Charlie’s Chatter

(Charlie’s Note: This was written soon after the festival in 2006 for publication in BITSAM, BITS’ annual college magazine. A highly mutilated version of it appeared in print. Anyone in possesion of that edition of the magazine, please do not read it)

They promised us, didn’t they? We put those guys in the CSA because they said they would give us a whole bunch of exciting stuff .A semester had gone by without action. Maybe we needed to give it more time. After a lot of talk, cynical, hopeful, excited, expectant, finally hosted an inter college event.

The whole plan got off the ground with the CSA asking for people to volunteer to help organize the whole deal at a meeting in Feb. The guys selected to do the job were divided into groups- Event Management, Sponsorship, Backstage, Organization, Arts ‘n Dec and Publicity.

Naturally, Sponsorship got going first. They were the men entrusted with the responsibility of bringing in the cash. I’m not bothering to give you guys a full list of our sponsors – we’ve done them enough favours for maybe a 100 years.

Then Organization got down to business deciding which events to hold, where to hold them, what their rules should be and whose names to put on the brochure. Some of their meetings gave one the impression that the fest had started early with tamashas that left the viewers splitting at the sides enacted on a virtually daily basis.

Publicity was required to get in on the act getting the brochures and posters ready, which as it turned out, left the recipients so impressed that one of the colleges circulated their copy of the brochure among the students to admire. Good job guys!

Finally, came the turn of Event Management to jump on the bandwagon. (“About time” a fair few of us thought.). We were each assigned one, or two events to handle. We were the guys who were “responsible for the conduct of events” which consisted of everything to do with the events other than their names, rules, location, scoring, timing and judging. (Didn’t forget anything did I?…. No).

Arts ‘n Dec were given the job of getting our campus ready for the festival. They responded by putting up massive banners all around campus and creating a huge model of the mascot. A festive look indeed.

Waves officially kicked off at 9:30 am on 18^th March, 2006. But before we get to that, we need to talk about the 17^th. That was the day the whole campus got involved. From putting up banners to painting dustbins to moving chairs and tables to helping out the sponsors, everyone pitched in to get our show on the road. The whole campus pulsated with activity and college chatter was heard all over campus till quite a bit later than usual. Maybe someone can do a paper on mobilization of labour based on this for Quark next year.

The 18^th arrived. Volunteers were out early putting up more signboards across the campus. The day started in quite inauspicious fashion with the organizers discovering that we didn’t have enough poles for the shamiana. The panic button was hit and all tasks abandoned in exchange for the hunt for those essential cylinders. They were eventually procured in the form of a few poles left over from the construction of the campus and we could all breathe again. (Curious souls may still find them lying piled up on the ground).

Waves was inaugurated at the Audi with the lighting of a lamp and the Director’s speech. “Customary”, some say, “Boring”, claim others. We shifted then to the ground where the shamiana had been put up with a makeshift plywood stage and a super powerful set of speakers. This was to be the primary venue for all the events at Waves- the others being LT 3, 4 and the Audi.

Waves kicked off with ‘Mock Tale’ (Movie Spoof) in the ground and the Quiz in the LT. After that, we had the Antakshari prelims followed by the finals. The finals were conducted by Dr. Rohan Karmali of “inter college Antakshari fame”, as the brochure described him. As with most invitees, this one turned up late, kept the audience fidgeting for long and ended up monopolizing the stage for a lot longer than the 2 hours he was allotted. To his credit though, the show was good and enjoyed pretty much to the end by all.

As a response to the crowd’s good behaviour, the next event- ‘Save One’s Soul’ (Shipwreck) was shifted from the LT to the Audi. The audience for the event was pretty disappointing though. Ironically, the parallely running ‘Strike the Chord’ (song competition) attracted a crowd larger than the LT could accommodate.

Preceding the next event- ‘Shake Your Bon- Bon’, our Dance Club put up a performance that left the audience enthralled. The event as expected was huge hit with performers from colleges shaking a leg to some peppy numbers.

