Summons 2010

- Gagana N.V. and Vineet Bhalla

In spite of the fact that most of our parents kept on rambling about how the
looming Ayodhya verdict might lead to riots and bandhs and that it wasn't safe
for us to travel all the way to Hyderabad just to take part in a college fest, we
all went ahead for Summons anyways. Most of us were first-years going to their
very first college fest, and nothing could dampen our sunny spirits, not even a
potential battle between religious fundamentalists and the danger it posed to
our lives!

Since we had an early train to catch, we had been instructed to be ready with
our luggage outside by 6 a.m. sharp. True to NUJS spirit, the entire contingent
was out only by 6:50, after urgent phone calls to the two main culprits who kept
us all waiting for so long, Shruthee and Gagana. We bid our good-byes and
boarded the fleet of taxis that had come to pick us up, kicking off the journey
in right earnest.

Some of us were honored and some (unfortunately) scandalized to have the DC

committee, i.e., 'Daru and Cigarette' committee1 accompanying our Summons
contingent. Other than terrorising the NLU-Orrissa kids in the train, the DC
club also effortlessly kept the eunuchs away. And all through the train journey,
Chick-magnet a.k.a. Vaibhav was trying furiously not to blush in view of the fact
that he was reunited with his dearest, ahemfriend after a long time. Highlight
of the train journey though was ShooMon Das spectacles flying away from his
face and out of the bogey door (only his glasses could have pulled that off!!) as a
result of which ShooMon Da became, er, visually challenged for a whole day-and1 Any information regarding the members of this club is highly confidential and
hence can't be disclosed.

a-half. The eventful 26-hour long train journey ended once we reached
Secunderabad, and a two-hour long bus journey later, we were left standing
outside Celebrity Resort in the middle of wilderness. Even though our 30member contingent had to squeeze into the three-bed room (15 into one room, in
case of the first year guys) villa, none of us complained much because, well,
there was air-conditioning!!

While everyone else was unwinding and resting, the determined-to-see-thesights-of-Hyderabad-while-they-could fivesome of Shoumendu, ShooMon Da,
Bhagi, Bhalla and Yash sneaked off from the villa to Hyderabad. At that time
trivial matters such as commuting back from Hyderabad to our resort-in-themiddle-of-nowhere at night didnt strike their genius minds. As it turned out,
they got stuck in Secunderabad for two harrowing hours while returning,
running after buses and autos in the middle of a heavy downpour and begging
and pleading them to drop them near our villa. After some 268 blunt refusals of
this humble request, one noble autowallah finally helped them out of their
ordeal. Back in the villa, the rest of the contingent members were busy
threatening to sue the owners of a nearby restaurant for illegally charging
extra tax on the dinner (We are budding lawyers, after all!).

The fest didnt start on such a high note for us, what with Sidhaant, who was
registered to take part in poster-making competition, disappearing minutes
before the event was supposed to start and pissing everyone off by turning up
late (Pulling off such shenanigans throughout the trip didnt exactly get him
brownie points from the rest of the contingent). Arnab turned up wearing a tshirt that said Hey Gunjan2! Wheres your roommate? to annoy a special
someone who happened to be a NALSAR-ite. The numerous food stalls that
abounded sold some pretty ordinary food at inflated prices (the rolls there
were half the size and double the price of what one gets in good ole Kolkata).

2 For more information on Gunjan, please contact Anagh

Coming to the competitions, the first of the four challenges for the Theatre
team, the Movie Spoof, was scheduled early up on the first day. The plotline for
this had been conceptualized during the train journey by Shashvat and Bhalla,
and the former had written the entire script the previous night only. Still, the
fact that we came first means that a) the judges must have really liked our
heady concoction of Inception, Twilight, Kaminey, Ghajini, Dabangg and Taare
Zameen Par, and b) our theatre team is pretty damn good.

No one in our contingent had planned to take part in Solo Dance, but Avichal
bravely volunteered to participate in order to earn our contingent some
participation points. We all felt bad for the chap, for he had not prepared
anything, and would be dancing unrehearsed. But he stunned everyone with his
mind-blowing, impromptu performance to 'Khai ke paan Banaras wala' and walked
away with the second position. Surely the story of the fest, his victory provided
us not only with merry cheer, but also a great moral boost. Avichalss promise of
a grand treat to us all remains unfulfilled, but thats another story. A guy from
NLU-O, who also had his birthday that day, came first. Due to this, most of our
contingent got friendly with him, wishing and congratulating him in the hope of
getting a birthday-first prize double treat. When that didnt seem like
materializing, we showed our true colors and gave him a small dose of the NUJS
BDay Celebration, Boys Hostel style!

Sreya and Sidhaant, apart from sharing a 'joking' relationship with each other,
possess very, very creative hands. They teamed up and came first in all the
fine-arts events except for cartooning. That's because the cartoon strip which
they, along with Gagana, drew was a very upright and hilarious comparison of the
curfew timings of NUJS and NALSAR (the curfew timing of NALSAR being
7pm!). Obviously it didnt go down very well with the judges.

