How was Ragam man?
I gleefully give a grin when my friends ask me that...seriously speaking,this year it ACED...
The planning committee of EC-A,SOE CUSAT began the preparations on a fine Thursday afternoon of 15th to make it to Ragam '07 this year...well don't be misguided by the word i used...the planning committee consisted of 4 of us...we were pretty much hopeful of getting more members by the time we reach to a decision...unfortunately it was not to be...(well all i can say is->UNLUCKY POOR IDIOTS WHO MISSED IT).We exempted one fellow 'planner' as he had a trip he couldn't miss...so it all simmered down to three of us with absolutely no chance of bagging another in a class where you need to expect a question like 'Are you crazy?' when you ask one.
Day 1.
So there we go...we finalised...three of us will board the Intercity at 0700 hrs from Aluva. We never knew there would be a change again...at 0330 hrs the planning committee(remaining) came to a decision(a rather enforced one i would say) that only two of us would be making it. So we picked it from there...boarding the train was easy...getting down at Calicut and reaching the campus was not...so we were to find it out...i thought my woes were over in Calicut,but the bus driver made me wish i was back in Cochin...
At last...NITC in half an hour(they said it takes more than 40 mins but the driver made me forget time)... We were welcomed by one seriously kidu dude who is my best friend's brother...For NITCians he'll be known as Hari(Virus i came to know later on)...we registered our names(when do these formalities get done with?but u can't do without them either) at the registration desk.I eyed up and down the events i was to participate and could find only three...i was rendered partner less when my fellow planning member ditched us at the last hour!Well since they were accepting on the spot registrations i was glad to go to Hari's room and ease the luggage glued on my sorry back...we(Me and Hari) started off to the D-Block,and in the mean time i could appreciate how a National fund and the Western Ghats merged to form the best campus I've ever been to...we got back to the CS Seminar Hall where the English Extempore was to be held and i registered for it...they told me to seated but failed to mention how long so there i was expecting something to occur...finally after a brief(???) gap the things got started...the judges placed themselves and now it was up to us...there were about 15+ fellow contestants with me...which finally trickled down to around 8+ after three speakers...it was my turn and i picked up a chit which gave me the topic of College Administrators,Moral Police...how funny when my competition walks away with topics on Politics,Arts, and what not...well as per the rules i was given a 3 minute preparation time...which got over as soon as i repeated the topic thrice...the volunteer asked me if i am ready and my answer was no...well that didn't matter as i found myself walking to the stage...what happened in the next 4 minutes...i can't remember...coz i sure did jabber a lot of improperly constructed phrases and boy...did i sweat me shirt off...anyway i could remember a few faces smiling at my lame attempts to pull a joke and well,it didn't register as i had to find out in the results section...so much for my first event.
My second event was JAM sketching...considering the name and the brouhaha the word Just A Minute brings about in campus arts these days,i thought i would give it a try...so i teamed up with two seniors of mine to get a prize...that's what we were 'optimistic' about...so the whole event was like to draw a rough sketch of a cartoon we were given...in a minute...we tend to forget that part...and then when that minute gets over the sheet we've drawn on is given to the next teammate and he has to draw based on the sketch that was given to him...and this ends when the third participant gets done with his...and the figure is compared with the cartoon given to us and ho hum you know the rest...
we registered our names and waited inside the MBD Hall...and since the turnout of the teams were good the whole thing was to be held in three batches...we were in the second batch so we positioned ourselves to see how the teams are doing and boy it ain't an easy task...a cartoon of Dexter and Didi could be seen to end up in something which resembled a cauliflower and lettuce. Well it was our turn to conjure up a new weird culmination of our allotted cartoon. After three minutes we came to know the final picture was a new avatar of Batman in clay...
