From the Steel City - When NIT Rourkela rocked IIT KGP!

If those moments and that night of winning the Fashion Show at IIT KGP can be recalled and relived forever, the next day was nothing less exciting. It too is etched in my memories for years to come. It’s been 8+ years and I can still recall every moment of those 2 days at IIT KGP when NIT Rourkela was roaring all across the Spring Fest.

The night before was unbelievable. From the underdogs or shameless losers so to say to the flavour of the evening and NIT Rourkela Flag bearer, The Rechargers had lived some of the best moments of their college lives. However, the next day brought something out of the extraordinary.

The day started with a Quiz Competition, which, for the nature of the event, went unnoticed. Not until, NIT Rourkela won the event and the winning team was seen being congratulated and announced loudly and favourably at the Informal stall. With a huge uproar, the whole gang from NIT Rourkela, which was near the Informal stall, started to shout and roar. Another feather in the cap!

As the day went by, many of our college students participated in some informal and formal events and won some of them, much to the cheer of the 300 strong crowd from our college. There were a few teams which participated in the Group Dance Competition too; however, we couldn’t make our mark there. That moment it seemed, the day was about to be over for the NIT Rourkela teams.

However, what happened during the mid-day was something magical. With the start of the Eastern Band Competition, we had hoped to win one more event at IIT KGP and end on a high!

We were all scattered around and suddenly a phone call came, pushing us all to TOAT for the Eastern Band Competition. I reached TOAT to see a handful of our college guys there and suddenly there was everyone calling their friends to TOAT to get as much support for our team. As we were pitied against the local and crowd favourites – IIT KGP Team, we badly needed support for our team and fast.

Within next 15 minutes, what we saw was something extraordinary. TOAT was all filled with NIT Rourkela students and we easily outnumbered the local crowd. I am sure; this would have easily pumped our team to give a performance to remember for a long time.

As our team was called to perform, TOAT now swarmed with NIT Rourkela crowd, echoed with shouts of NIT Rourkela ka Tempo High hai...ooi re mai re mai re mai re Alisha baba ho and the likes. What a proud moment it was. A feeling hard to write and describe! As they say, you need to be in the middle to feel the rush and see what makes it so outstanding! Those Mexican waves, those claps, those dances – all a sight to behold!

And what a performance it was – as our very own singers sang – Har Ghadi badal rahi hai from Kal ho na ho & Dil ne Tumko Chun Liya hai from Jhankar Beats, pure magic and ethereal! The Band members – the drummer, the guitarists, the keyboard player, everyone made a perfect sync – a perfect Jugalbandi! And the way the whole NIT gang supported the team and their performance was noteworthy. By the team, the second song was being sung; I could see the whole crowd humming with our singer and band. There was no discrimination on colleges and teams. Music gelled them all and everyone flowed with the magic that happened there. Everyone was spellbound! Never ever anyone would have expected what happened that afternoon in IIT KGP. What a proud moment for us to have received such a warm appreciation for our team at a foreign turf.

Needless to say, with this mind blowing performance, our college was awarded the best prize and we ended the Spring Fest 2004 at IIT KGP at a High Note! I was just a part of the audience which witnessed the rocking performance, was very much part of it, while it happened, and I just can’t forget those moments – can recall each moment with elan. At times, I wonder, what happens to the members of our Euphony Band which performed on stage that afternoon when the recall those moments of glory, when I feel so proud to have witnessed history being created. I am sure, like many of us, they would be really proud too! J

From the Steel City: NIT ka Tempo high hai...

Having landed at IIT KGP early in the morning, we registered ourselves and got our team registered for the Fashion Show Event. After having got ourselves a place to stay in one of the many hostels at IIT KGP, we went around the campus, just simply enjoying the beautiful scenery and greenery of the IIT campus. We got ourselves something to eat and agreed to meet up at 5 in the evening to participate one more time J

The whole day went enjoying the festival and the events. The business quiz, the sports quiz, the Ad-Mad and the vocals both solo and group enjoyable. The informal stall, hosting various fun events like 1 minute gigs, informal dance shows, jokes, etc were a key attraction. They made the whole fest very interesting and gave people to move away from the tension and anxiety of real competition inside.

It struck 5 in the evening and we all started getting calls from everywhere to gather for the practice session. And as it turned out, half the gang eventually didn’t turn out and we spent the whole day enjoying and roaming here and there.

