Mera Block Mahan

It’s JATRA time in this well known institute of management in Western India. I still don’t know the origins of the name of the event. In Bengal, Jatra is an open air theatre form in West Bengal, while a play is called Jatra in Oriya. None of that happens here, however.
According to the folklores which are handed down to the juniors from their seniors, Jatra is presumably the oldest tradition in this institute, the students of which seem to have a special love affair with traditions, however, illogical they may seem to be. Jatra is however, different.
It is an inter block competition and tempers run high in the two days, with each of the hostel blocks going the fullest extent to emerge victorious. And here is a sample of what that “fullest extent” can be:

Trying to have maximum points for those events where the block has an apparent advantage. So, if you have a creative genius in say block X, then that block will rally for having a greater weightage in events like collage or face painting. Or a block having toughies push for a larger weightage in the tug-of-war.

Leveraging the weak points for those events, where brawn gets better of the brain. This tactic is especially followed by the girls’ blocks for events like tug-of-war in deciding the ratios of males and females in each team, if they were to come face to face. The ratio is normally kept at 8:12, but might as well go up to 8:13 on the insistence of the fairer sex and depending upon the softness of hearts, the (male) members of the organising committees possess.

The best of friends take no time in becoming foes during these two days. Block songs are sung everywhere. Expletives are everywhere in the air and madarc*** and behenc*** become the order of the day. The worst time is however faced by those who are in love or assume that they are in love. Now, that is what I would call a moral dilemma. While desiring that their block wins, they seem to go weak when they are up and against the block of their loves. This however, holds true for the male species, more than it does for the female species.

The term blockism assumes a perfect meaning in these two days. Each one is for his own block. Even talking or going to the nearby kiosk for a quick ice cream, especially with any member of the fairer sex, can be reason enough for raised eyebrows and wagging tongues. The love for the block can reach such an extent, that a person who never stays awake beyond 11:30 PM stays awake the whole night for one event and shaves off his moustache for another.

Two days of mayhem and chaos later, things get back to square one. Pending assignments get tended to. Readings are hurriedly gone through. Old friendships are mended. Relationships get back on track and the junior batch prepares itself to pass on the folklore to their juniors.

Disclaimer: I distance myself from any of the views expressed above, except the penultimate paragraph, since it is based on my personal experience. All that I have written elsewhere in the post is a result of my journalistic tendencies resulting into eavesdropping, euphemestically known as unobtrusive observation in this well known instituteof management in Western India.