Enigma 3.0-Taking Fun to an Entirely New Level

Written by: Ayesha Rehan & Wardaa Imran Sheikh
Photo Credits: Fahad Rana Creations,Paradigm Shoot & Ayesha Rehan

Even though the third and final day of Enigma was a Sunday, and everyone would have loved to stay in bed till afternoon, the competition level was still way up, the main reason being the Grand Finales of all the events that Enigma had organized. Thus participants started trickling in as early as 9am, practicing their parts, or in the case of sports practicing their game. Even the numerous photographers could be seen scurrying here and there trying to capture every moment. Results of various events started trickling into the offices of the Enigma teamsters responsible for the participation certificates and shields for the winners.

All the finales held were exciting, but the ones that drew the largest crowds were the ones of Vignette and Step Up.The organizers welcomed Tipu Shareef for the finale of Vignette, and he judged the 4 teams and gave them great advice on voice throw, expressions and foot work on stage, since he is such a prominent theater figure, his advice was carefully listened and noted down by the participants. The Vignette event had a surprise for its participants and the audience they had acquired that morning which was a special screening of "Ek Do Dhaai", a short film directed by Ashar Khalid, starring IBA's very own treasured talent Moiz Khan, which left the crowd in awe. Mr. Tipu was so impressed that he even asked Ashar Khalid to make such a film for him too! Mr. Tipu then signed off, and the auditorium welcomed the Vibes singing competition's finale where the participants battled for the first position.

Both the events were held in the auditorium and by the time the events started all the seats were completely filled, with many people even sitting on the ground or standing at the entrances eager to witness what the participants had prepared to win over the judges. The Vibes final was held first, with some of the most talented stars of IBA like Ali Raj and Shahwali Shayan joining in to sing the opera and ghazal to the utmost delight of the spectators. It was apparent by the end of the event that the judges had some serious thinking to do deciding the winner amongst some of the participants. The final round of the Step Up had everyone shout out in delight and amazement as one participant after another performed some superb pieces to different medleys. A couple of them were good enough to have qualified for participation in professional dance (which is high praise indeed) and had almost the whole auditorium give them a standing ovation, judges included. The final of Step Up concluded the events, and everyone was then asked to go out into the gardens where the closing ceremony was to be held.

The ceremony began a little after 6pm, after the arrival of the much awaited chief guests Mr.Farhan Ali Agha and Ms.Nadia hussain, who were greeted by tremendous applause from the assembled party. The faces behind Enigma were called out onto the stage to be commended for the success. These included the CEO Hina Nagi,Convener Nausherwan Khan,Managing Director Muzammil Hashmi,ED Osama Dogar and VP Contingency Talha Farooqui.Above them all holding everything and everyone together was the president, Mr.Sohaib Siddiqui. How much Enigma meant to these people could be seen clearly on their faces, and while they were delivering their speeches. The video that was played for the crowd revealing the faces of the Enigma Core Team made the moment even more emotional because it was a reminder that the original founders and people responsible for Enigma would be graduating this year, and thus would not be present as the mentors they had previously been. The ceremony continued with the chief guests handing out shield to the winners of the various events and to some special Enigma teamsters who worked tirelessly. The winner and runner up of Vibes performed again for the crowd and were given a huge round of applause for their success. Even the winner of Step Up performed a couple of steps on stage. The ceremony concluded successfully with dinner being served for everyone.

There is no doubt that Enigma 3.0 was a huge success. The whole team worked resolutely and there was no other way it could have been. The MT must be given a standing ovation for organizing everything a day earlier and doing it right! Enigma 3.0 - a beautiful journey, crazy experience. Hats off to Hina, Nausherwan, Muzammil and the ENTIRE board of directors, assistant directors, and the important teamsters who worked day and night along with these people. The ceremony may have concluded Enigma officially, but the main highlight of the event was still to come; the beach trip the next day. No doubt people would be talking about it for days and many would be eager to revisit IBA again next year when Enigma would be back with an even greater bang!

Enigma 3.0-Day 2

Written by: Wardaa Imran Sheikh
Photo Credits: Saifoo Khan Studios & Jaffris Photography

When the management team and participants went to sleep on 23rd January, they had no idea they would be waking up to an unplanned,

unpredictable, and potentially dangerous city conditions, where several groups had called for a strike and with every educational institution shut off in the city, the organizers had to, agonizingly, call the second day off. There was a lot of chaos as the organizing team fought to plan a program flow that would enable them to do the impossible- pulling off a four day event in just three days! It was a nightmare for any event to be squeezed and crushed into 3 days instead of 4, but when you have an amazing program designer like Tayyaba Naksh, the impossible is possible! With a thousand revisions of the plan, the event was finally tailored to 3 days and the second day(25th January) started off with a bang, with events running at the speed of lightening, rounds being simultaneously held, with everyone trying to pull their events off in the shortened time, with badminton, FIFA'14 and basketball starting off at 9 in the morning along with step up participants displaying their tremendous talent to the blaring music, the auditorium was more alive than ever! Enigma was kicking off the second day with a lot of style and the participants felt the energy in the very air at IBA. The second pool of events included the dramatic musicals that were the main theme of Vignette that day, the incredible short films of Cinemania, the heated parliamentary debates, along with cricket and throw ball. The participants were exhausted by 6PM and were all ready for the second social event: the event with music and refreshment formally known as "Nocturnal Wonderland"; doesn't that sound gooood!