Late in the evening started with the celebrity night. A 1 hour performance by Neeraj Sridhar and then a rocking 2 hour performance by KK actually made our day. But not before KK sung and along with them the audience sung “Tadap tadap ke...” and made everyone shiver in “Dilli ki sardi...” in Kharagpur. The fantabulous performance enamoured everyone and all ended the day with a happy and singing heart.

We got up next day, little realising that we have a formal practice at the venue on the stage at 12 noon. And yet again, there was a rush to gather the gang at the venue. After numerous phone calls, running helter-skelter for the team, we could finally get the team to come to the Tagore Open Air Theatre (TOAT), which was the actual venue for the main event and our practice as well.

TOAT was the venue to give your performance, a huge open theatre with a big stage on one side with a large T for the so called models J to walk on the ramp. All this surrounded with a seating capacity running into thousands from all the sides.

The team gathered and came to know that ours was the first team for the practice session. Meanwhile, seeing the competition gave us some inferiority complex. All the models (both male and female) were actual models, as we see in the magazines and adsJ. And some of them a notch better too. All around 6 feet height and nicely built with good shapes. And compare this with our team, where the 20 member team had 20 different heights and shapesJ No personal offences, however, the quality of the physical attributes on show in the competition did give us a complex and a scare. I remember, some team members coming to me and saying, “hum to gaye...no chance in front of these guys”. Being a senior member, I had no way but to console them and say...don’t worry, let’s give our best shot J

We gave our trials on stage, finished everything including our final formation and waited to see some of the other teams as well. And what we saw made us more anxious to say the least. Even though, we were confident on one hand that our concept and clothes will pull us through, we were in a state of high inferiority complex at the ramp walk of the competition teams. Their near perfect walk and movement was sure to take a thunder out of our concept and ruin our chances of rocking the competition. And a team member, a junior came and said to me “Gandhi, aaj to gaye...” And yet again, I had nothing else to say, except, “Don’t worry, all will be fine...”J

The anxiety from the practice session, allowed us to sit together and rehearse once again and see what best we can do. And finally we decided to gather around 7 PM near our change room to get ready for the show. We were about to disperse, that a team of fellow NIT Rourkela guys (senior batch) came to me and said...”abe rehne do tum log...tum kahan jeetoge in sab se...See the quality of models they have...leave it...” and continued laughing.

I will not shy away from accepting that we felt more anxious and inferior at these comments. However, what really took the shine away from all the so called beliefs of oneness and one college and support was the fact that these comments came from one of our own. Those thoughts really made that evening very sad for us and the whole team went into a sort of a hiding. Just praying that all goes fine and we could come out with flying colours, if not winning the event.

It was already 7 PM and we all had got together and went into our change rooms to get ready for a final assault, even though, the happenings of past few hours had taken a mental toll on us. The show started, ours was the 6^th out of the 8 teams on stage. That gave us some extra time to get ready and do the necessary juggling and make up.

With hearts pounding, we stepped on to the stage...1 and 2 and 3 and I moved towards the center. I was in a group of 3, including 1 girl and as I moved towards the middle of the stage with lights gleaming on me, I was completely taken over by feeling of representing our college in front of a crowd running into thousands and that too at IIT KGP. All the thoughts of the day gone by were gone and taken over by the feeling of pride while I walked across the stage. As I turned right towards the edge of the T ramp, I could hear someone say...”Oye Gandhi aa gaya...” and those feelings are difficult to put in words. It is the moment well remembered, even after more than 8 yearsJ. We finally went into our final formation to a thunderous applause and closed our show with the echoes of “ooi re mai re mai re mai re...alisha baba ho” reverberating TOAT.

We quickly changed and came inside the TOAT to witness the last group on stage. I was surrounded by the whole group with our banner with Rechargers written over it on my shoulder and back. As we were anxiously watching the last group walk down the ramp, a few college mates turned up and congratulated us on the good show and the great concept. Some came to highlight that the final formation was the key and should take us far. While, some mentioned about our attire and took it as our jackpot. They mentioned, we should surely be amongst the top 3. This surely enthused us and was a pleasant change from the day gone by.

A while after the final group had presented, the anchor for the event came with the results. We could see all the teams eagerly awaiting the results with some praying and some just sitting with their heads down to cover up their anxiety.

