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| The TGT Team - just before the performance |
If you remember, I told in
my blog '1st Sem in a Nutshell!', that I'm a part of the dance club of IITJ.
And as another year has passed at IITJ and with the time being so bad. I want
to capture every moment and memory in my life. And the dance aka The Groove
Theory at IITJ has been one of the very big and the most fun part of my fresher
year. So, here it goes!
For starters, the seniors! Because of them, my first year has been so memorable. All the hectic dance practices were fun because of them only. Their jokes, their bond, and the random dance session - boy, I am going to miss all of that so so much. Not to forget, my Nanu is from the dance club, so that was another really good way of getting to know him. Not the real-life one. The Amma-Bapu system, remember? And the number of parties we got from them! Whenever we used to be in the canteen, and if they were there, then they had to give us a party.
During the last month before the Cult Meet
2019, the dance practice reached its peak. It would last till midnight 3. Even
once we ordered these rolls and ate them after the practice. Being so tired, it
felt like heaven. We all sat in a circle - us freshers and our seniors from 2nd
and 3rd year at that time. Also, in the evenings, we used to go to the canteen
and eat something. And then back to practice. Now, you can imagine a whole day of practice and going to sleep after midnight, it was nearly impossible for us to wake up early. So, we often started our practice after lunch. Now, I'm not saying that everything went smoothly, coz that will be totally unrealistic. There were fights and arguments, but TGT's a team, right? So, as a team, everyone stayed together and we worked across the issues. Anyhow, moving on.
And then the most awaited event came - the Cult Meet 2019 at IIT Bombay. From the extreme winters at Jodhpur, we went to the scorching heat in Mumbai in December 2019. We took a train and the compartments were given according to the clubs and it was such a blast. Except I got motion sickness and had to sleep early. But regardless, it was fun. We had panipuri before boarding the train and we also ordered Papa Pancho (the rolls restaurant in Jodhpur) for dinner. I also remember my Nanu feeding biscuits to this stray dog at the railway station when we were waiting for our train. (It's weird how I remember such vague and vivid details)
So, on reaching the campus of IIT Bombay, we
registered and got our rooms. We kept having little practice sessions here and
there. And seeing all the other teams there, they all were such nice dancers.
And we used to sit and look at them and wonder how can someone dance so nice!!
But again, we had to keep our hopes high. Now at IIT Bombay, there were many
restaurants aka canteens with a variety of food items. So, while staying there,
we also explored each and every restaurant and hogged on all the dishes we
could. We also kept on practicing and then there was this night of the Group
dance event. Before that, there was a Duet dance too. Anyhoo, moving to the Grand
event.
We all were so nervous. Also, this was the
first time I was performing on stage in front of such a huge crowd. We drank
our energy drinks and waited for our chance. And then our name was called out.
We also practiced our positions on the stage a day before, so we knew where to
stand. To deal with the nervousness we were having, our seniors told us that
the lights will shine so bright that we won't be able to see the audience and
it was surprisingly true. They had an experience so they knew how things work
which somewhere put us all to ease.
The moment came and we climbed onto the
stage. Due to the extreme practice, all the steps were so etched in our minds,
that we just had to climb on stage and everything after that just happened. And
boom! Months of hard work showed up and we were done with the performance. After
the panicky 10 minutes, we all were so tired but we were feeling at peace coz we
were done. The show ended at around 2 at night. Without any announcements of
results. Being it the 2nd last day in Mumbai, our seniors planned to go to the
city at night. Many of my batchmates agreed to tag-along. But I was a little
scared.
Imagine Mumbai city at midnight 3! It sounded terrifying and I almost bailed myself out from going. But then everyone was going and I had a FOMO and also, I didn't want to miss out on this. Who knows when I'll ever get a chance to go to Mumbai with them. And, so I said yes. Glad I did!! We went to Mumbai city at 3 am. As adventurous it sounds, I was also too tired. I had few naps in the cab but let's jump on to the exciting part and not my sleeping adventures.
For the first spot, we went to Marine drive. Luckily, one of us belonged to Mumbai so he knew where to take us. It was so peaceful and calm there. Everything was quiet and all I could hear was the voices of us and the waves crashing at the beach. We climbed down onto the beach after jumping on the big stones (I don't know what they are called, so I'll refer to them as these). We took out our shoes and roamed there for some time. Soon, the water started getting closer to the bank and we decided to climb up again. And when we were there, the club captain got a call saying we got 4th rank in the competition. And we all went so crazy and happy!! This was a pretty big thing for us. And we felt like all our hard work and swollen legs have paid off.
After that, we went to the Gateway of India. And we had chai at around 6 in the morning. We roamed there and clicked some pictures. Soon, we got hungry and thought if we are here in Mumbai, then it's legit we have Vadapav. So, early in the morning, we are searching for a place where we can have vada pavs. After roaming for a while, we found one place and we all gathered there. We had some delicious vada pavs with that spicy garlic powder (Again, not sure what it's called).
After this sleepless night in Mumbai, we
booked our cabs, went back to campus, to our rooms, and slept like a log.
Note, I had another nap in the cab as well. Even though we were tired but it
was one of the best nights I’ve ever had.
And the Mumbai adventures were not over. In the evening that same day, we went to the R City Mall which is in Gath Kopar. We didn’t do any shopping there but we ate. And we ate like crazy. We ordered different things from different restaurants. I had Blueberry and cream-cheese waffles from the Belgian Waffles. I also had my favorite Coconut ice-cream from Naturals. And many other things, which I don’t remember exactly.
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| The R city mall - look so pretty, no? |
The mall was also super-decorated due to
Christmas which made the whole visit so beautiful. We wandered here and there.
Plans were to watch a movie (There was no Covid back then and the theatres were
open). But I don’t remember why we didn’t watch one. Anyhoo, I don’t remember
exactly what we did there except eating but it was fun. Some memories are just
like this, no? We don’t remember the details but we remember that we had a good
time.
So, with this, the whole Cult Meet 2019 ended. To date, whenever we all talk, this night and the masti we did always come up and we all become extremely nostalgic.
To the good old times!
To the time when the college was offline and
parties were abundant!
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