Sab Ganda hai par Dhandha hai yeh........ BITOTSAV'04

Shakespeare said “life is a drama and man is an actor.” I would not have agreed to him if I were his contemporary but had to agree with his words of wisdom when I myself became a part of this bigger than life drama. In a life span of about 70 years most people could not make a memory that could be tagged as the memory of a lifetime, but by the grace of God and incessant support of my peer group I created lots of them in a short span of just about a week. Dates as they say are suitable only to be written in history text and epitaph, but I remember all of them because it was nothing less than a history that we created while studying in BIT. This year’s BITOTSAV was going to be very different from the one we had last year. The biggest difference being that this time we had a lot to loose but the last one we had nothing. Our prestige was at stake if we were unable to capture the first position this time. More so because we were against a very tough competition from our opponents. All texts begins with an introduction of characters involved so not challenging the tradition I would also introduce the characters and then dive into the main course. But sadly enough if an adequate description of each of the characters is given then probably this blog and the next will fall short of length so an introduction of the groups should suffice for the purpose of the present text.

Tier-1(Our respected and beloved seniors (no pun intended)- who were equally involved in this battle of nerves as we were)

IAON(It about official nothing)- the 2k.5 team that was crowned to glory in the previous season. I could not recall all the names but the purpose of sharing the experience would fall flat if I don’t mention few of them- Uttu, DJ, Ujjwal, Dibyarth, Ravi, Tony, Sabjee, Daddu, Maroo, Piyush, Neha, Tikli to name a few.

DON- the runners up of the last BITOTSAV and the bunch of most respectable seniors of BIT.

BHAK- the most innovative team formed by H4 that inherited the legacy of frontrunners of BITOTSAV like COW, No.1,etc.

Tier-2(We and our batch mates who were in the middle of a battle field ready to go on a war)

JMPPDJ(Jagah Milne par pass diya jayega)- our team that was ready to do anything to win this battle. Though the team officially consited of 7 formal(Ratty, Vishnu, Utsav, Kola, Pankaj, Gauri and Bunty) and 3 informal(Amit, Bhatti, Rachit) members but other members of the Bakar family were the real heros for the pains they took in organizing things and making a consolidated plan for the final battle. It would be unfair on my part if I don’t mention 3 notable heroes for their organizational skills- Biyani(the fund and the team manager), bokaro and seth (the procurements head). And of course the BAKRIS of the BAKAR group were the biggest support to fall back on.

BABA(Back Again to Bang Again)- undoubtedly the conglomerate of the most talented people of our batch. They were the biggest wall between victory and us. The big names like geetu, shireesh, ujjwal, hembrum were really a matter of concern for us.

Mamu- the notorious lobby 6 which was our greatest foe during all the 4 years of our college. They were not as talented as BABAs but had a bigger jack. The UNESCO events were their stronghold with biggies like Mukherjee and sudip leading the team.

Tier-3

Our torchbearers- Shibu, Shahji, Ashish Alok, Ajit, Shubham, Shobit.

Tier 1 and tier 2 had 1-1 correspondance considering that each one in tier1 directly or indirectly supported one in tier2.

Enough of stage setting for the events to follow. Now its time to delve into the real action. ZIP…… ZAP….. ZOOM…..

