A fine December morning at Bhubaneswar... I was seated on my table in front of the 15.4" screen Dell Inspiron browsing through Rockmelt. Impressed with England at the Ashes second match. Just happened to glance at the bottom right of my screen- 5th December2010.
Inadvertently, my mind tripped back one year. Same time last year, corrected for a few days earlier. Something had started off then, a thing that now has turned out to be my hitherto most cherished experience of my college life. Something that kept me all engaged for the months that followed and totally attached to it like something never before. That was Alma Fiesta and my role as the Core Head and Sponsorship Coordinator there. I thought it only befitting to Look Back from here and then come forward in the Looking KCAB series.
One of the few good things that can happen to you being in a new IIT is the chance you get to kick start traditions. Framing what would be deemed our legacy, instead of carrying forward the baton. As entrepreneurial as it can get. Said that, it is only natural that it shall take no lesser than an Herculean effort to rise to the pinnacle. And add to it the fact that you are in Odisha. The case here was not any different but only more intensified with cobweb of hurdles manifested in manifold dimensions.
For the uninitiated, Alma Fiesta is the socio cultural fest of IIT Bhubaneswar. (Ah, I should have used this sentence over those few months for like some million times) Our (read students of IIT Bhubaneswar) first ever attempt at anything big, anything of this significance, of this reach, of this value. A college cultural fest is no cakewalk in any variable and couple it with the tag of IIT and the expectation it carries alongwith and more, a new IIT in Odisha, it is not a walk on the pavement either. Let me take you across how it all unfolded.
It all started with, I should say, a collective push in the minds of a motivated few to scrap out an image for IIT Bhubaneswar through a socio-cultural fest. Looked so very justified to us that this was the most easy and the best fit way for us to make a name for IIT Bhubaneswar. The push lead on to brainstorming, umpteen discussions ensued and a lot of decisions later, a sort of concept plan for Alma Fiesta got structured. Next big thing was to get the plan across to others and this others included the authorities concerned. Little did we know that we would get to experience such extensive degrees of unwelcome passiveness in more ways and means than one. Appeasements and settlements eventuated. Those were times when getting things to start rolling, seemed way too beyond the horizon to stand a decent chance. (Orissa- you tend to blame. It happens everywhere-you tend to console).A commendable team work ensured a smooth work flow to execute the plans. Organizing a fest spanning three days, including some thirty events, attended by about fifty colleges and more importantly, powered through sponsorship of couple of million is no joke. Add to it, putting all this up in the very first year of existence at a place hardly a handful of the lot hailed from- that says it all.
My attempt here is only to splatter musings on how I figured in, and what I earned and why I loved it. The initial "few-do-it-all-till-things-settle" stage was probably very precise indication of the things to come. Work day in and day out to actually make people believe we were talking sense and get them give you a go-ahead. A lot of paper work became a routine affair and I cherished the avenue to take up different tones of writing work. Wonderful part was penning down nearly the entire sponsorship brochure in one single day and that it received acclaim from a great number of companies. Once things started to settle and once more people got the idea and realised it actually was not that bad an idea after all (:P), guidance and assistance dropped in.
Then followed my three month long tenure as the sponsorship coordinator. More on it and much more "inside thoughts" in the next.
PS: Net is just back at my room and hence by the time I could post what I wrote in the morning, it has actually transpired to be a cool December evening at Bhubaneswar
