IT’S LA-MENTARY

One year ago, after being grilled (and somewhat terrorised) in our interviews, I began my journey as a coordinator for Kaleidoscope. I had no idea what lay in store for me and was thrown headfirst into the chaos we’ve come to know so well and love as Kaleidoscope. Despite the insanely long days and stressful phone calls in the middle of the night, I missed it the moment it was over. The instant the withdrawal symptoms began to ebb, however, it was time to start preparing for Kaleidoscope 2015.

Now, it’s that time of the year again and everybody’s gearing up to say Namaste to Kaleidoscope.  Team LA is just as excited as everybody; needless to say, the act of sacrificing one’s soul for the holy ‘K’ has already begun. You can tell by the number of workforce members glued to their phones and laptops!

A desi tadka makes everything better and we are trying our best to make this year even more special. So, don’t forget the water balloons! This year, LA-K will take you right back to the 90s and to the glorious phase of life known as childhood. Who doesn’t love a water balloon fight or a treasure hunt? Combine the two and you have LA-K!

JAM, one of the most popular events at Kaleidoscope, is back! It’s all about the words, yaar! We hope you’ve armed yourself with enough of them or else, you’ll be forced to pack your jholas and leave. Puns and wordplay, as you can probably guess from the title, are always appreciated. Let the battle of the wits begin! Bring along your thinking topis and your dancing kolhapuris and remember that nothing beats desi jugaad!

Along with our interesting flagship events, we have poetry writing, story writing and essay writing events. So, get ready to unleash the poet or the writer within you. Let your desi identity out and be prepared to encounter everything that makes you so unique, from your favourite Bollywood dialogues to that ridiculous jingle you simply cannot get out of your head. Hop on aboard the local train hurtling through Sophia College this September, which goes by the name of Kaleidoscope.

Teetash Singhal

8 Reasons Why First Years’ Should Join the Workforce

Finally crawling out of the 2 month long textbook filled oven a.k.a the dreaded 12^th Board exams, the high school (or Junior College) veterans are ready to begin a new journey of you-thought-you’d-bunk-lectures-all-the-time-until-you-encountered-minimum-attendance-required. But don’t worry, college will be every bit as exciting as you hope, if you take part in all the right things (hint: Kaleidoscope). The annual inter-collegiate fest takes the cake and every other type of dessert when it comes to having the time of your life. So, to the young ladies entering the Sophia College campus this year, here is why you should join the Workforce, the organizers of one of the largest college festivals in Mumbai.

1)    Instant Friends

With 22 different teams in the Workforce, you are bound to find a way to use your talents in the best way possible and find some of your closest friends in the process. No seriously, your team’s members will serve as your on-campus family before you know it.

2)    Boom Snap Clap!

Don’t let this K’scope cheer make you regret not being a part of the Workforce as it echoes throughout campus giving you goose bumps and an adrenaline rush. And don’t pretend like you don’t practice it secretly at home.

3)    Gain Experience

No matter what team you are in, you will inevitable develop crucial life skills like time management, crisis aversion and how to dress for comfort while still looking reasonably professional.

4)    Food Coupons

This one doesn’t even need any explanation. All the days where you skipped meals because you had too much work will be redeemed, and redeemed well.

5)    The Den

Easy access to what is the coolest room on campus, which will also serve as your second home for a few weeks preceding the festival. Fond memories will be made and the place will give you intense feels every time you walk past it afterwards. Walk up in the Den like what up I got a sponsor!

6)    The Best Seats for Every Event

Flagship events like Das Ka Tees and Electrocuted take place in the Sophia Bhabha Hall, notorious for filling up too fast. That is, unless you’re a coordinator. Because guess who has seats reserved for them right at the front where they can watch everything up close? The same applies to seats for the After 8 event, which is exactly what it sounds like.

7)    Walkie-Talkies
This is practically one of your biggest childhood fantasies come true. Sure, you have cell phones and WhatsApp and text messaging, but nothing compares to the feel of saying ‘over and out’ into a walkie-talkie.

                     

8)    T-shirts

A big part of being Indian is getting way more excited about any free stuff than is appropriate, no matter how trivial it is. Not only do these bad boys distinguish give you authority, you have one more piece of clothing to wear until it becomes the dirty rag that you use to wipe things clean.

