Saturday, April 26, 2008

The G-Sec Speaks

Hello all!

The first post.. Indeed it is special. And so here it goes. This is what the General Secretary - Social and Cultural, Patel Hall of Residence wrote for the hall magazine.

I’d take absolutely no pains in keeping this piece a short one. Because I want each and every Patelian of atleast the next 5 generations to read this.

Why? Did we win the GC? Nopes. Then?

Some hall that won the GC the last year wins it this year too. Congratulations. But what’s the big deal there?

Patel... We were second from the end the last year, and the very last the year before that. Patel was nothing more than an underdog. We were literally non-existent.

In my second year, I heard things like… ‘Patel ka secy hai yaar.. teri life mein tto peace hi hoga.’ In the first sub-com of this year, I got to hear… ‘Patel se kya load hoga kissi ko.’ Such was the image of this hall – harmless to anyone.

That was Patel. But, that was Patel.

Today, all of this is past; and the rest that happened this year… is history!

People from other halls have come to me and said,
‘Patel ko yeh kya ho gaya hai??’
‘Abey yaar Patel bahut load de raha hai ab’
‘Kuchh machaayaa hai Patel ne iss baar’
‘Yaar Patel is the only hall jiske efforts ki dil se taarif hoti hai hamaare common room mein’

This is Patel now, and thus I proudly say that

WE ARE INTO THE TOP 3 NOW!!!

And had there not been some very unfortunate decisions against us, we’d have been at the second spot with visible ease. The mere two seconds that deprived Kanwa and Arjit of a Gold in their passing-out year, our awesome awesome English drams performance that had to be satisfied with a petty Bronze, our again awesome awesome Western groups performance not getting a place even in the top 3, and many more like these. But nevertheless, IIT kgp knows now the caliber of Patel, and more importantly Patel itself knows now the caliber of Patel.

But all of this has taken months of planning and months of hardwork and scores of people giving scores of night-outs and day-outs.

Still, I’d specially like to mention, and acknowledge, the contributions of one person here. He was the sole guy who didn’t let the left-over traces of soc-cult culture die down in Patel the last year, produced a batch that had the capability of innovating and leading and created a platform that was worked upon this year. The vision, the innovation, the determination and regular scoldings =) of this person that kept everyone in motion were the keys that opened the path up for Patel this year. Sandy, had you not been there, it’d have been very difficult for us even imagining any scene like this. Patel owes this to you.

Time for a few more acknowledgments.

Kanwa, Akshay, Tuhin, Arjit, Parth… It has been rocking working with you guys.. the GODS!! Two superb groups performances and a shocking (for the other halls) GOLD. Awesome!
Amod, Tudu… The Goddest! (That speaks everything)
Singh, Nag… Your mere presence there, no matter for how long, has been motivating enough and a hint big enough of the fact that things have changed.
Raunak, Mandal Da, Sumit… Brilliant efforts, which we won’t let die.
The 3rd years… We absofu*kinglutely ROCK guys !!
And finally the 2nd yrs… You people have a tremendous amount of talent in your batch guys and you seriously deserve applause for that. Keep it up.

In my soap box when I was asked whether Patel would get the GC this year, I remember I replied that I won’t mind Patel winning the GC because rising that high from the very bottom seemed next to impossible. But I also said that my aim would be the third spot and even that sounded so difficult to achieve back then. But, we did it. And I am a satisfied G-sec in the end. =)

Here’s what the ex-ex-ex G-sec wrote to me.
‘It's nice to hear but we have still a long way to go, but path never ends and this milestone is seriously no less. What matters to me more is your last line that "the culture that has been developed this year is sure to continue and we'll ensure that." If this is going to continue I ensure GC is nothing in front of it. It will just follow.’
Same was told to me by the ex-ex G-sec.
And we are surely going to meet your expectations Rohit and Baba… surely!

Time to end this stuff I guess.

Ahem ahem… It has been a wonderful excellent awesome tenure and a most memorable one. All those painful 4th positions, all those so-many silvers and bronze followed by all those thunderous tempo-shouts, all those infinitely-infinite chaos, all the Patel-vs-rest of IIT kgp fights in the sub-coms which I so much enjoyed winning =) and finally getting into the top 3 while giving the 2nd spot-holders such lot trouble and leaving the others comfortably behind. Patel gets into the top 3 after God-knows-how-many years.

It has been one awesome tenure!

To the next G-sec: Naman, leave no threads loose for there’s more work to do for you. Best of luck dude.

To kgp: This was only the trailer folks. Keep waiting for more and better!

And to Patel: The stage is all set guys. All we have to do now is… not to lose the rhythm and… rock them all!