Coffee House '13 - Reminiscences

Some of life's experiences are short, but yet unforgettable and one of them to remember for life is "Coffee House '13". I always had a feeling that this was going to be a total fiasco, but it was not. I still hasn't sunk into me that "Coffee House '13" was, in my humble opinion quite a successful show. 

We started with the usual meetings raving and ranting about the logo, the budget, the events and lots of other stuff. That was almost two months prior to Coffee House. Three weeks to coffee house and we were still raving and ranting. I was at loggerheads with myself. I had no idea what to do and where to start. Two weeks down to go and we haven't even decided on the events and the invitations. All i had was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny amount of confidence that i could pull this off and with oodles of help from Dominic.

Two weeks on, Dominic and myself started bunking classes much to the chargin of a few of our staff. Well, that couldn't be helped. But we did what we had to do. We pretty much drove around the whole city for almost two weeks. 

We had no clue as to whom we should invite as the Chief Guest, after the person who was invited had turned it down on a very short notice. A few phone calls and some mad driving through the city got us a rather reluctant Chief Guest. The late nightouts with Dhiresh designing the Certificates while he went on a rampage in my refrigerator smacking his lips and singing praises about the strawberry juice (He almost fell in love with it.). Ordering the trophies with Bro. Lourdu and Bro. Wilson, haggling with the guys in the shop and helping us to select a momento, the long drives with Dominic around the city to order the print for the invitations and the banners and the longest drive with Agni for handing out the invitations. We drove all the way from our college to Patrician College, few more colleges on the whole stretch of the OMR till the Hindustan College at Kelambakkam and again drive all the way to MCC, where we were given a warm welcome by the staff( We were given free coffee in the dept. :P). That almost added upto almost a 90 km in a day. Thinesh and Agni rounded up a few students from the hostel and took care of all the decorations in the hall. The design for the welcome sign was one of the best i'd ever. I don't remember the name of the guy who'd designed it, but hats off to him.

The final few days were somehow a little funny. The drive to Medavakkam with Leo, Agni and Dominic at 11 in the night to get the snacks and the sweets for the fest were real fun, especially with Agni going around foraging for food in the bakery. End result: The bakery guy gave us free pakkodas, ladoos and samosas. The drive back was lot more funnier with Agni stealing ladoos from the huge box Dominic was carrying while i was driving. The funniest part yet is Leo trying to stuff the ladoos down his mouth with his helmet on while driving. I still have no idea how we transported both the boxes from Medavakkam to my house. It was around 12 30 by the time we reached and we were exhausted. It took another hour to gorge the stale food we had brought hours ago. I somehow curled myself up to sleep and before i knew my alarm started screeching at 4 00 in the morning. My eyes were all watery and burning and i looked like someone right out of a mental asylum. I somehow managed to kick Thinesh out of his sleep and drag him out. By the time i was taking out my bike, he stood on the driveway with a murderous look on his face. I'm pretty sure he was swearing under his breath. We drove through the December chill at top speed with the both of us shivering like crazy towards the Koyambedu market. Too many flowers and we didn't know which ones to buy. Heck! Just buy the ones which look good. Hopping through a few shops and purchasing whatever was appealing to the eye, we raced to the college and delivered the flowers.

By the time i went home, freshened up and got back to college, it was 8 30. There wasn't much of a noticeable crowd, but yet there was a steady trickle. The inauguration started and judging by the number of students at the inaugural i was starting to believe that this was really going to become a fiasco. I didn't believe my eyes when i saw that four teams had registered for Drama. The student turnout was a lot more than i had even expected. The event somehow turned to be a success. (Except for the fact that most of the girls who were participating thought that i was a professor, which was mildly disheartening, everything just seemed to have fallen into place.)

A special thanks to Dominic, despite being ill, went out of the way to help me. I couldn't have done this without you, ever. I really have to thank Leo for his unwavering support and encouragement. Thanks a lot Leo for bailing me out in the last minute. Agni, Thinesh, Cassion Anand, you guys have put in a lot and i couldn't thank you enough. A special thanks to the organisers of all the events. I couldn't have pulled off this fiasco without your co-ordination and co-operation. In case if i have failed to thank anybody, feel free to rant about it in the comments section.

I had a really tough time organising this event, but the memories of the final three weeks before "Coffee House '13" will never fade away. I wish i could come back and stick around for another Coffee House. ;)

P.S. This is just a teaser on what actually went into turning a fiasco into an overwhelming success!!