Chemistry never sounded this good

It all started with a casual stroll in the corridors, the pamphlets in

blue and white, thoughts after scanning through: song-writing, eh?
and Parody? Hey, of course! and after a bit of fidgeting...
officially declared a participant in Chemistry idol!
Once the names registered comes the which-song-to-twist stage. This
choice is not as trivial as it might seem to you at the outset;
because it must be made based upon the songs popularity, its
malleability, melody, mood, and most importantly whether you can sing
it in-key in the first place.
Another equally impossible choice now: Choose a chemistry concept to
describe through the song. This one, you will take eons to figure out
if you havent been attentive enough during chemistry classes,
starting 8
th
grade. Managed to make it through this? Now get that
guitar out and write your very first song: the chord and tabs, the
right balance between syllables and beats, fit some humor and some
jargon, write three paras like that, and strum every line singing the
lyrics out repeatedly until satisfied. This part, and it will not be
an overstatement to say this, was the most exhaustingly insightful
part of the entire process. We got a taste of how hard it is to write
songs; be it pop tunes or soul melodies. And a part of this part is
one which most professional song-writers may not need to worry about;
that part where we were to explain a chemistry concept in three paras,
adding a touch of humor here and there to keep the crowd from walking
out on the d-day.
With the lyrics down and our hopes up, making sure lyric power
points were all set and timed with the background music, we walked up
to the dais, calmed those nerves a bit, checked for the starting beat
on the background music, and started singing.
And at the end, two songs bagged the prizes of a humble 8. Jacqueline
of B.Sc- IC bagged the first prize for an acid-base take on Taylor
Swifts Love story and a group of two- Sree Lakshmi and Chaitanya
from M.Sc Chemistry II came second with their amazing take on Yo Yo
Honey Singhs Lungi Dance. And the rest of us well at the end when
you dont quite make it, you must do no more than look back at the
process and learn from it, said Azhim Premji.
We did feel down, but we knew we could achieve more with these newly
discovered skills and yeah, the competitions over and all, but the
experience lingers: long hours of eke-ing the lyrics out with a guitar
and a Physical Chemistry textbook..it all seemed crazy but cool, now
that I retrospect.
I, particularly, am very thankful to the Department of Chemistry as
they helped us step outside the bounds imposed by our education system
and really gave us a whiff of what learning is about.
They taught us learning that didnt involve hours of grumbling and
day-dreaming in front of text books (well it does involve a bit of the
latter) but all-in-all it was a not-so-bitter-pill carefully coated in
sugar by the teachers; and now Ill tell you, once ingested it has
nice long-lasting effects.