So after drawing a blank yet another time i finally got time to hang around...so there came my sweet old classmate of mine,who is a student there...and after spending some time here and there later it was time for the the show everybody was looking forward to...Shaan's concert...
i somehow ended up purchasing a ticket sometime in the afternoon so after contemplating whether to sell the tickets or not,i finally decided to enter the fray...after entering the OAT, that was when i realised the one i see in my campus is minuscule compared to this,i went over to Hari and from 0730 pm to 1030 it was the definitely one of the best moments in my life...he had the whole of the OAT absolutely enthralled towards the end(he got a bit lagging in between).We had a few guys climbing the stage and shaking hands with the singer in the middle and it was followed by a a few stage volunteers running and pushing him back to the crowd.Their part of the fun i guess... It was time to take a rest after enduring a heavy and mobile crowd(we were closest to the stage) so after taking a bath,calorifying and a brief visit to meet old friends,we decided to call it a day...
Day 2.
Waking up has always been a tough task for me...so it was a pretty cool in the morning as we had enough time to get over that tiring day past us...after breakfast from the mini canteen we went over to the Seminar Complex and had a cool time listening to the Malayalam JAM...it was absolute fun...wish it was recorded...1030 and it was my final attempt for glory...Spelling Bee... being the school champion and district third and an unlucky state pooper,i thought my odds here was pretty up...clearing the prelims was easy...wasn't surprised(I'm not being arrogant). The finals which were to be held at 1 pm was postponed to 3 and that gave me more time to view the other events which were going on around. The finals were announced(i hope) and i came to know it was to be held in Bhaskara(i hope i got that right). There were 9 of us on stage and after getting one correct and one wrong i cleared the first two rounds and then came the knock out...dude i never saw a more f**ked up elimination round.First things first...the judge ain't good enough to be there. The way he pronounces the words,it was like he was a beginner in phonetics...maybe it's because of the mike but I'm not going back on my words. The words which were given for various contestants were 'EMBRACING','GRANULATION',and say how about this 'HAT TRICK'??? He pronounced 'TREMOLO' as 'TREMOLAA'...well needless to say it was me who got that and i was eliminated. Life's unfair to me these days it seems...
Once the Spelling Bee got over all i had to look forward to was how to get into the OAT for Evergreen's concert...my finances were not pretty good for that particular weekend and moreover i had got my ATM blocked(that's me). So after trying many plans we decided to fake a hostel id with my photo in it...so with that plan in mind the two of us along with a few others marched to the entrance...the guy who checks the passes took a long look at the card and was scrutinising me...with my heartbeat going from 72 to 150.He warned me that being an S6 i need to know more about taking my College ID and etc etc...i muttered some inaudible excuse and with a bowed head walked inside...i don't know if that guy understood me or not...but then once inside we dint have time to bother bout it...the show didn't have as big a turnout as it had for Shaan's but then who cares?we went in front of the OAT and after about 3 hours of head-banging sore throats,aching bodies and deaf ears rather made us ask for our beds...Once the stage was cleared it was time for the Fashion Show...the first three were quite okay and by the time it got to the rest half the OAT was practically asleep...since i had to reach home the next day i decided to catch some sleep and get the 0600 train to Cochin.
(Hari and myself cooling down after Evergreen pushed us to the limits...)
After meeting all the friends again and happy farewells,i got back to the hostel room. Sleep was not my event for the day as i kept reminding myself of how i missed the chance to study in a cool place like this...well finally as soon as i thought I'd fallen asleep the alarm rang and after getting ready and a few quick calls and packing,i was all set to bid good bye to NITC. Somewhere down there was a feeling of what it would've been if i needn't go back...but then...there's no point crying over spilt milk and feeling sorry about what ifs and what nots...with a heavy heart,i walked to the bus,and with a final goodbye to Hari,who made this Ragam a memorable one for me,boarded it...
Day 3,4,5...
How was Ragam man?
'Dude,don't miss it for the world.'
As for the Planning Committee,the fellow traveller had an equally good time there.
And for the remaining two, they will be making it to Ragam '08 hopefully...
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