on infinite bounds and one just a series of theme clues on buzzer. So after the first grid we were tied for first place...,after the theme round ( I forgot what) we were third, simply cos we buzzed without having an answer and got a negative half, and two teams were initially tied with us. Then we stopped the event cos the Audio-Visual Quiz elims had to happen and some of the people were tied up in the crossword. So anyway we continue the crossword at 1:30... and well after an hour the top three teams each got five clues, so the results were the same, we came third. We could have won if we guessed egoistic cadets (with cadets being obvious since c d and t were displayed) but nope we didn't and finally lost in the end. And what hurts isnt that we came third... as my Hrishi pointed out, we have nothing to prove to anyone. What hurts is that we were so good last year and this year we were struggling. Chinmay, once an awestruck fan of our feats last year, who now sleeps in greater peace knowing he beat us, asked us if we hadnt been practising. Thats when the truth dawned. We hadn't been. OUCH!!!Well the rest of the day was no better. Got smashed in the Scrabble finals, losing all three matches ( we wisely ditched the fourth) by successively increasing margins. However the last one was interesting, when we almost pushed the other team into forfeiting due to exceeding
the time limit... it was definitely fun.I was royally depressed that night.... just loafed around IIT-M campus... it was a bad feeling, to be dethroned by your own complacency... my mind wasn't even thinking half the time... normally the gears turn and an answer flashes in my mind.... and pretty fast I might add. However, now...Anyway a good thing was that our second year team won the Pot Pourrie, rather convincingly too. Although an allegation of cheating cropped up, they overcame the repeat round and silenced the critics. Thats a cheesy line. Anyway.

Day 5: A final Insult
With our present financial condition at break-even point, we were hoping for the last daily crossword to put us in the black over all. We even landed at the Hospi desk half an hour early because they sometimes give it that early ( Unlike last year when they always gave it half an hour late )!! Alas, it was not to be... the crossword guys decided to ditch the last one. Ah well. So instead watched the debate finals for some time, after which I had to go catch an auto and keep it waiting for two guys still in the Sports and Ent Quiz finals. They had a train at one o' clock and at twelve they were still inside!! They caught it, I might add.So anyway, I go back to the debate finals and find myself watching the final too... a sardarji and a cute chick from some Law College. The chick won, and deservedly too. The topic was whether or not the concept of Juvenile Delinquent Centres was valid or not. They went off the topic, focussing on the realities instead of concept, but anyway the Surd was all rhetoric while the chick had some good points.Soon after that Was the WTGW finals. I've written a long story so far, so i'll keep it short... we came last. We didn't answer anything fast enough (this whole thing was on buzzer) nor get our words. We ended up with a net score of zero. And that comp leted the utter feeling of defeat.

Day 5: Going Home
Hrishi went back to the room, feeling low and basically to get away from the fest and be by himself awhile. I just wanted to soak up the atmosphere of the fest, the last time I may be here again. Its true, yo' should see something like Saarang at least once in your life. I was almost choked up, to be leaving the place on such a low note. I sat in their OAT, for a few minutes, just because I might not do so ever again. I also realised some other things.... I was taking crosswords too seriously. Yes, we were once the Kings of this game, and it hurts now that we're not. But what if we had one? It would have been a repeat of last year. Somehow that struck me as boring... to go to a fest where so much happens and end up doing the same thing both times. I next year if I actually make it to Saarang, I'll try debate, go for art workshops and events... watch ALL the other events. And not compete to win... just to enjoy the challenge, and to do what I really loved doing at Saarang the first time... to live the life I love.