Insight | Sep 2002 | Vol 5 | Issue 2

Another Malhar came. Another Malhar went. And with it the shoving around and the incessant orders to "Stand in a straight line" and to "Keep Moving" which defines the Malhar experience for most people who go down to Xavier's. However, what was different about this Malhar, at least for us at IIT, was the huge (and successful) contingent which we sent.

Every year, we land up at Malhar. Take part ONLY in Lit. Win Lit. But the participation in other events is truly abysmal. Considering that this year we not only swept the Lit events but also left our mark in Fine Arts, Western Performing Arts (WPA) and Indian Performing Arts (IPA), it was probably our best performance by far in the last few years. And for the icing on the cake, we swept the Lit Trophy for the 3rd consecutive year (Yawn).

To err is human, to forgive is divine and to crib is IITian. . All the cribs about the dumbness of Malhar Security and Assistance organizers apart, one thing that stands firm is the fact that Malhar people are good when it comes to event conceptualisation and execution. The fest offered loads of events with great competition. Once inside the competition room, it was pure fun and delight for the competition-crazy IITians.

We topped the Lit trophy tally with 35 points. To put that in perspective, the team that came 2nd managed 14. Though it might seem like a cake-walk, in reality it was not that easy with the competition being from within IIT itself!!! You see, in each event at Malhar, only one "official" team per college is allowed on the contingent and points grabbed only by this team are added to the college's points tally. The remaining teams participate as OTSEs (On-The-Spot-Entries) and do not get any points for their positions in that event. In most of the events, it so happened that the OTSE teams won positions (leaving the contingent teams in NBD). However, cracks from the contingent teams on the last day saw us sail through with the Lit Trophy.

In Fine Arts, the IIT performance was extraordinary. To be honest, when we were going through the list of Fine Arts finalists, we were in for a pleasant surprise. Amidst colleges devoted to art, from Rachana Sansad Arts and Crafts to JJ School of Fine Arts, to see IIT Bombay holding its head high was truly awe-inspiring. Kudos to the whole Fine Art Contingent for a great great performance.

The performance in the IPA and WPA also was great... with the IITian team winning the Impromptu as usual... in style. But the treat was the H2-H10 PAF dance 'Volare' in the Western Group Dance competition! Although it did not place in the top 3, it made it to the final 6 (in fact, it came 2nd in the elims round). The applause for the dance was awe-some and this sure is one of the best memories IITB can have at Malhar '02. For, not always do we go so far in a WPA event. There were also good fights put up by Dram and Dance junta in events like Dram, International group dance, Solo Indian dance etc.

At the end of the day, we won the Lit trophy, we placed 5th overall and most importantly, we sent a great contingent that did its best.

And all's well that ends well? Well, no. Malhar is also characterized by the most outlandish of incidents. The moment you get down from the bus, you are shoved into a line with the orders 'Keep the line straight'. You reach the gate and the hunk guy starts frisking you for any little bit of metal scrap that you might have. The other chap on 'Bag check' would rip apart your bag and pull out any weird objects (read calculators) and tell you that these are too complicated gadgets to carry inside. If the security sucked, wait till you meet the assistance flos. They would make you go round and round the entire college, just because you wanted to get to a place just 3 feet from where you stood. Even Harry Potter lost in his Hogwarts castle would be better off.

And everyone who goes there has a story of his own. Two unsuspecting IITians, Hem and Haw, land up at the gates of Xaviers and are asked to show some identification. Hem proudly flashes his IIT I card at the organiser. The organiser lets him in. Haw goes ahead and does the same and lo and behold, the organiser starts shouting at him saying that he has a fake I Card. Reason being?? The last IITian who came in was from Chemical Engineering. Hence, IIT teaches only Chemical Engg. The poor unsuspecting Elec punter is a fraud.

Seeing the huge participation of the fairer sex from IIT this year (believe us, half the bus was occupied by the gals), one of the organizing females remarks, "Oh, IIT has girls too." The tales would go on forever. Enuf said.

Here are the people who made it happen.

LITERARY AND DEBATING ARTS

1. JAM
   1st - Karun Money
   Joint 2nd - Zuber Mohammed and Ravi Kakkad
   (4 out of 6 finalists were from IIT Bombay)

2. Pot Pourri
   1st - Sandeep Bala, Deeparnab Chakraborty, Ravi Kakkad
   2nd - Karun Money, Karthik Ramkumar, Vikram Rentala
   3rd - Arvind Subramaniam, Aditya Yedekar, Vivek
   (4 out of 6 teams in the finals were from IIT Bombay)

3. Logic games
   1st - Zuber Mohammed  and Anuj Pradhan
   2nd - Dhruv Jain and Sandeep Bala
   3rd - Saurabh Banglani and Priyanka Lahiri
   (5 out of 6 teams in the finals were from IIT Bombay)

4. Lit Quiz
   1st - Udit Parekh and Krishnaraj Gharpure
   3rd - Deeparnab Chakraborty and Dhruv Jain
   (3 out of 6 teams in the finals were from IIT Bombay)

5. Master Mind Quiz
   3rd - Udit Parekh

6. Audio-Visual Quiz
   (3 out of 6 teams in the finals were from IIT Bombay)

7. Letter Writing
   2nd - Amrita Mahale

8. Extempore Elocution
   2nd - Ravi Kakkad
   (2 out of 6 finalists were from IIT Bombay)

9. Spoofing
   2nd place - Arunoday and Jatin Mamtani




FINE ARTS

1. Currency Designing
   3rd - Sandhya Hegde and Suraj Ravindran

2. Wall Painting
   3rd - Cameli Sutradhar

3. Oil painting
   Adil  Rasheed
   Qualified for the Finals (Total 6 finalists)

4. Cartoon Making
   Akshay
   Qualified for the Finals (Total 6 finalists)


WORLD PERFORMING ARTS

1. Impromptu Acting
   1st - Zuber Mohammed, Ritesh Jhaveri and Ravi Kakkad

2. Street Dance
   H2-H10 PAF Dance - 'Volare'
   Qualified for the Finals (Total 6 finalists)


INDIAN PERFORMING ARTS

1. Carnatic Instrumental
   Ashwin Venkatraman
   Qualified for the finals (Total 6 finalists)

2. Duet Singing
   Arpita Nagdev and Kedar Kulkarni
   Qualified for the finals (Total 6 finalists)

3. Antakshari
   Gaurav Sharma and Sneha
   Qualified for the finals (Total 6 finalists)


FINAL RESULT:

1. IIT Bombay WON the Literary Arts Trophy (Scored 35 points; Second placed team had 14 points)
2. IIT Bombay came 5th overall.

Karthik Ramkumar (karth0ue@ccs...) is a 3rd year B.Tech student in the dept of Elec Engg. Zishaan M. Hayath (d0zmh@civil...) is a 3rd year Dual degree student in the dept of Civil Engg.