The Forgotten Lamp

I am the forgotten lamp;

I am the damp lamp.

I burn; People are happy,

I bring light to their lives;

While I burn, people enjoy

Praise the beauty of my burning.

And when the fire in me dies,

They forget me, abandon me,

I wonder how people soon forget,

I brought light to their lives.

Konnect 2008: Konnecting the hostels of IIMK

Sorry folks.. I wrote this someday and stashed it away thinking that I will post it sometime.. And then I forgot.. Now that I have found it, let me post it.. Here it goes..

It is said that a match is interesting only when equals compete with each other. And so it was, equals competing with each other, some with vigor poured down on them by the seniors, some rare self-motivated souls, but all competing to preserve the name of their hostels. Lots of games were played, lots of skills came out and lots of shy people came out of the closet. After all, that is the impact that a group has on you. The things you would not do alone, you would easily do it if propelled by a group. Maybe that is why governments discourage mobocracy. However, this was a day when mobocracy was encouraged in the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. The event Konnect was spread over a period of 3 days, with different events on all days. 

One of the most spectacular sub-events of Konnect was a tug-of-war contest, where 25 people from each hostel were supposed to pull 25 equally well-built people from another hostel into their half. The event brought out the passions of all the participating teams, with people from each hostel showing their enthusiasm by shouting, encouraging teammates (even while pulling), strategizing during the breaks, and bursting into whelps of joy after winning. Even the losing teams were equally well-spirited; after each round, there would be an informal sledging competition between both the teams, each shouting slogans proclaiming their hostels to be the best.

Contrast a team event like the tug-of-war with an event like Just-A-Minute (JAM) where individual skills led a person to victory. How much an individual can understand and adapt to a situation determined the results. It is obvious that in a game like JAM, it is more beneficial to catch the errors of others rather than trying to speak more. Some people were able to adapt, some were not. And those who were able to adapt won. However, the passion here was visible in the behaviour of the person. Here, a person would not shout at himself for motivation. Rather the motivation comes from inside. And the strategy too. And of course, here you do not have anybody else to blame if you lose. But then, you do not have anybody else to rely on too if you are not playing well. Also, individual victories are not recognized as much as team victories because it is tougher to synchronize a team.

The different skill-sets of the different genders also came out. And some were in stark opposition to the established beliefs. Hence we saw girls beating boys in some physical tasks, while the top three teams in Antakshari, considered to be a feminine favorite, were all boys. Some games like "Who eats fastest?" involved a lot of strategy. While some games like LAN gaming required gaming skills and comfort with the laptop. Some hostels were extremely ecstatic about each game, while some hostels like the K hostel, where no seniors were present, saw an extreme lack of participation, probably because of lack of seniors there, and corresponding lack of enthusiasm.

“Winners don't quit and quitters don't win.” Moral of the story. Period.

(Yours truly also won 50 points for his hostel K.. Ensured that hostel K didn't end up last.. Since these were the only points hostel K won :-(  )