III
What does this signify for organizers of any regional fest and student body observers? An organizer, if interested, in introducing students to the ‘culture’ of their region must be conscious of what they perceive and propose as a thing representing their culture. All of us may not know all about origins, usage, and other factors that have moulded all words, foods, places, folklores, and other things that we have to come to put together in the box called ‘culture.’ In fact, we can never know all of them, all at once, already. This is exactly where regional fests serve a special purpose to the organizers themselves: people that strive to bring an ‘idea’ (region and its culture) to life are also the ones that must be in dialogue with the idea, its alternate conceptions, reasons for one conception over the other, and in what form does any of it come to life. And how may we do it?
We have accepted and often claimed that regional fest spaces give us a chance to connect with people with common language, food, and culture. Without having to digress but in fact extendthis, we may start by also recognizing and using that cherished space to learn the dissimilarities among various students, their lives, and their cultures. This is an unglamorous shell with an invaluable pearl inside it. We must perhaps respect the shell for the pearl it bears. The pearl: create a space where students (including the organizers) are self-aware of how cultures are created and conceived and understand how solidarities of various kindsare forged.
At the end, the category ‘region’, apart from the tall standing language function but still limited, at best, is to me a suspect idea and must be signified further with, not dismissed, or omitted because of, other axes that make and locate ‘cultures.’
III.I
The organizer may not bear this responsibility and would rather term this responsibility a brunt. Very well. An X Fest that I was not part of but had seen from close for a couple of days reflected this “we must show everyone that we are better than Y fest (that had just happened a week or 10 days ago).” Some Z Fest also reflected this heightened sense of proving to all that their fest is the grandest. Taken thus, fests can very well be excuses/occasions to dress up, click photos, have varieties of food, and dance: ‘mere throwing parties’ as I called it above. However, an important qualification needs to follow my statements about the X and Z Fest. I later realized that it was only a bunch of organizers that had such sentiment that I did not find cool whereas many others, especially students from the junior batches, were looking forward to making relationships with people directly involved in the fest and celebrating their culture. And if this be the case generally for all the fests, there is a need to democratize the soul and spirit of regional fests by including voices of all students.
III.II
The most important phenomenon I observed, also the one that is gloomiest, deserves special attention. This observation has the effect of rendering my work above a joke for its distance from reality. We have thus far used the word ‘organizer’ and ‘students directly involved’ to signify actors of a specific regional fest. The reality seems to be, however, very different. How many students are organizers? A bunch from the senior most batch, not even all from that batch. How many students are ‘directly involved’ in real sense? Only a few depending on what is required to be done and those few very well enjoy the activity, and gladly so. Not all students from a region wish to contribute money, help with décor, go to the city, help with logistics, and participate in discussions about food and movie (two main things). These are the supposed ‘spaces’ where ‘making connections’ happens and of these spaces’ efficacy there seems to be a helpless limitation, irrespective of whatever constructive suggestions and criticisms we may make and give. Limitation of any meaningful action or function occurring. And on this note, for me, not only is the category ‘region’ a suspect idea, the efficacy of ‘regional fests’ to do what they seek and claim to do too is suspect.
-Akhil Surya, Year IV