Saarang 2008 @ IIT Madras

Been There; Done (I)IT!
It was the unmistakable feeling of déjà vu, the nostalgia kept rushing back at me. It has been nearly eight years and there I was at IIT Madras (The one place that is never going to be Chennai ever!), taking in the excitement, fun and serious competition. Anyone who has been to college in these parts of the world and not been at Saarang is very rare; not enjoying it is even rarer. Welcome to the largest and the most prestigious cultural fest in India.

The Guys
It all happened casually a few weeks ago when I went to drop my friend Sameer off at IIT. Somehow stayed back for the meeting and met a few young guns. As always I liked the enthu these chaps had. Ducky, Rubber band, 8 P.M. and B.C......Not forgetting my own team; Ajay, Alan, Geebs.... Really awesome young brains.

Glory Days
In any cultural fest it was the speaking events that always caught my eye. Of course the fact that I was born with two left feet and nourished by a little donkey’s milk, I could never go close to anyplace that had to do with singing and dancing. In my days of glory it was always the Extempore, JAM, Debate, Turn Court/Coat and Shipwreck (in that order) that helped me fill up the trophies stand at home. That came close to my own ego wall.

J.A.M
I have always liked JAM despite all the Toast Masters having an aversion towards this exercise. I am a great fan of the traditional JAM aired on BBC radio, the smart objections by Freud, The drool of Kenneth Williams, the clear Logic of Nicholas Parsons, The wit of Derrick Nimmo fascinates me to no length.

http://www.saarang.org/08/Events/Speaking/JAM

Enjoying JAM being a participant is great but enjoying it as a Moderator is even more fun and is almost like skating on thin ice. This time I did get to skate on thin ice, thanks to the organising committee at Saarang 2008. (Of course my all time favorite topics will include "A Committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide that nothing can be done."). I tried to make it a little interesting for the audience by including a few whacky one-liners. The usual pun, sarcasm, purified humour, uncensored wit were all there. Of course the time has evolved and the Jammers these days will have to enjoy the occasional dig the smarties take at you. This year they almost called me a joker and said my topics were shitty ("Diarrhoea hereditary; It runs down your Jeans."). The crowd enjoyed it, particularly "The rule of the thumb" and "15 seconds of Fame" were well received. Of course I did manage to get a running gag on the technical skills of the IITians at fixing the buzzers damaged by the trigger happy contestants and the one about Hearing Aids for anyone who objected on the grounds of Incoherence. A few of my jokes bombed and no one actually found the intended meaning of one topic. Since the speaking community is a very close knit unit, I usually am not surprised to find a few friends participating. Actually this time they were the younger sisters of my friends......But meeting Shruthi and Malavika was indeed a pleasant surprise since I have not seen them in a real long time. So I guess I tried my best to remain very fair while doing the rounds (and of course I did try my best to sneak them in to the finals when we were adding the scores later!)

The Last Word
Being among the youngsters, the nostalgia of Saarang, the pleasure of being the Mod just reminded me of a not so distant past. I guess it is the human tendency to not admit that one is getting old. We still try crazy things (Like the Malaysian Print Shirt I was wearing that day) to fit in among the younger generation. We all move on but still try getting back at a different level to do what your heart commands you to.

I guess then it is time to say Watch out Saarang 2009! Aneesh will strike back!