Chaud – The Vigilance Interview

When we were asked to interview the Vigilance team of Revels ’16, it’s safe to say Shriya and I were a little apprehensive. We’d seen them patrolling around campus with their intimidating tags, bearing the commanding badge of ‘Vigilance’. They keep unruly crowds in order and are known to be rude and forceful when it comes to maintaining and adhering to protocol. So when we walked into the conference room of AB1 to find approximately 60 students waiting for us, all smiles and happy faces, we weren’t really sure how to react. Rather than enforcing the image of Vigilance in our minds, meeting the Category Heads and Co-Coordinators shattered what we thought we knew about them and redefined our picture of them in our minds.

MTTN: During the fest, we see Vigilance everywhere. What are all the things in Revels that fall under you? What all work do you do?

Vigilance: Our work is limitless and without boundary. We have some predefined work which we have to do anyway but if certain work is left by some other categories we have to take over that also. We help all the categories in order to make the fest run smoothly. If they are facing problems or if they don’t have many organisers, we help them get things in order and get the crowd under control during the big events. You must have seen people from Vigilance carrying water canisters during Proshow. It wasn’t part of the job description but when a situation like that occurs, we have to do it. We’re basically the Dark Knights. We have to help out and see that things run smoothly.

MTTN: Would you say that it’s a thankless job?

Vigilance: Definitely. We’re like the Dark Knight – never appreciated, always ridiculed. People say that we’re rude to them but it’s just a part of the job. If you see us outside of Vigilance, we’re all friendly people.

We conveyed to our organisers that even if they put in their hard work, not to expect any thanks. We told them to just do it. It’s basically our dedication for the category which we’ve been working for right from the first year, where most of us were volunteers. We are not like the Proshow people who are always in the limelight. We’re just there to carry the fest and all the categories forward. They also work hard. They have their predefined work, which they do. But Vigilance has to support all the categories in their work.

More people than for Farhan Akhtar came this time for each and every event.

MTTN: You’ve just told us that all of you have been in this from the first year. Why do you guys do it? Why do you feel that you need to do this?

Vigilance: We were volunteers when we first heard the word ‘chaud’. We didn’t like the definition of the word at that time and we wanted to bring about some changes. We wanted to make people believe that if you respect others, others will respect you. And that is what ‘chaud’ is for us. It’s not saying “I’ll order you and you have to do this”. We wanted to define chaud so it could help people. We help the other categories so much, eventually they always thank us.

The thing that attracted us to Vigilance ultimately was that word – chaud. We use it to get as many people as possible during the organiser and volunteer calls. We give our organisers sufficient training to ensure that they never convey the kind of chaud that is bad or misuse the word.

Providing water in this fest was a priority for us. In the last fest, we faced a lot of criticism because of it.

MTTN: Say you get someone who is slightly soft-spoken as an organiser, what do you tell them?

Vigilance:  If someone is a little shy, we try to make them confident. We provide them with situations where they can work towards it or try to improve themselves. Vigilance is not just about managing the fest. We are developing soft skills in each and every person. The way we talk, the way we handle things. We can’t be rude to everybody. According to the situation, we need to be rude sometimes. But soft skills are generated. This will help us during placement season. That’s why we have stuck to it and we are signing off on a good note.

Our organisers were tired but they still told us “Bhaiya, you enjoy. This is your last fest. We’ll do it.”

MTTN: What was the biggest challenge you faced this time, over Revels?

Vigiliance: The biggest challenge was having something or the other every night. We had to sacrifice a lot of sleep. Day-zero, we had things happening in the quadrangle. And during the main Proshow, giving 7000 people entry into Greens in just one and a half hours. And then there was tickets selling which we got it done in less than 3.5 seconds per ticket.

Another problem was that there wasn’t enough water. After everyone had entered the venue, the people came and asked us ‘where do we get water?’ Basically it was our organisers who were collecting water bottles and putting them on the tables. They were tired but they still told us “Bhaiya, you enjoy. This is your last fest. We’ll do it.”

HR was of great help to us. They helped us throughout the fest, gave us volunteers and we even had a meeting with the volunteers. Providing water in this fest was a priority for us. In the last fest, we faced a lot of criticism because of it. The crowd was also unexpected this time. We were not expecting 4000-5000 people here in the quadrangle but there they were on all four days. More people than for Farhan Akhtar came this time for each and every event.

