Yana Gupta Part 2 and What's in a Name...

I had joined the Backwaters committee with a lot of plans, to make possible an event that shall be remembered for a long time in IIM K. There were so many things and so much enthusiasm in the initial days but somehow, all of that petered off when it was time to do something to achieve the objectives. The reasons were many, the least of them being any work load due to the academic curriculum in IIMK. I was not really bothered if I had to lose out on a few grade points but more important for me was the feeling of involvement that is so necessary for me to give my best. It may have been misunderstandings, it may have been the truth but I started feeling that a lot of us committee members were not really required and this put me off enough to isolate myself from whatever little was happening on this front.

But as it has been on past occasions, sense caught up with me at last and in view of another edition of the fest where I might be able to fulfil my promising promises, I got involved, rather involuntarily, in this year's Backwaters. Vikhyat's enthusiasm and his never-say-die fundaes played a very important role in the transition, of course and here I was, willing to cut a little flab off for Backwaters 2005.

With hardly any effort having gone in so far from the side of many of us, it was time to hunt for some money. The local sponsors, though not big fish(es), were a good enough avenue to knock around and the Junior Backwaters team divided itself into three groups to tap as much of the local pool as possible. Qanynat (also known as Qayamat :-)) and I started off with the Archies' Gallery, but with not much luck. The next stop was the adjoining Louis Philippe showroom, which is where the first of the two strange events of the evening took place.

As we were ushered into the Manager's dingy and suffocating chamber, and Qaynat started explaining to the bespectacled, sunk-in-his-seat figure before us about the fest, I could hardly avoid noticing the open-mouthed admiration of the poor guy for Qaynat's Qayamati accent and her jeans and shirt clad self. Having spent his entire life in the strictly conservative Calicut society, he wouldn't have expected any girl to be this Qayamati :-)

The proof of all that I had been thinking for so long came soon enough...
Manager: Where are you from?

Qayamat: Sir, I...
Manager: Are you from India?
Qayamat:
Nitai:

Yes, we were left speechless, and as I tried hard to stop the big guffaw that was dying to escape from my mouth, I was just wondering what the others would have to say when I tell them the story. And they did have a lot to say...trying to make amends for Yana Gupta's not coming to grace Backwaters as per Vikhyat's plans. With Qayamat coming from outside India anyways, she might be, in all probability, Yana's sister and making her perform at Backwaters would perhaps makeup for Yana's absence:-)

Another interesting thing that happened was when we went to this jewellery shop called Malabar Gold. After explaining what we had come for, the managers/owners said that they do not sponsor anything but that they could give us donations for five hundred rupees or gifts worth about the same if we did not name them in the fest. I thought that I had heard it wrong and told them that of course, when we announce the prizes that they had sponsored, we would say that this prize is sponsored by Malabar Gold and so on...but that was when the bomb dropped...they said that if we do name them, they are not going to give us anything. Strange....very strange.

As we came out of the shop with the gifts tucked in our arms, we were childishly happy for the evening's work done and in that we were not returning empty-handed. There was a lot to do on campus, as well...with alternate day meetings and so much more to arrange/finalise before we can be confident of a good Backwaters '05...