A Spooktacular Evening

Gitika Naik, Class of 2021

Halloween is when people of all colours (red, green, and blue), species (ghosts, aliens, and centaurs) timelines, and alternate universes come together to party. This is what happened at the fang-tastic party thrown by the Cultural Ministry in the Atrium. The decorations were beautiful, especially the cute spooky pumpkins. A huge bonus was the pots of candy the Ministry provided; people (including me) went mad after the Jolly Rancher lollipops.

Simultaneously, Mad Batter held a Halloween Bake Sale featuring a tricky game (there are slips named “trick” or “treat” under the goodies. If you pick “treat” then the price of that treat is reduced by ₹20; if you pick “trick”, it is increased by ₹10) and delicious treats that everyone was goblin’. There was also the promise of competition; Epigraph held the Terribly Dark Tales Contest, where partygoers could vote for their favourite terribly dark tales from five shortlisted entries. The winner of this contest was Saransh Ahuja, (UG 2021).

The Cultural Ministry’s costume competition showed that Ashokans truly believe in the wise saying, “if you’ve got it, haunt it”. People went all-out with the costumes — painted faces, light sabres, horse masks, and pink bathrobes. As the clock ticked closer to the time of the party, floor Whatsapp groups were filled with messages asking for paints, lipsticks, a particular colour or type of t-shirt. Brooklyn Nine-Nine characters were the most popular. I counted at least four Rosas, a couple of Amys, and a few Jakes. Some costumes brought back childhood memories with cartoon characters like Velma (Scooby-Doo) and Ashley Spinelli (Recess). The winner of the competition was Siddharth Goyal (UG 2020), and the runner-up was Esther David (UG 2020).

Here are a few costumes that I saw around campus that stood out because of the effort put into them and how creative they were. The costumes were so realistic, it was uncandy. This is not an exhaustive list, but just the ones that I spotted.

Rangarajan Kaliyur busted out a BoJack Horseman cosplay because “it holds emotional value and is important to me”.

For me, this party was a break from all the midterm stress, a night of just dancing and having a good time. I didn’t want the party to end and neither did anyone else, as a lot of boos issued when the ministry decided to wrap up. In the beginning, I couldn’t decide between going as an undercover cop (zero effort) or the girl who takes “On Wednesdays, we wear pink” too seriously (pink hair, fluffy pink bathrobe, and pink slippers). Then, I looked into the mirror and realised that the answer was staring me in the face all along: I could just go as Hufflepuff icon Nymphadora Tonks! I had pink hair, and all I needed were black clothes. Sadly, no one recognised who I was; although after I told them, they could totally see the resemblance — because of the pink hair.

This Halloween was really special for me because this was the first time I actually celebrated it. I grew up watching Disney and Nickelodeon shows, and each show had a special Halloween episode. When I came to know that Ashoka where we celebrate Halloween, I expected the party and dressing up but I didn’t expect the trick or treating and the Jack’o Lanterns. The night was really really gourd, wicked awesome and filled with skele-fun! I can’t wait for next year’s Halloween to see what crazy, fun and innovative things people come up with. Although, next year, I will probably show up in my pyjamas with my laptop. I won’t be an enthusiastic, carefree first year anymore.

The author is an Arts & Culture staff writer for The Edict.