KEEDAPANTHI FULL ON..

Zehen today concluded itself with unstoppable claps and a standing ovation. The fest, which centred itself around the tag-line of Keedapanthi, showed how a simple passion and love for theatre can actually pull audiences from a cross section of the society. We had our much loved "BUM" ARUNDHATI NAG with her aura of serenity and wise words as a chief guest for the show. Her words were not a drab lecture-but spoke of the undying faith in the theatrical society. Theatre as she rightly pointed out, was not something that one should be trained to do. Our first instance of theatre is when we first lie. We have our first taste of acting then. But we never dare to delve deep into ourselves; so lost are we in the pursuit of materialistic happyness. True- theatre can never offer one the bread and butter for subsistence- but it is definitely an outlet for the creative keeda in you. Once bitten, never shy. And likewise agreed the ASAP frontman. SIMC together with their sister concerns- SIBM and SITM alonfg with other colleges, kept us glued to the 24/7 hungama with acts, workshops and performances for three straight days.One interesting and an innovative form was the interactive theatre by YOURS TRULY. It is as much an outlet for theraputic healing as well as the platform for the unleashing the creativity in you.  Words from the audience led to an impromptu act by the YOURS TRULY trio  that spellbound and enthralled the former, in their seats with mesmerized eyes popping out of skulls in wonderment and awe. Workshops were there too for the interested. The closing ceremony wrapped up by a hilarious performance by SIMC's very own Venky collaborating with Amit from ASAP. At around 1pm Zehen was marked over officially with the junior batch given the responsibility of raising the bar the next year. Oh yes we shall..for the keeda  is too strong to fade away...It's "bugged" all of us.

WHY SO SERIOUS????

It's that time of the year again, when reality hits you hard. A much needed wake-up call thrashes you mercilessly. You may feel a little lost. Yet there are some who cant refrain from giving themselves a pat on their back and a silent self-congratulatory note on their foresight. Such is what happenned today on day 2 of sem 2. The morning started with the much dreaded word "projects". Soon begun the mental kicks, the anguished adrenaline suppressed from hyperactivity and a conscious effort of thwarting any negativity. Soon the corridors were abuzz with the whispers of new plans- the mind steeled with concentrated resolutions. 7 is not a joke. Yet impossible, they say, is nothing.

BACK IN LAVALE

Interestingly, we are called the batch of 9/11. A lot indeed to live up to!!
All geared up from the break, we re-entered the college territories for our second innings at the campus. Excitement and adrenaline ran high as we greeted each other the usual way- slaps, high-fives, tight hugs and "bro-code" vibes. Yet thoughts still were turned towards the joys of the busy life left behind at home- the afterglow of the days of warmth and "ghar ka khana" still lingering in our minds. The jackets, sweaters and woollen wear seemed excess luggage as the sheer absence of the winter bites in the Pune air. The campus indeed looked more colourful to the sore eyes. Sem-2 had begun indeed. And what a bang it began with !! A test which we had to give unprepares. So what's new??? Yes. We had arrived. To look forward to our usual fun, frolic, masti, coffee-gossip, lectures, events and parties. That's our life @ SIMC.

100 days @ SIMC

"ITNA SANHATA KYON HAI BHAI???'
We knew the answer to this. One magical word..SUSPENSION. Batch-2011 looked strangely incomplete without the usual fun-faces on their 100th day of campus life.
But the hooplah didnt end there.
Enter the dragon...aka..new rules..
This time about dress codes. oh yes..formals.
SIU" rules.."...
a 100 days on..we still are treated as imbeciles..
As potential defilers of the symbiotic net..
SIMC as always bears the brunt of all attack from all quarters..
We are always supposed to be prim and proper..not a hair out of place..shoes shining..clothes ironed  out to iron out all dirt of our beings..
And why not??? We do share the campus with SIBM & SITM.. who are always so well-dressed.."suited booted"...
We are mere mortals who have apparently lost the war even before the battle has begun..
Oh..even when we "wine and dine"..we are to be in formals.
No shorts.
No make-up
No chappals.
!!!
!!!
!!!
Wonder  why they forgot our night clothes..
Saree (starched out ) for girls and formal shirts and trousers for boys.
Oh..formal footwear too..no matter how uncomfortable they are on these hills..we must "walk on" ..
100 days on...the "fun" and the "joy" of a new discovery (read rules) never ceases..
Please dont stop the music SIU..
Carry on..Keep up the good work..

