A Fine Evening at India Gate

I am making this blog entry after almost an year ( the previous was in April 2008). Since my last post world has undergone a great change. The idea, content and its probable acceptability have induced me to make this particular blog entry.
As the title of the write-up suggests, I had a great evening at the lawns of India Gate. Oh!!!! What a weather!!! (I’ll come to that later) This has been experienced at the sidelines of an informal get-together on the occasion of our last official class of Mass Communication course at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.

Planning
The rough planning of this meet was done in our last get-together that we did on the last day of our Electronic Media Workshop, at Nathu’s. We then had decided that we will have a similar get-together in the last few days of our classes. But it could not take any concrete shape as we could not make any plan nor we were able to sit together to come to a decision. I think, the thought was there in everybody’s mind but none could come up with any plan. Also, I think that there is a majority of the people around us who are ever ready to participate in any kind of gathering but when it comes to take initiative, none moves forward. Anyways, all these kind of notions did not come in our way, but it was not very easy. When we were going to our homes after the second last official class of our course, Sanjhi told me that Sameeksha is telling something……. I asked her and she told me that is there any plan for tomorrow?? I immediately told her ….. yeah!!!! Though I had not thought of this by any scale. Nevertheless, this “yeah” proved to be the cause for such a wonderful evening. I told Sameeksha, Sanjhi, Suniel and other frens that we are going to have a get together tomorrow at the time of our class. Nobody there seemed to be disagreeing as all knew that it’is gonna be D. K. Sharma Sir’s class which could be bunked. That time only India Gate came to my mind looking at the possible strength of our meet. I had already attended a meet at that venue with some other friends, so I had a little idea that it could be held there. WE decided that we will be at the college campus tomorrow at 6 o’clock. We signed off on that note. I did not know anything about how this evening is gonna be…..

Invitation
Now I had a self-imposed onus of organizing a get-together with the condition of making it a success. Now I was serious. I have some experience of such organizations. This experience came handy for this one too. Since morning I had only this thing in mind. I made list of the names of people who could attend it (I kept it limited to my frens and their frens). I could not concentrate on my work there in the office, thankfully, there was not any urgent or important work. I used my lunch time for the purpose of throwing invitations (though at their own cost…hahahha…… ) I gathered most of the phone numbers of frens from Sameeksha. She is a sport!!!!!! I asked her as well to call some of frens. It took me almost one and half hours to make these calls. Thank God! It was Govt phone. Calling people for this purpose was not very easy, believe me. When I was making calls, I had this apprehension that in what vein will they take my telephone call. I was talking to most of the people for the very first time. But everyone talked with proper humbleness and excitement too. First of all, there was none who told that s/he can’t be a part of it and secondly everyone was looking forward to it. I spoke to Sameeksha and conveyed her position.

The Most Difficult Part
The most difficult part was making people believe that yes we are on! We are going to have such a meet. Many of us had by 6 o’clock made to the class room. I went there and commanded them to come the college gate so that Mr. D. K. Sharma could not see us nor he call us to attend the class. (This was sad that only four of our frens stayed there to attend class, while I had already informed all of them, now I will be very keen to know how many marks they score having attended one more class than us). Gradually, we came and gathered at the gate. We had to wait for some frens like Suhani and Rupa, Ranjeet, Shazia and her close ones.

Who made it and Who Couldn’t
Can u believe it, we were 21. A big group by my own calculations, looking at fact that all of us not even properly talked to each other in whole one year. Following is the list all TWENTY ONE greats who made it: (please forgive me for spelling mistakes, if any)
1. Prem Lata
2. Ruchi (The CR)
3. Shazia
4. Reshma
5. Urvashi
6. Ek aur ladki thee, shayad Preeti naam tha who talked about Corporate Communications.
7. Ranjeet
8. Vivek
9. Sabahul
10. Vandana
11. Renu
12. Sameeksha
13. Samaa (Kashmir ki kali)
14. Suhani
15. Suniel
16. Rupa
17. Aman Narula (interesting na)
18. Ashwani
19. Sanjhi
20. Shalu
21. Me (Last but not the least)
Preeti, Rupali and Vipin could not make it for their own assignments, they certainly missed something special. Khair,,, apni-apni kismat.

Programme: Place, Ambience, Weather, Food, Drinks

Attractive title no?? All this was absolutely superb. Our get-together was successful half for the fact that we all gathered and moved forward for the venue. India Gate is the closest happening place near Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. It is only 100 meters away from the building. We purchased cold drinks and chips-kurkure etc from a shop on the way to our destination. For this purpose, I took Prem Lata on my bike and asked the group to move. They obliged. I commanded them(not really, only requested) where to occupy the place in the India Gate Lawns.
Me and Premlata moved to another place and it was a place where we had to gather some more snacks. From this corner near Jodhpur House, we purchased samosas, Kachauris, Baalushahi (some of our frens don’t know what a Baalushahi is, This is McD generation for sure, fast…… and faster). As we were about to join the group in IGL there was heavy winds blowing for about 3-4 minutes, I apprehended that what if it were to rain. Khair, bearish nahin hui but mausam??????? It was terrific. Just fantabulous!!! Cool winds were blowing clouds there in the sky and we were upbeat, excited, full of verve and fervor, ready to experience something amazing.
And yes, it turned out to be like that, simply sublime. We were all ecstatic throughout the time we were there.

Ranjeet, host of Oye! It’s Friday

Rajneet was asked to host the meeting and do something special. And he did a funny thing…. He asked everyone to bring out sound of his/her favourite animal! Bizarre no!!! Anyways, we got away with this.

Antakshari was also a fun though everybody could not participate. Meanwhile we were up in eating and drinking the stuffs and enjoying more than that. I could see all other people present in the lawns and they were enjoying too, completely. We were the center of attraction for many who came there to spend their evening.

Most Important Thing

So far, we had achieved a great thing. We had broken the shackles of anonymity, we were becoming friends and liking the company of each other. Our inhibitions were fading and it was turning out to be intermingling session.

Shazia,Urvashi and two more had left in between owing to shortage of time. But rests of us were in a mood to enjoy. It was five to eight and Vandana was anxious to go home , we decided that we will stay there by half past eight. At the end, it was 9.15 when we went home.

Last Part and Most Significant One

The last part of our get-together was, if I can name it, “In my view, you’re”. In this part everyone of us (now 17) expressed what he or she feels about the person concerned. This was really a great exercise because it gave a chance to express positive or negative views on a particular person by a particular person. Everyone listened to everyone attentively. All were eager to know what s/he feels about him/her. Though, most of them were diplomatic, some of them were true to their heart. All expressed a common view that we were just opposite to what Mass Com Students should be like i.e. we should have been more open towards each other. Samaa was the pic of boys and Vivek was the pick of girls. I also candidly spoke about all of us.

What people told about me

I was happy that nobody told me that I found you arrogant in the beginning as it happened when I was doing Translation Course. Most of my friend told about me that they liked me. In their opinion I was good person. Some told, I m intelligent, some told, I m organized, some told I speak napa-tula and sateek, crisp and precise. Some liked my looks and hair style too. Overall I received positive reviews. Thank You guys that u judged me correctly.
At last before parting to homes, almost everyone thanked me for this meet. I tried to be humble.

At the end, we were closer friends, with wider smiles. We assured each other that even after the course, we will keep in touch. I was content at heart and happy for many a barriers were dismantled.