A lil bit of an update....

India cultural pre-port

During the days after Mauritius, I mingled with the two inter-port students Sunila and Balaji. They were both really nice and sweet. On the day of cultural preport, the plan was that they would do an opening song, followed by Nimesh on what to do in India, Me on Indian dance, Meera (interport lecturer) on Indian literature and then Sunila and Balaji were supposed to end with another small performance.

They started singing a Ganapathi song, which I sang along to, since I knew all the lyrics. And then Nimesh went up with his presentation on what to do in India. A presentation that was supposed to be 10 minutes, ended up being 40 minutes or so. Dean David then came up and asked me to keep to 10 minutes.

When I went up, I got a huge thunderous applause which helps you settle in. And then the chanting began, led I think my our 8 friends and Nimesh. They started chanting “Dance Dance Dance!!!” They warned me before that they were going to chant if I did not dance on my own, but I thought they were just joking. Once the chant began, Dean David came up and told everyone that I would dance after all the preports because we were running late. And so, I went on with my presentation, which I thought went very well. After my presentation, the chanting started again and this time I told them that I would do it after the end of all the presentations.

While Meera was giving her presentation I was talking to Balaji. His sister, who now studies in NUS was a Kalakshetra graduate. He said he was could bring me to Kalakshetra to be there for a day to sit in the classes. Anyway, then Balaji and Sunila were going to sing Vande Materam. I was so excited, I told them it was one of my favorite songs and Sunila invited me to come sing with her. I thought she was joking. So she did go up and started singing and  I did not go up with her. I was singing the song sitting in the union. In the middle, Sunila gestures to me to come and join her on stage to sing, and Dean David pushes my back, indicating that I should. So, I do go up and when I do, there’s a thunderous cheering from the crowd. It felt so great to be up there, singing the song that is so close to my heart.

After the singing, Dean David once again introduced me to come up and dance and I did get up to a crowd cheering and chanting. I showed them the basic 3 position, head, neck and eye movements, some basic steps and some basic positions. There was only a few minutes so I did not do an entire performance. But it was great! Once it was all over, everyone kept coming up to me and telling me it was great or thanking me for doing that. I felt great. I’m really proud of the art form and showcasing and sharing it, is something I am really proud of doing. And when you are appreciated for it, it is brilliant.


Sea Olympics:

Sea Olympics is one of the traditions in Semester at sea. Basically, it is a competition between the seas and the winning sea will get off the ship first in San Diego. We had the cheer rally the previous night and now the games were to begin in the afternoon. We got together in the union for cheers and stuff. We were the Arabian Sea (green). Other seas were Mediterranean sea(light blue), yellow sea, red sea, bering sea (light pink) , Caribbean sea (black), baltic (orange), Adriatic sea (dark blue), Aegean sea (purple). There was also a made up Nomercy  One of the first events was the syncronized swimming, which I went to watch. Many of the teams were really amazing in the events.

I was part of the “Dean David Says” which is alot like Simon says, “orange pass” and “ice pickup”. In the end, our sea only won one measly event - the dean david says. And ironically, no one remembers who won the event. But sea olympics was good in the sense, we got to know people in our hall better and make closer friends. I got to meet my neighbors and talk to them more than the “hello” that we usually exchange in the hallway. At the end, the Caribbean sea won the olympics. At preport we got to see the top 4 teams lip synch, which was fun.

It’s really cool to have such small traditions. I never appreciated our rag and flag tradition. I always thought it was a severe waste of money and time to do such things. I still do, but now I appreciate the tradition a bit more. Just like the mass dances in VJ, the cheering in Cedar. These traditions keep you connected to the school, making you love it more and more. Ultimately, even now, I remember less of the academics and more about the traditions and the fun I’ve had in these schools.