An Introduction to Spandan Part 4

Sep 3, 1993

Spandan

The Last Day

4 days of my first Spandan are over. Four days of noise, crowds, music, food. Four days of celebrating the best talents I could have seen but for the curse of the Transport Commitee. Four days of sleeping in a strange room-all building up to a crescendo. 

The last day of Spandan is here. The day still revolves around lifting, carrying and transporting but I can feel things building up and rushing to a climax. A Rock Show has been promised. Jipmer has reached the finals of Basketball and is playing CMC Vellore-arch rivals on the court and booze buddies off it. And at that point, at the last Sporting event in Spandan, time will stop. Even for Naren and the Transport Commitee. 

The day has most of the Finals of the Sporting Events. Football and hockey take up the daylight hours while Basketball and Volleyball will be played under lights. The captain of the Football team-Pandian, is from Malaysia and all the great looking jerseys and sundry equipment I see the team in have been largely because of Pandian's sponsorship collecting drives back in Malaysia. 

The Spandan Quiz is the culmination of the L&D section of Spandan. Some delegates are here only for this and it's a big part of the Quiz Circuit these people seem to be move around in. The Quizmaster is someone from outside and it takes place in Banting Hall which, I soon realize is a very acoustically challenged auditorium which also doubles up as an exam venue. The questions are tough and because I can't answer anything, the teams are naturally quite brilliant.  Just to get on stage for the finals of the Quiz is an achievement, I am told and though Jipmer does not win, it's reassuring to see that serious medical students have other interests too. 

The day progresses and in the evening and a short Transport mission later, I return to the room in front of which a Volleyball final has just started. The corridor in front of the rooms is packed with people on all floors and there is lots of noise, shouting, abuses, clapping, cheering, booing and of course, boozing. I learn the rules of volleyball in these minutes from a collective crowd of seniors, classmates and unknown delegates from other colleges.

Across the Inter-Hostel Road, on the Basketball court, the Jipmer and CMC Vellore teams are arriving for the finals. The Sun has set and the court is floodlit. This is the last event in all of Spandan and masses of people are moving across to see the Final. Ashley has been spared the scoreboard changing duty and his Spandan gets even better. 

There are crowds everywhere. People hanging from the Osler House corridors, standing on all four sides of the court, peering out from the Osler House mess that looks out onto the court, standing on the Inter-Hostel Road trying to get a glimpse through the corowds and the barricades. 

The two rival teams take the court and cheers and jeers ring out. CMC has a small but noisy contingent all but drowned out by The Rest Of Jipmer. There is a few minutes of practice/warm-up, with lay-ups and passes, missed baskets and high fives. Chests are bumped, the faithful crowd is acknowledgd with a loud primal shouts and the two teams go into their respective huddles. 

And a collective, passionate scream fills the slowly quietening atmosphere, heavy with the weight of expectation.

"Can I play with madness"...The anthem of the Jipmer Basketball Team. 

CMC has an understandably smaller support group but at first, as the match starts, they start to get more vocal, but slowly, with rising amplitudes and varying pitches-totally oblivious of the faculty members sitting on the sidelines, the Jipmer crowd comes to life.

"We are dynamite, CMC is catamite".

"Go home CMC".

"F**k off CMC"

"Cheating"

Sexy basket yaar".....

The match is close, down to the last few seconds and lives up to the emormous hype that has preceded it. Jipmer wins and the place goes berserk. 

The sweaty guys with a new swagger are our heroes. There is much backslapping and pounds on the back. Elated versions of "Bastard" and "F***er" do the rounds.

The court is also the venue for the Prize distribution for the Best Cultural team and the Best L&D team, points for each event across the 5 days having been tallied and tabled and while this is going on, I hear massive drumbeats and a very professional sounding voice saying "Check", "1,2,3", "Check", "Check". The voice is coming from Lister Square from a 10,000 Watt speaker array and it's the sound of the The Rock Show, starting in a few minutes.

 I don't think I attended The Rock Show. I filed out of the BasketBall court, awed by the spectacle of 5 days of Spandan-the end result of many months of meticulous planning and intermittent chaos. I walked alone, in a crowd of people but isolated and cocooned in my thoughts, towards Lister House and it's rooftop. I wanted to be alone. I wanted some peace.

"Millennium" played that year, typical rock and metal sounds coming from far below, penetrating the air and the dark night. It was very heavy stuff- lots of metal, lots of rock and lots of wild partying. I was not a part of it. 

The Lister Rooftop was dark and cool and I was alone. Really alone, for the first time since joining Jipmer. 

My first Spandan was getting over and my emotions were mixed. I know the real deal was about to start but it could wait a few days. I was finally happy to be here.