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.