So, children, explore your talents, have loads of fun, and when you see an opportunity, take it and go.

A Day in the Life of a Marketing Coordinator

A Day in the Life of a Marketing Coordinator

08:00 am:      Wake up to 'Uparwala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phadke' to keep the morale high throughout the day. Clean up and get ready for meetings, because holidays are for the weak.

8:30 am:         Spend the next half an hour deciding what to wear. None of the “my wardrobe is full but I have nothing to wear” bullshit, mind you. You dress up sharper for meetings than you would for your own wedding.

09:00 am:      Grab bun maska and chai on your way to the station. Multitask on your commute. Eat-listen to your jam-check up on your squad (i.e. your team).

10:00 am:      Go through meetings like a pro. Meet sponsors and sell them on the idea of Kaleidoscope, which isn’t so difficult since – not to brag or anything, but – you could list out 20 reasons why it’s only, you know, one of the best college festivals of the city with over 16,000 attendees and 150 participating colleges, etcetera, etcetera. No biggie.

01:00 pm:      Take a break for lunch and check up on your team, who infallibly make up 90% of your Whatsapp messages.

02:00 pm:      Help your team mate prepare for her meeting in another city, which is great fun because it is the only time you can get away with bossing around your friend who is as sassy as an old mama in Brooklyn.

03:30 pm:      You might feel like you’re done for the day, but the work has only begun. Put on your lucky HP t-shirt and start writing, reviewing, and checking proposals and mails.

04:00 pm:      Take a break to post updates on the group and to chat with your team, who by now are the only social life you can boast of.

04:30 pm:      Updates are done with. You’ve received comprehensive feedbacks and to-do lists. Now watch the action unfold as your team tries to fix a bonding session for the 398534985th time.

05:30pm:       After yet another futile attempt, woefully agree that nobody has the time to hang out for fun.

06:30 pm:      Just as you hit save on the proposal that you painstakingly finished drawing not three seconds ago, and are about to attach it to a mail to the sponsor in question, your Wi-Fi decides to betray you. “Et tu Brutus?”

07:30 pm:      Finally, after several frantic calls and assurances to the sponsor breathing fire down your neck, your helplessness ends, your Wi-Fi has been restored to power somehow. Now start preparing for the orientation for the juniors. We need the best brains out there and we will get them by hook or by crook. Even if it means bribing the little ones by chocolates or balloons.

08:00 pm:      Create and update excel sheets with your work. Press Ctrl+S at least 65 thousand times before closing all tabs.

09:00 pm:      You’re finally relaxing, and by relaxing I mean thinking of ideas for promotional events, and are on the lookout for clients on all social media platforms.

10:30 pm:      Bedtime. LOL JK. 10:30ish sometimes 4.

Desi Tips to Survive Summers

So here we are, smack in the middle of this elaborate festival of flip-flops and aam ras (mango juice) that we can fondly call ‘summer’ and so far, we have managed just fine. Sure, there is a copious amount of sweat threatening to turn us into human fountains and the afternoons that make us wish we could go into hibernation for a few weeks, or at least find a nudist colony to live in. And as much as we want to carry our air-conditioners with us, we can’t; and no, ‘Navratna Cool Talc’ is not a substitute for an AC (yes, Shah Rukh Khan lied to us). However, we are experts at adjusting, whether it is stuffing 6 people in a seat meant for 3, or coping with weather that is probably trying to melt us into submission. 

                               My sweat just soaked the paper I’m fanning myself with.

As it is with each season, there are always little things that make it truly desi, and don’t try to pretend otherwise. First and foremost, the relationship that Indians have with mangoes is nothing less than a love story deserving of its own Bollywood song. And if not that, at least one attractive leading lady treating the King of fruits with the PDA it is meant for (Katrina Kaif, we’re looking at you). And of course, the Watermelon comes as a close second when it comes to fruits we gorge on when the heat kills our appetite for actual meals.

                          Damn right. 

Also, a big shout out to ‘Rasna’ and ‘Tang’ and good old nimpupaani for keeping us hydrated through these trying times. You know it is summer when you don’t even offer guests chai or coffee but go straight to the thandai or shikanji. Not to forget the beloved aam ras as mentioned above. Seriously, we cannot get enough of mangoes, can we? 

