No reference to the Irish band. Or Brutus. This is Part 2 of the three-part series, which began here.

Beginning with this post, is a three-part picture series on the people who really make Saarang what it is - You.

We’re pleased to announce the unveiling of the official Saarang 2008 logo, arrived at after much deliberation and taking into consideration requests from various quarters to not replicate beauty product logos.

The multitude of colors not only represent the immensely variegated events that Saarang boasts of, but also the coming together of a highly diversified group of people with different likes, dislikes, tastes and talents. The logo stands for the fact that in Saarang, there are no losers. Everyone’s an equal and its participating that really matters. However, as Karl Marx said, some participants need to be more equal that the others. This fact is symbolized by the fractal-esqe design of the inner circles – which stands for superficial imperfections amidst an underlying symmetry. So shake yourselves up and take a peep…into this kaleidoscope that we call Saarang.

Over the years, we’ve come to realize that different people view Saarang differently and so the logo, with its various hues, aims to cater to the various shades that different people might associate with Saarang. For some, it’s an escape from the monotony of every day college life. For others, it’s just another chapter, another stage - in the adventure of every day college life. Some come to Saarang with the aim of fattening their wallets. Many others come just for the kicks and for the thrill of participation. Saarang is the fabric that binds us to our sanities. Saarang is what releases us from the clutches of TdS and other complex thermodynamic brain activities. Maxwell quotes Saarang as a prime example of his hypothesis – it’s the second law of thermodynamics gone completely berserk. If it’s the universe’s prerogative to increase entropy and disorder, then Saarang is its most faithful servant. The beauty of anarchy comes alive here, with maddening crowds, raucous audiences and loud, loud music. Saarang has the knack of tickling the right taste buds and appealing to the right senses in every one of us. We don’t know how. We don’t care why. It’s an age old dogma that, to this day is an enigma.

The more perceptive among you might have noticed that this logo looks vaguely familiar. If you spotted it, congratulations, you had your look at the Saarang logo before the rest, even if you didn’t actually know what it was. For those who didn’t, you just have to look at the previous post a bit more sharply. It may not be one in the strictest sense of the word, but it is what we’d like to call our own version of an Easter Egg.

And there’ll be plenty more coming in the next few posts, revealing other such small details about Saarang. So as they say (to no effect) on the television channels, keep watching!

Saarang comes but once a year. And much to our delight, that time’s not far off. Ahoy!Cyber explorer. Welcome… to a celebration of culture, a glorification of talent, and a boisterous carousal that promises to delightfully enervate you for five straight days. It’s an event that Bon Jovi secretly claims was the inspiration for his song “One wild night”. And it was again Saarang’s pro show nite that Jennifer Lopez had in mind when she sang the pulsating track: “Waiting for tonight”. The references are endless - some call it a party worth dying for, while some call it a pilgrimage. Still others swear they wouldn’t give Saarang a miss even if all hell (tsunami, locusts, meteors…whatever!) were to break loose in Madras.

Damn right… they all are.

For those of you confused readers who’ve just landed in from outer space (I can find no alternate explanation for your ignorance), Saarang is the annual cultural festival of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Arguably the largest student organized fest of its kind in India, it is a phantasmagoria of festivity and merry making spread over five days, that in hindsight, always seem to pass in a blur. With events like dramatics, debates, rock contests, fine arts and quizzes – Saarang has something for everyone. For an exhaustive list of events, please visit the official website of Saarang , which will be up and running soon.

Every January, the serene and peaceful campus of IIT Madras is witness to a metamorphosis of epic proportions. From being the capital of geek-land, the landscape transforms into one gigantic living museum of the performing arts and the effect that it has on its residents is striking. Bewildered professors find even their favorite students engaging in “disturbing activities”. In the past, the days and months leading up to Saarang has seen geeky first benchers attempting Mohawk haircuts, bespectacled “know it alls” paying their annual visit to beauty parlors and with assignments and lab reports blissfully ignored, it is safe to say that the institute is brought to a grinding halt by Saarang.

Saarang sees massive participation, not just from college students, but from far flung regions of the planet. We’ve had troupes like MerzHin and Led Zepplica performing to melting pot audiences in the past. Some even claim that NRIs from the US – taxi drivers, gas station owners et al flock to Madras for Saarang. This in fact, was the subject of an interesting article published in Forbes Magazine last winter- “Transportation crunch in the offing: Its Saarang time again”!!

Boasting of unparalleled levels of hospitality, Saarang is the ideal way to spend your Republic Day weekend. So all those of you interested in being part of Saarang; Finalise your travel plans, book your tickets in advance and start counting down to a week, that we swear will change your lives. If that isn’t inspiring enough here’s what a certain die hard Saarang fan had to say after last year’s edition:

“If it was Armageddon tomorrow, and humankind desired one last night of celebration, one final night of existence – They’d do a Saarang”

Need we say more?