SALUTE TO A YOUNG SPIRIT

I write this highly inspired. It was quite a moving story of life ,as told to our class by our director. Prof Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhury (more popularly known among the student brigade as UKC) that left us enchanted-caught under its spell througout the day. The story was simple enough. Yet its very simplicity chose to highlight the strength of the human mind.

The story was of a young boy of 19, fighting cancer. Fresh out of scholl, the young boy from Dubai was looking forward to a new beginning at the SIMC campus @ SB road. Brimming with life, full of confidence, this young boy dreamt high. But his world came shattering down one day when he was diagnosed with cancer. From thereon, began his fight for life. Chemotherapy initially proved effective till a relapse. This repeated itself making the boy lose an academic year of high achievements and bigger dreams. Again there was a relapse. The boy lost yet another year of his much craved for college journey.

But during, all this time, the young boy never gave up. Never stopped fighting. His "ignited mind" displayed a level of maturity, way beyond anyone would normally credit a youngster of barely 19. Aided by Prof. UKC, he continued and excelled in his passion for writing. He did not want to waste  hos time in his sick-bed, but rather always had the thirst and the urge tom do more. It was ay this juncture that Prof. UKC by self-admission had jokingly suggested that he write something along the lines of SHOBHA DE'S book- "SURVIVING MEN." Much to the astonishment of all , the boy in a space of a couple of weeks wrote nearly 30,000 words on "SURVIVING CANCER." His one simple request was that if he dies then the last line of his book would be his last word.But if he survives the curse of cancer, then the first day of college would be the last chapter of his story.

Salute to him.

Salute to his young mind of courage which vis-a-vis "the knock of death" can remain so calm, composed, pragmatic and more matured than his tender age would imply.

This simple story of the not-so-simple-boy got me thinking, about how much we value ourselves exactly?
How much can we expect from ourselves?? Do we ever question and search for our true potential inside?
Or are we more busy to "live life" and " have fun?"Do we have what it takes to excel?Do we try at all?

Questions. Questions.
And more of these questions.
The question also is-do we have the answer for all these??

Salute to the young boy whose determonation, zeal, passion, courage and wisdom underlined the celebration of the true human spirit.

YOU(TH) SPEAK @ SAYPM

YOU(TH) SPEAK @ SAYPM


PUNE,MAHARASHTRA ,7th September’09:- The SOUTH ASIAN YOUTH PEACE MEET (better known in its shorter form as SAYPM) is a three day fest of words organized by SYMBIOSIS INSITITUTE OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS (SIMC) from 21st September to 23rd September 2009 in its PUNE campus of LAVALE. SAYPM is an initiative by the prestigious communication college to catalyze young minds to seek peace despite “distance” challenging the much carried on and carried forward words of conventional wisdom and aspire to reach out to newer horizons of knowledge about the actualities of our world today.



It’s a small world today-all thanks to globalization and its pros and cons. It is thus absolutely for the youth to think, opinionate, be informed and ahead of the rest about a peaceful growth and harmony across borders. SAYPM, in this regard, seeks to be the platform for growth of the young mind through its main propositions of “connect, communicate and converge.” Through the dialogues and interactions SAYPM in its debut performance aims to form a charter which will be presented tit hr UN about the socio-economic, cultural and political issues of the South-Asian countries viz India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Srilanka, Maldives and Afghanistan- which are aLso the participating countries.



