I am posting after such a long time. It is such a crime to keep a blog inactive for so many months. I had ideas in mind but couldn't implement them. This time I had to post since the events are so fresh in my memory.
We II M.Tech DB decided to host an exclusive DB freshers party for the first time in the history of SRM. The juniors had arrived on 3rd Sept 2012. They were 46 in number with 4 girls and the rest all boys.
It had been a hectic semester for us. We had to shuttle between classes, project work and training sessions. Our classmates had all taken different electives. It was so hard for all of us to get together. But we planned a day, stayed back after MBA class and discussed about keeping a freshers party. We each contributed Rs. 500/- and so the total amount collected came upto Rs. 17500/-. I was wondering what we were going to do with that much money. But it was just right, since we had invited and ordered food for about 150 people- all faculty, staff, juniors and seniors. The food coordinator was Venkat-(Mahesh Baabu Gaaru).
Chaitu, Sundeep, Sireesha, Kiran were among the most prominent coordinators of the event. They conceptualised many fun activities like paper dance, filler questions, cherry cream, balloon blow-burst, dirty picture and so on. Arunkumar designed a short video presentation showing the pictures of teachers and the pictures we had taken throughout the year. It was like reliving those happy memories. The star of all the photos was Sundeep as he was there in almost all the pictures. This presentation was shown twice once during the beginning and the second time for our HOD who joined us later.
Vishal and I were the emcees for the show. We prepared our speech for 3hours the previous day but in the end it all went haywire as we had not expected the turn of events. So we had to adapt to the change and did everything on the spot.
We had booked the M.B.A seminar hall but in the last minute weren't allowed to use. This certainly reminded of my struggles with Sr. Hilda in my previous college where we werent allowed to use the main block because we were making too much noise and instead had to shift to the stuffy room above the canteen which had no mic facilities.
Of course the MBA department was kind enough to allot another room which they called the VIP room. Magesh jokingly commented "The VIP room with broken chairs". He was the tall hunk of the class and enthusiastically helped with the decorations. Not only him Prem, Narendra, Kiran, Monika, Srikanth, Krishna, Krishnapriya, Thilaka, Vishal, Ramesh and Vaishu too speedily decorated the room within the limited time we had. I urgently made a chart that indicated the new venue and the boys hanged it outside in the reception area. The room was not bad and it had all the necessary facilities. We had bought a mic and Arunkumar being the overall technical-in-charge took care of everything with ease.
I wore a blue saree for the show which matched with the balloons tied up. It wasn't my decision. My friends literally forced me and Hemavathi maam too wanted all the girls to wear one since the M.Tech I.T. students had done that and it had looked grand. Thankfully I wasn't alone. Simy and Vaishu too shimmered in their outfits. The worst part is that the juniors started addressing me as ma'am which kind of embarrassed me. It just struck me that my childhood days had disappeared. I am an adult now and I took an oath to be more responsible and act with maturity.
The event started with just around 4 teachers-Our coordinator Vadivu maam, Our class-in-charge Hemavathi ma'am, Sujatha ma'am and Razia ma'am. We welcomed them all to the show. Vadivu maam and Razia maam addressed the gathering and wished us all well. Then we asked the juniors to introduce themselves. Some of them felt very shy. But most of them were so happy and confidently spoke. I was simply amazed by Swagatha's self introduction. She had a work experience of 3years before joining here and undoubtedly she was given the Ms. Fresher award at the end of the show for the best self introduction. Ananya Chandrashekar participated with zeal in all the events and he knew the most senior names 6/35. So he was awarded Mr. Fresher.
We gave gifts to all the teachers who taught us. Vicky Vignesh-The terror was the photographer for the event and clicked pictures with his borrowed camera -Thilaka being the owner. The events went on for a long time mainly because we had to keep changing plans based on the sudden arrival and departure of the guests. Nevertheless the arrangements were well appreciated and the juniors cheered and enjoyed till the end.
Most of the faculty members like Subburaj sir, HOD, Mukesh sir, Srinivas sir, Hemavathi ma'am, Kayalvizhi ma'am as well as a few staff members who attended spoke and praised us for having arranged this and also requested the juniors to arrange a farewell show at the end of the year. Hemavathi ma'am and Kayalvizhi ma'am especially mentioned that we were a bunch of intelligent, enthusiastic students and created a record for 100% pass percentage in DBMS paper. Subburaj sir- our senior most faculty spoke that marks were not at all important and stressed on the understanding of the subject and quoted some of his own experiences. Our HOD Prof. Rajendran humbly admitted that he knew very little about database systems but it is a very useful course and urged and encouraged all of us to excel in it. In the end we coordinated an event for the teachers. Blow maximum balloons and burst within time given. Kayal maam and Mullai maam played very well and this was the event which the juniors enjoyed the most.
Another highlight of the show was the display of Sakthi's artwork. The hero of our class and a wonderful artist. You get reminded of the talent Jack-(played by Leonardo di Caprio) possesses in the movie Titanic. He had drawn realistic pictures of all that had inspired him. I hope he puts his talent to very good use and creates more and more on different themes. I earnestly wish his art should be made immortal and displayed on a special gallery.
The best part was that in the end, after serving to all the juniors and faculty members we as a whole class sat together and had lunch. The feeling of togetherness had suddenly come to us. The rarest of the rare occasions and some of us who had cameras took photos of it. We gave the left over food to the working women-aayaahs along with money and kindly requested them to clean the place.
Some other highlights of the day were Sundeep wearing a veshti sattai and looking like a Maapillai-bridegroom, the responsible team Magesh, Prem, Sakthi, Nilesh who distributed samosas to all the guests as they were arriving, Badges, roses with quotes, chocolates distributed to all the guests, Funny photos being taken by Benita and Thilaka after lunch.
Overall it was a memorable day indeed. This will surely be etched in our hearts forever as it was the first and perhaps the last time that our class got together, cooperated and had so much of fun and frolic. Thank you all buddies...!!!