So, with the participants and management team all set in the 8 buses that took off from IBA that evening, they arrived in style to Royal Rodale where they were taken to the rooftop and the dance party was officially in full swing. A ginormous dance floor flooded with colored neon lights, a well-renowned DJ with the unbearable habit of using curse words in an attempt to showcase his "DJ-ness" the crowd was hooting to the music and moving their bodies to the beat. The whole hotel echoed with the music of the rooftop dance party and the scrams of delights of the crowd at the songs of their choice. The party went on till late;even Pakistan's very own Asim Azhar was seen partying in the Enigma crowd with his official photographer Ifrah Humayun but they wrapped it up in good time and had everyone back in the buses. The bus ride back to IBA was not less of a party for the participants and teamsters;they sang songs, and screamed the lyrics out loud all the way to IBA. The dance party is Enigma's own tradition and the management team managed to keep the legacy intact by having one of the best dance parties of Enigma to date, according to one of the participants.

All in all, they managed to pull off Day 2 beautifully despite the fact that the much-awaited Zoe Viccaji concert was cancelled due to the hostile city conditions and now the participants had one last social to look forward to.. The beach trip, which will be insightfully covered by Inside IBA.

Enigma 3.0-Day 1

Written by:Wardaa Imran Sheikh & Ayesha Rehan
Photo Credits:Ayesha Rehan & Graphic Content

What do you do when you wake up to find that all roads to IBA have been blocked and there is no way to reach there? You FIGHT! You fight against the city conditions, the inconvenience, the security threats and the eternal possibility of getting lost in Karachi and you reach IBA at 8:30 in the morning to set up and prepare for IBA's dynamic event. It was preposterously delayed and opening ceremony commenced around 11:15 am. The extravagant IBA auditorium was far too small for the enthusiastic participants, one could see them crammed in every nook and cranny, some even sharing one seat!

The event hit it off with speeches from the CEO Hina Naz Nagi and Manager of IBA Arts Society- Convener of Enigma,Nausherwan Khan, who shared their anecdotes of past Enigma events.There was a dynamic performance by Ramsha Aslam and her crews (including moi) which had the audience yell their throats out and sing along to each song. Arbal Nadeem, Talha Ahmed and Ali Raj were shining among others as they sang and beat box -ed their hearts out, plus with a mind blowing performance by Step Up Judge Sheikh Hamid Ali, the ceremony was wrapped up.

The sessions commenced at around 1pm with pool 1 events and the participants were seeing hurrying in to the field and in different rooms allocated. The highlight of the event was Asim Azhar, who is a judge for Vibes, singing his heart out for his participants along with his fellow judge who was a terrific Opera singer. The basketball team had the participants worn out as they played in the huge IBA fields, and the badminton events that were being held at the new Student Center gave participants and teamsters alike enough time to roam around this new beautiful addition.The table tennis girls was a very appealing piece of event to watch, because as it turned out, the only players who had registered were from St.Patrick's and IBA itself. At first it seemed both the teams were evenly matched, but soon the St.Pat's girls showed the upper hand and took away the victory in the table tennis. Two of the opponents interestingly turned out to be cousins, and one was seen to be happily congratulating the other on her win.

Pool 2 events began late afternoon.Throwball is an event exclusively for girls (well guys think it's too easy to be manly thus the reason why they don’t play).Two teams face each other in the court standing opposite sides of the net. It is a game in which they have to catch and throw the ball, but with many rules that take away the easiness of the game. The total teams registered were five. Three of them were able to show up due to aforementioned city conditions. Even then the event took place successfully and round one was partly completed and the results noted. The Director refereed the matches with help from her Co-Director and it must be said that she made a really good referee (a possible job for the future maybe?).There were many discoveries made during the event, one being that the IBA throwball team that was put together after a lot of hardships was actually really good (wonder where everyone disappears when people are being recruited).Another occurrence was the continued appearances of students participating in an activity that required them to find an event taking place for girls only, interview some people there and take photographs. So all those who were worrying that they wouldn’t show up in any photos need not fret, they will certainly be showing up in articles about throwball very soon!

Then came the Dramatics event in the auditorium where the audience was captivated by the first day performances along with heated parliamentary debates in CED amongst many other events. The first day was quite brief, one round of each event and the participants seemed rather unpleased with the lack of entertainment available to them after both the Pool of events were over. A bonfire was planned to relieve them of their stress and to relax and blend in the IBA people and the Enigma culture.

The bonfire's theme was treasure hunt which demanded all participants to look for clues hidden in IBA.The bonfire proved to be true to Enigma's essence, with all the participants showcasing their talents while snuggling up to the warm bonfire amidst Karachi's surprisingly chilly Winters, the temperature being a little below 16 degrees, the participants sang and danced their hearts in to the night. Asim Azhar also honored the team by attending the social joining in the feasts. Ofcourse, the event was incomplete without the traditional confession boxes which the participants and teamsters alike used to their own niche entertainment, even though the idea of a confession box seems appalling to me, as long as the participants are happy, the show must go on! A special thanks to Saud Shahid, who not only acted as the blog's eyes and ears for the bonfire, but also was one of the many reasons the participants had fun.

All in all, it was a great start to an event despite the unpredictable city conditions.Most participants were present and the social event was greatly enjoyed. Let's see what Enigma has planned for the next 4 days.