Just before the anchor was to announce to results, he called up a top model from Kolkata on stage to congratulate the teams and give away the prizes. And he started off, with our heartbeats getting heavy. He announced the winner for the third position as Bengal College of Arts, Kolkata and that team came to the stage. He continued further, that the winner for the second prize is our very own team from IIT KGP. The whole IIT KGP Team rushed to the stage. This announcement made us realise that we stand no chance that even such good teams couldn’t get the ultimate prize. However, as the anchor announced the first prize goes to NIT Rourkela, I don’t have enough words to explain, what happened next. What exactly went though me and my mind and my heart is inexplicable. With a flying banner of Rechargers, I just went running to the stage and along with me the same junior friend of mine who in the afternoon mentioned to me... “Gandhi...aaj to gaye...” Suddenly there was a fight on the stairs to the stage, as to who will get their first J The whole gang was there and that feeling of being on stage as winners of something where we were written off by everyone, is something out of this world. In fact we didn’t give a chance to ourselves too, until we really performed well and everyone liked what we showcased. And finally we shouted hearts out with – “NIT ka Tempo High Hai...ooi re..mai re...mai re...mai re...alisha baba ho”!

From the Steel City - Rechargers decide to go regional!

Well, we all know (at least the engineering fraternity knows J) our fascination with IITs in India. Not to demean them and their stature, they are world class!! However, we in India have a special fascination for IITs. You can see people spending years to crack the IIT entrance (though that trend has faded over the last few years and for good for sure). That frenzy around IITs continues even after having joined other reputable institutes. And this craze for IITs, among students of other colleges, at least to get a chance to perform in numerous technical and cultural events there during those 4 years, Or just to get a chance to visit those august institutes, is nothing new. And I believe a bit justified too.

With the quality of students, teachers, infrastructure and of course the funding and the level of competition in IITs, make them a special category and brand. One of the toughest entrance exams in the world adds to the allure, for sure. All this, surely makes everything IITian, enigmatic and classic, at least from outside.

This explains the attraction for technical and cultural events held at IIT KGP at our college too. And add to it the idea of participating on a scale and magnitude that an IIT can provide. Students from all the Top National, Regional and Local colleges will participate for some of the top prizes on offer. With this in mind, a gang of few students went in the 2003 Cultural & Technical Festivals at IIT KGP. Once they were back to NIT Rourkela, they were completely awestruck at the quality of events, participation and organization there. This created a lot of craze for the next year’s events there.

With the confidence of having won the Fashion Show event at our own cultural festival during my second year in 2003, my team – Rechargers was all gearing up to participate at IIT KGP in January 2004, in my third year at college. It seemed, the charm of IIT KGP had caught everyone at our college, as many teams wanted to participate in the Fashion Show at IIT KGP that year. However, as per regulations, only 1 team per college was allowed, a complete opposite of what we were used to seeing at NIT Rourkela, where all the teams would be from college itself. Well, that itself called for the quality of competition at IIT KGP.

Having won the event last year at our college, we were given a preference over others and a chance to participate and represent NIT Rourkela at Spring Fest 2004 at IIT KGP. Thus started the long, hard working journey to arranging the whole gang once again and getting them to come daily for practice and mutually agree to the sequence and presentation and of course the attire. Mind you ours was never a fancy dress competition, even though, our models were not a bit of the usual models we are familiar with J

The toughest part was to get everyone to come for practice daily. People will scream at each other to be serious and come daily, however, this was proving very difficult. With, varied tastes and likings of each individual, people had to attend to each one of them. Some had to go for sports, or some to visit their girl friends (if there were any J) and there were some who would just follow girls to their hostels or homes or may be just to the college entrance market just looking at them. With so many regular duties keeping them busy, it was difficult for everyone to spare 1 hour daily for practice, even though, each one wanted to participate at IIT KGP and win the competition J

With just a vision to participate and crown NIT Rourkela as winners, the team landed at IIT KGP a day before the actual Fashion Show Competition. And mind you the vision to win, surely fitted with the confidence and belief in ourselves that we can win. And this confidence was a result of our having won the competition at our own college (even though the completion was quite unreal, in the sense that all competing teams were internal) and of course our dresses that we show cased. The dresses were liked and appreciated by one and all and that duly gave us the confidence that we can win. And of course our final formation gave us the little edge too.

