Tryst with the P

I think i am now capable of writing a book about my encounters with P. the walk to the cc block, those endless conversations with the PAs, and the ever fierce urge to burst the P's office will haunt me until i step into my grave.

Encounter 1- meet P to fight for the existence of the college play in the year 2009.
it wasn't exactly pleasant, but we prevailed! i can still recall the dialogue verbatim. while P kept emphasising on the nuisance it was, we kept prattling about the absolute necessity of it. the enchanting experience it has sought to provide the hundreds who were a part of it. we quoted the previous burgomasters of the play, their learning, their personality enhancements, etc etc. did it move P? well, NOT IN THE LEAST. we then made promises of taking up sale of tickets to relieve the teachers from the so called wrath of the students. did this help? finally, YES, but to the extent that she asked us to go back to C to finalise.

Encounter 2- the fight for a director and hall
this was probably the most interesting meeting, as it ignited in me a hope for the future of the play as i saw a junior fighting for what i believed in. we managed to get the need for an external director approved, but the hall was still in jeopardy. her reasons for the disapproval of a hall outside the campus seemed unknown to herself as she adamantly refuted every point we made including the monetary issue(the one considered to do the trick each time) by a wave of her hand! (what wouldn't have done to chop it off)

Encounter 3- hmmm- ah yes, the meeting with the director
my favourite so far, as all i had to do was sit back and relax and watch bala amuse the sisters with his sweet talk! we actually received blessings from H and P at the end of it, i wish i'd recorded that meeting. :O

Encounter 4- proposal meet + venue fight+ fight for four shows
by far the most frustrating one as i sat in P's office for forty-five minutes the previous day for an appointment and waited for two and half hours the next day along with my teacher coordinators to meet her. her eleven o' clock turned out to be one thirty! as we entered the room all i could sense was the nerve on my temple pulsating with anger! yet, we had to put up our best smile and greet her with GENUINE AFFECTION! we tell her about the progress we've made with sponsorship, only to receive a big NO for the only sponsor who had agreed to shell out the maximum. (she asks us to give her a print-out of the proposal and a list of the sponsors along with a description of their activities by the next day! ) but we take a deep breath and smile and proceed. we talk out reasons for four shows confirming in every way possible that no college activity or timing would be disrupted by the show. she finally AGREES! (during the process of convincing her we also got a glimpse of her amazingly minute knowledge of theatre- as she blinked brightly at the use of the term- double cast! it wouldn't have surprised me much had she not professed profoundly, in our previous meetings, that she had enough experience in this sphere to outdo our very own director! ) Sigh, we smile and proceed. we then draw the stage and tell her the pros of having it in the venue previously okay-ed by her. after wasting three sheets of paper we prevail. i get out of the room satisfied and exhausted.

Encounter 5- PROPOSAL
the proposal had been lying on her table for 6 hours, but when we ask her about it, she replies- "oh i haven't read it yet". we smile and proceed. we ask her about the title of the play 'Mordant Murals', she turns to S and asks- "S, is it English?." we smile and proceed. the most unsuccessful meeting ended with us having to leave assuring her that the name would be changed to a 'happier' one.

Encounter 6- Black and Blue and Other Hues
i go to her office to get the name approved without which we can't proceed with our sponsorship. she looks at it and asks me to get the permission of all the VPs. i smile and proceed to the offices of the VPs only to find one of them seated. she asks me to wait till all the VPs are there in their respective cabins so that they can come to a conclusion unanimously! (Like that's going to happen in the next 29 centuries!) i smile and proceed to P to tell her that the task ahead is impossible. by god's grace one of the VPs was in the P's office with her, i shamelessly ordered vatsala ma'am to take the list and not come out of the office unless a name had been approved off. Black and Blue and Other Hues, emerged!

Encounter 7- Letter
getting a letter signed might sound like the easiest task so far, well it took me three days and two hours of standing outside her office to get it signed. it was done and that's all that matters for now.
that's all folks! (at least for now :S)

Among the Blackness and Blueness

well i've been wanting to write something here for a long time! the reasons why i haven't jotted down anything as yet
1. Laziness
2. Incoherent thoughts
3. topic?
i just took a ten minute break to go and read the previous year's play blog to get some ideas. :P as the new year approaches, lets take a resolution to
1. LEARN our lines
2. be on TIME for rehearsals (it rhymes!)
3. have FUN (muahahaha)
4. and and and and and and and - oh yes ofcourse, EAT, SLEEP and be MERRY
for otherwise i shall start chopping heads in lieu of insubordination! (*evil laugh*)

uncharted territory

It would make an interesting sociological study, I think, to analyse the dynamics of large groups of young, hormonal people working on projects they're passionate about. Sure, large groups of young hormonal people are bound to be interesting in themselves, even when they're wandering around aimlessly, but it's when they're all focused on one, particularly close-to-the-heart affair that the most violent, extreme reactions are to be seen.