In a quieter part of town, the SAC, to be precise, the fine arts contests were being held. These consisted of ‘Recycle Bin’- the junk art and ‘Flirt with the shirt’- the T- Shirt painting contests. These tossed up some pretty amazing creations which, unfortunately, seem doomed to be locked away in the SAC store. (CSA are you reading this?)

The highlight of the day was the much anticipated rock contest. The occasion was chosen to launch our very own college band. They kicked off the contest with “Knocking on Heaven’s door” by Guns n’ Roses. The event, saw a couple of memorable performances from PCCE and GEC. Hell, that was fun. It concluded with our band performing “Aerials” by S.O.A.D. On popular demand, the band from PCC took the stage again to perform “Fear of the Dark” by Iron Maiden.

At the end of the day, the aspirants to the crown of Mr. and Ms. Waves submitted the questionnaires given to them in the morning setting them on the long road to the concluding event of the fest. BITS went to bed that night excited, with little activity before it collapsed into a tired slumber.

Day two……. things were really beginning to hot up and the Sunday audience was markedly bigger than the previous day’s.

We started with ‘Tale of Two Tunes’ in the ground (plans to move the fest to the Audi seemed to have been ditched) and ‘Silence Please!’- a mix of Dumb C and Picky. This was followed by ‘Swar Faluda’- the remix competition. The next event was ‘Two to Tango’- the couple dance competition. The couples on stage were put through a series of tests of pair chemistry that ensured only the best left victorious. Simultaneously, those deemed up to scratch after an intense scrutiny of their questionnaires were put through the elims of Mr. n Ms. Waves. In keeping with the nature of the event, the contestants were asked to do some really whacky stuff (like propose to a roll of cello tape or advertise a dustbin) to test their wit, creativity and humour. The literary section of events for the day also saw ‘Beat the Minute’ held in the afternoon in the LT. An interesting sight was the students of GEC actually stopping some of their mates banging on the desks in the LT because we told them not to at the beginning of the show. Hmmm…interesting, that. Those guys really were impressed by our campus. ‘Hasna Mana Hai’, the stand up comedy took place at the same time as the JAM in the ground and turned into an arena for participants to go opponent- bashing with no modesty conceded.

‘Sumthing Soapy’- soap carving and ‘tattoofication’- body art contests were also held on day two. As on the previous day, these too produced some pretty cool creations that went largely unnoticed.

The two events scheduled for the evening, as expected, were the biggest crowd pullers of the day. First, ‘Model’s Lounge’, the fashion parade, which started with a host performance. PCCE slapped together a show in just a couple of hours. They gambled with arguably the toughest theme of the lot- fantasy and landed up winning. How many times I heard that one from their GS after the event, God alone knows.

That was the last event of Waves 2k6 that carried any points. The evening concluded with Mr. n Ms. Waves where the participants who made it past the elims were finally put on stage for stage for public critique. They sang, danced, recited shayaris and answered senseless, ridiculous questions that made you doubt the sanity of he who set them (I mean, who asks a girl what she thinks of cabbage?) in their pursuit of glory. Ultimately, all but two, failed. Those two were the toast of BITS that night.

Over the course of the two days three sports events were also held- badminton, table tennis and chess. BITS’ participants landed up pretty much dominating the show coming first in two and second in the third.

Our Director distributed the prizes with GMC taking the first ever Waves trophy back to Bambolim with them. There were congratulations everywhere and a host of people were thanked for their support, advice and umm….’financial support’.

Waves 2006 was now officially over. The guests left. The chairs were cleared. And we all went to our beds and slept a happy sleep dreaming of rainbows and green grass and blue skies. The outsiders were chucked out and the music began. Song after song on those speakers, with everyone jumping in and head banging till they dropped. The DJ kept ‘em coming with ‘Chopsuey’ being the most frequent request. While a few diligently worked taking the stage apart, the rest kicked up a whole lot of dust in the most fun thing on campus in a long while. At the end of it all, we walked back to our rooms, dizzy, clutching our necks and desiring no more than a good night’s rest.

