Life in every art : The Loyola Youth Festival - 1

When i started this blog I expected to put up at least an article each month. But with laziness being my forte coupled with an unusually dull month of November, I have stuck loyally to the cliché that rules and oaths are meant to be broken at least with respect to my life. Also the choice of a topic to post seemed to make me very indecisive. Finally i decided to stick on to my comfort zone - Loyola School. I feel that I need to jot down my memories on this great school before my grey cells start to fail me in stirring up wonderful thoughts on my alma mater.


I had said in my earlier post that the BB Cup was one event that brought the entire student fraternity of Loyola together. But another annual event of equal importance and celebration is the Loyola Youth Festival which is an inter- house event unlike the Lafest and the BB Cup which are inter-school events.


For the non-Loyolites who are reading this post: The Loyola students are grouped among 4 houses: Apollo Pioneers (AP), Sputknik Spacemen (SS), Gemeni Giants (GG) and the Jupiter JetSetters (JJ).

During my 13 year stint at the school (1986-1999) , AP was synomously associated with being the sports champions being comprised of star athletes. GG had great allrounders in both sports and arts, JJ house had also a mixture of both though not to the level of GG while SS from 1993 started to stamp their authority and voice themselves as the undisputed champions in the Youth Festival.


My memories of the Loyola Youth Festival are limited to highlighting some great performances by some very talented Loyolites in their respective art fields.


One of the much viewed and enjoyed spectacles of the Loyola Youth Festival is the Fancy Dress Competition. In 1995 for the Seniors section this section invoked some good performances. But the highlight was the performance of Antony Unni Xavier. He dressed as a roadside beggar. Usual stuff, eh?? No, this performance in a Fancy Dress is something I will never forget for a long time. The appearance, actions etc. were so good that for a moment everyone in the audience were stunned in amazement. Then he took out a package and thrust food in his mouth like a man who had been starving for ages and then a dog came out on the stage and both had morsels of the food!!!! It seems Antony had brought his pet dog from home for this purpose. And this gave the A.P. the first prize in the Senior Division for Fancy Dress. I would be happy if any other Loyolite present at that time could shed more light on this.


Drama was another event where students could prove their mettle in histrionics. The award for best actor in Malayalam Drama for the senior section was one given by the late Fr. Mathew Pulickal who always patronized the inculcation of such programmes. In 1995 (If i am not mistaken) the award went to Praveen S.S., a bloke who had proved it big on such events.


But the best ever has to be Tariq.B from 1997 S.S.L.C , our dear batch mate and one who had provided us many entertaining moments during the L.A. periods in class. Tariq also was in A.P. house and was a proven talent in the Malayalam drama. It was obvious right from the beginning that he was the one going to win the coveted Best Actor award for Malayalam Drama. Tariq was aided in his drama by the team of Arun Sathyan, Mukesh , Zeno etc. The character he potrayed in the 1997 Youth Festival was a character named "Ayeshama" , a muslim lady, and the way he introduced that character in the drama would make some the film directors proud. His creative skills were just too good for anyone to challenge him. His scripts used to be created out of nowhere, was 100% comedy and i remember students enjoying it irrespective of what house they belonged to. When the award was announced on the final day he was cheered by one and all as someone who was destined to win it. Another timeless moment from the Loyola Youth Festival.


The 1997 Youth Festival also saw a new talent emerge through the English Drama for Seniors. Binu Ninan was my classmate and I can vouch for the fact that till around the 9th or 10th Standard he was never a keen participant in the Youth Festival. But after that he had a sudden surge of adrenalin and confidence which saw him participate in elocutions, debates and finally the school drama. One thing i always liked about Binu was that whatever task he undertook, he ensured that it was done with certain finesse and made to look simple and neat. The drama which he presented was that of a totally absent minded, muddled and eccentric doctor who always brought havoc in whatever he did for his patients. The actual script i heard was quite lengthy and twisted but Binu had edited to the just perfect state. Again all enjoyed the drama which was packed with comedy. In fact i always tell people that Binu never acted in that drama. Guess i feel he would have been like that even if he really had been a doctor :-)..Just kidding bunny. I remember that drama had a scene where Damu (also my classmate) comes telling to the doctor that he is fat and needs to lose weight. Then he puts him in some machine and forgets about it. Then to show that the machine was getting overheated, Binu had Tariq and others from the backstage to burn incense blocks to give the smoke effect and the explosion sound was done through Binu’s favourite synthesizer. It was very simple stuff but in such situations as they say "It takes a lot to keep it simple". Our whole batch was happy when Binu received the award for best actor, especially considering the fact that unlike Tariq he was not a veteran.


