Illumination and me
Another Diwali came and went by. The lesser mortals who have not had a chance of being a part of IIT Kharagpur would definitely wonder that what's so special about a festival which comes every year and is celebrated in more or less the similar way on all the occasions. Is this festival worth a discussion? But this year, the Diwali left behind a lot of momentous feelings for me.
For the knowledge of outsiders, Diwali is not celebrated in its usual way here at IIT Kgp, that is just by lighting some candles or diyas around your house, bursting some crackers and distributing sweets. Diwali here doesn't mean just one evening of festiveness. Its a month long celebration of sorts with the people busy with their creation of huge figures made of diyas made on flat bamboo structures called chatais. This rendition of the festival of lights is unparallel to any other place in the world. This is something which is seen as a glorious tradition of IIT Kharagpur and the institute community is really proud of this unique way of celebrating Diwali. Even in the age of computers in every room and exhaustive content avalaible on the LAN, the event continues to be a major part of the Kgp social calendar. But the involvement from the side of students has definitely reduced. Also different halls of residences look upon the event differently.
As it appears to me, halls like RK and RP seem desperate to win the event (I prefer not to call it a "competition" because the judging and the results are totally absurd) at any cost. So they have a high budget and even employ a lot of external workers for their flawless accomplishment. But the bottomline is that, only a handful of residents there are involved with the planning and organization of the illumination. Some of my friends from these halls were even unaware of their illu theme a day or two before the event! Now lets come to our hall, the Patel Hall. Here we have a slightly different view of illu. Our aim is similar to that of others, that is winning and we leave no stone unturned to achieve this. But there is a broader outlook to the event also. We look upon it as an event to bring all the inmates of the hall together, especially the freshers. Unlike RK or RP our illu is not that fancied and is done with a budget which is a small fraction of theirs and yet the whole hall is involved in it.
In my second year, I along with all our batchmates worked tirelessly for the illu and felt well-rewarded when we won the 2nd prize in Illumination and the 3rd prize in Rangoli. However in my 3rd year, there was no compulsion on my part to come and work for illu. There is a big batch of 2nd years this time and man-strength was never going to be a problem. But still I came every day and was one of the few guys who were present for almost whole of the time the preparations were going on. Although many of my friends might have felt that I was some sort of a jackass, I totally enjoyed being a part of the celebrations. Many might question that what do I get out of it.
Actually I definitely didn't get anything material by spending sleepless nights running from one place to another. But what I got was a satisfaction of working without expecting anything in return. What I got was a new found confidence that has made me feel that I can take up any big challenge in my life. What I enjoyed was the profound experience of working together in a group. What I learnt was how to plan for big events like this and go about the execution of those plans. And above all, there are those mental images of the enormous chatais which are definitely going to be there with me throughout my life. After all this, it hardly mattered that we didn't win any prize this year, although we do feel cheated. But one thing's for sure. Wherever I am and whatever condition I am in, whenever Diwali comes every year, I am going to remember these sleepless nights working for illu.
All this could never have been achieved just by remaining shut inside your room, sitting in front of your computer watching some stupid movie for timepass or spending some of your valuable time along with others' on Orkut or chatting.
For the knowledge of outsiders, Diwali is not celebrated in its usual way here at IIT Kgp, that is just by lighting some candles or diyas around your house, bursting some crackers and distributing sweets. Diwali here doesn't mean just one evening of festiveness. Its a month long celebration of sorts with the people busy with their creation of huge figures made of diyas made on flat bamboo structures called chatais. This rendition of the festival of lights is unparallel to any other place in the world. This is something which is seen as a glorious tradition of IIT Kharagpur and the institute community is really proud of this unique way of celebrating Diwali. Even in the age of computers in every room and exhaustive content avalaible on the LAN, the event continues to be a major part of the Kgp social calendar. But the involvement from the side of students has definitely reduced. Also different halls of residences look upon the event differently.
As it appears to me, halls like RK and RP seem desperate to win the event (I prefer not to call it a "competition" because the judging and the results are totally absurd) at any cost. So they have a high budget and even employ a lot of external workers for their flawless accomplishment. But the bottomline is that, only a handful of residents there are involved with the planning and organization of the illumination. Some of my friends from these halls were even unaware of their illu theme a day or two before the event! Now lets come to our hall, the Patel Hall. Here we have a slightly different view of illu. Our aim is similar to that of others, that is winning and we leave no stone unturned to achieve this. But there is a broader outlook to the event also. We look upon it as an event to bring all the inmates of the hall together, especially the freshers. Unlike RK or RP our illu is not that fancied and is done with a budget which is a small fraction of theirs and yet the whole hall is involved in it.
In my second year, I along with all our batchmates worked tirelessly for the illu and felt well-rewarded when we won the 2nd prize in Illumination and the 3rd prize in Rangoli. However in my 3rd year, there was no compulsion on my part to come and work for illu. There is a big batch of 2nd years this time and man-strength was never going to be a problem. But still I came every day and was one of the few guys who were present for almost whole of the time the preparations were going on. Although many of my friends might have felt that I was some sort of a jackass, I totally enjoyed being a part of the celebrations. Many might question that what do I get out of it.
Actually I definitely didn't get anything material by spending sleepless nights running from one place to another. But what I got was a satisfaction of working without expecting anything in return. What I got was a new found confidence that has made me feel that I can take up any big challenge in my life. What I enjoyed was the profound experience of working together in a group. What I learnt was how to plan for big events like this and go about the execution of those plans. And above all, there are those mental images of the enormous chatais which are definitely going to be there with me throughout my life. After all this, it hardly mattered that we didn't win any prize this year, although we do feel cheated. But one thing's for sure. Wherever I am and whatever condition I am in, whenever Diwali comes every year, I am going to remember these sleepless nights working for illu.
All this could never have been achieved just by remaining shut inside your room, sitting in front of your computer watching some stupid movie for timepass or spending some of your valuable time along with others' on Orkut or chatting.
posted by Sumit Kumar at
10:00 PM
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