"In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. Its an aggressive, even a hostile act. You can disguise its aggressiveness all you want with veils of subordinate clauses and qualifiers and tentative subjunctives, with ellipses and evasions with the whole manner of intimating rather than claiming, of alluding rather than stating but theres no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writers sensibility on the readers most private space."
Joan Didion, Why I Write.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

IIMC Spring Festival '10

After a gap of four years, IIMC Spring Festival was finally held on March 27th, at Al-Mizan Campus. It was an all-girls function, which is certainly not a surprise for anyone of us. There was excitement all around.
The function started off around 9:30am. It comprised of three main components: A Fashion Show, Stalls and a Variety Show.

FASHION SHOW:
There was an entry ticket, worth Rs.30, for the fashion show, directed by Amna Ejaz. It was held in the famous Lecture Hall 3. To everyone’s displeasure, only a couple of striking dresses could be seen. No exceptional jewellery, make-up, hair-do or theme existed. Choice of music was awful. Lack of practice and directing skills were evident from the ramp. Audience actually felt sorry for their money.

STALLS:
Stalls were the most regimented and captivating part of the festival. A lot of hard work and effort was put into them. Aisha Saeed deserves most of the credit.
• IIMC Merchandise Stall was the most artsy and inventive block. Haleema Saeed’s designed key chains and stickers caught everyone’s attention. The backdrop of the stage was also her design.
• Food-Court did great. Almost all stalls gained profit. Madiha Sadiq did a lot of effort in this sector.
• There were other stalls that deserve credit too. There was a Mehndi Stall, a Handcrafts Stall, a Clothes Stall, a Mask and Jewellery Stall, a Nail Art and Hair Streaking Stall, a Lemon Soda and Drinks Stall. Every stall was the best its own type, well thought-out and well done.
• Game-Zone did the worst. It was not in the main lawn, but in the adjacent lawn. It was isolated, deprived and disadvantaged. Those who entered the main lawn forgot that anything existed outside the area. There were two speakers, both placed in the main lawn, so the DJ (me) could only be heard in the main lawn. Ayesha Jabeen, the incharge of that zone should have reminded Aisha or me to make an announcement to the people, telling them to visit that lawn as well. I consider it negligence on her part.
• The Jail Stall… well, as soon as I sat on my seat, on the left of the stage, Yumna, Shurooq, and another girl (don’t really remember who she was), came up to me and said, “Someone paid us 300 rupees to put you in Jail, you’re under arrest,” Ayesha explained to them that they couldn’t take me as the show was about to begin. But they were not bothered. I also wanted to go and see who exactly loved me to the extent that she paid 300 rupees to get me into trouble. When I was behind the bars, they refused to tell me who it was. They didn’t even have any proof of anything. I needed someone to pay 600 rupees (double) to get me bailed out. A friend did it for me. After that, I received many complaints from many people who were put in prison like that, and released on payment of large amounts of money. Complaints were transferred to Dr.Fazaila. No action has yet been taken. The stall was a fraud. Yet it made the greatest money that day.

VARIETY SHOW:
The most interesting event of this festival was the variety show.
• The first skit was stopped as soon as we hit the administration by playing the song “Paisa”. Whether the music was the issue or this particular song, I don’t know. Dr.Fazaila told me to call the skit off. “Cant you see their (Chief Guest’s and Crew’s) faces,” she frowned.
• Another interesting segment was ‘Back to Basics’. You know how teachers always say, “Oh you don’t know this. This is so ‘basic!’” So Amna Mirza came up with this idea, and I asked four teachers some basic medical questions. Being doctors, they were more than expected to answer.
-My first question was for Dr.X. I asked her the management of Anaphylactic Shock (which is a grave medical emergency) – She could not answer. She was perturbed.
-Second question was for Dr. Shazia. I asked her to define Community Medicine. She tried, but she was wrong. And whoever has been to a CM class, must be aware of the fact that you cannot even change a comma or a full-stop in any CM definition.
-Third was AP Anatomy Department (I don’t know her name). I asked her to tell me something about First Pass Metabolism. She didn’t know. I asked her about its site. After a lot of thinking (or may be it was the audience help), she came up with Liver.
-Last question went to Dr.Y. I asked her the names of the Mixed Cranial Nerves. I was expecting her to at least take one name out of four. Disappointed, I asked her to tell the names of all the Cranial Nerves in order. I changed the question for the third time now. I asked her Eclampsia. She said, “A person goes crazy.” I said, “How? It happens to someone just like that?” She replied, “Gynae.”
After the segment, I went up to each four of them and apologized. Everyone sounded cool. AP Anatomy Department was very sweet. (It was my first interaction with her) Dr.Shazia hugged me and said, “I love you even more today.”

• In the last segment of the show, The IIMC Awards were held. Dr.Amna Tariq, Dr. GM, Dr.Shazia, Dr.Sajid and Dr.Sammiya won the Best Teacher Awards.

Verdict: All in all, it was a successful event. Mrs.General Zulfiqar (The Chief Guest) and the VP were full of praise.

All hails Aisha Saeed, whole 4th Year and the CM department (Specially Dr.Farah and Dr.Fazaila)

Before I sign off, I so want to share this with the readers. Dr.Y came in to the class the next working day, and said, “Asking me Cranial Nerves? I obviously know. One goes upwards, one goes downwards, one goes left and one goes right. One should have the concept.”