This is my first blog ever, and I guess it is fitting that it is about Dhwani, something very close to my heart. I had been mulling over the idea of joining Blogdom for a while now, but have never gotten around to starting off, till now. Before you wonder, why an event in my ol' alma mater is so close to my heart as to overcome that inertia, let me share that with all of you. CET has had a few cul-fests over the years, in the 90's, under various names. In '99, as I joined the college, the first "Dhwani" was held under the wings of the almighty CETEX, an exibhition held in CET every 10 years or so....lol, yeah reminds you of the Halley's Comet in frequency! After that, nothing stirred for a while.
In 2001, a bunch of us - all in S3 and fresh from the excitement of Mood Indigo at IIT-B, wondered why we shouldn't have a similar, earthshaking cultural extravaganza in CET. After all we are as good as any...! So, on one mid-summer afty under a tree in the Museum campus, the idea of "Dhwani" as we know it was born!
I remember that bunch of guys - Sabari, Arun, Jobin, Brahma, Sreeram, Ebin and yours truely, hope I haven't missed any of you, amigos - who met that day and charted out the framework of the event as we visualised it then.
Discussing under a clear blue sky, we took the sky as the limit, and initial plans were a bit grandiose. Images of Mood Indigo flashed vividly in our minds and we wanted to match. The small mater that MI had a budget of around Rs 45 Lakhs while we had about 45 bucks among the lot of us didn't limit our planning, lol!
Our seniors at the time, a wonderful bunch of people, were very supportive and the idea grew. Along the way, we conducted the first edition of CET's own Film Festival, ffCET, and this gave us confidence we would make good event managers. Thus, the journey started.....
And that journey was a interesting and trying one, enough to populate the pages of any respectable saga, lol! Those of us involved with Dhwani 2002 will never forget it. Tightening budgets......empty pockets....midnight oil.....employee strikes.....we faced them all but those three days Feb 14, 15 and 16 are unforgettable. That's a long story and I leave it for another day...!
In the meantime, it is heartening to see the heights that Dhwani 2006 is trying to scale, four short years from its inception. A lot in CET has changed.....we never had the chance to ask each other how many jobs we had cracked...lol, the emphasis was on getting any job under the Sun in those days.....nor did we even imagine about getting a top notch International band for the Pro-nite (Balabhaskar was a wish come true then!), but the excitement about Dhwani has NOT changed and that's absolutely great. That eventhough few in the College were there when Dhwani started off, even greater excitement is manifest these days in campus, is indeed amazing! Great work so far and I hope to attend yet another fun-filled Dhwani.....the best one yet.
Ahem.....where can I get a pass??!
