T-Nite : Day 1

Day 1, Tuesday

The day began after people spent half the night practising for the various acts we would put up on Mess Nite 1. As I wrote before, preparations had begun in earnest from Saturday evening. On Tuesday morning, I left CR-10 around 4 am and slept at 4:30. We then attended classes from 9 to 1:10. I was quite sleepy, though I managed to stay alert enough during HR and Eco. In the last class (Operations), I gave up and was more or less oblivious to what the professor was teaching.

Immediately after classes, we checked if there was a quiz. None, thankfully. Obviously most of us had not prepared much in any subject, nor were to do so for the entire week. Amazingly, except for one small ID Quiz in class, there was no quiz throughout the week. At 2pm, we gathered near the mess to begin the Pub Run - an event where 20 runners from each section attempted to cover the walls of the mess with newspapers marked with their section name. D Company was quite successful. I was part of the running team. We managed to cover huge swathes of the walls, despite making mistakes in our choice of tape. Finally, we finished the Pub Run in 2nd position.

Before that, days had been spent making posters and painting banners. These were put up in the evening, on the spaces that we had claimed. Meanwhile preparations for the day's main event continued. We were to present many dances and a small skit. I was alloted a small part in a dance to the song "...Kaise Don" from Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa. I was also given a 30 second role in the skit - as a shirtless second-year!

Our performance was last, around 10:15 pm. We went in with the usual chorus of tempo shouts like "Section D ka tempo high hai. Baaki sab ki leli - Zig Zag, Zig Zag!" and "Faccha Tuccha janta hai, Section D ko maanta hai." [These tempos are integral to WIMWI's culture. There are tempo shouts by dorms, sections and other groups - they go around the campus shouting at the top of their voices after midnight. Occasionally the mess erupts with a rousing shout, "XYZ yaaha hai, ABC kaaha hai." (XYZ and ABC generally being of opposite sexes)]. We shouted ourselves hoarse during the course of T-Nite.

So, we went in. The small stage was surrounded by many tucchas (2nd years) who had come to support their erstwhile sections and to have a merry time. We did not do well. We were incessantly booed, even before our performance began. We got unnerved, and cowed down. The enthu (enthusiasm) was completely gone. We began with some dances. Though they were reasonably well done, the crowd was not pleased. The skit was a disaster. We couldn't be heard at all. In any case the skit was not very good. My bit was not at all appreciated. We ended with the Don Song, which was well received inspite of us not executing it well.

We trudged back to the CR. Our section tucchas consoled us, and reminded us that 3 days were left. Slowly we were roused up and began preparing for another night of performances...Day 2 had begun.