What a lovely evening” says the impeccably dressed Brandon to his friend and room-mate Philip, as he draws back the curtains to reveal the magnificent Manhattan skyline. “Pity we couldn’t have done it with the curtains open, in bright sunlight”. The “it” that Brandon describes is the cold, emotionless murder of their classmate David Kentley in their apartment. They choke the life out of David for apparently no reason, but for the thrill of getting away with the perfect murder. Thus opened the 3rd production of the Dramatics Cell of IIM Calcutta, an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller “Rope”.

The play revolves around an evening of intrigue and drama that follows, as Brandon throws a party, literally over David’s dead body, almost challenging the attendees to discover their “work of art”. The party opens with casual pleasantries among the guests – Mr. Kentley and Mrs. Atwater, the victim’s father and aunt, Ms. Janet Walker, the victim’s fiancée, Kenneth, a classmate and their former teacher, Rupert Cadell. However, when the conversation veers towards the art of murder and Nietzsche’s theory of the superman, Brandon’s sense of intellectual superiority becomes bolder. Philip, clearly the remorseful of the two perpetrators, starts acting cocky and out of character under the weight of alcohol and guilt. The plot thickens when David’s absence becomes increasingly mysterious, leaving Rupert wondering as to what exactly the two friends had done.

If the script was intriguing, the execution was simply superb. The cast, Mihir Rathod as the cold blooded Brandon, Nihansh Bhat as Philip, Himanshu Bagchi as the flippant Rupert Cadell played their roles to near perfection as they kept the audience captivated till the very end. Nihansh did justice to the role, his countenance contorted with nervousness, words dripping with remorse. Mansha Tandon was impeccable as Mrs. Atwater., delivering her lines with pompous elegance. Swati Baheti was charming as Ms. Walker, Sunil Chandrasekhar (Mr. Kentley), Mandawi Verma (Mrs. Wilson, the housekeeper) and Naresh as Kenneth, all gave the setting a touch of class.

The acting complemented with the perfect blend of lighting and the intricate care that was taken in designing the set, made it a night to remember. The selection of music was delectable and lent the occasion an air of poignant suspense. Himanshu and Mihir went about it like two thespians, one sharp yet subtle, the other, manipulative and composed. However, critical acclaim must be given to those that deserve it most– directors Naresh Krishnaswamy and Shehzad Kazi, whose efforts culminated in perhaps one of the most brilliant plays that IIM Calcutta has seen.

For Jokatimes,

Gregory Ipe

 

PS – Alfred Hitchcock (who directed the screen version of Rope) called it ‘an experiment that didn’t work out’. The experimental ending worked out by Naresh and Kazi, combined with the hours of practice the Dramatics Cell puts into each of its productions, gave Intaglio’09 the perfect start.

But as it turned out, this did nothing to detract from the quality of the quiz! A record attendance for a quiz in IIM Calcutta, a figure approaching three digits took part in an exciting opening round where some sitters were interspersed with some which caused pencils to be chewed and brows to be furrowed. As the students pondered over questions ranging from Narakasura to Pegasus, from Bruno to Calvin and from Puskas to Sharapova, the quiz master kept an eye on the chocolates which inevitably brighten up such quizzing occasions.

8 teams were chosen in the final, with the cut off score being 13 out of a maximum of 24. With only one 2nd year student allowed in a team, teams comprising of regular quizzers C. Ram Shankar, Abhishek Nagraj, Ankit Kapoor etc. took the centre stage, not to mention teams consisting the 2 Club Presidents for the year, Atul Nath and Sreekanth Reddy. But what was heartening and encouraging was to see full throttled performances from teams made up only of PGP1s, a good sign for the future of quizzing in the college.

The finals were held in a festive atmosphere, with some teams showing extreme enthusiasm in answering even other teams’ questions! Starting with a Long Visual Connect on Olympics destinations and ending with a long visual connect on liquor brands, the quiz straddled areas like football, technology, current affairs, mythology etc. The Quiz Master was liberal in distributing the chocolates for good answers, though the unfortunate scorer did not get one this time due to his sometime erratic scoring. (Just about 200 people kept scores to verify so it didn’t turn out to be an issue at all…)

A 2 member team comprising of 2nd year student Abhishek Nagraj (the Darth Lord behind JokaTimes)and 1st year student graduating from NIT Trichy, Sunil Chandrashekar, finished first. Sreekanth Reddy, Amrutanshu Mishra and Nishanth came second. Ankit Kapoor’s team (popular for unspecified reasons as Captain), with Saagar Sinha and Anand came third.

JokaTimes caught up with the quizmaster and asked for his reaction to the enthusiastic response. The Quizmaster thoroughly enjoyed the event and promised to come back again to the campus for more quizzes. The winning team was busy splitting their (imaginary) spoils but your JT reporter managed to catch them partying (see attached pic).