The Symbiosis contingent, our main competitor, was huge, with more than 50
wannabes. There was a lot of banter between us and them, most of it of the
not-very-polite variety. This kicked off a series of highly entertaining and

intense tussles between NUJS and Symbi and the competition turned fiercer
and fiercer every minute, culminating in a bitter face-off on the final day
between the two contingents that almost turned ugly.

Brassic bhai, our 'elusive' contingent leader ('elusive' because he used to go

missing every time someone needed him) and renowned rapper won the hearts
of every NALSAR-ite with his remarkable performance (in which he spoke very
highly of NALSAR) during the Western Solo competition. On the DJ night, we
had to make do with a terrible excuse for a DJ who had no sense of music at all.
He kept playing boring songs to which no one felt like dancing (I mean, who can
dance to the Mario background theme??). But we danced and enjoyed anyways.

Our street play, with a Naxalism-based theme, was a huge success and very
well-received by the audience. Every single member gave a power packed
performance. Swaroop, who played a mentally and physically handicapped
villager, actually moved some of the audiences to tears! (Nah, just kidding! But
he was pretty much awesome). The Stage Theatre event provided us with two
images that we will probably never forget: One, of Shashvat playing a gay
Yamraj, Yammi, complete with Bhallas ridiculous yellow-and-red pajamas; and
two, of Bhalla, who had already played a girl in the Mad Ad, taking it a step
further and donning a proper sari for the role of Rakhi Saawan! Looking very
lovely and feminine, he attracted many wide-eyed stares and even requests for
his number from some NALSAR guys! (OK, I made up the last bit, but whatever,
the guy wore a SARI, for Gods sake!!)

Other than that, Shruthee got lucky in Tambola and earned 400 bucks (were
awaiting a treat from her too), although the Tambola game will be remembered
more for Brassic Bhais impressive dive towards the caller with a full house
claim that proved to be a bogey! Bhalla, on his third college fest within five
weeks, won the creative writing contest, much to the delightful surprise of
everyone, including himself. He claims to have written a psychological thriller on
one of the stipulated topics, Man in the Towel (We dont believe him either). D

aka Divyanshu, Bhagi and Shashvat cleared the Dumb Charades prelims by
guessing a book, a movie and a famous figure, all within 25 seconds. They
ultimately came second in the finals.

Besides all these victories, there were some other fun moments too. Like the
Group Dance Competition, during which the crowd oohed and aahed for Pranav,
Krishanu and Antara who enthralled the audience with their impressive stunts
and of course dance! Or the Paper Dance, in which Bhalla and Shruthee did
admirably to reach the fifth round, wherein Bhalla could only stand with one
foot on the paper with Shruthee perched on his shoulders. At this point Bhallas
foot, like his mouth, proved to be too big for his own good. In 'Race Against
Time', Shruthee, Gagana and Sidhaant ran around the campus like mad dogs
searching for stupid clues. In the Parliamentary Debate, Khosla set it up quite
nicely only for Gaind to mess it up (As it is, theres no love lost between the
two). And when no one wished to participate in the Hairstyling Competition, it
was ShooMon Da who valiantly stood up, picking an unwilling Vaibhav Chicky
Verma as his muse. Suffice to say, the resulting hairdo was anything but
pleasing to the eye.

The last day, though, belonged to Madhav Slowhand Khosla, who was part of all
three NUJS victories that day. First, he won Turncoat. Then, he virtually
carried D and Bhalla along with him to the first place in the Entertainment Quiz.
And in the evening, he came second in the Mastermind-style quiz. The fest
finally concluded with a mesmerizing performance by Lucky Ali and his band,
which had a very pretty 19-year old as its lead guitarist (with her and three
wives, Lucky certainly deserves his name!) In the end, Symbi won the best
contingent award, much to our dismay, and we came second best. Still, we did
pretty well for ourselves, and could manage to feel proud about our exploits in
NALSAR.

Looking back at Summons, we wont only remember it for the seven first places
or the five second places that our contingent got. We will also remember it for

many other priceless moments, such as the idle frolic and the stupid games
invented and played with friends during marathon train journeys; the group
singing sessions during our bus trips, tirelessly orchestrated by the first-year
CR, Akshay; cramming up 12-13 guys to sleep in a room with just two beds
; fighting for who gets to use each of the three bathrooms next while getting
ready in the mornings; all the guys literally jumping like a pack of wolves on the
food that Shruthee brought from her friends place; cheering and shouting and
goading and applauding each other during the various competitions, and feeling
so proud and happy for each other and for the fact that were Noojies. The
euphoria of winning, the disappointment of losing, the gossiping, the laughing,
the hard work put in those practice sessions and much more; these are the
memories of what was, for many of us, our very first college fest that we will
cherish. To sum it up then, there were some periods of lull, but on the whole,
Summons was great fun.