Many of us must have planned to sit back and enjoy India vs.
Pakistan T20 match last Saturday. We too had similar plan for the day, till Friday’s
night, when suddenly there was a circular that since the UG students are having
exams starting on Monday and our celebration of Hostel night, with all the
lights and “dinchak” music might
create a hurdle in their preparation for the mid-sem , we can’t go ahead with
the celebration on Sunday.
So what’s next? Let’s postpone it. That seemed one solution
but since most of the menu and arrangements were already booked that option went
running out of the window. The last and only option was to pre-pone it…yes you
read it right…we were thinking of celebrating the hostel night on the night
whole of India and Pakistan will be glued to their TV set and we were
optimistic that somehow either it will rain in Bangladesh or India will bat
second. We were hoping for something miracle to happen so that we could gather
some crowd and the performer will not feel totally idiot performing in front of
an open arena.
Just the thought of doing it scared the shit out of most of
us. I, being a cricket lover, knew that on any given day, nothing beats an
India Pakistan match. So, to pull a crowd from the common room to the stage
seemed a difficult task.
We divided ourselves into teams. I was responsible to coordinate the
performance for the day. We already had a list with us which we made a few days
ago. We rang them again and gave them this pleasant surprise. The singers
seemed ok with the prepone thing but the dancers freaked out. A group was
planning for a PLAY for the event but this sudden news pressed the pause button.
We made the list again. We got around one and a half hours of performance which
had some singers singing on guitar and some on karaoke and few latak jatak and
some hit Bhojpuri numbers, which seemed ok given the time we were performing. The
next task was to fix the anchors and prepare a good and entertaining script for
them. Luckily we found our own LALLU
YADAV from the hostel and Fahad from MBA. We all met in my room. It felt like
an emergency meet. We assigned roles to individuals and ask them to get it done
and report the next day at 1200 hours. The
meeting lasted for around one hour after which me and Shubam sat back to
prepare a rough script for the anchors.
The D day
I woke up at around 8. Last night, we downloaded some of the
karaoke and distributed them to the singers. After sometime, I went upstairs to
check on Shubam. He completed the script which we started last night. We called
Vinay and Fahad, the anchors, to brief them about the script and share their ideas.
Editing it again took around couple of hours after which I typed everything and
printed 3 copies of it for each of the anchors and one for us. Someone came
running with the bad news that our star dancer got injured last night. It’s
better not to disclose the details about how and where he got injured. I went to check on him. He didn’t look great. He
still was unsure whether he could go ahead with the performance. I didn’t force
him and told him to think and reply by 4 in the evening. By the time we were busy
scheduling the performances; the decorating team was almost done setting the
stage and sound outside. By lunch, we were almost done with most of the work. I
was going to perform “Gulabi Aankein” with my friend “Uday” who was going to
sing and I was going to play guitar for him. After couple of glitches we sounded nice. The
last thing was to collect all the tracks and music from singers and dancers and
keep it at one place to play it during the event. By 6 in the evening, we were
all set and ready to rock.
The event…
It was around 7 in the night. Chakachak light mein , the
hostel looked like some bride. The smell of the flowers and room fresheners at
the main gate, gave the feeling of a marriage event. The sound system rocked. The colorful balloons, the marigold flowers, and
the bright light, everything was perfect. All the organizers and performers,
dressed handsomely gathered at the stage. The scheduled time was 6:30 pm but
still we hardly saw any audience. We played some catchy numbers and even
announced people to join us but nothing worked. I was sure all of them must
have gathered at the common room. I went upstairs to check on them. The room
was full. Not even a chair was empty. India was bowling but even then no one
was leaving. I made a request to everyone to arrive at the function but the
request almost fell on deaf ears. I was booed. As I
was coming down, I saw Warden sir going up to the common room. DSW sir was to arrive
at any moment and it would be a short of embarrassment if the crowd was so
thin. The worst fear of everyone seemed coming true. Warden Sir managed to pull
some of the students. We started the show by quarter past 7.
We began with Sourabh who started with Shiv Tandav . It was
followed by a romantic sayari by Vinay .DSW Sir was then asked to inaugrate the event by sharing some of his graceful words.He praised our efforts we put in
and the result we came through in such a short notice.He came up with some really cool sayari himself . A good crowd gathered by
then. I was little surprised. We made sure we keep updating the score now and
then to the crowd.. Ashish started the melody by Ye sham mastani and dooba dooba .
Atal and Abhishek sang on Jo bhi main and Bhoomshankar. An energetic dance on
bollywood hit numbers followed it. It set the mood going. Shashi sang few hit Bhojpuri
numbers starting with Lagawe jo tu lipistic. I was glad to see Deep coming back
to dance.He was really good. The cockroach dance and the slow motion roared
cheer from the crowd. Uday covered Ye sham
mastani on Karaoke and Gulabi aankein with me. One performance followed the other but the
attraction for the night remained our own Lallu , Mr Vinay , who set the mood
by making catchy comments and dialogues in funny ascent. Even the teachers were noticed enjoying his funny act. Fahad and Shubham also did a great job with the mic
hosting the event. Someone said that Pakistan was bundled out for around 90.
The announcement brought claps and cheers.
The show ended with Biman giving the final performance .His
sweet voice with the guitar under the open sky with twinkling stars, set the
mood romantic. DJ followed the event where we all did Baarati dance for around
half an hour.
I left for dinner .It was a special menu and I took my time
to taste each of the dishes. Some of my friends congratulated us for pulling
the event in such a short notice. The whole organizing team was worried since
morning but thankfully everything fell to places.
And most importantly India won the match too. We all sat in
the common room to see the highlights at 11 .All tired by the day’s activities,
at around 1, I went to bed.
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