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The Department Freshie Night happened on the 22nd of August 2017, here at HSB 356, a refreshing break to see the faces of the department smiling, seemingly happier than usual. Having heard rumours of Melwin planning to break the status quo and HS15 throwing in surprise acts, been assigned to cover it and for want of RSVP’d munchies, I arrive albeit fifteen minutes late at 6:15 pm, I am told I missed the first performance, a sublime presentation of Shankar Mahadevan’s Unnai Kaanaamal by the freshies Jayat and Srividya, with Tejas on the violin and a dance alongside it by Taneesha.
Pause now, a stillness. There’re the usual motions of people bending knees to make way among crooked chairs, people checking out faces, profs in attendance (least I’ve seen at a freshie night yet), displays of dynamics and occasional glances to the front to see if things are set up. The freshies are busy with mics and projector screens. It amused most present whenever guys in the room began screaming the name of a guy who had just entered the room, and started to applaud and cheer: Thulunga, Advaith and Hooting Owl were subjected to this, as flies are to wanton boys. Profs were seated at right front, fourth year DS girls at the left, fifth years few in number, lots of second and third years as expected, at the back, here, there, everywhere.
Out of this entropy, out of nowhere, suddenly, we have a board, a paper pinned on it and Indu, freshie who looks straight out of Space Jam, drawing manically on it. She was doing this as Vishnu sang Moh Moh ke Dhaage, the first time he was attempting a Hindi song in public – audience applauded briskly. The girl increases her pace, she is frantic now, like a cellist soloing who’s consumed by the music, she was rubbing at the canvas with her fingers, palm, everything, voila! Lo behold, girl with the curious hair has managed to, in a brief while, draw this psychedelic vase with flowers, all in screaming sound and colour, people clap.
The next program was a highlight of sorts: in what must’ve delighted the Prof Abe, the freshies presented History of the Modern World I minus world systems and Wallerstein. Most parts were funny and the audience seemed to enjoy the effort the freshies had put in the skit. Sherwin Sanchez, wearing a sheet that says Senior Dude, talks to the freshie Swati (another Swati) who says she’s older than time, transition to slide that says ‘low budget time travel’ with the blue telephone booth picture and different sections of the audience spasmed at the histrionics on display. The freshies attempted an Andy Sambergy, self-mocking humour with ample meta references but the slide that read ‘this formatting is annoying’ looked kind of chill actually. Primitives invent fire – cue some freshie has watched 2001: A Space Odyssey in school and inserted a clip of that here, just the beginning of the pop culture refs. A notorious freshie whose first name rhymes with Rohit like in Sharma, came on stage and said ‘eda, naattil evideya’ which was a crowd-winner and way more funny than intended. Followed with next nail, clip from Malayalam movie Kalyana Raman of a popular actor bathing in the middle of the house for Indus Valley Civilisation, quite syncretic if I may say so, appeal to the Prof Abe #2.
I borderline lost it when Shia’s Just Do It was played on Alexander the Great’s back. Literally, he turned, faced the stage, projector did its thang, what was more funny was the prospect of the four profs present probably seeing it for the very first time in their lives, a bearded man shouting in a green place. Shia Surprise! Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Babur, Akbar and Birbal, Aurangzeb, my notes say Cold War next, seems to be quite a jump, it’s on my faculty of memory. In a bid for gags and glory, the notorious freshie whose name rhymes with Rohit broke the fourth wall and character in one swift swing while impaled and on the floor in a bed of arrows – the dying Mughal soldier went, “Dude, how much longer do I have to stay like this.” Kudos on meme with Babur saying ‘Can I pillage your village’. After this skit, the lyrics to a song called Ten Rulez of the Hood was shown for a few seconds then disconnected, for narrator Tejas to read it out loud, guy smoothly read ‘sexy’ as ‘attractive,’ censors for all unless you Henry VIII.
The next performance was by Adam, an exchange student, who was Alexander earlier: he sang a Cantonese song to a karaoke music video with lyrics on screen. And then the freshie Gowri presented three songs in three languages, Raabta, Malare Mounama and a third. Adithya Haneef goes in and out of the room, coordinating with food suppliers, looking official.
As Gowri sings, Susmit hatches plans to chant an appeal to the elephant-headed God when the freshie Rasika Joshi goes on stage – how ever could there be a freshie night without Rolling in the Deep? Word is passed, people are informed, vocal chords invoked, words fed, the freshie Rasika is setting up her chair, the freshie Sakshi (you intimidate me) is setting up the drums, the freshie Aishani is setting up her throat, Susmit and Prashant led us in singing Jai Ganesha Jai Ganesha Deva. Oh, Friday was the festival even. Sakshi starts off with We Are Young‘s oft heard drumline, ‘Give me a second I, I need to get my story straight, … , and you feel like falling down, I’ll carry you home–’, here Sakshi didn’t break off into a Full-Fledged Whammy Furore of the Snare and the High Hat because the vocals mic wasn’t loud enough, drums underplayed so we could hear more of the freshie Aishani’s singing. It’s a medley! Susmit informs me it’s Yaaron from New York, the office anna felt plight and sourced a better mic, a much better mic, Aishani got louder, began singing Closer; which is a crowd winner because even the Mallus have heard Avicii and Closer. She then stood up and said, “Dramatic,” and began singing Rolling in the Deep. The audience joined in for a couple of the could have had it AAAAAAALLLLLLs. Sakshi played solid while Rasika was doing coy emo guitar player stuff like whisking hair away and staring pensive.
Freshies are done, Susmit is wild, he begins with mild shouts of ‘Put Intro!’ to get the idea in people’s heads, then approval by Prashant, shouts louder PUT INTROs glancing at the profs’ side. They lined up, the freshie Pritam began it off, the fifth year Pritam was cheered cuz namesake. Generic asf intros, just name and place, no fun stuff, people from various Indian regions cheered whenever their places were mentioned. Things drew to a close at around 7:30, there was Minute Maid and some rolls for all present. Entropy, twos and threes, general disintegrate, another set of freshies are here. Another year has gone by.
Report by Gerleo Nimalan
Photographs by Parthiv Kidangoor and Ashraya Maria
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