JokaTimes congratulates the winners and hopes to be able to replicate reporting of last season’s numerous successes in Quiz competitions in the outside world, again, this season as well. The signs are surely in the right direction!

For JokaTimes,

Sriram

It was bigger and better than ever before – the grand finale of the 5th Edition of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz held on 5th April 2009 at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai was a dazzling event. The first-ever International Final of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz saw the Winners and Runners-Up from the UK Tata Crucible (London School of Business & Oxford University) and theSingapore Tata Crucible (Singapore Management University & Singapore Institute of Management) compete fiercely with the Winners, IIM-Calcutta, and Runners-Up, MICA-Ahmedabad from the India National Final (which preceded the International Final).

At the closely fought International Final, the intense atmosphere in the crystal room was broken by a loud cheer for Mr. Shobhit Bhatnagar andMr. C Ram Shankar of IIM-C as they edged out Ms. Aditi Nargundkar and Mr. Gaurav Banerjee of MICA-Ahmedabad on the very last question, to emerge victorious.

The Guest of Honor for the evening, Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, awarded the international winners with a high-end laptop each along with a holiday package of 4 days and 3 nights to Maldives along with other goodies. Felicitating the international winners, Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan stated, “The concept of Tata Crucible was aimed at giving the young minds in India a platform to showcase their talent and I am happy that Tata Crucible Campus Quiz has been supremely successful in doing so.”

From Cool Avenues: http://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/090401/iimc-tata-1.php

With this issue of IMZine, the team wanted to cover material which would be different from that in the other magazines. And which would be informative, yet presented in an informal way. Hence, the decision to move from articles to slideshows. And the same ‘informative and informal’ theme holds for this edition’s content as well. We wanted to facilitate discussions among readers, and therefore this edition features comments section for each topic too.

You can also browse through the older editions of IMZine at http://www.iimcal.ac.in/imz/archive/

(An observation from “Where there’s a will”)

The Dramatics Cell at IIM Calcutta staged its showcase play “Where there is a Will“, its third of the season. Following the success of the first two plays “Udhaar ka Pati” and “The Importance of being Earnest”, the audience had huge expectations from this play. It would be apt to say that they were met and in style. This play, which also happens to be the first play penned down by noted playwright Mahesh Dattani, was about Hansmukh Mehta – rags-to-riches businessman and patriarch, his wife Sonal, son Ajit, daughter-in-law Preeti and mistress Kiran Jhaveri!

The play turned out to be a dark comedy with deep undercurrents of humour which kept the audience bound to their seats till the end. Set in a typical Indian setting of a joint family, the play was based on the promise of a will that kept a business tycoon and his family together. As it turned out, the cleverly designed contents of the will brought his wife and his mistress together after his death and held the troubled family close. The presence of the ghost of the dead Mr. Hansmukh Mehta added moments of brilliant humour and subtle observations to the play which expertly dealt with the shades of the relationships that he had forged with his late father, son, wife and mistress.

Akhil Mohan Gupta excelled in his role as the patriarch and had the audience in splits with his comic timing. Portraying the role of a confused son, trying to carve out a way of living for himself Aayush Shrivastav did dramatic justice both to the shades of black and white in his character. The initial part of the play was livened up by the father-son interactions and the chemistry in-between them. However the second half of the play saw the arrival of the mistress to the traditional Mehta house. It was here that Vaishali Aggarwal and Radha Ladkani, as the wife and the mistress added an in-depth understanding of relations to the story. While Vaishali displayed fine nuances of her acting both in comedy and in tragedy, Radha added dazzle and grit to the story. The sly, conniving couple of Hansmukh Mehta’s daughter-in-law Preeti and her old friend Deepak was aptly played by Shikha Tomar and Naresh Krishnaswamy.

The fine blend of music and lights made it a delightful evening for the connoisseurs as well as the commoners and much of it could be attributed to the brilliant pair of directors, Shehzad Kazi and S. Srinath and the music director Archish. The sets were innovative and the unusual setting of rooms without any physically visible walls was displayed to perfection. The Dramatics cell at IIM Calcutta has a long history of staging world class plays and with a legacy of successful plays like Sartre’s “Keane” and Shankar Shesh’s “Ek Aur Dronacharya”, this evening added more glory to Dramatics cell’s history.

Shashank Kumar
~Yet Another Drams Cell Member

The scenic beauty of the sprawling campus which houses 7 lakes, plethora of diverse plant and animal life, architecturally aesthetic buildings as well as people from all walks of life does awaken the sleeping lens men inside IIMCians. Naturally we have a very active photography club aptly called Lakeside Lens Lovers.

