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Artistic Musings
Angad Saxena and
Raunak Bawa, on the visit to Shantiniketan
While the school was busy attending to the Pakistani delegates, sixteen
boys escorted by two masters visited the land of Tagore. On Wednesday,
November 9, the Art Society, comprising Pranit Verma, Sharad Lal, Sikand
Swarup, Kanishk Gupta, Jaivardhan Singh, Angad Singh, Kshitij Paliwal,
Rishabh Jain, Pranjal Singh, Nikhil Sardana, Saksham Sharda, Achshay
Singh, Mehul Bhatkoti and us, escorted by Mr. Alok T. Bhowmick and Mr.
Vishal Mohla, went to Shantiniketan to display their art work in an
exhibition.
We boarded the Doon Express, and, after a tedious journey of 36 hours
which extended to 42 hours, we reached the city of Burdwan, which was
about 120 km away from our destination. We reached Shantiniketan at around
11 am and were pleasantly surprised at the arrangements made by
thePrincipal of Kala-Bhavan, as it was totally different from what we had
expected. We were put up in one of the best resorts in that area. After a
good lunch and a short nap, we set up our paintings at the exhibition
site.
The next day started with the inauguration of our exhibition, which was
done by the Principal of Patha-Bhavan. We then explored the college area,
which took most of our afternoon. The works of all the students and the
great artists who worked or studied there fascinated all of us. In the
evening we visited all the five houses that Tagore built during his
lifetime in Shantiniketan and also saw his Nobel prize.Early next morning,
we were ready in our kurta pajamas to attend the assembly at Patha-Bhavan.
After this, some students of the 10th standard escorted us around the
school. One really amazing feature about this school is that they have the
same system as ours, of each teacher being given a classroom, but instead
of rooms, the teachers are assigned trees under which they conduct their
classes. We also had the privilege of attending a meeting of their
literary society where we were entertained by the recitation of the
original works of students and by a special performance of their classical
dance troupe.
Next evening we were joined at dinner by the Vice-Chancellor of
Vishva-Bharti, Mr. Sujit Basu, Dr. Das, the Principal of Vishva-Bharti,
and other prominent artists from Shantiniketan. A cultural evening was
organized for us which included live Baul songs, dances and ghazals.The
14th was supposed to be the last day of our exhibition, so we decided to
give it a skip and go sight-seeing. We started late from our resort the
next morning and visited terracotta temples and a place called
maama-bhanja, given that name because of the two figures that had been
drawn on adjacent boulders. We also visited Ilam Bazar. After a
sight-seeing session, we were treated to traditional Bengali food at a
place called Bano Lakshmi. Here, the Principal of Patha-Bhavan joined us,
and requested us to extend our exhibition till the coming Saturday because
of the response it had received from the people of Shantiniketan.
On our return journey, we spent a few hours in Kolkata where we visited
the head quarters of the Ramakrishna Mission and also the Victoria
Memorial. Finally, it was time for us to catch our train. And so ended a
hectic tour.
The Art Society would like to thank Dr. Kanti Bajpai,Mr. Bhowmick, Mr.
Mohla, and everyone who was involved in making this most educative trip
possible.
Back With A
Bang
Aditi Chaturvedi reviews this
year’s S form ‘Enti’ held on November 27Beginning with the strains of the classic teen angst
anthem, Another Brick in the Wall, the ‘S form (T)NT’ proved to be just
that – enti! The ‘in the making’ video set the tone for the evening and
had most of us in splits thanks to acts like Khambatta chasing Gandhi up
the mats, the S form dance in fast forward and the ever histrionic KAR.
The ‘Videshi Band’s’ renditions were faithful covers of the original Led
Zeppelin songs. Kudos to Suseel, Classic M, Kurkure and Snake for being
brave enough to perform, and perform so well, in the face of a rather
unresponsive audience.
The Assembly left a few of us confused, but drew enough laughs, which was
the ultimate aim. The announcements were witty and the talk on the cow
(inspite of the regionalist tinge – why did it have to be Bihari?) was fun
to listen to. After having thanked god for the synthesizer, ‘JCP and the
Orchestra’ gave way to a hilarious dance by the S form scopats. We were
all quite amazed to find them so co-ordinated - enough to give the best PT
squad a complex. They sure kept the ‘bulb shining’!
The piece de resistance of the enti was the play, Samosa, scripted by
Rajnikant. The mimicking power that surfaced was something no one was
prepared for. Khambatta’s MHF, Swapi’s SMD, Jaiveer’s GSS, Gandhi’s KPB,
Suseel’s RSF, Bulbo Shoaib’s ASH and Goyal Studio’s SJB were larger than
life. As for ATB aka Cheeky hogging the entire plate of samosas and AKM
aka Pumper’s frequent interjections (“the excuse me..”), I think the
laughter said it all.
Each House had its turn in pasting the Scs and the House entertainments
were well done, but nothing could match up to Samosa, unless, of course,
it was the Video Club presentations and the Doscars. The Doscars, compered
by Classic M, had us once again, falling off our seats with laughter. The
Ashiq award being given to Wahi by JHH was quite the highlight of the
show. Also deserving mention are the Gangster award being awarded to the
ultimate chiller, Eshaaan Keswani, the Senses of Humour award being given
to the king of cheapness, Nikhil Bector and the Armyman award going to
Sahil Batta. The only jarring element was the Who’s that Guy award which
was in rather poor taste. The final presentation went from enti to senti
and left more than a few in tears, never mind the denials. In spite of an
overdose of Puri and Feroz, the photos and the videos, along with Mr Lal’s
farewell, were quite touching and the evening ended on a rather subdued
note.
For a one-week effort, the entertainment was commendable. A little more
time could have resulted in slightly more polished performances, but, by
and large, it kept all of us engaged for more than two hours. It is hard
to organize an entire form, full of egos and individuals, and make them
produce such a programme, and the scopats, particularly the Head Scopat,
deserve recognition for the mammoth task. You sure did entertain us!
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