The hopes of an entire community rested on Waves. Hours of labour, bundles of spirit and a dedicated bunch of students made sure our college fest lived up to those hopes. It’s been a while since the fest ended but I know thinking about it brings a smile on more than just a few faces.

“This is our last song for the night, by a band named Lamb of God, and its called ‘Black Label’…..”
The 11th of March, 2007. Mr. and Ms. WAVES ‘07 had been crowned. GMC had been presented the final winners’ trophy. The stalls had been shifted to the B wing for the last time. The crowd milled around in impatience. Smoke rose from the grilling kababs and the stalls on either side of the stage. The truss was up. The huge speakers, all 40,000 watts of them stood waiting to unleash the mayhem they were capable of.
Half Step Down were up first. Dhaval was all over the place, his hair bouncing, beads of sweat flying off everywhere as he ran around hi- fiing the front row of spectators… Led Zep, Pearljam, The Doors… Rufus was imperious on the bass as they reeled of their spread of classical rock and grunge. It must have been a half hour later that they finished. We stopped to catch our breath. A run down to the Nescafe stall… an Iced Tea for me. Subbu wanted cold coffee. We turned to each other and grinned. That was fun. And we knew what was up next.
I saw them for the first time when they walked up to the stage. B.M…. Bhayanak Maut – the band that everyone in Mumbai was talking about. “Dude these guys play 11th hour maaaaaaan!” Murdoc said as he jumped around in excitement when their name had been mentioned as a possible band at the Pro Nite at WAVES last year. I was skeptical. I mean, they are Lamb of God for a reason. “Dude, they’re BM. They rule.” That was his simple answer to my doubts. I didn’t know enough about Indian Rock bands to pursue my line. Not that I had a say in the matter. My position in the pecking order made me privy to most information before most people but did not permit me to do much with it.
The lead singer had a goatee. And he was bald. That was enough for me. I headed back to my place in the front of the crowd. Subbu grabbed a fistful of my shirt. That’s not where the pit is going to be, you know. I took a deep breath. There was no escape now. I had to face my first mosh pit like a man. I took off my glasses and watch. They finished their intros. My palms were sweaty, knees were weak… what kind of an a chutya was I? Thinking of Eminem when one of the best metal bands in the country was about to begin. “Boiled.Unwound.Filatured”. That’s what their first song would be called. A few random Mumbaiyya metalheads let out screams of appreciation. The rest of us waited. And then they hit it. Three and a half minutes later, I knew I was hooked. This had been the greatest headrush I had had in years. As a novice in the world of metal, mosh pits had always been a thing I watched from a distance. Now I was in one. And it ROCKED! I bent over to catch my breath as Vinay took a swig of water. Goa can get pretty humid. Sweat dripped down my nose. And I was just getting started. All That Remains, As I lay Dying, ….. all came and went along with a few OCs that were so good I had a hard time telling them from the covers. 40 minutes later, they were all but done. And so was I. I tried in vain to catch my breath as I wiped the blood away from my cut lip. My head was reeling. Helios had had his shirt ripped off. Murdoc was doubled up in pain to my left. Subbu was only standing because he was leaning so heavily on the flagpole. I had had it. And by the looks of it, my moshing mates were done too. We tottered off toward the lawn.
“This is our last song for the night, by a band named Lamb of God, and its called ‘Black Label’…..” Vinay’s growl thundered across B Wing Plaza. I couldn’t believe it!I could not f***ing believe it! And neither could anyone else. That was the song. I mean, THE song. The one who’s videos we had watched in fearful admiration as rows of men ran into each other pounding each other to pulp in the purest embodiment of reckless abandon. The four of us jumped off the ground in ecstacy. There was lots of time to totter later on. Now, it was time for us to take our place in the wall of death….