Mood Indigo 2004-II: Other Stuff

Extremely sorry for delay in posting Part II of this series, but I just haven't had time this past week (unlike some really lukkha engineering students I can tell you about J). Unfortunately, since there are still conflicting demands on my time (a true Economic problem, as that other Mrs. Robinson would say), I can only put up an abbreviated version of what I had intended to put up, so here goes.

Pronites:

The pronites this year seemed a poor imitation of those last year, which rocked. The classical night was amazing, with Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhat simply blowing us all away with his brilliant performance on the mohan veena along with his son, Salil. Unfortunately we could not really see the previous dance recital by Hema Malini and her daughter Ahana Deol because the IIT Open Air Theatre (OAT) was jam packed and no seating was available. However, after the dance finished, half the audience left, and allowed us to experience Pt. Bhat's magic. The Fusion night sort of sucked, because the first act, a Sufi group, just didn't have their stuff together. The singers all sang well, but there was no coordination whatsoever between the five of them. Remo Fernandez, who came next, sort of rocked the crowd, but then sort of lost it, and said some things that led us to speculate on his state of inebriated-ness, as it were. The fashion show, which came next, had a huge crowd, but wasn't all that great (Note to choreographers: Next time, don't confuse us with those little skits on stage, and just get on with the skimpily clad chicks, that's what we're there for, after all). We didn't go for the classical night, but heard the Colonial Cousins made fools of themselves on stage, and caused half the crowd to walk out on them. The Rock Night, sadly was cancelled on account of Mr PV Narsimha Rao's death, and our hopes of seeing Parikrama, Zero, Prestorika and Medicis were dashed. Damn you, GOP!!

Lounge:

One excellent new addition to MI this year was the Lounge, a series of events at the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) Auditorium. It included audience quizzes, rock videos, Crazy Workshops (How to irritate your teachers), etc. We enjoyed watching the videos, won Mood-I t-shirts at the quizzes and laughed at the workshops. All in all, a great idea by the IITians, I'd say.

Other events:

As Mood-I did, of course include events other than quizzes, I will now try to briefly recount what I saw of them.

The English plays rocked, in that many were the type you laugh at, and not with. The Xaviers play, in an attempt to convey the existential metaphysical beauty of a raging storm (they did it with ropes and squirming people), screwed up colossally, and got universally knocked by all, including the judge. The Tolani play (which strangely made it to the finals) included some performances that were funny, to put it charitably. The FC play rocked, but somehow didn't pull through to a top three finish. The winning play, Tiger by Mount Carmel was quite good, however.

The Music events were quite excellent, with competition being quite intense. This is an area where FC has traditionally does quite well, and so they did this year, winning the Tune making competition, coming second in the Western group vocals and third in Western solo instrumentals.

The English debate, of which we saw the end, was quite good, with an IIT-B team tearing a Jhavierite team a new one in the finals (quite entertaining, that). The JAMs were, well, very entertaining. Didn't really see too many other events

Final Standings:

In a brilliant performance, the Jhavierite juggernaut led by fellow blogger Prathamesh pulled ahead of the hosts to clinch a well-deserved (I guess) first place (Their strategy, I believe involved mainly not getting drunk the night before events). IIT came second, some random colleges came third and fourth respectively, and FC came a disappointing fifth (or is it fourth?) Our friends at VIT did reasonably well getting two second places AFAIK and totally shattering some intricate analogies involving Anju Bobby George (In-joke alert!), and finished I don't know where.

Well, that's it, I guess (it's all I can remember at least). Mood-I 2004 was, well, an OK sort of experience. It was also an intensely humbling experience, totally deflating our Pune Quizzing maaz. Couldn't really get rid of the feeling that last year was a better Mood-I. Hopefully, next year will be better.