The dresses, as the name of the group goes by – Rechargers, were our tribute to the environment. What we showcased was the use of little forgotten items like newspapers, CDs, aluminium foil, etc to create our clothes. At first, we were a bit apprehensive to say the least, about our attire, having been a witness to the fancy dress competitions so far. However, we wanted to try and give our best shot. And it did work so well for us. Even our competitors liked our concept, our dresses and our final formation. I am happy to accept that our concept and dresses won us the competition at our own college. And we decided to take the same concept and dresses to IIT KGP too.

From the Steel City - Spring Fests were fun!!

January 2003, some students from my college (I was still in NIT Rourkela then) went to IIT KGP for Spring Fest (their Annual Cultural Festival and supposedly the largest college cultural festival in Eastern India). They spent 4 days at IIT KGP and I believe they were there on the behest of their friends at IIT KGP. And they came back enamoured and wowed to the core with the quality of events, competition, arrangements and of course the celebrity nights.

More so, when they would compare this with the cultural festival back at college, their frenzy is bound to go overboard. At home, when they see a Fashion Show, Dance Competition, etc with only internal teams and they too adorned with the attire rented from some “Naatak” company and then compare this with the quality of at show at IIT KGP, they are sure to feel sad at their own college.

Well, the quality of themes and attire at the Fashion Show at NIT Rourkela till then was really no less than a “Naatak” in itself. It was more of a Fancy Dress competition than a Fashion Show. What else would you call a team with olden day Kings and Queens turning up for the Fashion Show? I still remember, during the 2002 Fashion Show I was witness to such a team J In fact, they were a step ahead of the rest, they made it a blend of a Fancy Dress Competition with their attire and spoke on stage like in a stage show (Naatak) and called is a Fashion Show. I still don’t understand how come the judges allowed them to get through the preliminary round and present their blended show in the main round during the festival.

Each year, you would see some daredevil guy showcasing some fire show, blowing fire from his mouth, using petrol of course J There would be a team which would showcase Freedom fighters from Indian Freedom Struggle. And a team turning up in sports attire showcasing different sports. Though, none of this was a fashion show, but it was too much fun! We can easily see almost full college turning up for the preliminary as well as the main rounds in our very own AV Hall. It was a full on rocking time, with whistles from all the corners. And needless to say, people would always wait and watch out for girls in each team, even though, there was nothing much to write home about J Fashion Show along with the Dance Competition and to some extent the celebrity night (much on this later) were easily the top draws.

The Dance Competition preliminary round would easily take 2 days to finish as teams would take the Olympics motto – The most important thing is not to win but to take part; very seriously. One can easily see teams being overnight and participating in the hostel galleries, college SAC area and wherever they could get ample space to spray their hands and legs and an electricity connection to connect their CD Player (Yes, we studied in the days of CD Players). The idea of Dance Competition in the Cultural Festival was do easily sold that one can see at least 50 teams participating in the preliminary rounds. You can see some solo performances, some group ones & some real good ones to give even Hrithik Roshan or Mithunda (Mithun Chakraborty) a run for their money.

And what celebrity nights we used to have till 2003 Cultural Festival at our college. In the name of celebrity nights, we would host some special singers and may be dancers within the precincts of our college and call it a celebrity night. It was a special event and would mark the end of the festival with these special moments J I still remember the one in the 2003 event, it was supposed to start at 7 in the evening and it started raining. As it was supposed to happen in open air in the Library Quadrangle (Yes, it was called so), we couldn't start the closure event. People started thinking, without this special closure event, how can we close the fest and hence, we will get another day off the next day J And by God’s grace (I am with the students, for the students and I am a student), the rumour spread that tomorrow is a holiday as this even can’t be held now and will be held tomorrow evening. As it is, we have paid heavily for this special orchestra evening and would surely want it to happen, if not today, then tomorrow. And again, by God’s grace, as rumours are a wildfire in hostels, by 7 PM, it was known to everyone J

However, the Rain Gods smiled, but this time on the college authorities and the organizing committee, it stopped raining by 7.30 PM and it was announced that the event would start sharp at 8 PM. And what and orchestra event it was, Kishore Kumar Classics, Lata Jee Classics crooned away to their glory J However, it was a college crowd, which once together, finds magic in even the obvious things J So needless to say, we danced, shouted our throats out and enjoyed to the hilt. And finally as expected and customary, announced the closure of the fest with the shouts of – ooi re, mai re, mai re, mai re, Alisha baba ho!!

