What do we have here, an annual day at the VEC. Yo bro, and why am I feeling sick ??? I’ll tell you why. An Annual day at VEC always delivers its mix of goodies. For starters, the chief guest is none other than the only person who could have been more hated than his predecessor, the Vice Chancellor of Anna University, Dr. Vishwanathan. Why is here??? Probably, because nobody else called him or maybe what he preaches makes sense only in this campus.
Well let me give you a feel of what the “Cultural Fest” is all about. Having just got the invitation today, thought I would start there. At the bottom of the envelope, there’s something typed in very bold letters and it reads “DRESS: FORMAL”. You might say, well you wear that shit through the year so do it for one more day. I don’t mind. But the rule is not just for me, it is for all the guests (which include a few helpless people who at the end of show would think “Why god, why did it have to be me???”)
The afternoon has a warm feel to it. Well, not warm but a grade higher, HOT. The college doesn’t have any place to occupy the 2500+ strength, so we have to sit under the sun (just to be clear, no “pundal” ) wearing a dark blue blazer which you can understand will absorb all the heat it possibly can. Moving on. Probably the most famous principal among the colleges under AU (Not because he achieved anything worthwhile but because the famous song “Where’s your id card” was based on him), gives us the annual report. This annual report that runs for an hour, about 15 minutes is taken to cover what the students at VEC have achieved, the rest is taken to tell us clearly the new rules that have been inducted into the already HUGE rule book.
The next part is the address by the chief guest which is anybody’s guess. “I love the way this college functions. The discipline is simply impeccable. I can visualize India moving towards growth seeing all these pleasant looking faces wearing those nice blue blazers listening keenly. (Give them the freedom of speech and see how that face changes) The principal’s speech had a lot of meaning. I am honoured to be here.” Ok, we are done with two losers now. Then the biggest loser steps in. Who else, but the man whose brain child has ruined my college life. What does he say, the same thing he says every year “Geniuses don’t do different things, they do different things” (well, what he meant each time was, Geniuses don’t do different things, they do things DIFFERENTLY).
That’s about all the fun and laughter you can expect that evening. We move on to the cultural events. There are precisely five things that happen. A skit where everybody has their face painted weird (don’t ask me why, I am baffled), make more comedy by doing something I THINK they understand and then in the end raise the national flag (It’s a routine). Next comes the dance and the song. Well, there is talent. But when people are asked to sing and dance to songs which don’t have lyrics containing words such as “love” ,”war” and all, they just end up humming or doing aerobics. At the end of the day is the prize distribution, which no one knows who’s getting what and why. People just clap. I clap too. Not because I give a damn about the college but because I appreciate the guys who have won although they were put through the kitchen sink. The show comes to an end. Everybody goes back in peace knowing really well tomorrow cannot be as bad as today was.
