Indian Ocean and Euphoria

Snaps from the Kashi Yatra-2005:Most memorable music festival of my life...

Pre-KASHIYATRA 2005

KASHIYATRA 2005

KASHIYATRA, our annual All India Cultural Festival is back in all its glory and fervor. This academic session it has been planned for February, 2005 (tentative dates: 24-27). CROSSWINDZ, the Rock Fest will also be held as a part of KY, as done last year.

The team of KY 2005

Convener:
Abhishek Agarwal (IV Mining)

Co-conveners:
K. Arvind (IV Ceramics)
Saurabh Lahiri (IV Civil)
Yashvir Chauhan (IV Chemical)

It was summarized news of the KashiYatra-2005 in the new ITBHU chronicle (e-magazine).Then, internet was not available in the hostels.Most of us 1st yearites did not go to internet café for surfing. So we missed the official news.'Jhankaar' was only pre- preparation before KY.

I do not remember the date but there was a movie show [by projector] in G-11.It was hosted by seniors to gather crowd from hostels.Movie ‘Final Destination’ was shown to us by KY team.Then, they give a brief for coming annual cultural festival “KashiYatra” .

I will now extracting the lines from my personal diary of that days.More information is added to give whole account of KY-2005.

KashiYatra-1st Day (24/02/2005)

I have enrolled myself with KY team as volunteer in event management.I was lucky enough not to enroll in security management. My batchmate Govind Jalan enrolled into it and was standing on the gate of Swatantrata Bhavan (SB). 2^nd half of classes were off by short notice from director. I was involved in decoration and various team registration at help desk inside SB. I was helping in putting banners on SB main gate,entrance and in hall. DD bhaiya was managing the volunteers. My room mate AGP was with me. I quoted in my diary-

“There is lot of heated discussion between us like each day. It feels like head on collision on each topic with his counter-views. I do not know problem of that person.When I do not work, he has problems with me; when I deliver the job, he has got bigger objections. I have different style of work than him but is ok man…”

The condition of volunteers was such that we were remembering the name of event coordinators. Such was our preparation for organizing event. People were claiming last year KY (2004) was very good.We have now given responsibility to at lesat maintain that standard.

New director of our institute, SNU came exactly at 4:30 P.M. on the time of inaugral function.At 5:00 P.M. inaugural function started in G-11 due to typical delays by timeless ITBHU, Varanasi. He became angry due to delay in starting. So, our ‘esteemed’ director addressed partially fulled hall in English. It was more about Indian culture and Varanasi than of the cultural festival. The chief guest (do not remember his name) gives speech in Hindi. Then, our director reliazes his iconic fault and lectured again but in Hindi (the mother tongue). Heck, the drama was over soon.

Kavi Sammelan was awesome. I was inside SB with my volunteer card on the name of event management. Inside, I was just capturing seats for my friends only. It was mine first live interaction with poetic event. There was a Sardarjee from Punjab. He was a teacher and I find him most entertaining. I do not even remember the name of rest poets. It was over till midnight.

KashiYatra-2nd Day (25/02/2005)

I woke up at 10:00 AM.Upendra bhaiya and Sonam bhaiya (Mech 2007 batch) came at our hostels for pushing us to SB. The whole day was spent on the help desk.Sushant, Chandu, Mishra, AGP and gaffar were with me. Lot of registration of participant was going on, hence was quite busy. I was just able to watch few dance shows by various teams.I also motivated AGP for participating in Mr and Miss KY event( Original name is not in memory).There was a girl from NIT Allahabad participating in KY. I chatted with her for ½ hour. Then got warning from Chandan Sharma (Mech 2007: Just senior batch) to leave that girl or be ready for consequences. Fashion was also organized. Just got the glimpse of it. I also enjoyed night at the DJ. It was organized in front of G9. 1-2 hour of our fusion dance with hands and legs shaking in each direction makes me laugh today....

KashiYatra 2005-3rd Day (26/02/2005)

Indian Ocean captured my soul (official website)..........
This day was fill with artistic events. I watched theater with Abdul Gaffar and really praises ITBHU team for their effort. Most of the guys in theater were from Meta branch. I do not recollect any more memories of that day. I walk down to G-11 for watching some event. I come to hostel in evening for change. Then I walk down to open space beside SB for next event. It was Rock show by Indian Ocean music band. It was told to me as a legend that they have performed here in 97 and gained huge popularity afterward. Still most of us were unknown to this band potential and music. First, local and visiting rock teams performed, it appears boring to me.Only a crowd of 20-30 people was there to encourage them.Then, comes the band of fusion music.

There was crowd of 50 people in start to watch them. Then the performance began. It was one of the most entertaining night of life.Kandisa, Hille re, Jhini and Bande were mesmerizing. Some times, I do not even understand the lyrics of the song but music was driving me to another realm. With 5 m away from such a music band with free spirit. They performed like auteur without any hypocrisy around them. I have never feel the power of music before that night. It was folk+Sufi+rock fused in music of love.

KashiYatra 2005-4th Day (27/02/2005)

PS:Above photos are of bad quality

Euphoria was coming[Official site]. It was the last day of the event.I rested whole day in my room. Surya snatched my blanket in morning and captured my sensitive pose in camera.I do not have done shave for 1 week and feel very exhausting after 3 days.I do not attend any event that day.I take a shower in evening and become ready to attend Euphoria show.I got the front row with my event management card (jugaad).It was heavily crowded show and got tussled up with huge push from crowd.The barricades were down after few minutes.1000-1500 junta was attending the fusion nite.Our few batch mate attending Techkriti 2005 came back and party becomes rocking...

I have taken few snaps of the event with my prehistoric camera.Digital camera was not even available in our branch then. Summer of 69 was first English song in live concert for me. The show was very good and music flows through our veins.Performing euphoria in our background of college was like dream coming to true.This KY was best in my 4 year span in ITBHU. Really, those were my best days of my life.Last but not least, the official report was published in ITBHU reverberation magazine.

“The annual cultural fiesta of IT-BHU, organized by IT Gymkhana, KashiYatra 05, was held from 24-27th February 2005 at various indoor and outdoor venues in IT-BHU. 17 outstation teams with 288 participants competed with IT-BHU students for excellence in more than 35 different events of art, culture and frolic. The professional performances included a Rock Show by Indian Ocean, a Fusion Nite by Euphoria and a Hindi Kavi Sammelan comprising of seven state and national level poets.”