So, yeah… another nice day. Class and then afternoon off. I’d drawn a few drafts of the logo. Talked Vinyas into drawing one for me so that I could digitize it. There were others helping me with ideas, and I have time. Or so I thought…
I’m chilling in the workshop and at about 4 or so in the evening I get a call from Pai bhaiyya telling me to give the Carnival ka logo and VSO logo to the printers for the banner! So… I had an internal conversation with myself that went something like this...
I’m chilling in the workshop and at about 4 or so in the evening I get a call from Pai bhaiyya telling me to give the Carnival ka logo and VSO logo to the printers for the banner! So… I had an internal conversation with myself that went something like this...
Hey, go give the Carnival ka logo to the printers
Carnival ka logo? What logo?
EXACTLY!
Long story short, I had all but 30 minutes to get a logo made, run to the printer from the workshop and submit the logo. Not a big deal, I’ve done quicker work of things…
Nope. Why doesn’t anything go as planned…? :/
The guy over there was a huge pain in the backside. “Too many logos,” he kept saying. And that’s coming from a guy who’d designed one of the most pathetic posters that I’d ever seen. And trust me, I’ve seen some pretty bad posters. I had, let’s see the VSO logo and some cartoonish looking logo that came right out of my pre-schooler mind. It was a placeholder anyway. So why bother? Anyway, it took a while (and by while, I mean a WHILE) to finally convince him to actually let me email the logos, (which with my always >15% battery is a pain) and after, he decided to ‘consider’ it. Okay, time to call in the big guns. And I called Anup sir. End of story.
.
.
.
I’m kidding.
I don’t really know what happened, but… Whew, something happened. I came back to the workshop. Vasu bhaiyya was still there working on something. I began refining the logo. Y’know, smoothening the edges, Iterating through contrasts, shadow effects, the usual. Why you ask? Why not work on a proper logo? Because, unbeknownst to Ser Yours Truly, that logo had already gone for approval and gotten it even! But… But… it’s so darn cartoonish! I know, right?
The posters were out for publicity and the hoarding went up on TC a couple days later. And what do you know? No logos! Calm down, said Master. It’s alright. We’ll talk to them. Smiley Face.
Okay, no harm done. It’s all cool. Y’know, week was pretty hard. I’d not taken up any responsibility for Revels, which turned out to be a great idea! Whew! But there was work to be done! A carnival doesn’t organize itself y’know? Lemme give you more context. We were to have the Carnival alongside The Manipal Marathon, a huge, ambitious project of MU that had a huge budget set aside for it. A newly formed club called The Manipal Runners Club was organizing it and there would be a promo run before it that was to kick off Pre-Revels as well. And that was organized in collaboration with a couple of other clubs. Talk about messy! Ugh!
The next morning, in the break I talk to a couple of people, send em logos and descriptions and other content of Carnival for ‘publicity purpose’s finally happy that they’re acknowledging our help. We get called to a meeting with everyone involved at Greens. A couple of bigwigs from MU, Vinod Nayak sir, Jaivittal sir, A couple of folks from Proton Sports helping in the organization of the event, (One would think there would be more. One would be surprised!) some bigshot 'athelete-professor' of some college. MRC people. And others. PK sir, Master and myself representing VSO. We talk. All our plans are put under scrutiny. By who you ask? Not any MU Representative. Some random know-it-alls from Bangalore. Wow! Repeatedly our volunteers questioned. The feasibility questioned. The dedication and ability questioned. Calm down, said Master. I was piSSed. Double Capitals and all. A couple of girls from KMC-IQMU wanted to talk collaboration for IQMU and CDM. I go there to get my mind off the discussion as PK sir and Master talked to them. Thank God for Vinod sir talking some sense into them. I mean, how thick headed can you be, man?
So okay, Paintball from IQMU was a part of Carnival. Officially. Cool! The Proton guy was asking 30 ‘responsible’ people from our volunteer to be Point of Contacts for committees. And that was apart from the 150 that went up to 200 volunteers needed for the marathon track! Lol. What committees, you ask? Water... Umm… Stalls... Ummmmmmmmmm… I’ll send you over text? Turns out Master and Varun bhaiyya were the only Points of Contact at the end. Wow, these big town folks!
Carnival ka logo? What logo?
EXACTLY!
Long story short, I had all but 30 minutes to get a logo made, run to the printer from the workshop and submit the logo. Not a big deal, I’ve done quicker work of things…
Nope. Why doesn’t anything go as planned…? :/
The guy over there was a huge pain in the backside. “Too many logos,” he kept saying. And that’s coming from a guy who’d designed one of the most pathetic posters that I’d ever seen. And trust me, I’ve seen some pretty bad posters. I had, let’s see the VSO logo and some cartoonish looking logo that came right out of my pre-schooler mind. It was a placeholder anyway. So why bother? Anyway, it took a while (and by while, I mean a WHILE) to finally convince him to actually let me email the logos, (which with my always >15% battery is a pain) and after, he decided to ‘consider’ it. Okay, time to call in the big guns. And I called Anup sir. End of story.
