Bhavan's Nite

This post is dedicated to all my Pilani Friends (year 1997-1998) and its part of my initiative to record certain events in my life - the concept of blogging wasnt even anywhere close to India when this happened.

Bhavan's are like hostels in other colleges. Just that in pilani they were called Bhavans with different prefixes as well - mine was called Budh. One of the oldest I would say.

So at the end of each academic year, the junior batch in the bhavan gave a farewell party to the senior batch. Typically, you get to stay in a bhavan for 2 years. Again, mine was an exception. People in my degree stayed in Budh for a year and then moved to Shankar. There are 6 junior hostels (that house first yearites and second yearites), excluding the girls hostel and 5 other senior hostels.

The farewell that the juniors conduct is called Bhavan's Nite. Its a spectacular event. Its like a war between the bhavans. Each hostel has a theme and its kept a big secret from the others. In fact, I have seen people getting into fights for leaking information. There is also the first mover advantage. Bhavans that open with a bang and conduct the first nite set the benchmark for that year - good or bad. The cultural secretary of the hostel has a fund for the Bhavan's nite which was around 6K during my time. Over and above that each hostel can gather more funds from the juniors based on the level of flamboyance they set.

Negotiation skills started right from undergrad for people like me. When Bhavan's announce their date for the event, it might clash with another. Its like ISB. Most events are held when everyone has time. No Bhavan wants its nite to be attended only by its own people. They want the whole campus to come there and talk about the event the next day. So, when there is a clash, negotiations happen. And yes, the nite is the ONLY EVENT in which you can invite the girls to your hostel premises. So, if you need to get the hot girls from your batch, then you need to negotiate and conclude because then the girls might start choosing. You dont want that - do you?

Preparations - there is a Co-Ord for the event. Rumors run around that whoever stands for Bhavan's Nite Co-Ord runs for the Hostel Rep post the next year, which is part of the Students Union. That is some kind of power. So, right from preparing for the Nite, you are kind of split into groups. Politics begins right there. An events schedule is drawn up. Skill sets are identified. A fund is allocated for people who work - their night time tea and biscuits is sponsored. So, there is scope for a treasurer. Usually there is a back-drop - a huge chart 20 feet by 10 or whatever. And people make a painting on that based on the theme they choose. I still remember that we painted an old greek temple - depicting the state of our hostel and also some relation to revival. Teams for everything - events, back-drop, decoration, lights, sounds, dinner, and yes invites.

Innovation was next on our mind for the invites. Every bhavan worked hard on getting the right invite. Brainstorming sessions happen day and nite to work on the design. People come up with prototypes. Our's was like an old manuscript with burnt edges. I still remember another one - it was like a pot. You open it and fumes come out like the Aladdin Lamp and then you can pull out the invite. Some invites were based on heavy origami work. We had one guy in our batch who was an origami champ. So his hostel leveraged his core competency.

Budget also has an impact on the food. The larger - we get more items in terms of starters, better ice-cream (although cassatta used to be the standard) etc.

Next thing was decoration - from the entrance, the way it is designed. I remember Gandhi Bhavan had an entrance which was like a maze. Size of the stage and height from ground level. We made our own stage - built using wooden cots borrowed from everyone's rooms. Planning the whole stage - length, width, whether we needed a side stage or a ramp, makeing it as flat as possible - everything was done in-house.

Events - as usual there is music performance, couple of dances, a funny skit and then games for the seniors. Of course, we have Mr. Whatever Bhavan and Miss. Whatever Bhavan - for the fun part you see. Ours was called BOY'97 - Budhite of the Year 97. Kinda kool - aint it?

I still remember the Nite we did when we were in our final year. This was one Nite for ourselves. We did just for the enthu factor. And we performed a skit mocking some our friends, seniors and juniors. That night, some of them paraded into our wing and caught the collars of few of my friends who were involved in the drama. It was good fun - yes, at the cost of someone.