From the steel city – The first taste of notorious ragging

The second day, we quickly got the admission formalities done and got ourselves a room allotted in the hostel. As we got our hostel formalities done, it was already the lunch time and we could see our batch mates all looking down and wearing formal attire with a tie. We could feel the fear around!!

One of the seniors, who took us to our hostel attendant to get a room for us, took us towards some fellow guys from UP, who had already joined a few days back. The senior started “See, here are your new brothers…they are in room 4 and 5…meet them and give them all the ragging fundae…we will come in the evening to check…” (Ragging Funda # 1: Always call all your fellow batch mates from your state as your brothers & Funda #2: old ones would pass on the ragging fundae to he newer ones, as and when they come). All of them, looked at “3rd button” (Funda # 3: to look at the third button of your shirt while taking to a senior) and as they were about to speak, took permission to speak (Funda # 4) and he started,
First year batch mate (FYBM) – Sir, May I have the Golden opportunity to talk…
2nd year senior (SYS) – No
FYBM – Sir, may I have the diamond opportunity to talk…
SYS – No
FYBM – Sir, may I have the platinum opportunity to talk…
SYS – No
FYBM – Sir, may I have the lifetime opportunity to talk…
SYS – No
Oh man, this continued at least 2-3 times till he obliged and by that time we had gotten scared of what was happening. At one hand, I felt disgust at the thought that even I would have to do all this nonsense from now on, but at the other hand, we laughed at ourselves and our batch mates. But man, our seniors did it, we did it and as did our juniors!!

After all the formalities in the hostel, I was allotted room # 4, on the ground floor and even mathura and buddha were allotted the same room. But my seniors, requested the attendant to allocate some other room, may be some room in the back gallery, but he said no, saying, there were none available there. Then, the seniors told us to take care in these rooms as these rooms are prone to senior wrath due to being near the front gallery and being at the ground floor. We got even more scared!!

We had slept by now – our very first day in the hostel and in the middle of our sleep came some sound as if somebody is banging our door. Having gathered our courage, we quickly understood that it was some senior banging windows for us to open, but since we didn’t respond (this was against the ragging funde though!!), he gleefully did it against room 5 and after a few minutes the noise vanished, we thought that even room 5 folks didn’t respond to this and the seniors had gone away and smilingly dozed off.

Suddenly, after 5-10 minutes, we could hear someone banging against our door, with gathered courage, we tried to get up and the voice said “Open the door…I am Maneesh…” and we opened the door…knowing that we were some what safe!! Then he continued…come quickly…seniors have come and they are calling all UP guys…and mathura said “they have to come only in the middle of the night and *beep*, *beep*, *beep*” and we quickly got into our formal attire, wore the tie and the third button mark and ran towards room # 10, where the seniors were waiting for us!! And one of us uttered “Imagine…the goat is itself going towards the butcher!!” :)

Reaching room 10, we were called towards the window, one by one, and were asked to introduce ourselves. My chance came…and I started “Sir, May I have the golden opportunity to say my name…and he replied…Yes…(ah!! Lucky me, hit it in a single opportunity!!). My name is Uphar Gandhi from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh (There is nothing called as UP, always give full name of the state, ragging funda # 5). The senior said “okay…then what to do…” Hearing this…I felt like…what what to do…nothing…go off to sleep and let us sleep too!! But before, I could utter anything…the other senior asked me to come closer to him (and I knew, what was it, as I had already seen the scene many times, by the time my chance had come) and after I came closer…I couldn’t hear anything for a few moments as something has hit me hard…and again. Then the seniors said “okay now go away”…as if they had just called me to slap us!!

I swear, that was the only part of ragging that none of us liked ever, but on a different note, I believe that had it not been the fright of slaps (the number of slaps was called your “score” and whenever a senior would ask you your slap, your answer has to be “zero”, funda # 6 & 7), we would never have taken it seriously and would have missed the real fun of ragging!! I am very proud and happy to admit that by the time I was ragging free, my score was 32 and this ragging only made me friends with the huge NIT group that we have now!! We shared all our agony, pain, ecstasy and happiness during those times, still share them today and would do so in future!!