Heave de Relief – Freshers’ Night ’14

All the sweat and hardwork of the Y14 freshers finally culminated into the much-awaited Freshers’ Night. The display of their exuberant talent was coupled with the chanting and hooting of the audience. The theme for the evening was “Eve de Magique”—French for “Evening of Magic”, which encompasses the realms of fantasy, the supernatural, and magical realism, as indicated by the Freshers’ Night coordinators.

The security at the New SAC, the venue of the event, was stricter than usual: 5 security guards were present at the perimeter of the stage to monitor anyone who might attempt to disrupt performances.

The event began 45 minutes later than the scheduled time of 7:30 pm. The DJ night that was to follow was thus deferred to the next day.The attempts of the coordinators to begin the event on time proved fruitless, due to several reasons which, in retrospect could’ve been handled better.

The event began with the lighting of the lamp by Dr. A. R. Harish (DOSA), Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi (DOAA), and Dr. A. K. Ghosh (former DOSA). The DOSA was invited to say a few words, which he did quite literally.This left the crowd chuckling which then responded with cheers of “DOSA ka tempo high hai”.

The lively quartet of English Literary Society compères, despite some setbacks, did a decent job of introducing the performing clubs.The anchoring was in English as well as Hindi, a deviation from the norm for ELS, which usually always used the former. This was well-received by the audience. Also, some of their quirks were hilarious, especially the audible ones.

The Music Club got the ball rolling.They began with instrumental pieces that captivated the crowd. These included the Game of Thrones and Harry Potter themes, which adhered to the mood of the evening.This was followed by renditions of several English and Hindi songs, including Yellow by the British band Coldplay, and Sinbad the Sailor from the popular Bollywood movie “Rock On”.

After having not performed last year, the Hindi Sahitya Sabha returned with a bang. Their shayari and witticisms were highly appraised by the crowd, as was evident by the resounding roars and applauses. The quips were about the transition that a fresher goes through in his/her initial days on campus.

The sound system began to malfunction by this point, which, coupled with the crowd’s cacophony, deemed the Dramatics Club performance that followed inaudible and incomprehensible, even to those seated in the first row. Nevertheless, the costumes and the expressions were commendable.

Next up were the Fashion Show and the Fine Arts Club. There was a twist in the event placement this time, with the Fashion Show and Fine Arts performances being split in two and alternated.

The glamour curve of the night reached its maxima during the Fashion Show. The audience was left dazed and bedazzled by the panache of the partakers.The ramp-walkers sizzled and sparkled on stage, their charm being accentuated by the use of props, such as frills, sparkles and even a guitar. An act which stood out was a male model who juggled three balls in the air.

The Fine Arts Club gave two performances: sand art and speed art, both of which were remarkably well-received by the crowd. The former talked of Harry Potter’s three deathly hallows, as the artist rendered the sand into a story. The latter performance saw the freshers drawing what initially seemed like random strokes on canvases, which were later put together beautifully to reveal a huge drawing of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the magic school Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series.

The Dance Club lived up to the expectations, drowning the audience in their energy and enthusiasm. The dances had elements of classical and freestyle, among others.They engrossed the audience so much that the crowd stopped its antics during the performance, and couldn’t help but sway to the beat.

A new event, “Mr. and Ms. Fresher”, affiliated with Antaragni was introduced this time. On the basis of forms distributed during the Orientation and subsequent interviews, three boys and three girls were shortlisted for the main event.

The event comprised of two rounds. The participants had to showcase a talent of theirs in the first, and the second was a question-answer round which put them on the spot and tested their repartee.The winner among the boys was Rhic Chowdhury, and among the girls it was a tie between Srishti Jain and Riya Talati.“The winners of this competition will gain a direct entry to the finals of Mridaksh, the hunt for Mr. and Mrs. Antaragni,”said Srijan Shetty, the Head of Competitions and Events for Antaragni’14.

The trademark(albeit somewhat controversial) dance of Hall 2, Bhokal, which the Y13 could not witness during their time, was finally staged. Even though it failed to meet the audience’s heightened expectations, the Hall 2 junta was delighted and proud.

Several videos were interspersed between the events: the Orientation/Freshers’ Practice video (by FMC), which showcased snippets of memories from those times; the Antaragni and Udghosh promotional videos and a montage of freshers’ photographs, wherein they held white-boards to illustrate their answer to the question, “What brings out the crazy in you?” There was also a prize distribution for the winners of the creative writing competition conducted by ELS.

The exit was meticulously planned to avoid any unsolicited incidents (which the freshers were apprehensive of). The seniors were made to exit first, and then the freshers were gathered by the HECs and escorted to their respective halls. Other security measures included ID card checking at the New SAC gate.  Further, the Anti-Ragging Committee and DOSA sir himself were vigilant till late night to ensure a flawless conclusion to the Freshers’ night.

Written by Saarthak Jajoria and Rishabh Anand