.
.
.
I’m kidding.
I don’t really know what happened, but… Whew, something happened. I came back to the workshop. Vasu bhaiyya was still there working on something. I began refining the logo. Y’know, smoothening the edges, Iterating through contrasts, shadow effects, the usual. Why you ask? Why not work on a proper logo? Because, unbeknownst to Ser Yours Truly, that logo had already gone for approval and gotten it even! But… But… it’s so darn cartoonish! I know, right?
The posters were out for publicity and the hoarding went up on TC a couple days later. And what do you know? No logos! Calm down, said Master. It’s alright. We’ll talk to them. Smiley Face.
Okay, no harm done. It’s all cool. Y’know, week was pretty hard. I’d not taken up any responsibility for Revels, which turned out to be a great idea! Whew! But there was work to be done! A carnival doesn’t organize itself y’know? Lemme give you more context. We were to have the Carnival alongside The Manipal Marathon, a huge, ambitious project of MU that had a huge budget set aside for it. A newly formed club called The Manipal Runners Club was organizing it and there would be a promo run before it that was to kick off Pre-Revels as well. And that was organized in collaboration with a couple of other clubs. Talk about messy! Ugh!
The next morning, in the break I talk to a couple of people, send em logos and descriptions and other content of Carnival for ‘publicity purpose’s finally happy that they’re acknowledging our help. We get called to a meeting with everyone involved at Greens. A couple of bigwigs from MU, Vinod Nayak sir, Jaivittal sir, A couple of folks from Proton Sports helping in the organization of the event, (One would think there would be more. One would be surprised!) some bigshot 'athelete-professor' of some college. MRC people. And others. PK sir, Master and myself representing VSO. We talk. All our plans are put under scrutiny. By who you ask? Not any MU Representative. Some random know-it-alls from Bangalore. Wow! Repeatedly our volunteers questioned. The feasibility questioned. The dedication and ability questioned. Calm down, said Master. I was piSSed. Double Capitals and all. A couple of girls from KMC-IQMU wanted to talk collaboration for IQMU and CDM. I go there to get my mind off the discussion as PK sir and Master talked to them. Thank God for Vinod sir talking some sense into them. I mean, how thick headed can you be, man?
So okay, Paintball from IQMU was a part of Carnival. Officially. Cool! The Proton guy was asking 30 ‘responsible’ people from our volunteer to be Point of Contacts for committees. And that was apart from the 150 that went up to 200 volunteers needed for the marathon track! Lol. What committees, you ask? Water... Umm… Stalls... Ummmmmmmmmm… I’ll send you over text? Turns out Master and Varun bhaiyya were the only Points of Contact at the end. Wow, these big town folks!
Things happened up and down over the week. Talking about everything would bore you out. Two days left for the event! Turns out, the ‘publicity content’ they took from us, they used the exact same words. Right down to the adjectives. All our events, all the stalls and entertainment programs we’d planned, minus Carnival de Manipal, plus The Manipal Marathon. Calm down, I tell to myself. We’ll talk. No point in being pissed.
Turns out, talk is what happened! XD I wasn't pissed, but someone else was! And how? The Master, masterfully crafts a page long message telling all the bullshit that was done over the weeks and sends it to the MRC guy, which he does not respond to. Another page long message follows. I was getting live updates from a visibly upset Master. And me, I was livid with rage. You don’t just piss him off. Unless, you’re me of course! :P He’s like the most level headed, think-it-through, calm person I know. Thank God I had a friend to talk to, who calmed me down. I decided to observe. And learn. After all, I am probably gonna have to deal with the same bullshit next year… We’d considered Marathon as our event, so far, but if they insist on pushing us away… He replied. An hour later. Each sentence laden starting and ending with an apology word. Not that they shouldn't have... It's 11 member club, goddammit. And 2 people from Bangalore. We're bigger than most colleges in MU!
Apologies came in from all directions the next day! More assurances came in. It was a little disheartening to have Vinod sir apologize for MRC's mess ups. I mean, he's been so supportive and did so much for our event taking personal interest in it. It was cheap of those folks to have him talk to Pai bhaiyya, but what to do, we're all in it together, right? That's how it works...
