Timing is everything. Or so they say, not very inaccurately. It very definitely is, in the case of this article. Just after Saarang 2002, this would have seemed like a host of bad excuses from who else but the sorest losers of the festival! Just before the Cul Sec election that eventually wasn't, this would have become food for false promises, and its central issues conveniently discarded later. Just after the constitution of the Core Group and appointment of Coordinators, this would have been lost in the hopes, dreams, and general atmosphere of positive faith that typically pervades their minds early in their tenure. There could hardly be a better time than now, when for the umpteenth time, it has begun to be discovered that reality bites. And yet it isn't a moment too early, as reality would otherwise go on to annihilate. Full circle. This article would then be due from my juniors! Excessive contemplation would once again see the right time pass them by. Full circle.

So it has been established that this is indeed the right time. And at this time, like any other, the mention of "Informals" instantly conjures images of failure that one today finds perversely amusing! And I have been part of both the episodes that constitute what many are quick to call, 'The Decline of Informals'. I was an Informals Volunteer in my first year. I had heard of Saarang 2000, and the great hit that Informals was at that time. That was our inspiration. We had only to follow methods well tried and tested. The Informals Coordinators for Saarang 2001 were full of ideas too. Our bunch of volunteers wasn't without hopes either. All plans were full of promise. And then the Sify stall happened, heralding the debut in IITM of mindless professional entertainment that is automatically justified by the volume of free prizes. Informals took a beating. More importantly, the spirit of students trying to entertain their fellows was reduced to less than a nice try.

Maybe in already having once said 'nice try', I find myself at a loss for words to attempt to encompass the greater tragedy that was to come. I was an Informals Coordinator for Saarang 2002. Once again, Informals 2000 was sung about a great deal, particularly by the Core Group members who had themselves been part of it. Informals 2001 was a bad mistake that wasn't to be repeated at any cost. It's a pity that we deluded ourselves into thinking it was ever in our hands. Informals in my year got off to a very jinxed start. And people were waiting for us to do it again at Saarang; waiting to see again the failure that one today finds perversely amusing! And Saarang 2002 did finally begin. Informals was planned right down to the last minute of 'five times seven' hours. That perhaps was our mistake. We ought to have been more flexible. What if we got only two hours on stage a day? That seems very probable, doesn't it, especially without prior notice of at least a week! And I say 'probable' because it eventually happened!

Day One, the promised backdrop had not arrived. The elaborate Informals Inauguration was trashed for want of a sound system. Informals only saw numerous pots being broken. But people were entertained nonetheless. We were happy in a strange kind of way. Day Two, the bomb dropped. Globus wanted our stage for one hour a day. Sony wanted us nowhere within a half-mile radius of the stage, for the two and a half hours a day when Karaoke was to enthrall! Of course, these negotiations were secret, and all that people were given to see, was that Informals was absconding for three and a half hours a day. Add to this the fact that the audio system arrived one hour late every day. Our seven hour plan broke down, what with us barely ever having more than one hour between scheduled sponsors' interruptions. But the little victory remained that for the miniscule fraction of the day that we were on, the crowds were drawn away from all competing stalls and nearby events, to our own stage. Those were Days Three, Four and Five. They all hurt, and if it is any consolation, in the same way - no new torture methods were being tried on us!

However, this isn't to allege that Informals was solely victimised. All Events Coordinators have their problems to deal with. Of course, the general pandemonium that results keeps us thinking on our feet and other similarly incapable faculties! And I cannot claim that we as a team dealt with our own problems in the best possible way. Saarang 2002 feedback showed that Informals was voted the least enjoyed event. I must respect the opinion of those 17 people who chose not to politely leave that question unanswered! I'm sure that our own inability to recover from the initial setback that disrupted our entire schedule, and our inability to come up with a Contingency Plan that would be to everyone's satisfaction are equally responsible for the disaster that we turned out to be. And it was probably no help that our attitude was one of vengeance - "Circumstances won't allow us to entertain the masses. So we'll entertain ourselves and be happy to do at least so much!" I cannot try to ease the blame off ourselves. I can only hope that there are no further five-day emergencies in the future.

That will be enough of an account, insufficient as it may be. I feel a great deal of reflection is due. For two years, we have seen how Informals has suffered the consequences of having been completely neglected, and I dare say spurned by the Core Group and Sponsorship Coordinators. Informals has always had to do its own sponsorship. And in both my years, I have seen good deals being lost because we don't have the authority to make certain promises, and because our higher-ups don't have the time for us. Informals seems to be the lowest on the priority lists of GA and PA coords. In general, the Informals effort has always been that of orphans. When I first advertised Informals as a 'Parallel Universe at Saarang' in an IP early last year, I didn't realise this is how true it would turn out to be!

Perhaps the concept and philosophy of Informals as it was originally conceived, needs some pondering over. And I mean the concept and philosophy before they were lost to mindless commercialisation of Saarang. Informals is meant to be a platform for us reputedly dull IITian students to try and entertain the rather large crowds at Saarang who at a given moment are neither participating in any event nor watching one. It is for their entertainment, but more so, their entertainment by the hosts, by students who don't make a living out of it. This is a concept that is already lost in the other well known college festivals where for the most part, Informals as a student effort is either extinct (in which case professionals run sponsored stalls) or has degenerated into a Jukebox stall or an endless JAM session, as it may otherwise be called.

It's only in IIT Madras where we sit on the sad line between clinging to Informals just for the sake of Informals, and reaching out to the hand of Providence that the sponsors extend. This is finally where I appeal to the Core Group and other similarly powerful Coordinators who have it in their hands to make or break Informals. If you must have Informals, please support them, because they need a great deal of it. If you must extract all you can from your sponsors, let it not be at the expense of any principles that you, in having Informals at all, officially claim to endorse. Otherwise, it probably is better not to have Informals run by students at all. All those threats to scrap Informals are threats less than they are promises of liberation. After all, when it does happen the way it has for the past two years, starting against all odds, and eventually succumbing to them, it only makes for a lot of blood, sweat, tears, shattered hopes, battered plans, and failure that one today finds perversely amusing!