Or maybe I'm just blowing things out of proportion, as usual.

I've never been in a play, to be honest. Not unless you count being a sheep present at the birth of Jesus when I was about six years old. Or "Hope" [as part of the sickeningly goody two-shoes trio, Hope, Faith and Charity] when I was twelve and had to spout a very preachy speech on how I was the saving grace of mankind's doom, or some such. Neither of these beautiful, enriching experiences had any effect on me, apart from temporarily making me a devoutly aspiring Christian.

Auditioning, therefore, was something I was dragged into. I must admit, it was fun - random, nonsensical and entertaining. Quite out of the ordinary everyday drill. And then of course, even though I didn't really expect to get in, I did. In one of those very cool twists of fate where everything seems to be working in your favour :P

Anyway, to cut a long story short - well, not that long, but I'd rather not harp on about my inspirational journey all the way... here - being in the college play cast is good fun. There are the obsessive, hyper drama people who've been nursing a passion for acting a great deal longer than I have, there are the chilled out, random people who're just in it for the fun and there are the in-between morons [like me] who've got very little clue what they're doing. Put them all together and what do you get?

A good deal of drama, comedy, entertainment, farce, spectacle and satire.

Haha, I'm a Literature student, forgive me!

Happy Holidays! :D

The Swamp Thesis

The girls in my college (wow! what are the odds of that?!?) have been falling sick a lot over the last few weeks. The same symptoms - fever, stomach upset, nausea... Coincidence? I think not. One, okay. Two - maybe. But TEN women in FOURTEEN days? Personally, I blame The Swamp. And the management who is in charge of it, of course. For those of you who are not familiar with The Swamp, I will elaborate. 

Remember the rains Chennai witnessed in the last week of November? When the city was struggling to stay afloat and in some places, drowning? That's when a lot of water stagnated in our grounds, creating The Swamp. At first, I admit it was pretty cool. People sat eating samosas, staring at their reflections, sailed paper boats, threw pebbles into the water to see the ripple effect... Until it began to stagnate and give off a terrific stench. Though the water in the front had dried up, the marshy inlands (as I like to call it) towards the basketball and tennis courts was quite a sight (and smell). It was quite hard to believe that it was the same place the NCC cadets would go mamrching off or somewhere we would be hosting our play in Feb (am I giving away too much?). Anyway, I wonder what P and H and H thought of the whole deal. Personally I'd have loved to have whacked P and H1 and C on the head with a block of concrete and shoved - . Okay, I can see my Production Manager Counterpart (henceforth known as PMC) going "Shhh!!! The play's not over yet! Be careful of what you say!!!"

But it's not like any of the frocks are going to read this, right? I mean a blog is meant to vent, right? I don't see how H1's opinion of me can deteriorate any further after the 'w-horrible' episode.  And I don't see how H2's opinion of me will matter since she slaps my ass anyway. She slaps everyones ass - I swear it's not just me! 

Anyway, coming back to the topic of discussion, I really wonder what P, H1 & 2 and C thought of the whole deal. Speaking of which, the latter has been sick for sometime now and her little monkeys were getting a bit worried cause there was no one to approve of the things they did - though of course, she wrote them off very randomly as 'manipulative'. But that is another post by itself, my pretties. Enough that you know that it made her sick. H2 would have been happy actually - less litter to clear up, no grass to mow... Other innocents to hound while the sun shines. H1 and P though... I mean they sit there the ENTIRE time and they still don't notice the putrifying mess that is/was the swamp? I mean, come on! Its bad enough that students congregate there on a general basis, but so close to the canteen? Would draining it be too much to ask for? 

Oh well. What's been done's been done. The Swamps more or less dry now. I even saw someone mowing it the other day. All should be well by February, Inshallah. Get well soon my pretties. Hope to see you all at rehearsal soon after a marvellous christmas break. 

 

Introductory Chatter

This is the first time I've created a blog and it's working! Whats more, our dear darling P has condescended enough to approve of our name and sign our proposal letter (after 36 hours or more of wondering about all the negative connotations of Black), so somethings going somewhere. Even better news coming up, people! Sammy and Sandy already have ideas for the poster - I love you guys! - which will be ready sometime soon.

Okay, that's enough introductory chatter for now, I think. Feel free to post, my pretties :)