It took a rainy day with very little left to do, and the completion of another Lit-Soc event for the semester, to come up with this post on one of the biggest things to have happened in my life – named Saarang. With the knowledge that it’s long overdue and also that even though one can never forget the experiences, some details might go off here and there, let’s just get to looking into one of the better organized versions of the mega event.
When you are a Core group member for an event that involves over 60 lacs of money, over 8000 people, and celebrities and media presence, it goes without saying that your life will not be peaceful even by the farthest stretch of imagination. Handling over 40 events, workshops, lectures, and demonstrations – there were times when it just felt as if the sky will fall on your head any moment now. The mobile phone just did not stop ringing, and at times I felt like crushing it with a road-roller – even though the prospect of answering calls of unknown numbers and getting cute voices from the fairer half talk to you (even request you for stuff) is not to be forgotten. There were meetings, lots of them, and at times we ended up talking so much that when finally it was all over it felt as if our jaws still retained some inertia, and ‘not talking’ seemed to be such an anomaly. All in all, it was a brilliant realization of what ‘slogging your asses off’ really meant – and we use it so trivially for whatever level of work we put into something J
Personally, this Saarang was a different thing altogether for me. On the run up to the four days of festivities, I was not quite happy – because all my plans of performing with my band in my last Saarang just fell apart at the last moment. I was sad – so sad that when I first came to realize that it’s not happening, I cried. However, the excitement and tension of the approaching four-day-festivities made me forget all about the sadness. We tried out many new things this year, and the prospect of whether they will be a success or a failure, kept us occupied to a great extent.
This Saarang I also happened to see how a couple of ideas can change an event of such a big scale in a radical manner. It was our primary objective to integrate aspects of Indian culture and arts into our events, and when the idea of ‘Saarang Village’ came up, in a very rudimentary form, we took it up without any hesitation at all. In about a month’s time, the entire idea was shaped up to as much detail as possible, and turned out to be the biggest success at Saarang ’08. It was an instance where I saw how the dedication and enthusiasm of a small group, and their will to do something different, transformed a plain and simple idea into a full fledged, successful project.
Hmmm… enough about organization I guess … let me now think of all the things good and bad happening in the four days … (highly personal, but for some, might make a good read :P )
1. Day one, watching the band Udaan perform for LM Groups -- Saarang Light Music contests are legendary, and this band from Madras Christian College just set the standards higher with their melodious own compositions. Good music always comes way up on my list, and listening to these guys sing really made my day.
2. Sanjeev Kapoor on ’30 things to eat before you die’ – I felt so proud to have been able to organize the lecture, and give the Saarang people about 80 mins of looking at mouthwatering dishes from all across the country, and know about their nitty-gritties.
3. Soundarya Rajnikanth’s lecture – this is really one unforgettable experience -- the car stopping, the lady coming out from the car, my hands going forward to greet her and welcome her to Saarang, and people around me (including myself) just looking at her. The ICSR Main Audi was erupting, with whistles, and ‘ooh’ s and ‘aah’s all round the hall.
4. LM solo on day 3 and 4 – sentimental values, as this was the only event in which I could participate, taking some time out of the core chores. Five mins of practice, a mild cold, and a minor hitch to attend to just before my performance – I still managed to get into the finals! In the finals again, I did both of my songs without any lapses whatsoever (something I feel was interesting because the cold had worsened overnight).
5. Lucky Ali and Karthik – There was a time when I used to worship Lucky Ali, and there I was standing and posing for pics with him. Karthik, on the other hand, is the reason why I got into listening tamil songs after saarang. The core train on stage, the flutist in Ali’s band, the renditions of ‘Pehla Nasha’ and ‘Parde me rehne do’ by Karthik and his troupe, the ‘mobile swaying spectacle’ in OAT – it was all nothing short of an indelible impression.
6. IIT M team winning choreo – I guess the statement is self explanatory. With an event that big, every college puts in months of effort to crack it. I saw the team putting in enormous amount of hard work, and to watch it all pay off was something different in itself.
7. (Many people claim that this is false but this really happened) Before the LM solo performance, a girl from a renowned Chennai college came up to me and said that I sing very well. As I had not yet gone up on the dias, I was a bit surprised, and I told her that I haven’t yet gone in. Then she said that she remembers me from last saarang, remembers my performance at last Saarang. (I guess I need not say that it made my day)
8. Prestorika pulling off ‘Fear of The Dark’ – to say that the O.A.T almost exploded will be no understatement whatsoever. I for one went crazy when they pulled off a small gig by leaving the stage and making a re-entry to play Maiden.
There will surely be many more such moments which at the moment I fail to recollect. However, at the end of the last pro-show, when we were sitting on the O.A.T stage, and looking at the empty galleries all around, it felt brilliant. I would go to any lengths to recollect and savor that moment once again. The countless phone calls, the night-outs, the discussions and meetings, confused cords coming up to you and asking stupid questions out of nervousness, all the core team fights and bickering, those brilliant moments of the day, realizing whatever you did not want to happen have happened, realizing thereafter that the situation has been set right by some way or the other, realizing that you are jumping to the tunes of a popular hindi number with a girl you’ve never met before, watching the quietest of chaps head bang to Metallica and Maiden, staring mesmerized at the crowd that has gathered to watch the show you’ve worked hard to organize, standing in the middle of a mismanaged crowd in a small corridor and wondering why the hell did you take this job up, getting criticized, getting shouted at, thereafter watching others support you as they shout back for you – it goes on and on.
As I had told in an interview with an ET reporter (my one and only media mention btw :D ), if someone is really close to you, you want everything happening to him/her to be good, to be grand—and for all of the organizers, Saarang was that special someone in our lives. And boy we put in some effort to make it grand eh ! :D
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