Confluence Magic
Recaptured with Chaos 2007
- by Vinamra Srivastava *
I could no longer let this blog
die. The guilt of not updating it during the entire third term has become
over-powering now. It's not that I didn't get time; in fact I had plenty of
that. It was just that I had become too lazy . But anyways, now that I am
back, over the next few posts, I am going to lay down what transpired during the
third phase of the fachcha life at IIM Ahmedabad.
The term started in January
second week. We were all fresh and raring to go. The reason? Well, this was the
last term of the bondage called fachchadom! Our only motivation to
survive this last phase was that after this, we will be the kings of WIMWI . The
tuchchas had warned us that this is not at all like the second term. In
fact, it's pretty much like the first term re-visited. WAC was back, so was
Operations. And add to that Finance-2, and you can rest assured that the term is
going to be killing. And what makes it worse is that the amount of group work is
huge. But along with all this, there's lots of non-academic stuff that happens
and, thus, if you are enthusiastic, you sure will have a blast! Well, as the
term got on, we got a hang of what the tuchchas meant!
I will go into the academics part
and the strains of excessive group work in the next post. Because I reserve this
one for CHAOS 2007! Yeah, the annual cultural extravaganza of IIM Ahmedabad.
Chaos lasts for four nights and three days. It's an inter-college cultural fest
that consists of various competitions, fun games, and hosts eating stalls and
what not. So all in all, it's a fun place to be in. All this happens in the day
time, and after 6:00 pm, takes place something called a 'celebrity night', where
music bands perform for a huge audience. Each of the four nights sees different
music stars take the centre-stage.
Unlike Confluence, Chaos is not
restricted to only B-schools. It attracts colleges from all streams all across
the country, which essentially implies its much more fun. But the purpose of
both Confluence and Chaos is entirely different and, hence, any comparison is
not justified.
Anyways, so I was a part of the
Admin Team of Chaos. We were essentially responsible for two things. One was the
tickets and the other was the Admin Helpdesk that is put up during the event.
However, there was a lot of over-lap with the Publicity Team and, hence, we also
ended up doing a bit of publicity work as well. Chaos hosted about 30,000 to
35,000 people last year and, hence, all functions related to the tickets sale
were very crucial and exciting as well.
We had decided to put holograms
as well as serial nos. on each ticket that classified them into different type.
This work was not outsourced to a vendor for some reasons. And hence, few days
before the sale started, the entire Admin Team with help from some
other teams of fachchas would sit in the night and get the tickets ready.
Oh boy, what nights they were. We all would sit in the common area in the dorm
with the TV on, and chat with each other along with the work. And then we would
pester the tuchchas and actually threaten to stop work till they got us
something to eat from CT . All in all, those were tiring, sleepless but fun
nights.
But the tiring nights didn't end
there. We had to put fliers in The Times of India as part of the publicity plan.
The work was outsourced to the appropriate guys but we still had to be there to
ensure that it was executed properly. And hence, there I was, sometimes with a
couple of team-mates, at times alone, from 3:00 in the night to 5:00 in the
morning, at the news-paper distribution hub in Ahmedabad, ensuring that those
guys properly put all the Chaos fliers in the news-papers. Oh man! What an
experience that was ! I witnessed the entire process of what happens when the
news-papers arrive at 3:00 am and are distributed to various vendors. It
happened at one of the main roads in Ahmedabad. The footpaths would be full of
paperwahlas putting various fliers in the papers, separating the papers
for different localities and finally trudging them along on cycles and scooters.
There would be so much of commotion in the wee hours of the morning. It was
fascinating to see the kind of intense work that goes behind the scenes to
ensure that we get our morning news-papers right when we get up from sleep!
Then we would take turns and sit
at the tickets-counter on campus. We were selling tickets through CCD and
Dominoes outlets. So four of the CCDs were under my charge. Hence, I had to
visit them to put our banners, etc., and then visit them frequently to collect
the tickets sale money. The entire preparation for the event was tiring but fun.
It was very different from the work I did for Confluence. This involved more
out-of-campus trips and interactions with vendors.
Chaos started on the eve of 25th
January with a classical music function followed by a Sweedish band that played
fusion stuff. It was really awesome and perhaps the best performance of Chaos.
What followed in the next four days was pure masti with stars like Junoon,
Remo and Silk Route gracing the evenings and events / workshops / contests
ranging from photography to pot-making to self-grooming during the day-time.
Personally for me, it was a super
hectic time because managing such a huge crowd and coordinating the plethora of
events across four days was a huge challenge for the entire Chaos team. I used
to just go to my room in the night to sleep for few hours and would
be back early next morning. Reminded me of the Confluence days!! My room would
be in total mess . But it was great fun and completely new experience for me
right in the beginning of the third term.
It was just another one of the
times when I realized that life at this place truly rocks. I just wanted to
savour each and every moment, be it standing at the news-paper vendor at 3:00 am
or dancing to the band performances; I knew these would be the golden times of
my life that I would cherish forever. Chaos got over on 28th night. And after
all the hungama, the grueling 3rd term was staring at us, reminding us of
the stressful 1st term and ready to show us again why the first year of IIM-A
makes you as tough as steel!
So how did we cope up? How was it
different from the first term? Did Operations Management and Finance haunt us as
MANAC did in the previous two terms? And apart from Chaos, did we have any more
fun in this last term? All this and more coming up soon...
