of flying hats and saree syndromes

sorry guys for not writing yesterday's post.

Yesterday was the convocation ceremony for the batch which passed out before us and I was there till 10 pm, being the head compere and by the time i got back I was dead tired

As to the report.. here it is:

The compeering went fine apart from a few hiccups, extremely upsetting last minute changes, and a storm threatening rain every second.

Less than 1 hour before the ceremony was to start, I was suddenly called back from the hostel and rushed without warning into Mr. Mishra(member governing body which practically means royalty in our college) who informed me that the chairman of the college, who was suppose to read out the chief guest's profile and do a lot of other stuff was not going to come.. so I had to prepare it in less than an hour(in which i also had to get dressed, get ready and make sure my other comperes were perfect) and it had to be flawless(you can't afford to offend THE CHIEF GUEST now can u??)

and I stood there nodding my dumbly as he gave my hand a vigorous shake and sent me off to tackle a non-stop, no-scope-for-mistakes, 5-minute long speech

but that by far was not the toughest part of the day.. that was the fact that I had to wear a saree for the whole evening.. and since I had to be onstage all the time.. it meant walking gracefully in it, not stumbling(which was quite a task considering I am an expert stumbler even in jeans, let alone a saree) add to that the fact that it was an outdoor function and the winds were blowing with a kind of vengeance.. my palla was flying all over the place and my hair were getting whipped around my face and neck.. all this while I was reading that blasted profile and the rest

GOD!!! It was murderous!!

and then there were the teachers.. all of our lecturers dressed in those red gowns and red caps perched at all kinds of angles.. and the oldies.. sitting in the front row and snoring away to glory.. :sigh:

and they expected us to compere with a straight face and a grave manner befitting a funeral :sigh: :sigh: what worse tortures can befall anyone??

but watching our seniors all tossing their hats up in the air and cheering together was a sight that will stay with me forever.. there was such passion, such freshness, such dreams and such hope in that one moment.. as the black of their hats rose up to dissolve in the black of the night and then reappeared in their outstretched hands.. it was pure magic

The dinner at the end of the ceremony was a fitting reward.. I have never seen the canteen gardens look that beautiful.. with shimmering lights on all the hedges, as if the stars had been on the guest list too :)

and the food.. especially the paneer tikka :yummmmmmmmmm:

I can still taste it melting on my tongue.. Had fun with my little team of comperes.. A.D., Y.K. and A.S.. some pretty funny pictures and quite a lot of bitching later I finally got back to the hostel, only to parade around in my saree in all the rooms and to have a full fledged photo session :D :D

all in all a fulfilling day and a fit end to my compeering career in college :)

now time for some thanks giving :

my compeering team:

guys u rock.. thanks for making some sense out of the crazy circus

A.D.: Thanks for giving all the right pauses and the right intonations and for not pushing me off the stage :D :D

Y.K: thanks for making sure I say "Good Eeeevening everybody" right :D

and for making the sarasvati vandana sound like a prayer and not a seduction

and yes for carrying my bag around and letting us kick u around :)

A.S: Thanks for being there when we all needed u and for proving what a gem of a friend that you are :)

and how can I forget.. P.M: for being the coolest Bhagwan around and for adding such spice to our vellapantis :D

PS: today was fun.. thanks to my straightened hair(for yesterday) and my cool new top, everyone said i looked great today, some went as far as to say I looked hot .. hehe.. had some success with my project work and the best part.. got a huge framed collage of my pictures from my friends as a whooping surprise gift(actually they wanted to give it for my birthday, but for some reason or the other, it got delayed by a month and a half) it was just sooooooooo good and special, I was completely bereft of words.. so today i sleep a happy fulfilled kid :)