The Tenth Emotion

Continuing with my series of published articles, this was published in JAM Mag - India's youth magazine in their February 2008 edition.

"UNMAAD is about happiness - more passionate than anger, more life changing than serenity, more potent than courage, more wonder than magic. UNMAAD is the tenth emotion" - www.unmaad.com

My fest hopping craze this semester sent me to Bangalore during the first week of February to catch up on the tenth emotion as defined by IIM Bangalore- UNMAAD. Seven lakh prize money and a budget overheard to be around one crore, we had a lot of expectations from this fest.

A very gothic look unraveled this watering hole for managerial wonders of India as we landed at the campus in the wee hours of 1st February. An exam hall had been turned into a refugee camp for the early birds while the rest ended up in shamianas on the grass lawns, though the fairer sex given the obvious choice of hostels. With the accommodation matter completed, it was time to feel the vibe of the fest. The mess would serve as the first stop and for a change; we had no complaints with that. IIM or not, we soon realized we were still in India as the dramatics event began a couple of hours late due to technical snags.

NIT Trichy started off on a serious note with couple of monologues dealing with riots but it was SVCE Chennai that caught people's attention with their loose script that paid tribute to Scar face as the cast uttered the four letter expletive over forty times in the play along with other unprintable material. But it was a spectacular performance by Lady Shriram College from Delhi doing "Tara" a Mahesh Dattani play that not only won the coveted prize but also won a number of admirers from the audience including the role of the bugging female whose job was to get on everyone's nerves in a cute way.

By the end of the dramatics event, it was mid day and one would expect UNMAAD to be bustling with life but it wasn't so. Day One pretty much seemed like it was day zero in other fests as tents were being put up, stalls were still getting set up and they was barely enough crowd which even the PETA guys would agree too though the INOX female seemed to be attracting a bit of a crowd with her heavy accent and goodies. This was when I could grab a moment with the guy at the JAM stall and hence the picture to show you that JAM was there.

Meanwhile prelims for Mr. and Ms. UNMAAD were on and the questionnaire did set people thinking. Here are a few for you (hopefully am not infringing any copyright violations) :

1) Who would rather kiss - a crocodile or a bear and why?
2) You could take three things with you to a deserted island. They would be?
3) What would you do if you were invisible for a day?
4) What is the one crime you would commit if you wouldn't be caught for it?

Got any whacky answers for these? We'd sure love to hear them. The highlight of the day would no doubt be the "B School of Rock" concert with our "chethas" from Motherjane and the renowned Zero performing to an audience that understood that the truest form of respect to such artistes is to head bang to them. I wouldn't say the atmosphere was electric, but the crowds loved every bit of it and both bands lived upto their reputations especially when they played a few regular covers that every novice rock fan could also join in. The sun may have set but that's when you realize life at IIM begins at night as people gathered around for AMROCK- the upstart band showdown and the enthusiasm from the rock show spilt over especially with people high on spirits.

Low profile compared to the undergraduate festivals I have seen but the money pulled in by corporate sources had been well spent and the whole festival had a larger than life image around it.



Day 2 and Day 3

Rise and shine and all the literary event prelims had begun along with numerous other events. I was woken up by couple of damsels dressed in the Ms. Unmaad T-shirt wondering if I could help them with their scavenger hunt. I so wish I could have but as luck could have it, I travel light on trips. Turns out they had numerous odd tasks like finding a Pizza Corner menu, Bacardi Breezer bottle to selling their own paintings for over INR 100. While the guys and girls in white ran around the campus looking for odds and ends, the street play had begun in one of the central lawns. Here again, it was the Delhi colleges that stole the thunder though there were a couple of good performances by local colleges including JNC, Bangalore.

Along the lines of street play was the movie spoof and this was one of the biggest crowd pulling event after the pro shows. IIM B had their fundae right as they won second place with a very witty script that got the audience thinking before they got the jokes. The winning college from Pune, BBUCOE won the coveted first place with their take on "Kabhi Goli Kabhi Bum" which was hilariously in your face funny and evoked the most laughter amongst the audience. Though the critic of the day award should go to the cute kid next to me who on seeing a banner on stage "Bakwaas Productions presents" quipped "Bakwaas hai to dikha kyu rahe hai?" had even the judges sniggering on that one.

Intermittent with the two dramatics events were the corporate events including mad ads that had working professionals forget their work for a day and get into the college mode and kudos to them for showing more enthusiasm than the students around them as they joked and made merry throughout the event especially during the twenty minute wait before the results were announced where the teams pulled each others legs in a jovial manner till the scorers returned.

The Western Acoustics/ A capella competition is a novelty as very few festivals around India seem to have this event where you do get to hear lot of interesting music. While WASABI stood apart with their performance and uniform, it was Christ College's own composition 'All I got' with its fusion touch that really bowled me over and am guessing the same with the judges who handed them the first place.

The dance workshop was another crowd puller as individual entries were allowed and Cupid wanted some action. Girls were asked to remove one shoe into a pile so the guys could pick them up and get automatically paired. The rush to get the fairest ladies' shoes would have put our politicians fighting for seats to shame. A comic relief for the audience as pairs of left feet landed on the dance floor, the end of the dance workshop saw couples strutting around with confidence and a glow of a job well done.

Soon the sun descended implying the start of a new day at IIM as the campus had people pouring in for the Unity concert featuring Pakistani band Strings and Indian band Mrigya. Strings lived up to its reputation and added some entertainment when they batted away a few autographed balls into the audience. Unfortunately for me, they aren't too good with slogging towards deep mid wicket. But it just wasn't Mrigya's day as most people started heading off since their music was floating throughout the campus and their onstage presence didn't seem to capture the audience unlike Strings. Karaoke night was the midnight warm up as random people could go up and sing from the list of songs available along with their lyrics. The real party started soon with the War of the DJs which turned the courtyard into an instant dance floor as crowds poured in to dance the night away. Few folks in highly debilitated state provided comic relief with their dance steps but took it a step forward with their mouth to mouth contact raising a lot of "yewwss" around them. Time flew by and it was early morning when the organizers decided to call it a night. The Final day was packed with the grandiose events like choreo, freestyle and the fashion show. A wonderful display of synchronization and color along with beauty saw charming ladies and handsome hunks steal the thunder along with foot tapping music keeping the audience on its toes.

UNMAAD wasn't as big as the hype surrounding it, but it was one huge blast where you seemed to see familiar faces within a day or two and felt pretty homely amongst the bold, the brainy and the beautiful. A thumbs up to this event though I'd expect to see more than the 700 plus competitors who turned up this time.