Courting a Gymmie - Part 3

"Our" First ‘Club-Day’

Okay, so going back to the time, post first DP vacs, life at Jamalpur had taken an academic turn and time after morning assembly was spent in attending classes by VLs. As the first semester approached a climax, I became aware of another interesting aspect about IRIMEE. Even though the mid-sems were held at Jamalpur, these people had to travel to Ranchi for their end semester. (Seriously, an incredible system!) . This was when I first came to know about a ‘Saloon’.

Now, in any ordinary college, end-sem is usually followed by a sem break (n only the nerds stay back at college to hone their skills further), but at Jamalpur the case was different. I came to term with the fact that he and his whole community were not mere college students. They were trainees of railways since day 1, and B.Tech was just a part of their training. (Moreover, they were being paid for it as well.) Thus, life post end-sem took yet another turn, I understood the meaning (and importance) of ‘Shop sessions’. Every morning, it was the turn one of the batchmates to punch cards at the workshop. And as the next sem was about to start, some new terms were added to my Gym vocabulary; Shop notes, diary, presentation and Director’s interview.

By now, I was also back at my college from my winter break. And since the seniors had become somewhat more lenient towards the firsties and since we had become more open to each other, I was looking forward to more heartfelt conversations with him. However, as is customary to the invisible relation I have had with Gymkhana, I was once again in for a surprise. His b’day was fast approaching and I was busy making plans for the same, had even saved a lot of pocket money, so that I could make a hefty recharge in my phone, thereby enabling us to have a good time on phone. (Meetings were still unthinkable for both of us). As I was busy in these preparations, at the same time, he got busy into the preparations for his first ‘Club Day’. Till then, a used to think about it as a normal Annual Day cum fest, but once the preparations started, I realised the seriousness of the issue. The numerous brainstorming sessions, play practice, song practice; the level of involvement of one and all at Jamalpur for celebrating their foundation day was unbelievable. It seemed as the whole place had woken up from its slumber. He was as busy (if not more) as the time prior to his club entry. Of course, his busy-ness can be attributed to his extreme cultural bent of mind, after all he had to sing, he had to act, he had to do anything and everything related to performing arts.

And as if it was not sufficient, this was the time for the annual sports tournaments as well. Wait, let me give some background information before I start about these tournaments. I am not too sure if I have mentioned it earlier, but we both are school friends, and ours was a very peculiar school in certain ways. At our alma-mater, 200% attention was given to the acads, and sufficient importance was attributed to cultural/ literary skills as well. However, on the sports front our school had little (tending to zero) to offer. In fact, except for the badminton matches (which were held inside a huge assembly hall), there wasn’t any outdoor sports activity at my school. To be more honest it didn’t even have a playground. Of course, boys being boys played cricket at every possible place, but I never thought it meant serious business for anyone. Many boys used to meet on Sundays at pre-designated open grounds of our city and used to cultivate their sporty instincts there. In short, I never knew that he was so good at so many games. Yeah, I was well aware about his liking for football, tennis and badminton (Cricket was never a game for him, cricket spelled passion in his mind), but I never knew (or imagined) him to be so good at these. Jamalpur was a blessing to him in terms of his sporting skills.

As these tournaments started, I got to know about how passionate and how good he was at all of these, esp. tennis and baddy and squash and TT :D. Honestly I don’t remember how many prizes he won in first year for sports alone, but I do remember him winning the running shield for cultural excellence (which he won consecutively for the next 3 years to come as well). During ‘our’ first club day, he sang a solo, took part in the play, in the Gym Odyssey amongst other activities. At the same time, on ‘our’ first valentine day, he sent me a handmade card and a CD (with a song written and sung by him just for me). I am still amazed at how he managed to juggle his time so well then, given the fact that he was a firstie then, the working class people of Gymkhana (Sorry seniors, no offence intended :P).

I think I should elaborate on the cultural programs of Club Day a little. The play, I have referred to twice in the above paragraphs was not executed in any ‘nausikhiya’ amateur manner. Refraining to comment on the story, all I would like to say is that whole script was full of wonderful punches and PJs. The play was not performed directly on stage, I mean the microphones at stage were dummy, and the play was enacted in a room turned into a recording studio, and the whole script was pre-recorded and well edited. Only the enacting part was done on stage. See, I said na Club Day means serious business for these people :D Also another act which needs a special mention over here is the Gym Odyssey, till date it remains to be one of my favourites. It is a shadow act performed by the Gymmies on a pre-recorded script, describing all the aspects of life of a Gymmie at Jamalpur. This script was drafted by some Gymmies ten year his senior. Later when I received a copy of the song, the 40 min long audio of the play and the soundtrack of the Gym Odyssey, I could not stop marvelling at the high standards of the Club Day.

The first club day left a deep impression on me, and prepared me (somewhat) for the future ones to come. I can't claim that after experiencing the first C'Day, I stopped bothering him about not giving me enough time; in fact as time passed, I have troubled him more n more about this 'time' issue. However, "our" first club day was a trend setter for the ones to come. It has been an essential part of my grooming pertaining to the customs and traditions of the Gym. Last but not the least, ever since "our" first club day, I have been dreaming of the time, when I will be able to come out of my invisiblilty cloak and shall be able to officially visit Jamalpur, and if possible attend a Club Day :D