Recap-I The Fests

Recap- I. The Fests and the Blue Devils!

If someone were to ask me which were the most fun filled days of my college life, I would definitely tell them that those were the days of the Fests.

In my college, moots were the way of life (moot courts are case simulations something similar to mock trials without all the usual drama),.. until along came the fests and the Blue Devils.

All who had a life beyond the books and moots, who liked to freak out once in a while, who were good at things other mugging up, the ones who had a spirit for the field and the stage were all obsessed with the Fests.

Sports and cultural fests like Spiritus, Invicta, Legala, Outlawed… there were so many of 'em. These are usually three days of intoxicating atmosphere, raging games on the field, fiery bands on the stage, boozing and chasing…! Ohh! That was heaven! Solid fun!

"Sports and culture events are a part of learning and making of a person" this is very common understanding among the learned people of the civilized world but unfortunately there were few such people who were running HNLU. We ended up fighting with the college admin for roundabout 3 months for a 3 day fest.

Actually the long struggle was a result of our oversight. We should have figured out that the only problem with the admin in letting us go was the funding part. Too many questions were been raised- Wont too many class hours be missed?, how would the students make up?(yeah right!), What about the safety of those who go? (like anyone gave a shit- its not likely that 25 guys maybe sexually assaulted in the train or something), What about proper coaching and practice?... One fine day two of us went to the VC and told him “We don’t need funds, just attendance makeup of five days for going to the fest.” BINGO! The questions disappeared, apprehensions evaporated and permission for 25 guys (they still didn’t allow girls to go... security concerns were cited… I don’t blame them.) comprising primarily of the Soccer, Volleyball and the Indoor games teams were granted from above.

By the way Spiritus is the annual Sports fest organized for law colleges throughout the country and hosted by NLS Bangalore. It’s a really good fest with real neat arrangements for the visiting teams. The stay, the feel, the match timings are all commendable.

Sid who was the Sports committee convener gave me and my friends a free hand in selecting the teams and we put together the best pack of hooligans one could muster in HNLU.

We were debutants and hence minnows in every sport... Our main game was football and by the end of the first day we ensured that everyone knew us.

Having quite a few hardcore Chelsea and ManU fans in the team we chose to fondly call ourself the Blue Devils- homage to both clubs so that none would feel left out. Since we were not exactly a democratic setup the minority voices of other allegiances were quickly silenced. Having Gasper and Dan as ardent Chelsea fans made getting everyone to accept Blue to be our team colour was relatively simple enough.

We smashed The Tamil Nadu team by a thorough 3-0 score line without allowing the opposition even a shot at the goal. We went into day 2 a bit scared since we were playing Bombay and we heard that apparently they were good. It was an ambush! In the second minute a screamer by Gasper our striker left the crossbar rattling for about 5-6 seconds. I don’t think anyone on the field would have witnessed such brute power being lashed around before. The rest of the game was a song, we stormed into the semi-final ending the game 3-0 yet again which also included our winger Ajay badly injured with a torn ligament from a thrashing blow to the knee (The injury was unfortunately permanent and he has never played any sport ever since that injury, he was also one of star prospect in Badminton- Ajay Singh Rajput, one of the best sportsmen I have encountered, Salute!).

Day 3 was a disaster; we were knocked out in the semi finals of Soccer, Volleyball and Badminton.

Symbi knocked us… ahem… beat the shit out of us in football. Vicky and his team let us see very little of the ball except for the three times we picked it out of our own net, That’s when we realized that playing without practice can get you only so far.

Symbi yet again knocked us out of volleyball and GLC Mumbai knocked us out in Badminton.

That was the day I hated my college for not providing any infrastructural support to train but was so proud of the side I had captained for five years. Without a proper football field (we had not moved into our permanent campus, which by the way is one of the biggest and most expensive law campuses in India), without any coaching or any sort of practice my boys had thundered into the semis of the Soccer tournament.

We just drank till we were out of our senses and the next day we were as glee and joyful as ever and wondering- “Semifinalists on début, not bad huh?”

We didn’t wanna go back, partly because we were overwhelmed by the atmosphere there and partly because we would have to wait for the next fest to have some fun.

We were regulars at all the fests later on and finally people higher us sat up and realized that perhaps inter college activities other than moots are also a part of education.

Hell we miss thosse days, the days of the fests.