Once upon a time, in MDI...
The dust over the stunning Fresher Party received by
the PG12 batch had not even completely settled when we heard of something
called Rangmanch!!
“What the hell is this now..?” I asked one of my
friends.
“Arrey it’s some kind of an event where juniors have
to perform infront of the seniors.. I’ve heard it’s cool..” replied my
bhola-bhala friend who had slightly misjudged the intensity of the imminent
Storm Katrina..
Wow!! This is just the opportunity that we were looking
for. This will just be the perfect way to repay the seniors for the jubilation,
the unbridled fun, the euphoria, that they had provided us with, preceded by a
complete mental breakdown & a venomous outburst by one of our seniors!!
I wanted to be a part of the Drama team (being a big
one myself). My so called friends had promised me that they will be present during
my audition.. but Alas!!
Where
are they..???
Well..After looking into the matter (sounds
familiar?), I found out that most of them were seen cheering for girls during
their dance auditions and then duly left with a feeling of enrichment and a
face of innocence!! Bloody Backstabbers..
It was here that I came to know from my judges that
Rangmanch will be insane, chaotic, and BP-increasing.
“They
will constantly be throwing flowers at you and will be making cantankerous
noises. In short, their sole objective will be to use any and all means at
their disposal and NOT ALLOW YOU TO PERFORM.” I was told.
Warning:
If weak hearted..plz don’t participate!!
Whaaaat..?? Jesus Christ.. Why?? I mean why..? Did
they get S. K. Rai in 2nd year too??
If no, then why...??????
Practice
Sessions
“Hey..what
script should we choose? Let’s choose the MDI life of students so far theme..
but we will have to imitate the student council members but we can’t speak.. no
one will listen.. Hey let’s make Airtel’s har ek friend zaroori hota hai.. this
way so many people can fit in and it will be great..But it’s too short &
difficult to say which friend is what..” were some of the
common pre-discussions..
Finally, we settled for our very own Sholay theme,
but with a slight innovation of our own. Gabbar will be a girl & Basanti
will be a guy!
There was only one girl in the drama team & she
became Gabbar..
Shit
man.. Who will become Jaya Bachhan now???
There was a girl sitting there who offered to become our saviour!
“So
what is my role??” she asked.
"Ah
well.. You have to water the plants.. and then keep watering them, again, and
again, and again!!!" explained our director.
".........WTF????????!!!...... This is my role..?? Get lost.. I am not doing such a useless role.. My role
should be much, much more.."
Hmmm..
"Hey
brilliant idea.. You can keep flirting with Amitabh the whole time. It will add some
glamour too!!" I said.
“That’s great!! I am totally cool with it,” said our
Big B.
“ ,” said Jaya!!
By the way, alongside our drama and dance practice
sessions, there was something extraordinarily unique & devious going on
inside the hostel!!
Some of our batchmates were busy making morphed
posters of the council members, esp. those who have been in the limelight.
I must say that the posters were unbelievably
awesome & gave an equally awesome shock to our seniors who were absolutely
dumbfounded after viewing them, to put it mildly!!
Singham became Vingham
(matching with the senior’s name who was there on the poster), Dostanaà
Tristana (no girl..surprise!!), Rowdy Rathoreà Rowdy Rahul, Jodi
NO.1 pair had a Mango Dolly senior who was looking chooo cute in that getup,
Pareshan Zameen Par (this senior has featured in the Harvard case study for getting royalty from the juniors for actually writing an exam), there was Om Jaya Om with a
dance pose, and my personal favourite, Pyaar Impossibleà
Padhai Impossible (this one takes the cake with a cherry on top.. it gave us some invaluable
insights into what exactly this beloved senior of ours fantasizes about!!! Believe me this was
simply stunning). Hats off to the creator!!
THE
D-DAY
Let’s
practice it one last time guys.. Hey wait a minute, where is Basanti..??
Here
she comes..
Duuuudeeee!!!!!!
What
the hell..?? You are using a balloon??!!! What if one of it bursts during the
show?? Can you even visualize that situation????!!
Somehow an alternate arrangement was made (don't ask me how!) to
assure ourselves that no such untoward incident occurs in between the show.
And then, It
was time...
Poooooooooooooooo....Piiipppaaawwwwwwww...
Tantantantantantantantan.. Awawawawawawawawawawa....
pg12.. murdabad.. pg12.. murdabad.. pg12.. murdabad!!
Innumerable such melodious voices welcomed us &
believe me, had someone taken a picture of our faces at that instant, that
antique piece would have sold for more than an M.F.Hussain painting!!
“Gawwwd..How
on earth are we going to perform??? This is so much worse than we had
anticipated.. It’s a disaster,” were the common murmers..
The dance team was greeted with flower punches in
all possible regions..
Ohh..he
got it in the nose..Ohhh..cheek too.. Ohh..there goes her mouth..lucky flower!!
And to rub salt in the wounds, we were supposed to
collect all the flowers as quickly as possible & return it to their
rightful owners so that none of them complaint of being left empty handed for 5
full seconds & thus were deprived of a fair opportunity!
The girl’s dance was, however, totally flower-free
as the seniors had also come to "watch us" perform!! Due to this, we had to
schedule the same dance performance twice just to stop the flower bombardment.
Our Basanti did go on the stage from time to time in between the male performances, and performed some "moves" just to keep the audience enthralled and their interest levels high for the next performance!!!
Our Basanti did go on the stage from time to time in between the male performances, and performed some "moves" just to keep the audience enthralled and their interest levels high for the next performance!!!
There was a dance party arranged after the event
which gave us a chance to relive our Fresher’s Party experience, one more
time!!!
However, the whole week was simply extraordinary.
Whatever the trouble, but it actually gave us a feel that, now, we too belong
here. And as they say, there can be no
real Happiness without real Mischief!!!!