The results system is completely foolproof. We didn’t want another Miss Universe happening at Revels.

MTTN: Which are the categories that you coordinate with the most?

Vigilance: We main co-ordinate with Operations. We work in the same room as them. We shared all our problems with each other. Next is System Admin. System Admin and Vigilance have worked very closely this time so we created this new term called ‘SysVigOps’ for these three categories. We’re like a family. We had a WhatsApp group and whatever problems we had, we would share on that group. If we had to authenticate a delegate card, it was just a call or a message on the WhatsApp group away. We figured if all these categories move in one direction, the fest would be good. We sat together through the nights, we ate together and we partied together.

The organiser team that we’ve had this time was by far the best. We’re really proud of them.

MTTN: You seem to have great relations with your organisers.

Vigilance: For us, the main priority was the organisers. They are the heart and the soul of the fest. We’re not the faces of this category – we can’t be there at every event. But our sixty organisers, they’ll be there at each and every place handling all the situations. We do give them guidelines but they are the ones who implement what we’ve taught them. The organiser team that we’ve had this time was by far the best. And we’ve been seeing organisers for the last five fests. We ensured that our organisers never felt bad about anything and were treated right. We’re really proud of them. We hope that we have taken Revels ’16 to greater heights and we ask all the organisers who will be filling our shoes to take it to another level altogether.

The fest is only for four days but the friendships that we’ve built will stay with us far beyond the scope of Revels.

MTTN: When an event is over and you need to verify all the results, what exactly is the process you go through for that?

Vigilance: After the event is over the first job of the vigilance organisers is to go collect the judging sheet from the judges. In front of the judges, they have to do the calculation then the judges attest it and then they bring along the category head to the conference hall with the results. Then we match everything and submit it to Operations team who again sees that things are correct and the team IDs match the registration system we already have. Then the result sheet is forwarded to Vishwanath Sir and Narayan Shenoy Sir. Their signature is taken and only then the System Admin team updates the results online. After the judging is done, it’s a very smooth process. It’s completely foolproof and we make sure that there are no mistakes.

MTTN: So you have a rule that you did not want people to announce the scores during the events and some people had a problem with that. Why do you have this rule?

Vigilance: We avoided it because the results go through several processes as we said. Sometimes, what happens is that a particular team ID which qualifies or wins doesn’t even exist in the database. Maybe it was generated but not registered for the event, so the team ID is not there. So the first order of business is making sure the participant is there in the database. If we declared a winner and afterwards, we find that there’s been a miscalculation, it would have been a disaster. We didn’t want to make the winners feel bad and we didn’t want another Miss Universe happening at Revels.

MTTN: How have you bettered Vigilance?

Vigilance: Taking care of our organisers was one of the major priorities for us. We wanted to maintain a good relationship with them. The fest is only for four days but the friendships that we’ve built will stay with us far beyond the scope of Revels.

We tried to maintain good relations with each and every category and since we have friends in every category if any problem occurs in any category, we try and see that it is resolved as soon as possible and at the lowest level possible and it doesn’t escalate.

We tried to be as gentle as possible. We didn’t want to ruin anything. Yes, sometimes we do get frustrated handling crowds but this time, we tried to make sure that even if we were frustrated, we kept our cool.

MTTN: How do you want to make it better for next time?

Vigilance: Next time it’s up to our organisers. We’ve done our part. Whatever we missed while working in the previous fests, we worked towards fixing that. We have set a high bar. If we can maintain that, it will be good. If we can go above that it will be better. We’ve taught them everything we know. The rest is in their hands and we have complete faith in them.

MTTN: How was the support you got from the college and from the student council?

Vigilance: We got a lot of support. The council, teachers, faculty advisors, they’ve been really supportive. We feel very glad working with them. Whatever we needed they gave us.

MTTN: Is there anything more you would like to tell us?

Vigilance: Working in Vigilance really makes us proud. Though we ourselves don’t get the enjoy the fest, we try our best to make sure that everybody else enjoys the fest. Others enjoying the fest is our enjoyment. That is the real chaud for us.

Chaud thi. Chaud hai aur chaud rahega.

Dedicated and determined, yet emotional and nostalgic. The interview with Vigilance was truly humbling. It not only showed us how integral the category truly is to every fest, but it also showed us how human they really are.

– Shriya Atmakuri and Manu J Naik for MTTN