Memories from welcome function for juniors in 1990

The first big event that our class mates organised was the welcome party for the juniors. It was the year 1990 and we were studying III year then. Prem was the main co-ordinator for that function; though I had helped Prem in the future programmes, I could not do much in this function as I was not well just before the function and re-joined college barely few days before the function.

The main pre-even preparation was for Amudhan's dance in lady get up. It was for the song, "Nooru Nooru " from the film Indran Chandran. The dance preparation was initially held in Prem's cantonment house.

Oh !! That house is really memorable for many of us !! We all used to go as gangs to that house and hang out for hours together!!

I still remember the first day of practice of the dance. Sankar was initially tried in the male get up; however it did not suit him and thereafter our Junior (Arun??) was chosen. Every one was giving their opinion & ideas and it was all chaos!! There were about 15 of us and snacks were served for all of us! Many guys used to take so much liberty at Prem's house that they will go and take cool drinks straight from the refrigerator…

Just the day before the welcome function, Lakshman, Sankar and myself planned for a skit. Lakshman & Sankar had lot of reservations since it was the last minute and with almost nil preparation, how it will come through. But I was pushing them that, "Let us try". There were 2 skits. In the first skit, Lakshman acted as a junior in the college. Sankar & myself will do ragging; While ragging, we give him lot of information about the college; it was a skit full of satire ("Kindal"); in the skit we commented about many practices in the college like caste politics, Principal, faculties, girls, etc.

The second skit was a slightly different one. Sankar had the habit of speaking similar to many languages; we tried to utilize this talent; in the skit, Sankar who had studied in Trichy Law college has become a Central Minister and he comes back to the college for that function; but he forgot Tamil since he is in Delhi for some time and hence he speaks in Hindi and I translate it in Tamil. Again this is a satire about all the people in the college.

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The day of welcome function arrived; there were already some infights as our seniors created some confusion; Some how those who created confusion were all managed. The simple technique used to silence some one who creates more noise is to give him some important responsibility.. For example, if the trouble maker is asked to give " Welcome address", he will keep quiet. So the people who can create more confusion will be given some time in the mike and thus they were handled.

Prem did the master of ceremony for that function. We have in our website the photo with Prem wearing a tie in that function. Our class mates Felicia, Daisy and Usha were in charge of the reception and they were dressed in north Indian style, I think (again courtesy our photoes).

There were many events but to my memory the ones that got lot of appreciation was Amudhan's dance and our skit. Amudhan danced in female costume and the guys shouted & enjoyed so happily on seeing that duet.

As regards our skit, it was received so well and the claps & sound really lifted our spirit to perform well. I remember that few college mates lifted Sankar and myself in their shoulders after the skit. Though we had done many skits in the college after that, these skits were really the ones that got more appreciation. Principal Sundar rajan also gave his appreciation by saying that he never expected such dimensions from Lakshman, Shankar and me.

This function really gave our class mates the confidence to conduct many more functions in the college in the later days.

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If any of you have any memories about this function, please share the same.