The Great Indian College Romance

20. Melisma: Part 1

If people at Maurya didn't know what a big deal Melisma was for our college then they would have found out as soon as they entered the gates. 

The hulking tents at various spots that had been set up the evening before were casting a shadow on many classrooms. Normally, this would have been considered a nuisance by the college authorities but they hadn't caused too much of a problem this time around. Or maybe this talk just hadn't reached us because we weren't organizing the event. 

The same nervous energy I had had on the day of the Bhaskara fest was back but this time I was trying my best to suppress it. I was in class with Smriti who kept glancing over at me. I had thought it would be a good idea to take classes on the day of the event because I had missed many hours in the past week. 

None of us really thought we should practice on the day of the competitions and since they were to take place in the evening I thought it would be best if I could utilise the morning and afternoon to catch up on some academics. 

Bad idea. I couldn't concentrate on what was being taught and I couldn't whip out my earphones to listen to calming music. The professor who was taking the class hadn't particularly taken a liking to me so I couldn't just excuse myself. 

"Excuse me, sir. Sorry to disturb your class but we need Meera Sehgal," I heard a familiar voice speak out from the doorway. 

I looked up and found Virat and Heena standing at the threshold of our classroom. Then I noticed Angad was in tow too. I all but jumped up from my seat. The professor grumbled something about fests, disruptions and time waste but I ran out thanking him on the way. 

"Thank you," I gushed, "Couldn't take another minute of that class."

"You're welcome, now come," Heena grabbed my hand and almost dragged me along. 

"Hey, what is the hurry?" I asked.

"They want to give us a preview of the whole setup before everybody else gets here. Familiarize us with everything," 

It was Angad who had answered my question. 

"Yes," Virat confirmed, "Since this is your home turf, we want to give you every advantage we can," 

"We need to hurry though, the coordinating team will be here any minute," Heena reminded. 

We reached the biggest tent which was where the stage had been constructed. It was a big stage with a narrower ramp in front. Huge light fixtures had been erected that would illuminate the centre stage. Virat informed us of the several cameras that would come swooping down to capture the performance and live stream the entire thing on the Melisma channel. 

The backdrop was actually pretty cool with these psychedelic neon designs floating about. Operators tested the speaker systems that boomed far and loud. I was amazed at how well this production had turned out to be. 

I knew that fests were a huge deal for colleges after Bhaskara but this was on another level. Surpassing my expectations. KGV must have dug deep into their pockets to produce this one. 

Virat quickly directed us to the entries and exits of the stage setup and showed us where every jury member was to be seated. Then they let us have a minute so we could work out our placement on this stage since we had been practising on a much smaller one. 

Angad and I went over our set once and then Heena called us down. 

"I hope you were able to get some sense of how you can best use this stage," she asked us.

"Yes," I said, "Thank you this was very helpful." 

I felt a little easier after this run through. It might have been short and sans actual microphones but it was really helpful.