Ilu and Rangoli 2005

It's a unique tradition at IIT Kharagpur to have inter-hall illu-mination aka ilu and rangoli competition during Diwali every year. The tradition is as old as this IIT itself. This time I was fortunate to witness another ilu and rangoli event for the third time. Also, my hall residents have given me opportunity to present the Rangoli theme of my hall (B. C. Roy) to the judges. It's a different matter that, we could not win any prize for this Rangoli, though my previous hall (Azad) won second prize for their Rangoli work. B. C. Roy Hall rangoli was a remake of famous oil painting by Donnie Jupiter titled stone_age_chase. Following are the excerpts of the theme presentation made to the judges of this competition (with some inputs by our local dada officially known as Ranadev Datta),

"The heart beat echoes the sound of a trumpet
Awaiting a Chase that is hard to forget
The Chase has not yet started
The pace of life seems to be lost amidst the green grass
All the humans can foresee is their own ghost
The mass destruction has not yet started
The sky is shrouded with dark red clouds without a trace of a silver lining
Hold on, the devastation is yet to be started
With you will start a new spirit of civilization
Where there will be life where there will be hopeful imagination.

The Chase is going to start, NOW.

Honourable judges, myself, NS, on beahlf of team rangoli of B C roy Hall of residence, welcome to you all at our ilu and Rangoli exhibition. Our Rangoli theme being, The Chase -- Depicting quest for human survival since time immemorial against adversaries of the Nature. Here an example from Neolithic era is shown when homo sapiens have learnt to make basic stone arms to fight animals and learnt to dress somewhat as well :-) . As you can observe the couple here is being chased by this a furious, wild, monstrous looking elephant having a long, flexible, prehensile trunk, long curved tusks of ivory and extra large fan-shaped ears. Isn't it threating enough for the couple almost bare-handed? Though the male has stone javelin, still they have no option but to run away against this fury of Nature. A volcanic eruption is added to their misery by the mother nature. It's all gloomy out there? The sky is no longer nice blue and clean. It's appearing smoky red due to the volcano eruption nearby. It's the quest for survival, the survival instinct, fear of death, a hope to live longer of we humans which is making them run away when chased by such a fury. As you can observe in our Rangoli these people are running away towards green grass. They are moving together by holding each other's hand. The green grass here symbolises love for mother nature !!

In Darwinian Natural Selection terms we human being should be termed fittest as we have survived the chase whenever confronted by the forces of Nature. The only proof is that "We are alive" !!This chase is not limited to only Neolithic era, it manifests itself across all the eras OR in Thomas Kuhn's terms across all the Paradigm Shifts be it Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Iron and bronze age, Middle Age, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution or the Modern age in which we live in. With the beginning of the stone age as civilization started, mankind was being chased by the thought of security;they had to protect themsleves from nature and wild animals; they were simple minded and worked in harmony with nature; their chasers forced them to reach to a securer, greener pastures.

Analogoulsy, In the modern age with the passage of time as we have detached ourselves from Nature, we are chased not only by nature but also our expectations to achieve more, more and more. We have isolated ourselves from nature and are chased away from happiness and peacefulness. We are now more concerned with fellow human beings who are more monstrous than the wild animals of Neolithic era. It is not possible either to draw a picture of the chasers on the graph that will spread all over the sheet making the chaser look like a devouring monster trying to chase us beyond time. If one could peep into the cerebral of our brain he will find that a certain portion has been occupied by the chasers; they are creating immense sensation causing sparks of tension , high pressure and a palpating heart with a trembled humanitarian approach. The chasers aspire you to soar high above the sky, to become as omniscient as next to God. It makes you forget your roots and you are tempted to work for your benefits; at times by going against nature. Today we are chased by terrorism, fear of nuclear war, dishonest people craving for wealth, furies of nature, e.g., Tsunami, Katrina,Earthquake, Incessant rain followed by flood and even draught. It has always been a race against time for we humans. And we have won this race.

Let us hope on this festive occasion for some kind of role reversal and become chasers from chasee. Let us chase only the love of nature and crave for the green grass, the wild trees and the cool breeze. Let us all try together. Together we can. We have done in the past and we will do it. Let's just do it !!

Now something about logistics. Our team consisted of all residents of B C Roy Hall with the core team of about 10 members. They took about 5 man days to create this beautiful piece of art. We have used mainly primary colours viz. Red, Green, Blue and others like White, Buff & Red oxide.
Thank you !! "

Second prize winning rangoli of Azad hall is shown on LHS.
The first prize winning rangoli and ilu of LLR hall is shown below: