Freshers’ Night: The things that went right

“A rolling stone gathers no moss”, typically said to mean that someone who is constantly on the move doesn’t prosper. Well then in the case of a dynamic community like ours where moving forward is the key, a rolling stone does gather moss. While our previous article on the Fresher’s night discussed how senior batches on-campus can shape this dynamic community by making choices, wise and otherwise, the things that went right that day are presented here. 

Freshers’ Night, is a culmination of all the hard work that the new-comers put in. But there’s more than that. The huge symphony is orchestrated by the efforts of students across batches, guided by the baton in the hands of the General Secretary and other senior members. The Media and Cultural Council has been making constant strides to improve each year and this year too a lot of efforts were put in for the event. There’s a tremendous challenge of putting together a performance to be cherished for a lifetime in a mere 10 days. And the freshers as well as the second years who are for the first time in their tenure in a managerial position, rise to it. The primary focus of the clubs is on making their performances delectable rather than any other form of unhealthy competition. All of the preparations for the competitions over the year begin from here on, thus adding even more to the importance of the event.

A lot of clubs would agree that this year they had a sufficient amount of time for performing their acts. 2 years back, mime participants were not able to perform due to timing issues, which was disappointing. Shifting the event to the Auditorium helped ease the crunch for performance slots. The OAT did not have a projector so having the event over there would have been unfair to Film Club and other clubs who wanted to show their videos. 

This time around the council introduced Wristbands for the Freshers’ Night. First of all, they helped in screening and prioritizing entries to the Y19 and the club secretaries and coordinators. Secondly, they had pool names on them, thus being the first introduction of the freshers with their pools. “It was the last chance to get them to know about this system which would be almost impossible if not done around this time. Once this system is gone it will be gone forever”, the then (Officiating) General Secretary, Media and Culture said. There is an implicit need for healthy competition for the performances to prosper.

For the first time, the council had an official sponsor for Freshers’ Night and were able to acquire an impressive amount of funds which helped ease the logistic requirements for the event and expand its scale. Also, the PG participation was encouraging this time around. Several clubs agreed that a relatively larger number of PGs came in for the preparation this year and many of them performed on the night. But even more importantly, they had PGs acting as mentors for the freshers. Also for the first time, an informal session was conducted for PG freshers, introducing the Council and its huge diversity to them.

A lot of clubs came out with flying colors. Manish Chandra Yadav, Hindi Sahitya Sabha Coordinator, said that this year as the conduction was in the auditorium, some parts of their poetry might not have been audible to the audience sitting far behind. “Yet we did great, our performance is generally divided into halves- an initial half, which a 20 day old Y19 could relate to, and the other literary half- which reflects our main value as a club. Luckily, we were able to execute both these halves almost perfectly.” The HSS also observed increased participation by both PGs and UGs. 

The Film club as well raised the ante. Continuing the improvement they made last year, this year too they released 3 videos, made by freshers in groups of 10 people per video, mentored by the secretaries. “The highlight was the migration from JEE centric themes to more mature themes. One of the videos addressing homosexuality which was widely appreciated. The quality of the videos also saw a great improvement as compared to previous years.”, said Aviral Khare, Coordinator Film Club.

“What happened was unfortunate. For  Mr. and Ms. Freshers’ mishap, in totality, I accept that what happened was wrong. I give my unconditional apology for it. My intention was not to have things happen the way they did. The people who are criticizing it are not wrong. If the student felt uncomfortable due to the events that happened, there can be no excuse for it and I extend my apology. There can be no argument that she should not have felt bad. 

Secondly, the objectionable remarks being passed by the audience were a major setback. As an organizer, I can say that if the students of IITK behave like this it is disappointing. The setback of the crowd was new for everyone. To take follow up responsibly on this incident, I took a step from my side. During the DJ night, which had a crowd of 500+, I first hand addressed the crowd about their irresponsible conduct as an audience on the previous day. 

I conveyed that what happened is not our culture. If someone perpetrates it in the name of culture then it’s utterly wrong. It is the responsibility of all of us as a community to continue conveying this to the Y19s in the social situations we encounter with them. Any such occurrences will be dealt with extreme severity as they have been earlier whether it be an offense by any individual or a collective pool.

I would just like to emphasize that the responsibility for what happened as well as preventing it in future lies with the students and as such we should prioritize solving them among ourselves. We should maintain our trust in student-run bodies and mechanisms, and provide positive criticism for their improvement.”, the then officiating GenSec said.