A week of planning, a last
rescheduling and finally the day was here when we bid an unofficial goodbye to
the 2014 batch of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay.
Unofficial coz this was a party thrown by the SOM15 batch to SOM14 and you know
what I mean when I say “party” right? ;-) So the location was finalized, theme
decided, invitations sent out and unlimited drinks ensured! It was 30th
March 2014, a day before Navratri began, so that the “religious” guys too could
get themselves soaked into alcohol once before the “dry” rituals began.
Zitar in Hiranandani was the
venue finalized. Although small and a little congested, it was the best a batch
of 80 could afford for a 120 strong senior batch. And yeah the proximity to
campus and the lovely ambience won us over at first look. The time was 7 in the
evening but although punctuality is drilled into us MBA students, this was one
deadline we were definitely not gonna meet. To add to the delay was a World Cup
T20 match between India and Australia. So people started to trickle into the
venue at around 8 and went straight to the Television. And it was only after India had ensured a
comfortable victory and we had celebrated our love for our team, that the party
finally began! And How!!!
Now this was 1 party in which I
played multiple roles. During the party, I went from co-ordinator to personal
bodyguard to gate keeper to bouncer too! Disadvantages of not being an
alcoholic may be? So the party started with a few rounds of whiskeys and vodkas
and once everyone was tired after a little dance, we seized the opportunity to
unveil a little surprise we had in-store for SOM14. This was a short video we
made for our seniors showing their journey from day 1 to the end of 2 years and
all the special moments of it. The efforts went in to making that video were
immense, after all it was not our journey, it was theirs. And yeah they liked
it! Certainly did…
Then came the tradition of doing
a paper dance… Kinda difficult tradition to follow given the gender ratio at
SJMSOM… But nevertheless, some lucky guys did get a chance to dance with the
lovely ladies. This was supposed to be followed by some other games for some
selected seniors but then by now, not many were in a state to play games. This
is when my role switch happened to a gate keeper. Keeping the guys who had no
sense of themselves in another area away from the others who just wanted to
have a nice time. Gets necessary to avoid any untoward incident. We are after
all representing SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and carry the institute’s tag along with
us.
Every party has a moment where it
all quietens down a bit. People who want to eat, form a cartel at the buffet
corner. Some just wanna go take a walk outside and grab some fresh air. Or some
other kindda air may be… ;-) While others just wanna sit and do nothing. And
this was time for one such moment in our party. Would you call it a lull or
just the silence before the storm? I guess the latter is more apt. Coz what
followed was truly a storm! We managed to get the games started and that was when
the energy levels went through the roof! It was time we invited some of the
popular seniors on stage and asked them to perform tasks. Simple, known, tried
and tested tasks but yet very effective and highly entertaining. Old is gold
they said, well said!
So after the proposals and the
dances and some other small tasks, it was time to unleash the last bit of the
DJ on the crowd to help let them loose. Well, totally loose and beyond control.
Would that be all that bad? I would personally think otherwise. After all it’s
the end of a journey for them, a 2 year long, difficult, hectic, fruitful and
fulfilling journey! The dancing was on at full swing for a long-long time. This
was the time the seniors forgot all the good and bad that they have seen so
far, and just dance! Dance with all the energy, dance with passion, dance with
joy, dance with their batch mates and we, juniors join them in their
celebratory dance! It was time to let it all go!
Just when your body cannot take
it anymore but your mind does not want to stop, comes a voice from the manager
of the place, “ladies and gentlemen, this is the last song of the night”.
That’s when you realize that its 1:30 in the night, the last night you will get
together as a batch. After your body has given all its energy, that “once more”
starts to ring in your head. And that is when people like me had to take up the
role of a bouncer. Just to ensure that everyone vacates the place with dignity
and the manager is left behind happy and content.
With then we ensured that enough
autos were available to take all of us back to IIT and thus we bid adieu to the
batch of 2014. The seniors had been amazing right through our 1st
year, helpful and fun and this was our little way of saying “Thank you”! Oh and
my role as a personal bodyguard? Well, some things are best left untold…
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