It was a Friday night (23.01.04) that discussions about a possible team composition, a catchy name and an easy to draw logo rented the air of the MECCA of BAKAR group (H7/46)-Rachit’s Room. Every1 was shouting at the top of their voices and each something from 15 odd people sitting in the room contributed to a huge nothing. Lot many names sprang up but none catchy enough to suit our aura. Names like Kyunki main jhooth nahi bolta. Param(Phir Aaya Rondne AAM), AMUL(Add Maska to Ur Life) were all lacking a universal appeal and immediately turned down by every1. Then came the words of wisdom direct from the horses mouth(Bhatti). He started in his usual manner of starting a BAKAR to find a solution to this problem. He started suggesting all the slogans that appeared on the back panel of a neighborhood truck. Finally he said something and everything in the room came to a stand still. No sooner did he utter the lines “ Jagah Milne Par Pass Diya Jayega” than there was a deadly silence brooding in the room. Every1 liked the punch line. It was great and could provide enough publicity material. Then the Einstein of the group (Noorie) came up with his brilliant idea about the logo. The suggestion was probably the best he had given during the 4 years of his stay in BIT. He suggested that we take up the Rediff-Bol logo as the logo to represent the name. The decision was accepted after approval from our Creative head (Mr. FAS- Pankaj Mahli). Then came the biggest hurdle- the idea or the main publicity theme we would like to bank on. As the saying goes good start is half the well done, it din took much time to finalize on the publicity theme. I came up with a brilliant idea of converting the front side of the canteen to resemble a truck. The idea was immediately taken by all. The next step was to get the approval of our respected female friends. We could not have waited till morning to narrate the idea to the ladies. Immediately 5110 sprang up out of no where from Seth’s pocket. He narrated the idea to the girls. Twisha and Bajaj seemed impressed but Anubha, Nani and Ratto were still in doubt whether or not the idea would click. Still as always they approved our plans and assured of all the support from their side. Final step was to get the nod of our mentors. Though H1 was as far as the moon if any of us were asked to get a book from there but the distance reduced to a stone throw neighborhood on account of the adrenalin production that each one of us had. Around 10 of us started on the trail at those vee hours of night to discuss the plans with .5. We headed straight for insti lobby. All of them as we guessed were still not in any mood to sleep. They thought that it was just one of the regular visits that we give but as soon as we disclosed our plan it got instant approval from all of them. So as the field was set for some real action the next step was to bring our plans to action. Who other than Biyani could have been the torch bearer for the show owing to his transparent accounts keeping and never give up attitude. Next morning Seth and Bum went to the canteen on a secret mission to get the exact measurement of the canteen. Bum and his innovative ways have always been valued in the Bakar family. He got a spool of thread from IC to take the measurement. Both of them got the measurements with great accuracy using the thread.

Monday(26.01.04)- The country was celebrating the anniversary of enforcement on Indian Constitution and we were planning to write another chapter in the history of BIT. Biyani and I took the initiative of getting the things ready for phase 1 of the plan. Our execution of plan started with a small by lane called Rangrez Gali in the congested areas of Upper Bazaar. Though it was very big cloth market but none of the shops were open due to the National Holiday. We could locate 1 at the corner of the street. It was open for stock taking. But the big persuading skills that Biyani had I had no doubt that we would accomplish our shopping mission to day. The length we wanted was bigger than even the length of saree used by Draupdi in a Mahabharata Dramas. If I can correctly recollect the size was approximately 50’X8’. It was going to be the biggest banner in the history of BIT. Even the biggest spool of red cloth that the shop keeper had was falling short of our requirement. He finally managed to get another spool and using the combination of the 2 we got our required quantity. The hurdle was to get the 2 pieces of clothes stitch together. With whole of Ranchi engaged in the festive mood it was difficult to get a tailor who can fulfill our requirement. Finally we got hold of one near Hanuman Mandir. Never knew that Calcutta will have a greater importance in my life other than writing it for my address. The tailor who came to our rescue was named Calcutta tailor. It took around 2 hours of pastering by Biyani that the man finally agreed to stitch the cloth as per our requirement. The day ended by handing over the cloth to SS Painter to get our job done at the earliest. Back in the hostel evry1 was busy planning out for phase 2 of publicity. For Phase1 we relied on our Mega banner with smaller support from few posters from girl’s hostel. Rachit and Bunty were busy collecting information about the core members like their phone numbers and Room Numbers. Ultimately the core were the only people who were of concern to us. Ratty came up with a brilliant idea of creating a logo and messaging it to all the core members. Kola and Panky took the onus of creating one with all their innovation on the 3310 cell and sending it to all the core members.

To Be Continued……………