So Springfest's a drunkfest.
I wasn't very drunk.
There's fog curling around the stadium, it's empty
and yellow, and the grass is dewy, but none of this matters.
We climbed all the way up this hillock because it's the first thing we saw after entering,
Turns out it had steps in the front.
So there's cold stone underneath and I can hear Soumi's teeth chattering
and Arjit's shouting at Senjuti to shut up
and we need to pee, three times and more we need to pee from the rum
but we can't, the shadiest corners are places to pee in but they're also places
to make out in, so nada.

You can't pee on buildings.
Our bums will glow if a car passes by.
Our eyes will be too red and our hands will be too cold.
And let those three shadows go away, please, but maybe
they're just listening to the music?

The trees beyond the fog have these shapes.
One looks like a dinosaur eating up a lamp post.
And then we walk along stripes in the middle of a road
and sometimes we fall
but mostly we totter because there are other people tottering.
Cellphones lost, we need to pee again,
then I negotiate with the people at CCD, who're planning on closing down
and in the CCD loo I realise I'm mistaking the basin for the cistern
and then Senjuti punches Arijit
and Anushka headbutts my shoulder
and Choi mistakes other people for me,
and I put my foot in a squelchy puddle but don't tell anyone because I'm
too scared it's vomit.

The flashlight comes anyway,
It sweeps clean across us and everyone closes their magazines and pushes hair
out and away from their faces
and there's a jeep but the guy's really nice, he tells us to leave the stadium
and go back to the road and stay on it, how very nice,
only I'm thinking, where do we pee now?

So Springfest's a drunkfest.
Doesn't matter, we're sitting far away in a grassy patch outside the tennis courts
and it's hidden by trees.
There's a twig poking into the small of my back
and there's Kryptos playing somewhere in the distance,
lots of flashing lights and I'm guessing it's a wild wild party
but all we can hear is bass and it sounds like a minefield
and all we can see are the lights
over the trees,
it looks like an air-raid.
We're singing peace anthems, we're dancing to Marley,
cue wry smile, then forget, at least
we're spared the concert,
then someone shouts
KRYPTOSIS!
And everyone's hanging from tree branches.

I eat dal-roti at Vegies and feel happy even though it's horrible, and the quizzes don't matter
because nothing matters till it's dark (The cheese maggi matters
but it soon turns into cheesy maagi
and maagi jokes, fried maagi and plain maagi, anda maagi and motton maagi).
Then there are huddles of drunk people everywhere singing
My Heart Will Go On
and other things, I don't remember,
and it's all total fun man fuck man like yeaaah total fun man like yeaah fuck fuck fuck
yeah bitch.
And I'm on a rickshaw
dropping off, dropping off, but there are people passing everywhere till
the people and the rickshaw are sure to collide
but we reach the dorm and pee,
and then pee again.
All that goes in comes out and over again,
I think we peed all over the place.

But wait, no, we rolled all over the place too
but mostly we rolled down the grassy slope in that complex I can't remember.
So yeah, Springfest's a drunkfest but I was
Mostly dazed.

In the morning I lose all sense of direction
(It'd been intact all night)
Then I realise you can see the moon in the morning
and other people can see it too
and I realise it's not like being scared by animals while you're tripping
(Like cowdung means a cow's around, and a trotting dog's a monster).
Maybe it isn't IIT at all,
maybe it's us.
I've mixed up Night One and Night Two but they could be interchangeable
because it's all the same, tremendously cold hazy loud furry smoky.
Tremendously in, tremendously out,
Tremendously taxing.
I snore.
I'm not going back, I think.

And then I come back home after a never-ending train journey and take a bath and
pull out a plate to eat my lunch
and five others fall out and are smithereened more thoroughly than anything
has ever been smithereened
and scoobyfreakingdoo, boo-tralala-hoo,
It's all okay,
As long as I sleep,
As long as I get up,
As long as I can
find out why my sneakers are glowing in all the pictures.