Turning
the wheel of time and reliving those fond moments...it has hardly been a few
months since college ended and I still feel like a plebe. So vivid are those
moments and so easily those exchanges come to mind. Simple and yet
satisfying, I take a ride on the memory carriage and halt at the fest of 2011.
The sun’s rays fell full on our faces as we sat on the
very lawn benches where we did revision for our exams. The purpose was not very
different though. We were trying to brainstorm our way to a new event in the
CSI fest- Algorhythm 2011.
The thought of coordinating an event sent a thrill
down my spine, that familiar sensation of excitement which always struck me
when there was something fun and innovative to be done. But the important point
was that there were so many events in the fest that to make our event
fun-filled and worth participating in would require us to have an impressive
format that would get us approval from the team that would decide and finalize
the events for the fest.
So we sat, wrote, cancelled and quarrelled. As in a beehive,
our buzz reached other bees of our class. “Salad-making? In a fest?
Go for some game, yar…Like Tekken…A1, S1 and S2 are doing that”, A2 said.
“Their entire group is involved. They have even got
the posters ready,” K joined in.
“Salad-making wouldn’t be uninteresting , you know...”
H countered. “Aashi, you start framing the rules. Just write a lovely
description that would impress Sir.”
“Mouth-watering salad that would make the meal
afterward taste like crap…”, I sang.
“Why not a salad-eating contest? I want to take part
in that!”, M smiled.
And everyone else raised their hands. Titters
and giggles followed.
“And now is the part when we bid goodbye to our lovely
group for a while…”, I chirped in, taking H away from the class.
“Want to do the event?” I asked her.
She looked at me for a minute, a resigned smile on her
face.
I tore a page from my Mechanics register and started writing.
*
We entered the CSI room.N di, Y bhaia and T Sir were
sitting across a table. We sat on the other side and gave the description of
our event.
“How much budget have you allotted to the event?”
The first question had us foxed. We hadn’t thought of
that.
And the questions that followed made me feel that our
event was off the list even before it had a chance to be a part of the fest.
Nevertheless, we lounged about the CSI room the
following day, trying to know the results.
We saw Neha di walking past so we accosted her.
“Look for a volunteer”, she said and smiled.
So, we got it!
Despite our amateur handling of the questions, they
had decided to give us a chance. Were we ecstatic!
Now came the preparation part- the publicity, posters,
the infrastructure involved and …the volunteers.
‘We don’t need a volunteer’, we decided.
‘Nobody would volunteer for us’, we meant.
When we gave the news to our friends, even their faces
betrayed surprise. They promised to support us and publicize the event as much
as possible.
We couldn’t contain our jubilation and kept discussing
while the class went on, the rules and the materials required and how we would
go about it, in low voices. Right behind us sat L, who probably couldn’t
concentrate on the given question because of our chatter. He finally got drawn
into our conversation and asked, “mind if I volunteer?”
We both stared at him and didn’t waste another moment.
Before he could change his mind, we texted his name to Neha di. Volunteer
Problem Resolved!!!
*
Publicity- online and offline, endless discussions
about how we would conduct the event, late-night last-minute arrangements were
some of the things I wouldn’t forget easily.
The event was to take place on Sunday. The vegetables
were to be bought the day before so they would remain fresh. Hence, the night
before the event saw us in frantic discussions, ensuring the availability of
the various veggies plus extras like mayonnaise, pepper, salt, plates and the
stuff required for the next day, while the rest of the crowd cheered for the
contestants of Manhunt.
*
The D-Day arrived. The event was about to
start at 10:30. We three rushed to our stall with our paraphernalia and started
setting everything up. While our friends crowded round our stall, lifting our
moods by playing music and frollicking about, we put up our charts, bought the
remaining veggies from the Julena sabzi mandi, decorated the tables and waited.
It was a weird wait. For the first time, I
felt like I was selling something and wanted to have customers.
As soon as the above thought crossed my
mind, I saw a group of people approaching our table. Quickly handing them their
share of knives, carrots, radishes, onions, tomatoes and so on, we inaugurated
the competition. And then followed a hustle-bustle that kept us busy for the
rest of the day. What with timing the participants, storing the plates for the
judges to see, making available the necessary condiments and barring the
participants from demanding extra cucumber, we lost track of time. By the end
of the day, we were all completely spent.
The judge for the contest arrived and a
crowd gathered to hear the result. She was amazed to find this culinary
creativity in budding engineers…so beautifully were the salads garnished and so
skilfully the shapes cut out of vegetables.
We proudly called them the Saladgineers of
our event- “SALADGINEERING”.
No comments:
Post a Comment