Mission Admission and Beyond - Part II

Part II: Feeling College Life...

A few days into the college, quite a few mental barriers had already been crushed…we now openly discussed our crushes (among other things…both in class as well as the hostel), and as expected, most crushes clashed! We were getting used to Rajiv Jha (I wish I had his pic!)…our impressive-from-the-first-instant Eco teacher, his accent, his mannerisms, his way of teaching…his everything. Speaking of crushes, quite a few girls actually had a crush on him (and serious ones, you should’ve seen the intensity with which they confessed, it showed on their faces. Of course, they laughed it off later…) The other teachers, Priyanka Bhatia…our statistics teacher, looks straight out of a magazine cover(how I wish I had her picture!)…my eyes would light up every time she’d come to class…and my classmates would sms me – See Utsav, she’s wearing pink today or look, she’s looking gorgeous…and I’d blush. (Ok, I’m no exception…it’s only that I’m a bit public about it…lots

of girls are after Amit Sachdeva and Rajiv Jha as well, as mentioned…) Other teachers were alright, if only they made the classes a bit more fun. Our organizational skills got a shot-in-the-arm after we organized…mass-bunks (yes! What did you think I’d say?) Things like these were COMPLETELY unimaginable in our good-old school days. Now we started gelling well with our classmates, 6 of us formed a ‘Sing-Soc’ (a now redundant, singing society…it was fully-functional for 3 days)…more than enhancement of our singing abilities (which was never an intention anyway), I made good buddies with the other five…and I found out that I was seriously pathetic in remembering lines. The name was a rip-off of the other ‘functioning’ societies…DramSoc (Dramatics Society), DebSoc (Debating society) etc. Oh…speaking about DramSoc…on the first day of classes, 5 odd guys came to our class speaking about what the DramSoc does, what it doesn’t…how much fun it’ll be etc…and the way they spoke…most of us were drawn towards it…it was a different story that most of us hadn’t even acted or done anything close to theatre or drama in school. There were two days of auditions(see the pic, how jam-packed it was)…all of us performed what we were asked to…some funnily, some boldly, some seriously, some dumbly, some horribly and some exceptionally well. The topics were quite interesting actually…we were given to read a short passage first in English and then in Hindi…and after that given a character…whom we had to portray in a matter of ten minutes…quite a few characters were out-of-the-box…and that only made things juicy…someone was asked to play a lesbian, another was made to play a guy who was caught watching porn by his dad, another girl had to play a rape-victim…there were some ‘stereotypical performances’ too (much to the dislike of ________)…but nonetheless, I’m sure the performances made the judges a lot to think about…and made their job tougher…the sheer number of applications to process itself must’ve been an arduous task. The short listed candidates’ names were put up on the notice board…and after a few days of auditions…we were called for a ‘workshop’. We were made to do what we called ‘military drills’ under the scorching sun…walking, running, sprinting…and some other physical drills. This apart, we were taught many things like eye-contact, saying clichéd dialogues like ‘I love you’, ‘I hate you’ etc to everyone you see around…with emotions! The first three days of that ‘workshop’ left me tanned…thereafter (thanks to the Rain Gods)…it was conducted in the auditorium…we were practicing eye-contact, facial expressions, co-ordination and a lot of other things…. in no time, we could ourselves feel the difference. To ensure that everything isn’t monotonic, we regularly had these little things, where everyone’s creativity was put to the razor’s edge…ad-mad, 5-word dramatization, machine-construction, prop-up etc. Ad-mad is a concept where we’ll have to sell a product (no matter how outlandish… black-toothpaste for example)…the most talked about one was…selling Aproop (a stud senior), it was fun however, all the way. The 5-word dramatization was a concept which basically is…we were divided into groups of six, and we were randomly told to choose 5 words…and construct a play in 5 minutes…with those 5 words as the core-theme. Our group (it turned out Sing-Soc members…) chose 5 emotions…and we pulled it off well…there was a much-talked about lesbian scene in our play…that still lingers on people’s minds (kudos to Anisha and Girija…you looked REAL), the machine-construction was an innovative concept…someone’s name would be randomly called, he’d have to come on stage and pretend to do something…then another name will be called, and he’d have to build on to that, without however communicating, everything’s supposed to be impromptu, and the process continues…the final machine (gadget) should be identifiable . This was I guess the toughest thing in the entire workshop. Some light-hearted discussion or a song or a lalla (a typical DramSoc phrase…it’s sung by everyone about someone, who’s perceived to have been bowled over in love) always offset the serious stuff that we were put through. Finally, we were given three days of time and were asked to prepare a 5 minute solo play…and on any subject of our choice. This was supposedly the D-Day, after which we’d be categorized into English Stage Play, Hindi Stage Play and Street Play teams. All of us prepared our parts, and hoped for the best. The main reason why I pushed myself harder was I wanted to get into the English Stage Play team…primary reason being – no practicing in the sun. I played a jehadi terrorist who’s being interrogated…after my performance; the response garnered was truly overwhelming…I found myself on cloud 9…there were many great performances that day but one word from the judges made my day (So much so for modesty!)… The ‘results’ were announced in an hour or so…and yippee! I got into the English Stage Play team (they say, my tone of my epidermis has lightened ever since…what compliments!) Our ‘informal’ interactions gained momentum and slowly, all DramSocers (members of DramSoc) bonded so well (some ionic, some covalent, some lattice, some valence and some Van der Waal’s…ah, another sick PJ)…that it now seems that we know each other for years together. A typical DramSoc day starts at 1.30 (post-lunch)…we sit at the Xerox lawns on those steps, share tiffins, listen to music, chat, sing, howl, dance, pull each others’ legs and just have a ball…the lingo is ‘Vellapanti’. Ask any DramSocer and he’ll testify. And there’s Babulal on her (yes, her!, see the pic) royal seat, ever ready to give company. It’s a she by the way; don’t get into the trappings of a name (and gender). Then we go to our respective camps and ‘serious’ practice starts. That was DramSoc for you.

PS:
Babulal and DramSoc auditions pics are courtesy Shanky