The mobile lying in a dark corner of my bed sounded the arrival of a 'good morning' message and put an end to the bliss of my soul! I know it won't be so good on my part to curse the poor soul that cares to remember me every morning and most importantly, wake me up (thro the sms). And just as I open my eyes I see the entire house buzzing with activity and I realize that I was really very late in getting up. Then I suddenly remember why all this has happened. What had made me sleep so late into the morning?? I coolly snuggle in my bed recollecting what all had happened and for all those who want to know, read on!
On a day when the whole of Andhra Pradesh was observing a bandh in protest against the 'stay' ordered by the apex court against the implementation of reservation for OBC in educational institutions, and at a time when the srilankans were firing on all cylinders to overwhelm the Englishmen in the Caribbean islands, the final year students of Electronics and Communications Engineering of GITAM were busy honouring their faculty and the support staff at Hotel Green Park, Visakhapatnam!! The important thing about this get-together was that it was the first time the two sections of the final year ECE had come together to host an event. There were initial speculations, as usual, about whether we'd be able to strike a good rapport with each other and make the event a success. But everything had to begin at some point of time and so did our event.
It all started off one fine afternoon when we heard rumours of our juniors not hosting a farewell for our batch. We felt dejected but we thought that we should not be waiting for such a let down to strike us. We wanted to host a party ourselves and felicitate our teachers. Initially it all appeared like a prank to a few of our classmates but it was only later that they realized we meant serious business. Then we heard some good news. One was that our juniors were hosting a farewell for us. It went on quite well as can be inferred from my previous post. And the other good news was that we were going to carry on with our idea of felicitating our teachers.
In a few days time, after a lot of math and inquiries at the venues, we came up with a figure to be collected from the class. Our section was at an advantage in finance terms in that we had some 'reserve cash' which was the remnant of our previous hostings and tours. I had taken up the job of pooling the money and it was the first time for me. I enjoyed the job, going up to all people and reminding them of getting the money on time, getting onto the stage, announcing events and that sort of things. It was a great feeling holding so much cash, making note of contributions and planning expenses. We had a great time in deciding what gift to be presented to the faculty! Also, the rounds we made to the hotels in town for the right date and food and most importantly, the price, were amazing!
It was time for SAMSKARAM '07 (brainchild of Mr.Bharat Jhurani) to be flagged off! The event was scheduled to start at 6 P.M. Well, the time was decided keeping the 'Indian Punctuality' factor in mind and we were not wrong in doing so - the first guest arrived at 7.30 P.M. Sticking to the 'xtreme casual' dress code that we had mentioned in our invitation, our Head Of the Department arrived. Then others slowly followed. The event started off with a song by one of my classmates. Then there were felicitations as usual and some rocking dance performances by Pavan & Vamsi Murthy from my class and Kiran & Ravikanth from the other class. My classmate Shrikant was the host and Spandana from the other class was the hostess for the evening. I did not really have much to do except when the hotel guy called me in between to decide upon the time for starting the dinner, to check the number of plates and finally to pay the bill!! I had actually wanted to make my presence felt by donning the role of an anchor but because of the lack of enthusiasm or whatever, I couldn't do it. Wait a minute, I did get onto the stage, not for speaking or anything but to present the memento to Mr.G.V.K.Sharma, the youthful faculty member of our department. The event went on and finally it was dinner time. The hotel guy had already called me twice by that time to warn us about the shortage of time as the dinner was to be served only till 11 P.M. I ran back to the hosts and made sure that they'd wind up the event in a short span of time. After the Vote of Thanks was proposed, it was dinner. There were cameras all over the place. The students were so very enthusiastic and ecstatic that they even did not let the faculty have the dinner peacefully. Every time the HOD puts a spoonful of pulao into his mouth, a new batch of students would be ready with a camera. And since I was on the organizing side this time, I had to eat at the end and make sure that the dinner was served properly. I went round asking people about how the food tasted and all. After making sure that everybody had dined or had started to dine, it was my turn to hold the plate and enjoy the delicacies. The food was excellent and I was quite sure we had struck a great deal with the hotel with regards to the price. I was quite happy about this especially because I was involved in finalizing the deal. Then we had some last moment group snaps. I felt I had missed out on the photographs front this time. May be because I was busy ensuring that everyone was eating or because of anything else, I missed out so many photo sessions. That's the only drawback I had felt. After all that, the bill was cleared and the gathering had dispersed for the night.
