krishna janmashtami

The last one week was a very hectic one...due to the intermittent class timings the procedure was the same throughout...get up in the morning...have breakfast...1st class...come back and have lunch...go for the next class...come for snacks...then the next class or 2 and then tat's it...end of day...go to sleep. We have been given so much assignments that, leave studies,completing the assignments is itself a big ask.

In between all these assignment chakkar, yesterday was janmashtami. It is a big time celebrations here. In our hostel also there was matki fod (break the pot) and tug-of-war events planned for the night. There was also an event occurring in our computer science department...that was the CR (Class Representative) elections. CRs basically act as an interface between the students and the department and so it was a very important one from the dept point of view. People were asked to nominate themselves to stand as candidates. But the response was pathetic. Even till the last moment only one person (out of around 90) had given nomination. Towards the end one more nomination came. Thus we had 2 candidates contesting...Aaditya joshi and Neha jain. In this context I must really congratulate both of them for the enthu they are showing in an otherwise very do-not-care attitute of our batch.

The candidates were asked to come out with their manifestos of how they would go about doing their CR duties. Then there was going to be a soapbox session (where the cadidates explain their manifesto and the people from our batch can question the candidates) followed by elections. The problem was that the CR election and the janmashtami events were clashing in their timings and I had to choose between them. I choose the elections, with a heavy heart (as I really wanted to see it). But I thought the former was more of a responsibility than a pleasure.

But when I reach there for the elections, what do I see...just about 20% of our batch have turned up and the election required atleast 50%. It was such a pathetic response that I felt a sense of anger towards the general unresponsive attitude of our batch. We waited for some more time and then decided to postpone the election. I felt kind of irritated because I had to miss the hostel events due to this and now even this is not happening. Crap!!!

Me and my roomie, sheiku, slowly made our way back to the room. But when we reached the hostel, we were in for a surprise...the events have not yet started...yahoooooo!!!!!!!!!!
After 10 minutes or so the events did start. The first one was the matki fod. Here what happens is that there will be a pot tied at a height of around 5 meters from the ground. People will need to form a sort of pyramid. First around 8-9 people huddles together, with their hands on the shoulders on their left and right guy. Then 3-4 people climb of top of this "base" and then a 3rd person climbs on top of these 2 layers and try to break the matki. This was my first of a kind experience for me.

The event got underway. Me and my friends Vishal and Nirmal (from electrical dept) too joined in. Most of the guys, including me, took to the arena in just shorts. It was decided that 8 people will form the base, 4 on top of them and then a 3rd guy on top of us to break the matki. As all of were discussing of how to go about it, suddenly a bucket of water fell on us...."abee saale bhen**** teri maa ki..." shouts came out from the group...For me this water business was unexpected and I was totally drenched...

I was at the base (fat people are not allowed to climb others shoulders and break others hands :D). There were 8 of us. The water kept falling on us from the 2nd and 3rd floor....and the swearings kept coming out...The 2nd layer started forming. Everyone was shouting "Alareeeeee govindaaaaaaa"...The moment a guy got on to my shoulders I was like "O man this guy weighs a ton"...but the spirit of alare govinda kept all of us going....in between the guys on the top floor started pouring hot water...the swearing too got hotter....the water was soo hot that the cry of "alare govinda" was replaced by "aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh $#&#@#%$"...we could even see smoke rising from the ground once the water touched the floor...

But we still kept on going...The 2nd layer was formed. (the guy above me seemed to have a special ability to increase his weight every second)...The last guy started climbing...by this time the "pyramid" already started shaking :D...suddenly..."dim dim dim...." before I knew what happened my shoulder suddenly felt light...then only I saw it...the 2nd layer and 3rd layers were now on the "ground floor"...one on top of the other...one guys head was inside the pile on the ground and his 2 legs jutting out...everyone started laughing out soo much...the ground had turned so much muddy with water that we were all covered in mud...

This went on like this for some 4-5 times,climbing and falling, before we successfully broke the pot. Cries of joy exploded out and it was all round celebrations. People were kicking mud on each other..photos taken...as for me it was such a good time...never in the recent past could I remember myself to be covered in so much mud and still enjoying...This was followed by tug of war. All in all it was such a gr8 day..one of my most memorable.