A tribute to Survival

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate name for this post. For against all odds…….we have survived. Survived weeks of pure madness…..of days merging into nights into days…….of not knowing how and when one last slept……of roaming zombie like in the corridors in search of absconding group mates…….of AMM, Eco, and above all – LCC.

Yes….LCC, the bane of the entire PGP 1 class, the name that can give the faint hearted (and even the not so faint hearted!) a myocardial infarction, the very mention of which still sends comedy and munch running for cover……….we survived it.

Yesterday we finally had the presentations for the reports that we had submitted earlier (see ‘relief’)……and after more sleep deprived nights, more quarrels, some heartburn, and a showdown over email later……we’re through!!! Once again…………YOO HOO!!!

Of course it was tough while it lasted. We had to sit through 10 hours of presentations and SV’s ‘Rapid fire’ vivas. At the end of it, we were ready to puke (and I swear…..even the vomit would’ve been ‘culturally’ rich!!!). The presentations ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous……to any non MICAn, the topics would seem mind boggling…..but then, that’s MICAn creativity at its best for you. A sample of the ‘culturally rich’ topics we covered –
The culture of Vampires
A study of Loss of Innocence through J.D. Salinger’s The catcher in the rye
A world behind bars – the culture of prisons
A study of the Sicilian Mafioso
The culture of Ideal Beauty
The culture of dance in bollywood cinema
The Culture of One(?!?!?!)

Its amazing …..the level to which pfaffing can reach when circumstances demand it.
Of course the presentations were punctuated by some hilariously funny incidents……

Act 2 Scene 1

Topic – Culture of Coins
Time – Presentation

Apu S. - ……and we see that the coins from the time of Mohammed bin Tulak…..
Audience – That’s Tughlaq
Apu - Yeah …whatever!! (sounds resembling the tearing out of hair emanate from group members on the sidelines)

A few minutes later, the presentation is taken over by gauts, who’s reading out from flash cards

Gauts – and the coins from the pre mughal dynasty period….(stops…….frantically shuffling the flash cards with perplexed frown)…..damn! I’ve lost it!
SV – (with amused smile) Is that your next slide …. ‘I’ve lost it’?
(more sounds of hair tearing)

Act 4 Scene 1

Topic – Kinship in Marriage
Time – Presentation

Dhriti – So now we see here, that the Ego, would marry the daughter of his father’s sister who was also the daughter of his mother’s brother, who in turn was born from the union between his father’s father’s sister and his mother’s mother’s brother ……..
Audience – (with a dazed look) …..huh?….
Dhriti – No, its quite simple really….see, it all starts many generations before, when the father’s sister marries the mother’s brother, and then their children marry each other’s sisters, but of course we must take into account the cousins and the fact that there may be more than one sister in which case she’d marry the father’s sister’s husband’s brother’s sister’s…….
Audience – ….Errr…..right…..whatever!

Act 4 Scene 3

Topic – Loss of Innocence seen through the book ‘catcher in the rye’ by J.D. Salinger
Time – Audience Questions

Gomes – Don’t you think Holden Caulfield was a big idiot? I mean, he wanted to return to innocence after having gained knowledge, and seen the world. That’s like …….wanting to return to being a virgin after you’ve had sex!! (Loud sounds of clapping and whistling from class)
Freaky - Uh…..it’s not like that you know….. ( long discussion on how Holden Caulfield’s dilemma is different from wanting to return to the state of virginity after having lost it)

Act 4 Scene 7

Time - 11:55 P.M.

Palak – and with that we finish with the last group for the day……
(loud and sustained applause from all corners of the class, which goes on for five whole minutes)

Comedy – Sir, behalf of PGP 1, I’d like to thank you for being here. (Wide grins from rest of the class). We’ve really enjoyed all the classes(grins herself, suppressed sniggers heard from a few corners)….and we really respect you a lot (unable to suppress giggle, louder sniggering from the class)

Post Script – Actually, SV’s folly lay not in being a bad teacher, but in being too good a teacher. His plane of thought was so above ours, that we never grasped a thing. He just left every class horrified that we didn’t know about Levi Strauss (no, NOT the jeans guy!), McLuhan, or the panopticon, and we remained as clueless about these things as ever.

But……we survived. We actually came out of those 10 hours alive, and reasonably hopeful of passing the course…...the possibility of which had seemed bleak only 24 hours earlier. For those of us who were faced with the double whammy of having to appear for the French exam and LCC presentation on the same day, the joy is doubled, for we managed to pfaff our way through the French exam as well…..which was another interesting experience…….but that would demand a post all its own.

UPDATE (13 Nov. 2006) - Most of us did clear the french exam.....my heartfelt sympathies to those who didn't. Keep watching this space for an update on the results of the LCC course.

Not Again!!!