Our logo was not on ANY publicity material so far, despite the descriptions and content I had written being everywhere without no mention of CDM. A flyer in every Runner’s Kit was promised. Good thing I don’t trust people just like that. I went to check on the event venue and nothing was as it was supposed to be. No logos again. And no flyer. When asked, a person ran to bring em. The printing guy fucked up? Lol. Sure man. Half the kits were given. Another half supposedly had the flyers. Did they? Idk. I didn’t sit through it. The Protons lady made a scene while giving the tees too. Damn, these pricks. Okay. More phone calls. A first year MRC volunteer rubbed Shreyas the wrong way. Let’s not talk about that sweet kid again. We get the tees finally, bless Vinod Nayak sir. Or else the volunteers would have had our hides! We'd promised them so much. That's the least we could do for our people who were ready to be at the venue at 4 in the morning!
Let me clear something up. We weren't trying to be whiny bitches. But it was so unfair. We were given so much responsibility, which we are happy to take up, because that's the spirit of volunteering. We didn't ask for any MoUs or anything because we saw it as a University event and we were an integral part of it. But when media bodies that send in a couple of photographers and write an odd article, and a supposed organizing body which has 11 people in all can take so much mileage from the event, don't you think we having given 200 volunteers and engaging the 5000 strong crowd with our activities entirely out of our own efforts, should be acknowledged at the least? And the T-Shirts, and other things we were promised... Huh.. let's just not talk about how that conversation went!
A long day indeed, CDM preparations were in full swing the past week. Posters made, printed, stalls set up, Publicity, Kids Zone, and everything went on perfectly! We opened the volunteer registrations for Marathon and the response was humongous. We had enough volunteers and discussions were held with them regarding the roles.
So much BT, so much miscommunication… One might ask, was it all worth it?
The next day gave us our answer.
Totally!
Part 1 - http://sittingunderthemangotree.weebly.com/the-mango-tree/carnival-de-manipal-when-life-gives-you-lemons
Part 3 - Coming Soon
Turns out, talk is what happened! XD I wasn't pissed, but someone else was! And how? The Master, masterfully crafts a page long message telling all the bullshit that was done over the weeks and sends it to the MRC guy, which he does not respond to. Another page long message follows. I was getting live updates from a visibly upset Master. And me, I was livid with rage. You don’t just piss him off. Unless, you’re me of course! :P He’s like the most level headed, think-it-through, calm person I know. Thank God I had a friend to talk to, who calmed me down. I decided to observe. And learn. After all, I am probably gonna have to deal with the same bullshit next year… We’d considered Marathon as our event, so far, but if they insist on pushing us away… He replied. An hour later. Each sentence laden starting and ending with an apology word. Not that they shouldn't have... It's 11 member club, goddammit. And 2 people from Bangalore. We're bigger than most colleges in MU!
Apologies came in from all directions the next day! More assurances came in. It was a little disheartening to have Vinod sir apologize for MRC's mess ups. I mean, he's been so supportive and did so much for our event taking personal interest in it. It was cheap of those folks to have him talk to Pai bhaiyya, but what to do, we're all in it together, right? That's how it works...
Our logo was not on ANY publicity material so far, despite the descriptions and content I had written being everywhere without no mention of CDM. A flyer in every Runner’s Kit was promised. Good thing I don’t trust people just like that. I went to check on the event venue and nothing was as it was supposed to be. No logos again. And no flyer. When asked, a person ran to bring em. The printing guy fucked up? Lol. Sure man. Half the kits were given. Another half supposedly had the flyers. Did they? Idk. I didn’t sit through it. The Protons lady made a scene while giving the tees too. Damn, these pricks. Okay. More phone calls. A first year MRC volunteer rubbed Shreyas the wrong way. Let’s not talk about that sweet kid again. We get the tees finally, bless Vinod Nayak sir. Or else the volunteers would have had our hides! We'd promised them so much. That's the least we could do for our people who were ready to be at the venue at 4 in the morning!
Let me clear something up. We weren't trying to be whiny bitches. But it was so unfair. We were given so much responsibility, which we are happy to take up, because that's the spirit of volunteering. We didn't ask for any MoUs or anything because we saw it as a University event and we were an integral part of it. But when media bodies that send in a couple of photographers and write an odd article, and a supposed organizing body which has 11 people in all can take so much mileage from the event, don't you think we having given 200 volunteers and engaging the 5000 strong crowd with our activities entirely out of our own efforts, should be acknowledged at the least? And the T-Shirts, and other things we were promised... Huh.. let's just not talk about how that conversation went!
A long day indeed, CDM preparations were in full swing the past week. Posters made, printed, stalls set up, Publicity, Kids Zone, and everything went on perfectly! We opened the volunteer registrations for Marathon and the response was humongous. We had enough volunteers and discussions were held with them regarding the roles.
So much BT, so much miscommunication… One might ask, was it all worth it?
The next day gave us our answer.
Totally!
Part 1 - http://sittingunderthemangotree.weebly.com/the-mango-tree/carnival-de-manipal-when-life-gives-you-lemons
Part 3 - Coming Soon