Pure Magic of T-Nites!!!
- by Vinamra Srivastava *
Phew... In the past 23 years of
my existence, I have never seen and felt so much enthusiasm, fun, talent,
coordination, hard work, partying, planning, panic, strategy, contingency,
bonding, unity, and to sum it all... PURE MAGIC!!! Yes, I am indeed talking
about T-Nite 2006. These words can only hint at what the T-Nites are all
about... You got to feel it to understand its magic... I will describe each day
of the event in installments in the next couple of days...
First, let me describe the format
of T-Nites. They lasts for four nights and are about inter-section contests
among the five sections of first year students - A, B, C, D and X (X is of the
PGP-Executive Course, started this year). The first two events take place at the
mess which are very informal events with a small makeshift stage and all the
tuchchas sitting on the floor and cheering / booing us, depending on how
exciting the performance is. Each section is allotted a time-slot of about 20
minutes. The time included your entry and exit in the mess, and penalty points
are deducted if you exceed the allotted time. There are points given on hosts of
factors ranging from strength of class participation, posters, enthusiasm level
of the class and the actual performances. The mess nights are such that you can
not have any plays or something very formal and high-class kind of stuff... They
are meant for lots of masti, and thus, you need great dances on catchy
songs that can keep the boisterous audience riveted... the music must never
stop!!! The last two nights take place at the auditorium about which I will
write later.
On the first day, the T-Nite is
officially inaugurated by the PUB-RUN that takes place in the afternoon. OK,
before you get weird ideas, let me explain what it is. It stands for "Publicity
Run". Basically, each section has to put up posters in the mess complex for
their publicity. In order to decide which section gets which places on the mess
complex walls, this run is held. Getting the ideal places for your posters is
super crucial. So what happens is that there are 10 runners from each section.
The entire batch (all sections) gathers at some distance away from the mess.
When the whistle blows off, the first runner of each section runs off into the
mess complex, carrying newspapers / cloths marked with their section names on
them. It's kind of a race - who reaches first to get the best places. So when a
guy pastes his newspaper on the wall, then that place is booked for that
section. Once the pub-run is over, the section can come, remove the paper and
put its poster there. After one minute of the first runners, the second set of
runners of each section dart off and so on... till the last runner. The total
time for pub run is 30 minutes.
Now I was the first runner from
our section. It had started raining when all the sections had gathered outside
just before the beginning. The preps were frantic. All the runners were carrying
huge newspapers / cloths (which had been prepared for the last few days) with
their section names, etc. Tapes of different shapes, types and sizes were pasted
on our shirts, body and wherever there was space, so that we don't have to
struggle for tape inside the mess. Vaise, the papers already had the
double-sided tapes but still...
So there we were, tapes all over
our bodies and papers in our hands, all waiting for the whistle. The runners
were in line for each section and all the other section people assembled behind
cheering us up. The anxiety built up, so did the section tempo shouts...
"Section A ka tempo high hai..."
There were drum beatings, slogans, synchronized claps and what not, each section
cheering its runners. 3... 2... 1... the whistle went and all four front runners
(including me for Section A) darted off amidst huge cheers.
Wow... After a long time, I was
running so fast... I was put as the first runner basically because of my speed,
and it paid dividends as I was the first one to reach inside and grab the place
we had planned according to our strategy. Others followed soon and then there
was frenetic activity with people shouting for tapes, climbing on tables, and
what not. Finally, after half an hour, we all came out to be received by our
section in style. It was raining outside and the entire section was standing and
cheering for us... This is called bonding and that's what T-Nites are all about.
So that ended the pub-run. We got
decent spaces, and though we could have done better, it was a good show. We also
put up a huge piece of cloth (sheet) at the entrance of the mess that hung from
the roof to the ground. It contained a huge DNA shape with the dorm names of all
the section people mentioned on it. It looked so majestic.
Then came the first mess night.
Before I go ahead, let me tell you that for all the four days, we spent most of
our time in the classrooms preparing... we go to the dorm only to sleep. So we
all reached in time for our slot at the mess in a huge group shouting new and
innovative tempo shouts. There are also marks for tempo shouts and the junta
enthusiasm. Our time came, we entered shouting slogans, all of us surrounded the
small stage and the events started. There were mostly dances and all the
remaining people stood besides clapping, shouting, dancing, etc... We have some
of the best dancers in our class and that really helped us throughout the four
days of the T-Nites. Our performance was indeed a hit and the tuchchas
liked it, I guess. We all came back to the class, celebrated among ourselves for
giving a great performance, and then went about preparing for the next night.
After that, we completed our
studies for the next day's classes, because classes go on as usual. Its upto you
to find time to study despite the crazily hectic T-Nites. I finally slept at
7.00 am and got up again at 8.00 for the classes.
After Day 1, the cumulative
scores read - Section A ranked 1, ahead of Section X by a small margin. What
great jubilation for us! But we knew it was just the beginning. There were three
more nights to go. And also the weightage for the mess nights is much less...
the weightage for the auditorium nights is more and they can change your fate
easily.
The same sequence followed the
next mess night. However, this time our performance was not as good and we were
a bit disappointed. The cumulative scores after Day 2 said we went down to the
4th spot, and that hurt. But our section tuchchas lifted our spirits,
motivated us to go all-out next day. As it was, now the auditorium nights would
start and they carry much more weightage than the mess nights. And we knew we
have some amazingly super talent in our class to give a classy show on the
auditorium nights.
So we went about the preparation
with even more gusto with the sole aim of coming back with a bang!!! Post the
mid-term exams; we have classes even on Saturdays. That meant that even on
Saturdays, we had to attend classes even when the auditorium night was on the
same night... Nevertheless, after classes got over, we all had lunch and came
back to the class for preparations. And when I say 'all', it means about 50-60
odd people.
What happened at the auditorium
nights? Could Section A come back? Did we please the seniors and judges this
time? Did all our high-class talent pay dividends??? How exciting the auditorium
night was? How was our enthusiasm and preparation? What happened on stage?
To find out, keep visiting this
space. The second half of the T-Nites 2006 will be coming up shortly.
P.S. The final results are
tomorrow afternoon... Am super nervous, so is the whole class... Will keep you
informed.