Ok …..I’m at it again. Writing this when I have far far more important work to do.
This time it’s the AMM assignment, which incidentally is DUE tomorrow. Interestingly enough, Gomes and I were discussing this today. Seems we both suffer from the same affliction – namely – doing utterly useless things when there’s better, more productive work to be done.

The AMM assignment requires us to apply all the concepts taught in class to a particular company in a product category of our choice. Actually there’s nothing much to it……its fairly straightforward, and only requires some sincere effort(ahhhhh….you begin to see where the problem lies!). But today I just don’t feel like doing this. Something within me is militating against it.

Thankfully I don’t have to do this alone. And I don’t have to do much. My tantrums are taken with good grace, and I am indulgently relieved from most of the work……..I elect to do the typing part(the part that requires the least use of brains). That too is accepted, and I let my brain relax while the others beaver away. It is at times like this that I feel – I am blessed.

A random thought……..

Ok ……..I have to be a total idiot to be writing this when I have far more important work (namely, AMM and ID) that I ought to be doing ….. but then again……tell me something I don’t know!

Its one of those days when random thoughts flit through my head, like the millions of insect species that I can hear buzzing/chirping/making other assorted noises, on the tree outside my window. I feel restless, as if waiting for something to happen that isn’t happening fast enough……..like a fledgling that knows it has to take flight, and wants to, but cannot………

What do you do, when you want something that you know can’t get(at least not now, and perhaps you’ll be denied it later as well)………when your eyes, flitting over everything as they normally would, are arrested, by a sound , a movement, or even a mere thought………..when, wanting to reach out and touch something, you find your hands tied down.
Yet there are times when you’re able to step closer, catch a clearer glimpse………and then that light which allowed you the vision dies away, and you’re left alone, to grope, and live on in hope……..

…..What do you do ?

Relief

Sweet blessed relief……..how dost thou flood my veins and fill me with thy heady mixture of contentment and euphoria……..and all at once…….the world smiles.

The storm’s abated , though a strong gale still blows. The biggest, crappiest, and most hateful of all the projects is over!!! It has been, for better or for worse, been submitted, and awaits grading by cruel wielder of the weapon mightier than the sword…..the professor. After 3 sleep deprived nights, numerous quarrels, and an almost showdown……….its done.

A greater sense of relief will take hold of me the day I am through with the presentation/viva of this project as well……for that will mark the end of this tedious and (somewhat) useless course, but till then ……………..YOO HOOO!!!!!!!

The eye of the storm

There come certain times in life, when the earth seems to suddenly have increased its speed of rotation. Life spins around at breakneck speed, and you don’t quite know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there. Or even whether you want to get there in the first place………(yeah, right….its not for nothing that I am still ‘making sense of life!’)
It is in the eye of the storm that I write this…..moments before I am sucked into it again.
LCC, AMM, ID, CR……projects and final exams for all these and more……..to add to the chaos….. “Have swords….. will draw crowds."

…..And it doesn’t end here either…..in a few short hours , the campus will come alive to the beats of our very own ‘The Unlike No Ones’, back with their delayed comeback gig……….while the campus vibrates(very literally) to hard rock beats, feverish activity will continue in the vicinity of Kachnar and Palaash, reams of pink and white satin will be draped into elegant rivers on the walls, banisters, and pillars, and the walls plastered with pink and gold windmills…......
And when the hour comes……when the vibrations emanating from the open air theatre recede, and the crowd, high on music, looks for more food for its collective soul, we shall be here, waiting……..at the gates of ……..Moulin Rouge.

Attempts to sound ethereal…..don’t think it quite works…..:)…..well whatever!( currently my second favorite expression after très bien). In case the above paragraph is completely incomprehensible…….The Unlike No Ones are MICA’s rock band...... our great pride and joy. Kachnar and Palaash are the girls and boys hostels respectively for the first years. ……and Moulin Rouge is the theme of the party we are throwing our seniors tonight (I haven’t seen the movie……but …….did windmills have anything to do with it?).
Its one of those days when the rivers of booze will flow unabated, and all future communication managers quench their thirst for the ‘somras’ banned by the foolish mortals that head the Gujarat government………dancing till they pass out from sheer exhaustion (or from having had one too many!). After the open air theatre, it will be the turn of Palaash and Kachnar to vibrate, as if the buildings themselves were come alive and joining in the revelry.
Yes its one of those days ( nights……whatever…..time seems to move seamlessly here) when in the wee hours of the mornings, the anxious, and still conscious, will go looking for those missing in action (read : passed out in the admin block or other weird places/ taking walks with random, equally drunk people)

When day dawns ……warily, as if afraid of the power of the night ……those still awake will debate whether going to bed or remaining awake till lecture time would make more sense…….

And by afternoon…..the remains - the now soiled and straggly satin, the broken windmills – will be swept away , the floor washed clean, and life will go back to normal……..well , as normal as possible when you have three projects, a play, and final exams all clamoring for attention.