The Fest season was back and hey no-one was complaining ...this time the alumni were more generous ...esp the NRI who gave 50,000 bucks in cash and Nike shoes to every member of basketball team !!
AFMCITES UNLIMITED, the producers of this website, afmcites.com did their bit by sponsoring 'free-shots', the daily festival rag-mag brought out by the organisers. Then authorities too did their bit by annoucing whole week NTDs (Non Training Days army terminology for chuttis !)
But with good comes the bad ....and the fest got into trouble at the start due to a tussle between AFMC and arch rival BJMC. BJMC threatened to pull out of Silhouettes but late Indo-Pak sorta diplomacy brought the situation to normalcy .

21st Jan
Opening Day started with full enthu with news coming that some new out-station teams are coming . Though Organisers had a tough time making arrangements for last minute teams but they did come up with satisfactory arrangements. In Opening parade many AFMC guys had to represent other teams coz they were not on time!! Then many ballons and 2 white pigeons were set free by the Commandant. Both the ballons and pigeons were caught by someguyz later outside the court (Maneka are you listening ). This was followed by a good dance number by the junior batch girls. The inagural matches of Basket Ball were followed by a small social till 1am ( u know these anti-loudspeaker rules etc).

22nd Jan
'Twas a great morning. Cricket fever was on; no not England-India but six-a-side cricket where each team had to have at least a girl in team. The modified rules said that girls would not be considered out on the first ball or out while running !!. By evening time the scene was more clear about the total teams participating. Then the Volley Ball matches started with nine teams participating since non-med colleges were allowed to participate.
Dhanvantri audi was the venue for Musimatics (8 team participated in various categories like Hindi solo English, solo group etc !!) The crowd was less with the England-India cricket match taking its toll ..however the orgainsers came into quick action by announcing score and current position of the Indo-England match from time to time in the auditorium. The BB matches were followed by informals and then again a social. Some junta went for a long drive to Singhgadh with boozing under the moon ... also slept outside under the sky !!

23rd Jan
The main attraction was the dancing competition. As many as 17 teams were there .... some real cool steps could be seen but almost every team carried a national flag which seemed a poor trick to impress the judges. Still many upcoming Shamik Davars could be seen there, Cummins won. Also street-show events showed the acting talent of the junta. The six-a-side cricket match saw some record-breaking where 135 runs were made in 6 overs with as many as 12 sixes ( there was an award for maximum sixes too)
Informals and Socials were as usual buzzing especially since girls were given liberty to remain outside as late as 3am. Ahhh.. some freedom at last.

24 Jan.
The full day was kept free giving opportunity for outside teams to visit a bit around Pune . Then at 8pm was the event sorely missed last time. Yes the ROCK SHOW !!! Bands WRATH and MOONSTRUCK gave a long 'n' fine ride and did not make us feel the absence of INDIAN OCEAN ( who were asking for 1.5 lakh !!!!) Other evening events seemed less attended as VERVE started taking its share of the crowd or is it just the hangover??

25th Jan
A day of high drama.
Firstly, the FASHION SHOW as many as 9 teams were there with beauty 'n' brawn . SNDT took the best choreo, the AFMC host team won best male model ...they could have easily swept all prizes if only they hadn't entered as non-competitive entries in other events !!(This time AFMC entered non-sport contests on a non-competitive basis to stop allegations of partiality) DY Patil College won the best team thanks to some fine faces. The threat posed by another local festival 'Verve', was a false call as Dhanvantari was packed to full capacity.
The Social had to be closed earlier thanks to Pune Policewala who went to the Dean's house in the middle of the night. Dean perhaps bugged because of the interruption (to sleep) declared the fest closed right there !!! Some maska would probably cool him down the next day. .... but any way pplz went back to their rooms and the party continued. No one can stop a AFMCite!

26th Jan
Final day with finals of all types of Ball games ;-). The closing ceremony followed including distribuion of prizes. Finally a grand bhangra and a fundoo dinner (or was it another way ) brought the 6 day temptation island story to end.

BOTTOM NOTE:
Silhouettes is getting bigger and better ...this version was of course a superb hit. The partcipation increased significantly especially in non-basket ball events. The competition posed by Verve too failed to affect Silhouettes showing its increasing popularity (Probably 'cos Verve closes down daily by 10pm whereas Silhouettes went on till 2 almost every day ....eerrr or should I say night). NesCafe took on the primary sponsorship and did a commendable job. They even flew in a DJ from Delhi by air .....all for a college fest !!

The bottom line of course was the never say die spirit of the afmcite...

KILROY
RuStInG iN PiEcEs