The newest club in the campus has already left a mark with their level of activity. LLL, as they are referred to on campus, publish a periodical covering the various techniques and styles of photography along with the latest pics taken by the members of the club. The club also conducts photography workshops to keep themselves informed about the latest technological developments in photography. The club also takes up the responsibility of covering all the events that take place on campus. Apart from this the members upload many beautiful pictures that they have taken inside or outside the campus regularly on the campus network.

For JokaTimes

Sreekanth Reddy

Owing to the rigorous multitasking that is required from every IIMCian it becomes really difficult to keep track of everything going around in the campus. Our literary club, Persona, comes to rescue by publishing Inquest, a periodical which chronicles the major activities on the campus apart from interviews of professors, opinion pieces by students and witty cartoons taking a satirical view at the world within Joka.

Apart from this Persona also releases an online magazine called IMZine which consists of insightful articles and opinion pieces about the world outside. Articles as wide as “Thinking through Conglomerates”, “The Latest in Nuclear Technology and its Significance to India”, “Periodic review of Indian cricket team’s performance” and “The Enduring Magic of Akira Kurosawa” find place in this magazine broadening the horizons as well as keeping IIMCians informed.

Beyond this the club is responsible for conducting many literary events on campus including Disputatio – Persona’s flagship debate event, Creative Writing competitions and minor events like DumbC, Pictionary, etc. It has been found that successfully acting out “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” to a bunch of guys who are unaware about the movie is the perfect tonic to beat the midterm blues.

For JokaTimes

Sreekanth Reddy

The pleasure of connecting obscure and unrelated people, the frustration of not figuring out the obvious reference in the question, the satisfaction of cracking a good question by picking up the clues, the thrill of beating the buzzer and the silent but fervent prayers in the heart that competing teams miss a question for which you know the answer. These are some of the emotions a quizzer takes pleasure in going through. But quizzers are one of the most misunderstood bunches of people. One has to be a quizzer to understand the passion associated with it. For all the IIMCians who are bitten by the quizzing bug, IcQc (or IIM Calcutta Quiz Club) takes precedence over everything else.

The club has a unique style of conducting meetings (maybe “arbit bakar sessions on drinks” is more appropriate term) in which literally anything under the sun is discussed upon. The regular, general as well as silo, quizzes conducted by members turn out to be much more competitive than expected and are eagerly looked forward to. But the biggest of all tasks is conducting the open and inter college quizzes by the club. The high standard of quizzes conducted by them is renowned in the quizzing circles within Calcutta as well as outside. As the members proudly proclaim on their T-shirts- “Perestroika and Glasnost… All fun at first sight… But in the end… We are always right”

In the past one year members of the club have done exceedingly well in prestigious tournaments like BT Acumen, ET Citi Grandmasters, NTPC Electron Quiz and Nihilanth(inter IIT-IIM quiz tournament). IIMCians are currently defending champions of both BT Acumen and ET Citi Grandmasters. Apart from these the prizes won in other inter college quizzes are innumerable. But the members believe that these are just perks. For a true quizzer, quizzing is a reward in itself!!!

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body”

It is this language that the Choreo Club of IIM Calcutta speaks. Be it on-campus parties, off-campus pubbing (oh yes this is the club most notorious for its numerous outings) or actual performances, all members of Choreo (as it is lovingly called) know how to put their best foot forward, literally.

One of the newest clubs on campus, Choreo has been putting up some of the best performances ever on the IIM C stage since its conception 3 years ago. Every show is not just a dance, it’s a performance replete with a theme and production effects to match. Choreo believes in showcasing not just dance but dance-drama at its most magnificent. Shifting backgrounds and dreamy costumes, perfect synchronisation and exotic steps; every Choreo performance is a treat for the senses. Even the song selection fits the theme and the mood to the T. Truly a connoisseur’s delight!

However Choreo takes dancing seriously too. For ensuring a stellar performance Choreo members liaison with hired professional choreographers and test their limits of endurance while practising intricate steps. We even have trained dancers in Choreo who deliver spellbinding Indian classical dance performances that leave the audience enthralled with the grace and majesty of it all. Most inaugurations and national holidays in IIM Calcutta would be incomplete without a Choreo performance to flag it off.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Choreo performances off-stage are as good if not better than their on-stage antics, since this is the time they dance for the passion of dancing. Be it impromptu jigs during all night practise sessions (especially to the worst tunes possible) or showing off their (so-called?) superior skills in campus parties, preening comes naturally to a Choreo member. With dancing in their genes, every occasion, however insignificant, calls for celebration in some of the hottest dance spots in town where the members continue doing what they are best at scorching the dance floor in the process. For most Choreo members who have never had professional training, this club is a perfect platform to let loose their hidden skills.

The Choreo Club of IIM Calcutta is a place where dreams take flight and the passion and imagination of a few binds the rest of the crowd as they lose themselves in yet another mesmerising performance!

For JokaTimes

Rucha Naik

- Popular quip in Dramatics Cell

- A Passionate DramCell Member
- Rucha Naik