Vindication?

One of the first village meets we had was called to decide the theme of Unmaad 2011. Several ideas were floated around, some interesting, some boring, and some plain weird. Finally, after much deliberation, one theme was selected from amongst several contestants. It was “Unmaad, therefore I am”. That meeting was a pivotal moment in this year’s Unmaad, since it was at that meeting the flavour for the entire fest was decided. It was all the more crucial since the theme of the previous edition of Unmaad (“The World is Bangalore”) sold more Unmaad T-shirts than any other Unmaad theme. In the world of college fests, t shirt sales are the ultimate acid test for success. So the burden rested heavily on the shoulders of all the villagers to decide on a theme that would carry the legacy forward.

“What happens at one am?”

After the meeting got over, all the villagers segregated into separate groups to deliberate on the significance of the decision they had just made. The major obstacle seemed to be that there was no unified consensus on what the heck the theme meant. Everybody had their own opinion, and some had more than one. Polysyllabix was absent for the meeting that decided the theme. Upon hearing of the theme, he reportedly asked Monosyllabix “What happens at one am?” Monosyllabix had to explain to him that the “I” was the alphabet I and not the Roman numeral.

The events team convened an emergency meeting to design events according to the theme. Tragicomix started off the meeting by explaining to his underlings that the theme had to be looked at in the respect of certain individual and essentially unique characteristics, whether it be that of a person or an institution and those which are consonant and harmonious with the identity of the aforementioned parties, and not a broad view of the entire spectrum of intermeshing qualities that generally include such persons or institutions in its sweeping range. While Tragicomix paused for breath after providing this insight, one of the villagers asked if this theme meant the power of an individual identity and what it could accomplish. That simple description changed everything.

The theme takes off (or so we think, therefore we are!)

Indeed, that’s what it was. The power of an individual, that unique identity that defines one’s existence and makes possible feats of courage and innovation that would otherwise get lost in the clutter. We decided to celebrate the individual this year.

The most beautiful thing about this theme is that it is open to all sorts of interpretation. Getafix decided that the biggest weakness of the theme, namely, that it was open to a multitude of interpretations, would be turned into its biggest strength. It seemed fitting that a fest designed to celebrate the power of the individual should have a theme that could be interpreted by anyone in their own, unique manner. So we have Rajni posters, Tendulkar pics, Wikileaks and plain old FB status updates, all celebrating this flexible and extremely powerful concept. Your ability to interpret this theme is limited only by your imagination. Indeed, it’s a fitting tribute to Descartes, who famously declared, “I think, therefore I am”.