T-nite: Part I

One of my earlier posts titled "T-nite: Background" gives a basic introduction to the inter-section cultural event which happens every year in IIM-A. Now, I'd really love to give a complete description about it, but unfortunately, the end-terms are approaching and I'm hard pressed for time.

To keep you interested in my writings, I therefore leave you the newsletters I wrote on behalf of Section D during the T-nite. Explanations are embedded in italics. Please put forth any other questions you might have. :)

The first newsletter was circulated on the day the T-nite began. It was meant to be an indication of things to come.

Devil's advocate - A section D effort to bring to your notice the day's little incidents narrated with a section bias.
9th August 2005, Day 1: T-nite.

"Hey, what’s the opposite of Dominoes?" Kaka exclaimed excitedly.

Time came to a grinding halt. People eating those pizzas froze mid-chew. One dancer in the classroom's well slipped. Another guy painting a poster missed his stroke completely. An insect missed its turn and crashed into the wall.

Everyone turned to look at Kaka. I looked up from my laptop. The shattering silence lasted for a complete minute. A dog howled in the distance. The screensaver came on, on my laptop's display.

"What is it?" a brave comrade finally asked.

The expression of discovery on Kaka's face would have put Columbus to shame. He rubbed his palms in glee and said,

"Domi doesn’t know."

No one said anything. You could hear people grinding their teeth. Some swallowed. Everyone gave a dirty stare at the CR (Class Representative), their eyes bearing extreme disgust at his no-bumps-during-Tnite policy.

Finally one person went to the board and put yet another tally mark against Kaka's name. (A count of the number of kicks to be given to a person after a specific period)

Then the CR came over to the centre, climbed onto a bench and in a hoarse voice, with suitable background music, gave an exhortatory speech worthy of those American movie heroes. People got back to work.

In typical WIMWI (Well known Institute of Management in Western India) PGP1 style, the T-nite has been approached with intense preparation and hard work. Preparations began early last week with a flurry of volunteering and group allotments. The talented ones went into the performing teams. The creative ones sat down to design posters and cartoons. And then there were those who went into logistics. All the rest who couldn’t belong to any of these categories suddenly discovered good managerial skills in themselves and became general managers.

They are an interesting lot, the general managers. Any point of time they could be seen running here and there, holding intense discussions with anyone willing to listen. They move as if their asses are perpetually on fire.

Our guy was no different. In a few minutes he had talked to almost everyone inside the class. Desperate, he walked out of the class and found a guy sitting on the parapet with his guitar, wearing a forlorn expression.

"You repairing the guitar?"

"No, I..."

"Okay listen, have you listened to this song ?”

"Uh...”

"Can you play it on the guitar?"

"But...”

"It would create a great impression if you can. Can you work on it?"

"Hello! I am not in Section D."

Besides the intense work in the background, sections began to move in an organized fashion outside the workshop. They came to the mess together. They shouted slogans. And they even had dress codes.

A couple of days back, the whole of a section was seen in black attire. The enthusiasm was certainly in the spirit of the week, but look what happened.

My friend and I spotted a couple of guys in black hovering around LKP (Louis Kahn Plaza), and thought that maybe we could enquire good naturedly as to how their preparation was going on.

I went over to the guy, and asked him. "Hey dude, how’s the T-nite preparation going on?"

He gave me the blankest stare in the world.

"What happened? Hey, if you dont wanna tell me, its fine."

"Kaunsa room saaf karna hai sir?" he said.

It was then that my friend nudged me and pointed at the broom the guy was holding, and we realized our mistake.

Yeah, it was a wee bit difficult to tell the sweepers apart from the section guys. But hey, it happens.

Finally, the surest way of gauging the effect of a night spent preparing for the T-nite is to keep awake and listen to what happens in the class the next day.

Confused by the sudden drop in the CP (Class participation) meter, the prof resorts to cold calling. He wakes up a guy in the front row from what he thinks is a state of profound thought, but what is actually deep slumber, and asks him his opinion on why the case actor behaved the way he did.

The guy adjusts his glasses, wipes his mouth and begins...

"Sir, you see, man is a social animal..."

- Brought to you by the Section D newsletter team.

T-nite narration to be continued in Parts 2, 3 and 4.