After writing yesterday's post I had gone to my lab and didn't care to find out what was happening with the external negotiations as I was fairly sure things would work out as smoothly as they did the previous day. I intended to go directly to the Students' Activitiy Center, the venue for the external elections, later in the evening, to see our alliance win. As it turned out it wasn't as smooth sailing as I had expected. A lot of interesting things happened, which I only came to know late in the night after the elections, and my juniors involved in the trading had a nerve-wrecking time to keep the alliance going strong.

The good news is that we did get what we were supposed to. And that is BRCA General Secretary. Amit Sethi, the outgoing secretary for the Dance and Dramatics Club and who belongs to my hostel, is the new G Sec of BRCA. So our hostel gets to organise Rendezvous this year. If any of you need passes, start getting friendly with people from Jwalamukhi Hostel. Of course I won't be around then, so being friendly with me doesn't count. Well, that is the lighter aspect of getting BRCA GSec in your hostel. The actual reason why it's a nice thing is that it sort of unites everyone in the hostel, even if temporarily. All factions join in the revelry (unless there are some really serious problems), and later to oranise the fest. The same thing happened yesterday night in my hostel. Almost all groups in the first three years assembled at SAC for cheering and then outside our hostel for a short party. There aren't many things that can parallel the happiness you feel when you see freshers and second-yearites dancing at midnight at the hostel entrance to loud music with unbridled joy.

We had been part of the winning alliance last year too (when I had been involved much more directly and actively) and had won two GSecs (including the highest students' post - G Sec of the Students' Affairs Council), but BRCA G Sec beats everything because of the goodies it promises. Of course, the freshers don't realise that they'll have to try hard for passes even now in most cases , or that they'll have to work extremely hard at menial jobs, with all benefits, considering there are any, going to the G Sec's coterie and other senior students.

Coming back to yesterday's elections, the results did end up one-sided despite the scare earlier in the day when a hostel that had been a part of the alliance for long decided to shift sides because their incoming House Secretary saw better prospects in the other alliance. Then our alliance offered posts to a different hostel that hadn't been with us earlier to join us. Later part of the hostel that had moved out returned also. So, finally we had all the hostels in the insitute in our alliance, either in bits or completely, except one Girls' Hostel. And to think that when this alliance was formed initially that Girls' Hostel was one of the first to be approached. The House Secretary of that hostel kept on dilly-dallying for long and didn't confirm if she wanted to join. Interestingly enough, I had a role to play here too. When after a long wait this hostel did not state clearly if they wanted to come in, I was called one night by the four hostels who were in the alliance then to suggest further course of action (because I was the only one around who had been involved last year and so slightly more 'experienced'). I offered to try and pursuade the House Secretary of this Girls' Hostel on phone. I had a very long conversation with her, in which she made it very clear, without ever explicitly stating so, that she would rather form her own alliance than come into one which already had four strong hostels (which would lessen the possibility to dictate terms). I even told her that we'll ask other hostels to join us if she didn't give a final answer soon enough, which she didn't consider seriously as traditionally alliances haven't worked without the girls' hostels being part of them, and this time, like last year, both the girls' hostels had decided to be together. After the phone conversation I asked the guys in the alliance to look at other hostels and leave the girls, or rather try to get the other girls' hostel, which till that time they had assumed wouldn't break away and join us alone. It did actually.
That was probably my only direct involvement this year.

Anyway, after the brief celebrations in their respective hostels after the elections were over the alliance members got together at the Gurgaon border for a daaru party. I was going out in a friend's car for dinner at Green Park, and called up B (from the previous post), our new House Secy, to join us. He, with a couple of guys from another alliance hostel, came and sat in the car, and then told us after we had gone half-way that they had thought we were going to the border. By then there were no other cars left, and we had to take them to the border, and so I ended up joining the whole gang at the party. Which was a nice thing as the best time to celebrate is immediately after the occasion and it was fun listening to the exploits of these neo-poltu-studs and some of the incoming office-bearers over large chunks of Tandoori chicken. Of course, there were the usual scenes expected at a daaru party too - the emotional outbursts, the slogans against leading lights from the losing alliance, antakshari with everyone chipping in with their favorite oldies, promises of continuing the alliance for next years' elections, and even some failed attempts at dancing. And I, as usual, was spending my time downing copious quantities of Royal Stag, watching people doing things they wouldn't normally do, and helping the ones who were already out to the nearest chair/car. Nice time. And there are more parties in the immediate future.