                    What do you mean I can only have one glass?

Ah, but not for a moment should you think that we restrict ourselves to food and drink to keep us cool. When we say jugaad, we don’t play around. Remember when you couldn’t sleep all night because your bed was just so hot and you felt suffocated in your room? Nobody does, because we all slept on the terrace or the balcony. Most likely with a damp sheet to cover ourselves with, because who needs an AC when the breeze will do the work for free?

So maybe it is a little too hot to be comfortable at times, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have your desi SWAG to keep yourself cool. B)

8 Types of College Students in the Summer

We have traveled well into this tunnel of torture that we call summer, and it is just refusing to end. Fortunately, college students usually know what they want to do with this 2 month time period of basically no rules. Here are a few types of students you might be familiar with during the summer:

The Internshippers: These guys are the first ones to snag a nice internship to fatten up their résumé while the rest of us are just dreaming of the end of our finals. They are also the ones uploading pictures in formals and tagging their bosses.

The Try Guys: “This summer I’m gonna go bungee jumping and join a ballet dance class and learn how to bake a cake and learn a prodigy level hip-hop dance routine!” 

The Relaxers: For them, summer is all about catching up on the sleep they lost during the finals and taking a break. “It’s called summer vacation guys, I’ll be in my sweatpants watching YouTube videos if you need me.”

The F.R.I.E.N.D.S.: They are pretty much “hanging out with friends” all the time. And by hanging out, of course we mean checking Facebook in close proximity to each other. And having pizza.

The Travelers: Family vacation time! Prepare for check-ins and updates every 5 minutes as they make their way through religious places/Goa/their aunt in USA/places with scenic beauty.

The Partayy-ers: The party don’t start till summer walks in! Because who knows when you’re going to get to do that again? 

The Insomniacs: Summer? You mean owl mode right? Suddenly, you’re up all night and sleeping away the hot afternoons. And sometimes more than just the afternoons. 

The Workforce: And this category can be found hard at work on their laptops and phones, making sure that this year’s Kaleidoscope is the best you’ve ever seen. Subtle, right? 

K writes to the workforce of Kaleidoscope 2015.

 Namaste, workforce!

For the last 30 years, you girls and your foremothers have churned out theme after theme of absolute creative ingenuity, but this one takes the mithai. The kurtas and jhumkaas, kya baat! Also, you have no idea how jelly folks are of my mega fabulous cycle rickshaw here in the universe of college fest mascots. Super convenient and eco-friendly, too.

The fest is a little more than four whole months away, but the kind of work you ladkis are doing makes me feel as proud as Karan Arjun's Maa upon their return. In spite of it being holiday time, and with most of you busy with internships or travel, the dedication with which teams are going about their duties is undeniably commendable. Jug jug jiyo, betiyaan.

I cannot wait for September, to manifest into your world of colourful paisley and cutting chai, and get my dancing Kolhapuris on. I'm dying to live all that you've got planned for those six days (haha, pun) and I know for sure, that it's going to be one hell of a mazedaar experience.

Because desi you rollin', they lovin'.

Signing off now. And remember to keep cool in this blistering, godforsaken weather by eating plenty of golas. My favourite is kala khatta, and yours?

Bahut sara pyaar and dulaar,
K.

Beta, Ye Kaleidoscope Kya Hai?

Yes, a kaleidoscope is that tube thing that we all used to make in school which shows you pretty patterns when you rotate one end while looking in from the others. But, the Kaleidoscope that we have here is much more than just pretty patterns. Kscope, as it is fondly called, is a phenomenon that occurs once a year on the campus of Sophia College in Mumbai. A massive melting pot of events, competitions, food, music and games cooked to perfection with just the right amount of love and garnished with energy that you won’t see anywhere else is how we would define this phenomenon.

But wait; let us start from the beginning. Exactly thirty years ago, an intra-college event consisting of literary, artistic and cultural contests was combined with a fete including game and food stalls, and viola! The first ever recipe of Kaleidoscope was born. From then on, each subsequent year the participants as well as the organizers kept adding more and more and now we can safely say- we started from the bottom and now we here! Come and experience the love for yourself on the the 5^th and 6^th of September this year! Oh, and say Namaste to Aunty and Uncle.