REVELS FOR WRITERS

The 4-day carnaval finally comes to an end. In these days, every individual, in their own ways, broke through their usual monotony and revelled in Revels.

And while many of them got their due applause for it, some didn’t. Because some work needs to be done in quite corners and cannot be showcased to thousands on a stage. Some works need an audience as tasteful as the performer to appreciate it. One such talent is of course, what you’re seeing right now.

From MIT Post’s innovative newsletters to the small captions that follows on Facebook posts, writing is a bigger part of Revels than you think. And yet, the department is what gets overshadowed the most admist the plethora of other art forms.

It’s not fair to speak for the whole community by myself. So I’ve roped in writers from different backgrounds and strata who have been contributing for the fest in some way or the other. Mind you, that in itself is not an easy job. The 20 writers from the Post office and 10 writers from MTTN office have too much of activities to handle to sit down in peace.

And all across, the feeling is mutual. Prattusha, the head of Reporting from MTTN had recently posted Revels : A walk down the memory lane. It took a rigorous task of going through 34 yearbooks for the research and 16 hours to make a 5 minute writeup. Which in itself can’t be assured of its audience and appreciation.

 

One can argue that with internet, writers all over have at least got a platform to reach to its audience. There could be no better example for it than this blog itself. But that perk is something every artist has got today. They utilize offline as well as the online medium.
Perhaps the only place a writer’s work would reach you during Revels is MIT Post’s newsletters. Those 8 pages with creative sketches and funny lines, does the impossible task of summarizing this mammoth of a fest. And yet, it mostly goes unread.

Inspite of these setbacks, the 30-odd people have had the fortune of getting a big platform to write. To others, it’s an even bigger struggle. Revels has some serious shortage of writing based events. Barring Anubhuti’s hindi based writing event ‘Abhivyakti‘, Creative Writing and my personal favourite, Faking News ( It’s pure joy to write faking news articles. Buddy writers, please note) by Paradigm Shift,  in literal sense, we have very less to write about.

Only a few are fortunate enough to gain big from those events. Priyanka, who has her own blog Thought Wines got to make that huge shift from Content to Creative Writing. She wrote a script for a short film to be screened in Lights,Camera, Action. While the film is yet to be made, she got the kind of exposure only few can boast of. “Writing a script is way more harder than what I usually write. But it was such a joy!”, she said.

The funny thing is that it is upon us to further bring others glory. MTTN has “Carnaval Chronicles” and “Behind the scenes” which focuses on less talked-about people responsible for the fest. MIT Post is more into coverage, updating you about everything as-it-happens with their live blog. Playing another small, but vital role are the Facebook admins of Social Media who need to write captions that would compel the reader to see the poster. It’s a difficult job in itself. Being someone who has gone through it last year, I can assure you that.

All this may sound very tragic and sad. But truth to be told, no one is complaining. Jitin, the HR head of MIT Post makes sure that all his writers are enjoying the process. “They are even free to participate in events. The more they enjoy the fest, the better the content gets.” Maybe most of us prefer that way. Making a world of our own with words.

Writing for me is like meditation. Anything that I write, is written for me first and then for the world to read. So that there is always one patient reader who has loved the work.

The only hope from us is that the next time you come across a long post, a newsletter or an article, you will read it with the same enthusiasm with which you hear a song or see a dance. And maybe even clap for it.