This goes in the context for the ultimate war that takes place in the even semester at IIT Kanpur. I’m talking about Galaxy, the battle for cultural championship between student hostels. Their exists a General Championship evaluated over 5 mega events rolled throughout the year in campus, but none of them can even come closer to the charm of Galaxy. Galaxy is THE buzz.
Galaxy Trophy!
Every IITKian knows that it is a matter of fact, that under no circumstance whatsoever, with any god-damn supernatural powers, in any parallel-universe, can the Galaxy trophy be snatched away from its deserving ‘owner’ – Hall 3. But I like the spirit of other people: They keep ‘trying’, and keep ‘learning’ for even a loss can teach one a lot. They believe participation is more important and blah..blah..
Now, it is shocking how people can be smart and dumb at the same time. And as I looked further, Behavioural Sciences can explain the same. Why don’ people understand that being pooled up with Girls Hostel(GH) doesn’t mean that you can win Galaxy? And for GH, how even in their wildest dreams could they even imagine winning the trophy without Hall-3. Let me go back to the time and give you glance of the meetings conducted to decide the pool structure:
COSHA Meeting
First, let me tell you what I concluded looking at the faces of representatives of other hostels:
Hall-5: Convener bhi apna hai, COSHA convener bhi apna hai, SnT GenSec bhi apna hai, bachche bhi humare paas kam hai. Arre chill marte hain, ab to GH bhi apna ho jayega. Aa gayi Galaxy ki trophy!(LOL)
Hall-10: Galaxy? Arre kya Galaxy. Humein pata hai hum nahi jeet sakte. Last year GH ko bhi saath le doobe the. Koi ni, meeting toh attend karni hi padegi.(Poor Chaps!)
Hall-2: Hum bakait hain. Galaxy to hum hi jeetenge. Hum bakait hain. Humne GH se setting kar rakhi hai. Hum bakait hain. Hum faltu stats present karenge aur GH ko apne saath kar lenge. Hum bakait hain. Aa jaegi Galaxy ki trophy!(ROFLMAO)
GH: Hume to bas Hall-3 ko harana hai.
(We came to know that GH’s HEC didn’t want to be with Hall-3, and be on the other side with our arch rivals Hall-2, who seemed supposedly powerful, and collectively get our arrogance down and snatch the trophy!)
As expected, and IMO on valid grounds, the conclusion of meeting ended GH being with Hall-5. Dil me laddoo phoot rahe the unke. But it was evident from the reaction of GH and Hall-2(the soul-mates), “Supreme Court me lekar jaayenge. Hume koi alag nahi kar sakta. Gavah bhi lekar aayenge, Jaan laga denge. Hall-3 ko harakar rahenge!”
Senate Meeting
And so did happen: The issue was raised in the next senate meeting. Everyone very aptly knows the relation between Hall-2 and GH in campus, and owing to that, it was a risky stance to let them be together. And ideally on the grounds of basic stats, GH-1 should not have been clubbed with Hall-2. They claimed they wanted to improve their ‘relations’ via this ‘partnership’. But for the matter was put to vote, they did get pooled up together. I think they got a nice support from the PG’s, thanks to the GH-2 ‘gavah’, who had expressed the ‘pleasure’ being clubbed with Hall-2 last year.
Hall-5 ke sapne toot gaye. They thought banging on GH’s power, they could have attempted to roll the trophy in.
Hall-10 ke to sapne hi nahi the kuch.
Hall-2, GH: We’re feeling pity for them. One must have looked at the spark in their eyes, the stature in their posture, the glare in their body-language, as if duniya unke kadmon pe thi!
This was the scene back in August 2012. And as present, March 2013, when Galaxy has concluded and the results are out : Bagging 5 out of 8 trophies, and a lead of 225.5 points from the second position holder, Mauryans make it 5 times in a row. I feel that this championship is not a war between the 4 pools, but it’s a battle between Hall-3 and (IIT Kanpur). Would like to end up with what Hall-3 wishes to say to others:
“Tu mujhe harane ke liye khelta hai aur main jeetne ke liye!”
(Unfortunately, I couldn’t be a part of Galaxy’13, due to my absence from campus. I don’ claim any efforts put in, nor any role played in our win, but I could still feel the energy that had been put up by my friends, that I couldn’t resist writing this post!)
man. update the pic to the new trophy.! :D :D
Sure. As I get it, will upload the same! :)
Coming from a guy who has been completely deluded by the crap that your seniors have pushed upon you and you swallowed it. I pity people like you most of all who barely had anything to contribute towards galaxy and yet shout loud at the 1st opportunity.
‘Deluded by the crap’? Pity me? LOL!
Well my friend, with due respect to your opinion, I don’t think I need to explain anything here. :) (I just wish you hadn’t hidden your identity!)
Really They thought banging on GH’s power? I hope its just a Freudian slip. :P
By the way, I still don’t get it. Why otherwise good people always tend to get into this us vs. them situation? What really is the reason behind having “Galaxy”? Is the need of having a supervillain so strong that we cannot have a competition without such rivalries? It’s been just about 2 years since you joined IIT and got Hall 3 by sheer chance. Just think, you had an equal probability of ending up in say Hall-10. So why this?
I hope I am not acting as a killjoy. I get that a lot. :)
As a spectator in Galaxy’12, I applauded every performance worthy of being so regardless of the pool they belonged to. In the end, it’s not by chance but by the sheer hard-work that has been put in by the winning pool, which just overshadowed the effort put in by others. In the freshman year, when I was introduced about we being Galaxy winners, it was well stated that it’s not that the best dancers, musicians or artists accidentally come up in Hall-3, as all being random stuff. It’s just the way people are groomed in this regard that has infused the winning habit! :)
> It’s just the way people are groomed in this regard that has infused the winning habit!
That’s exactly what I was pointing to. This sense of “belonging to a hall”, and hence every other hall is an enemy plotting against us, is what I have an issue with. Especially if they were literally plotting as you say so then its even worse to have a competition as this.
I personally can’t attach any importance to “owning” a random trophy to whose winning/losing I anyway didn’t have much contribution. (I have the same problems I described above and here with patriotism too).
Well, I think the patriotic feeling is of great significance. I love to quote this example : In one of the Pan-IIT meets, a video said, “There was a time when you worked together to get your hostel win the dramatics trophy. Now, its the time to work together to build a better nation”. I think Galaxy is a great platform not only to build skills, but to gather an entirely different experience.
And as far as the plotting thing is concerned, I second you. That really shocked me when I got across the same. Even the interference of respective General Secretaries in the championship under their governance is unacceptable at any cost. The competition should be fair and healthy on all grounds.
BTW Jayesh, it ain’t a random trophy! :p
In the larger scheme of things it is a random trophy. Especially as impersonal as this.
Again its a matter of chance you were born in India. You could as well have been in Afghanistan. So I don’t think the country in which I was born, is in any way more special than any other. What’s important is the humankind, not any one privileged country.
I think I’ll stop commenting now on this post. Peace :)
Another thing. Congratulations! As far as I saw in the quizzes, you deserved winning.