International Day celebrations were planned for 13th November 2007. The exchange students from IIMs, who normally prefer to gallivant around Europe than participate actively in events on campus, seemed all excited and geared up to put up a good show. Was it good? Well, it was great !! Here's the story: On International Day, each team is required to put up a stall representing their country and presenting information about the art,culture, education, job opportunities, places to visit and much more. So we, seven students from different IIMs, decided to show the rest of the junta, what India was all about.
Preparation time was limited and so were the resources as we had no diyas or rangolis and had chosen not to get any traditional attire from home. However, Deepika used her strong networking skills and got lots of the above mentioned accessories from an Indian lady whom she met at the supermarket. (For the record, the lady invited Deepika to her place and she was treated to a good Indian brunch). Tasks were divided among the seven of us with each responsible to gather information about different topics and prepare one-pagers on each topic. We have come to know more about India during this exercise than ever before. With just 3 days in hand, we designed seven colourful posters showcasing Indian lifestyle,sports, music, dance, places to see apart from a factsheet about India and juggled around a few youtube videos to make one of our own. Assorted parathas (Alu, Gobi, mutter and paneer), gajar ka halwa and lassi was the menu planned for the guests who would visit our stall. On the eve of the celebrations, the kitchen defied what too many cooks do to the broth.
D Day : We got up early in the morning and carried bags full of stuff to the university all dressed in traditional attire. We could not miss our lectures, so we set up the stall much earlier. As Deepika and I tried our hand at rangoli, the other IIM guys set up the posters. When we were done, our stall looked colourful with lamps, chunnis, bangles, a tray full of food, aftermint and tidbits, notes and coins all finely arranged. But the USP of the stall was that we offered visitors a chance to wear Indian attire and get themselves clicked. We even offered to email them their snaps at the end of day. The ladies got to choose a bindi and a chunni of their choice while the men got to wear a turban and a stole with the traditional vermillion tilak. With 40 countries represented, the school entrance was full of colourful attire, informative posters, music, food and above all, a helluva lot of excitement.Hardwork pays... it surely does as we were judged the best stall. Our excitement knew no bounds as we lived the moment, a moment that we would remember for a long time and so would everyone else at JIBS. It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Peter Hiton, the director of JIBS, who personally came over to our stall to invite us to collect our prizes and was kind enough to take pictures with us in traditional Indian attire! What followed in the evening was a party hosted by the organisers for all the participants. Thats about it ...our moment of pride at JIBS Sweden and maybe for India as well. Chak de!!!
Prasanna
P.S: Visit this link for more of the day's pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment