03/03/2015

03/03/15; 01:56:

Let’s start right where we left off. Later in the evening on the 27th, there was an IIT-Indore v/s IIM-Indore Basketball Match. Amity University beat IIM-Indore by a single point to win the Table Tennis event. The Basketball Match was very interesting. Even though by the time I got to the court, the game was well into its second half, each point sent the game this way or that. The game finally ended with a 39-40 score, in favour of IIM-Indore.
Meanwhile, ‘Amplifed’- the Music event had begun in the Central Lawn. All the food stalls- Apna Sweets selling IndiPizza & Ice-cream; Sarafa ka Parathewala with his paneer and sev paratha; Red Dragon had butter chicken, chilli paneer and more; Buddy’s Cafe was dishing out Chinese and milkshakes; Burger Planet stayed true to its name; and Meximus had a large variety of Mexican food on offer- were doing brisk business. Amplified consisted of a series of Musical events, ranging from ‘Tune In’ where the participant had to successfully identify the tune being played and subsequently sing the song in question to a Musical Face-Off! Prizes included boxes of Galaxy chocolates and cans of Red Bull.

The match must’ve ended close to 11 p.m.; soon after, I was back at the Central Lawn. On my way up to the Central Lawn, I met a couple of guys who wished to register for the Campus Roadies thing. It was good to see people interested in the event that was to be conducted by Roadies 5 winner, Ashutosh Kaushik on the 28th.Spotting an available sound system, a microphone, a waiting stage and all, I got talking. We began with looking for the person with the longest name. The winner refused to comply with our request for a rap and we then had to begin a new search. We then had on stage 2 guys in pink T-shirts. They were both Cricket players. We decided to pick the winner via a Cricket-specific sports quiz. Agrim volunteered to ask questions. After both of them failed to get any answers right, a Tug-of-War was suggested. A round of push-ups was then held to determine the winner. By this time, a large crowd had assembled around the stage and a couple more one-on-one push-up challenges followed. A few rounds of tug-of-war soon followed. I managed to be on the winning side, most times. Sensing a lull in the excitement, I got back on stage, to get the party going, since everyone had by now had multiple tries at a tug-of-war. I called to the crowd for random entertainment ideas. No one understood quite how or why, but, there was soon a stripping contest going on, with random guys getting on stage, getting their shirts off and showing off to the crowd. By around 1 a.m., most people had decided to go catch some sleep, since a lot of them had early morning matches.

Most teams were rather happy with the sports facilities extended; what with the newly constructed cricket ground, the indoor wooden Badminton court, the green and red basketball court, the newly done-over Volleyball courts and the sports equipment(courtesy Mahavir Sports).

I walked around for a bit, talking to newly found company. 28th morning saw Volleyball matches – they were mostly happening in the early mornings, for the overhead sun would not allow the ball to be properly visible. The Swimming event began at 9 a.m. and ran till lunch-time. The Swimming events were: 50m & 100m Freestyle, 50 & 100m Breast Stroke, 50 & 100 m Back Stroke and 50m Butterfly - for both men and women. Cricket matches went on till afternoon, post which they had to be abandoned thanks to the sudden rain. It just has to rain when we’re having a fest! It had rained during Atharv and even now, when it was almost March, the rain had to make an appearance. Post lunch, the media and Ashutosh Kaushik were on campus. The power-lifting event was in progress, since late-morning. A short interview of the Roadies 5 winner and some cold coffee later, the media persons decided to leave, since the arm-wrestling event did not appear to be ready to begin, any time soon.

A couple of events had been planned for the evening of 28th Feb, since all of 1st evening was to be the VH1 Supersonic EDM night. The arm-wrestling event began a few hours after its scheduled time, upsetting the schedule of all the other events. After the Women’s Arm-Wrestling and the Men’s Arm-Wrestling over 4 different categories, ‘Footloose’- the Dance event attempted to take off, as did ‘SpotLight’- the Drama event. They then ran rounds of events in alternation- beginning with a round of Newspaper Dancing. This was followed by a hilarious mimicry of various singing stars courtesy one of the Ranbhoomi participants. On popular demand, a second round of Newspaper Dancing was held.
Meanwhile, Campus Roadies took off, with the top 15 candidates who had been previously shortlisted. A quiz, that dealt with the stock market and related concepts was organized by NSE- they gave out office organizers with built-in calculators- the perfect corporate accessory- as prizes . These activities went on, in parallel with the Volleyball Semi-final which was happening on the court adjacent to the Academic Block ( right by the Central Lawn, too!). In a closely contested match, IIM-Indore beat Amity University, to earn themselves a spot in the final. The Badminton final had to be abandoned due to unfavourable playing conditions. Amity University was declared the winner, based on their league scores with the other finalist, NMIMS (Mumbai).

Later in the night, we settled into the reading room of the library and sat there till 4 a.m., planning a grand event that would boost the presence of a sporting culture in the State and later across the country. An appreciation for sports other than cricket is very definitely needed.

1st March- the final day of Ranbhoomi! The day began with the football final at 8:30 a.m. and the second volleyball semi-final at the same time. The IIM-Indore team lost to Sagar Institute, Bhopal, in a closely-contested football match, by 2 goals to 1. The Volleyball final saw IIM-Indore beat Jaipuria University, 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-11, and 25-23). The Chess event ran over three days, with IIM-Indore coming out on top, with Amity a close second. The basketball semi-finals began by late-afternoon. Sanghvi Institute of Management Studies won the first semi-final; IES IPS (Indore) beat IIM-Indore by an almost 20-point difference. The final began after an hour’s gap, where SIMS won against IES IPS, 66-49. Both sides had strong players, and the game was rather enjoyable. Meanwhile, the Closing Ceremony began in the New Auditorium at 3:30 p.m. Mir Ranjan Negi Sir was the Guest of Honour and handed out all the prizes, along with Director Sir, Dr. Rishikesha T. Krishnan. All the trophies and medals handed out were beautiful, and it was at this point that we felt the worst about there not being any girls’ teams for either Basketball or Volleyball.
As soon as the ceremony ended, we had the privilege of spending some one-on-one time with Negi Sir, interviewing him on behalf of the press. He spoke of encouraging sports, for people across all walks of life; he talked about Indore, how he fell in love with the IIM students and more.
Once our final press release (with only pictures of the EDM night and the artists due) was sent out, we could finally breathe. Final arrangements for the EDM night were being made- logos of sponsors were organized, the security team positioned themselves at strategic locations, sound-checks were performed and a contingency plan was prepared. The EDM Night took off at 8 p.m.; the party was in full swing by 10 p.m. We were backstage, sending out pictures to the media, before we made our way to the green room. We spent time with Rishabh from Lost Stories, while the Progressive Brothers were on stage.
The event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present and dancing (or not!).

After seeing all the guests off, we finally got ourselves some food and some much-needed rest! And, that kids, is how Ranbhoomi ’15 panned out!