19/02/2015

19/02/15; 17:55:

We had a run through of tomorrow’s event, this afternoon. A skit has been put together by the drama club- it features an award ceremony to recognize the most corrupt department in the country- the nominations include the Police, the forest department, PWD and others. One scene which depicts the interaction between Barrack Obama and Lalu Prasad Yadav is hilarious- each is trying to outdo the other, showing off the corruption in their countries – where Obama shows off a half-constructed bridge, Lalu has to show a non-existent bridge at a ‘completed’ project site. A medley of songs was put together by the music club and a dance performance that deals with corruption and then the common man uniting to break free of the trap that is today’s corrupt society was put together by the members of the dance club.
Once the performances were approved of by the author, Mr. Bapna, we retreated to the MDC lobby, where we sat charting out the sequence of events, fitting in appropriate excerpts from the book wherever apt.
It was then decided that we would head to IIT-Indore at 6 p.m., to go watch the performances that they had lined up. And, we did just that. Now, IIT-Indore doesn’t have a permanent campus yet; their academic building is about 10 k.m. or so from their hostels. I’d seen the academic building before, but, this was to be my first visit to their place of residence- Silver Springs seemed like a fairly nice place. The IIT-Indore dramatics club had prepared a thought-provoking play that dealt with social issues- rape, acid attacks and honour killings- and the apparent apathy of society towards the victims.
Once we were back on campus, we finalized the arrangements for a friend’s birthday. Once it struck mid-night, we got busy celebrating!

18th was Shivratri- over 12,000 devotees were on campus, for there is a very famous temple, here. The whole path, from the gate to the temple was lined with orange flags, the temple was intricately decorated and arrangements for pooja, including a loudspeaker that played bhajans all day, were made.