Déjà-vu

Neev 2010 was not just an event. It created magic amongst chaos. The campus came alive with people fighting in paintball wars, somersaulting and enjoying the thrill of zorbing, endorsing creative tattoos, swaying to the soothing melody of Parikrama or getting entangled in the muscle-flexing game of ‘Twister’ a.k.a. ‘Jinx-trap’- of which I was the organizer. While sitting for launch of the Neev theme this year, a feeling of déjà-vu passed over me. Something definitely felt familiar. And then the memories of Neev ’10 flashed right before my eyes. Around 2 hours before the game was scheduled to commence, the flex print of the game went missing, which was indispensible for the game. With the ‘chaos’ of a zillion activities happening on campus, it seemed impossible to trace the missing flex. I sensed uncertainty, darkness but yet an opportunity. I had a choice- to either forget about conducting the game or to take action and conduct the game somehow. I chose the latter. Perhaps fortune does favour the brave as then we found a soft copy of the print which I grabbed and, with someone on a bike, got a fresh print of the flex in about an hour. We were finally good to go. Not only did ‘Jinx-trap’ happen, it was also a hit. People queued up in huge numbers to try their hand(s)..and legs at the game. This experience symbolized the “Fourth Quadrant” to me – ambiguity, opportunity, risk and unexpected returns.
Shreya Kejriwal