There was something in the air, people felt the buzz, I felt the scare, there were questioning glances and there was M.a.D. The dark crusaders had arrived. M.a.D day 1 had begun. Entering the campus you are initially hit by the calm before the storm, a meek banner beckons you and shyly informs you that there is something called M.a.D happening and in a ritual fashion, you walk away and all is well but wait did I mention the dead body that lay near the parking lot?
A Dynamite is not a welcoming site, neither are huge imposing cigarettes. Madness, madness, madness!! Why us and why now…. The only difference it made was that the dustbins and the trees looked a wee bit colorful. A waste of money, a jobless recreation, a viscom charade?
If a fashion parade and a prof out of uniform, is not factor enough to make you get confused then you should have listened to the assault of your ear drum. Music played, a very unapologetic tone and surprise surprise it was catchy and a bit hummable. Still why the hype?
The friendly daily announcer came to my rescue and finally sanity was restored to my befuddled senses. So it was just some M.a D campaign…..
Uhmm…well not exactly it was nice uhmm… fine it was MAD.
They creeped up on us silently and in the deafening silence, the winds of change blew. M.a.D makes you think, M.a.D halts you in the tracks and hey M.a.D is infectious. They say a party is a success if you are kicked out of your own house and in true m.a.d style the entire Vis com ensemble was kicked out and I wasn’t surprised to see smiles all around.
And there were the videos and there were the tears, for some it seemed reality was shocking them senseless, for some it was time for pensive thoughts for others it was their personal call for action. The public service announcements were a crazy mixture, you laughed and you felt guilty….you wept and you felt happy, you understood yet you were angry and somewhere in between you had gone mad. You had become a part of the mad family. Suddenly, the guy in the corner was no longer a stranger as the realization dawned that he had the power to save your life someday. It was good to be M.a.D.
There are noises you associate with death; change the context and similar sounds spell change. The street theater crossed the barriers of fiction, when a live replication of a bike accident saw people running to beat up the fast absconding biker as a girl’s frantic screams saw the audience seemingly cross over from being spectators to people of action. There is hope or all of us after all. Loyola helps and helps how and surprisingly Loyola cares.
Always eat at the place where there is a crowd. Good advice. Works I guess when it comes to other attractions as well. So following the crowd though took me to a yellow maze. Cool but disappointingly small….Wasn’t any self respecting maze supposed to be big? He… he… I will not spoil the suspense… it was enriching fun. Sometimes getting lost can teach us a lot. If this experience mad, contradictly it was serene as well. You have to admit, though a bit reluctantly that though it is not big… it is something. A voice in the wilderness calls out. The voice in not alone, there are murmurs, there is a buzz, there is a disturbance in the air and understandably, M.a.D has arrived. What was once a solitary voice in the desert has become the cry of a group… guess there is only one way to go, to go the M.a D way.
Maybe helping to create better tomorrows is not such a bad job after all.
P.s: The music was actually great. Well should be considering I can’t get that blasted tune out of my head. As for the jingle…..the bathroom is not the only place where I am singing it.
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