Established in 1990, one of the leading media schools of the country, SIMC, seeks to follow the 360 degree concept of convergence in its media education-in its effort to create media professionals well-versed with the nuances of the media. In its endevour of SAYPM, SIMC, will try to live upto its ideal of YOU(th) speaks. In association with CENTRE FOR SECULARISM AND SOCIETY, SAYPM, in its 3-day glory would examine the themes of COMMUNAL HARMONY, YOUTH AFFAIRS AND POLITICS,ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY as also through various fun-filled contests, SAYPM, would try its bit in mobilizing the youth pro-socio-eco-political and the cultural life of SOUTH ASIA.

ODE TO SUSPENSION!!

Suspension..its at it again..for batch-2011..its returned again raising its ugly horns.
Cant analogise to a phoenix rising from the ashes but it strikes again-at us-with its vicious blows-shattering our nascent dreams to smoke.
"Smoke on the water???"
Perhaps.
Ashes everywhere.
Somewhere we find ourselves at an intersection where honesty clashes with hypocrisy and finding no solution or a way out, we lose ourselves decoding rules- as a backside of thoughtless "fun".
Why did we let stupidity reign our vulnerable moments and let history too recycle itself afresh??
Why didnt we learn our lessons properly?
Wasnt the home-work satisfactory earlier??
It is sometimes this stupidity on the part of some people that irks us- their friends- who feel guilty, responsible for another's carelessness- yet at the reciever's end when they spend their days "off-campus" flirting with TNG..suspended..in the willing suspension of disbelief...

COFFEE!!!!!!!

Coming to SIMC, I noticed a trend.- strange, funny..-no!!
Just a trend..something we all follow..consciously..unconsciously..directly..indirectly..
It's the trend of "night coffee"..
A night cult that's easily, effortlessly and smoothly become a part of all of us..
Smiles, shining eyes, overexuberant hugs and hellos..we all float about in our coffee-high..
Is it just the coffee of the coffeeshop that makes us feel this way..or it is the after-effects of freedom from the rigours of the long stretching back-breaking hours of immobility on a 4-legged chair..???
Perhaps the latter..
Aye..Hot and  coffee..hot and chocolate....shakes..rule the roost in the monopoly driven SIMC market..
After the "mess-y" food..COFFEE SHOP seems straight out of paradise for us Lavale-ites..
And do we lap it all up..like year long hungry angry victims of "hollow-cost"...
It is a trend..yes..a time for bonding of the batch..a time for meetings..and some more meetings..a time to laugh..a time to play.a time for us..a time of us...
Looking back to the SIMC years..these coffee-moments will always shine on in my mind..
And I know..where these coffee-nostalgia-driven-moments-of-reminiscence would be concerned..I'll never be alone..
Coffee creates this strange unity amongst us..Makes us feel "belonged"..a part of the whole..
Where we stand together."ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL.."

"LAVALE" LIFE..

all thanks to mr.president(of the students council) to get me started..the lure of the "project status" worked it's charm on me for sure..the central theme of my scribblings here would ,definitely for me ,be about campus life and our life in genral here ,at the top of a pune hill "looking down" at "city of blinding lights.."
maybe this "isolation" (as our batch tries to romanticise it as)...serves the more important indirect purpose of bringing us the MEDIA TRAINEES closer ,to form a more cohesive bond..
"far from the madding crowd" , we the SIMC-ians live, work, laugh, cry, play,sit idle,dream,ideate,talk shop,think up random topics for mindless conversations,breathe in the clean unpolluted scent of coffee beans(the coffee-shop..not the nescafe satchets of the "mess-y" mornings)- as one big yappy-happy "family"!!!
2 years here in this campus is worth all kaleidoscope of emotions, all hues of distinct moods, all rays of sunshine and the silver lining of the clouds...
it's a 2 years of life..worth livin't up!!