My Tryst With Adieu

When the Alumni Association asked me to make a video for ADIEU-2005, I was on cloud nine. The video would be watched by all the current graduating class and the alumni attending the function. And the problem before me was how to shrink four (or more!) exciting years into a 5-minute video!! I knew the video would have to leave a lasting impression however it was made and I knew it better be really good.

The enthusiasm it generated was enough to outweigh our B.Tech projects, a few work slots, some quizzes and a couple of W grades. We formed a group of 20 to 25 students and got going. We listed out what to include and what to leave out. Some interesting questions came up. If we included the first smoke at Tarams , the waterless bogs, the long waits outside the girls' hostels, the grub at Quark and the fun at Sangam and Saarang, there was no time to cover the last-minute mugging for quizzes, the CRC or the library!!

Despite a lot of planning, things hardly fell into place (after all, we are IITians too!). Anyone close to the camera got a role! Even the security officer got his space on the screen. Nitish Joshi (now in IIMB) and Suprita (a third-year student at IITM) were our perfect 'hero' and 'heroine' for the video. Special mentions for Anita and Makkad ("Nick") are due.

We made it a point to cover all the possible locations - departments, hostels, Tarams, Vels, even the bogs ! As a result, we had to run from one place to another, getting permissions for shooting at the various spots, carrying the equipment and trying to get somebody to act. The entire shooting was completed in a single day (two days before ADIEU). We started at 8 in the morning and we wrapped up by 9 at night.

Once the shooting was completed, we finished the editing with considerable ease. The trick was to get the right background music for that would decide the mood we set. We just couldn't find the right lyrics. After a full night of Googling for the right lyrics and music, we wisely decided to do away with the lyrics for there was no time to find the song which we wanted to sing. The theme music from the film Braveheart seemed just what we wanted and suited the video so well that we couldn't believe our luck. With the function due to start at 4 pm, we left the editing studio at 3 pm only to find the CD broken when we came back. 3.30 pm.

Thanks to some skillful driving and a 5-minute delay at the start, we screened the video as promised and I can say with full confidence that there wasn't a single soul left unmoved. My friends broke down in tears and sobbed uncontrollably. To top it all, there was Aanchal Sultania's poem at the end.

To all of us involved in the making of the video and to all those present at the CLT on that blissful evening, it was, undoubtedly, the most pleasant JOURNEYof our lives.