Monday, February 26, 2007

Blood Bath!!

Light. Colour. Noise. Confusion. Excitement. Anger. Passion. Love. Hate. All the elements that go into making the perfect movie. And Maxinations 2007. What was supposed to be a competition between hostel blocks - to test all skills ranging from branding, promotion, strategy to innovation, creativity, general knowledge and much besides - soon degenerated into something else.

Every point counted. Every second made a difference. Every step was carefully measured. Every strategy fought over. Every inch hard won. This was war, no holds barred.

What makes a bunch of pretty normal guys turn into a single minded unit with a single aim? What is so special about a shield made of wood and brass? What makes people pour in energy, time and passion to win it at any cost? Why does it turn friends into enemies and normal sensible adults into immature children?

It brought entire blocks together, this shield. It turned XIM into a cauldron of seething emotions in three days. Creative juices flowed like never before. Sleep was a thing of the past. Everywhere there was a frenzy of activity. Everything that could possibly be used to catch attention was done. Charts, posters, cutouts, banners, flexs, audio advertisements, shouting, banging. Spirits were definitely awakened. Over 15 events in three days. Singing, dancing, dumbcharades, rock stars, quizzes, mimickery, comedy, collage. A pot-pourri in short that carried with it the prestige of the block.

It started off with the crash of breaking bottles and ended on a much louder note with a slanging match. It was amazing to see how quickly discontent spread. How quickly disagreements erupted. How quickly a small stirring of discontent snowballed into an avalanche of abuse and invectives.

If a piece of wood can cause a war, why not a beautiful face?


2 comments:

Kat said...

I was amused reading that. True, a wooden piece can cause a world war equivalent!

It brings to my aged memory, a situation when I was in college. No brainy matter… pure brawny stuff.

In a neck to neck race on points, in an inter-collegiate athletic event… the final 4x100 metres relay became the deciding factor. I was the 4th runner needing to sprint to the tape, making up for any lost pace by the earlier runners. As baton got exchanged and I gained momentum, the unthinkable happened. The rival college’s athlete inadvertently crossed into my lane, causing a collision. The lane judges missed noticing it. With muscles and nerves screaming made up the lost second…. But finished second!

Our boys produced evil looking sickles that even movie heroes of today may not have seen. Organisers were gulping saliva. Tense moments…. As our college was losing the overall shield. The Organiser announces the rival college to come and collect the shield. No one dares to walk up :-)

I still do not know from where I got the courage. I walked to the captain of the rival college and asked him to go receive the shield… another unthinkable by our college standards, to risk one’s life so!

I’m happy I did that, that day.

Tks for lending your eye…. to read an old man’s reminiscence..

What’s this last line in your article pondering about !!! History is fraught with answers to the Q?

Priyadarshini said...

Im sure u have a lot more stories like that uncle, with much more violent endings :) Here luckily good sense prevailed and there was no physical fight. But the event did get suspended half way through :))