The 1995 Youth Festival was one of the most closely fought Youth Festivals in the history of Loyola School. GG house which was the undisputed champions till that time were suddenly finding tough competition from S.S. One of the last events was the English Declamation for seniors. The late Vivek Rajendran (GG House) gave a fiery speech and was all heated up for the occasion. To the joy of GG House supporters he received the first prize but alas when the Final Results came GG had lost by 1 point to SS. From then onwards started the surge of SS House in Youth Festivals.


The Sutter hall provided a serene ambience for the Youth Festival events. Simple in construction, pleasing in design and built to last this building will be a lasting reminder to all Loyolites on the simplicity and efficiency of everything in Loyola. But with a supposedly new auditorium coming up I sincerely hope that this monument donated by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sutter doesn't slip into oblivion.


The English Recitation had also provided many memorable moments. My classmate George Varghese who used to participate in it used to invariable give out a speech of Julius Caesar starting with the lines "Friends, Romans, Countrymen". Whenever i think of this event i remember our favourite teacher DP (Deepa Pillai). During one such event Vivek Krishnan (1997 I.S.C) , one of the founding student members of LAFest had recited a poem (I forgot the name. see what did I tell you on my grey cells). It was about a boy who is killed during a war because of the bombings. The final lines end something like "The boy..Oh..Were was he?".

Vivek had recited this poem almost to perfection. And then Boney.M.Ninan (my junior) had recited the poem "Daffodils" shouting, huffing and puffing as though it were a fiery speech. But the judges had the final say and Boney was given the frist prize. Later in the class, DP had come to teach and all of us were telling how Boney had won the prize from Vivek. DP then lamblasted the judges (I mean not literally but explaining her view) telling that while Vivek had recited the poem perfectly , Boney had totally messed up the Worsworth poem which was such a soft verse by raising his voice. Finally she also new nothing could be done since the judges had the final take on it.


In 1995, the solo instrumental round for seniors saw a new participant with an instrument which not many had tha panache or talent to play. The drums were handled deftly by Kuruvilla and for a few moments it seemed that the Sutter Hall was hosting some kind of rock concert. This performance had us all spell bound and without mentioning we knew who that days winner in this event was.

Another popular event was the Tableau. One incident which comes to my mind involved my senior KrishnaMohan (I don remember which batch ) was all ready with his team for the tableau. The curtains opened and the team was ready each holding some sticks and rods about to present something. But unfortunately due to some problem with the tape recorder the voice which would have described the tableau didn’t come. I can never forget Krishna Mohan angrily throwing away what he was holding and walking off leaving the audience wondering as to what on earth was going on. Later i heard DP had consoled him and told him not to get upset over it.


Before the Youth Festival started the prelims for elocution used to be held at the Assembly ground. My favourite speaker used to be Deepu Chandy. Deepu had the gift of the gab and could speak for hours on almost any topic using stylish words and a wonderful accent. The topic once given to him was "Unrest in schools". He started speaking and what followed after that completely stunned the listeners as he spoke on bikini's and the culture of skimpy clothing wear by students of schools. Only later did he realise that the topic had been "Unrest in schools" while he had taken it to be "Undressed in Schools".

My classmate George Varghese used to be a regular participant in the English declamation event. Once during the prelims he was declamating some famous speech and midway his memory seemed to fail him. Frustrated at this he exclaimed "Shit" unknowingly in front of the mike itself. Though we were shocked to hear something like that in an English Declamation we later had a hearty laugh over it at the expense of Georgie.

I have described Tariq's histrionic skills in an earlier passage. Also the drama troupe of Tariq had the advantage of not preparing a detailed script and going strictly by that . They had the ability to do on the spot corrections if they felt that something was going wrong. An example of this was seen during the Youth FEstival drama. The drama was going on and during the course of a particular dialouge, Mukesh had difficulty holding his mundu and at the same time concentrating on his dialouge delivery. Arun Sathyan who was one of the participants on the stage saw this and just about unexpectedly said "Enthade. Mundudukkan polum arinjukooda. Poyi nera odithuttu tirichu vada. Ivanayokke entha cheyya". He said this as though it was a part of the script. This saved them from otherwise what would have been a very akward situation to handle. And then eve Mukesh had the quickness to understand the intent of Sathyan delvering the dialouge at that time and quickly made amends.

Unlike many bloggers i find it difficult to go on and on despite the nature of the topic. This is all I can rope in in this post. I will definitely make a 2nd extension to this post to get back to you all on more past happenings from the Loyola Youth Festival.

Till then wishing you all a great and prosperous New Year!!!..Cya..