Celebrating Independence day the XIMB way

“Yeh jo Desh hai Mera…..Swadesh hai mera…..Yeh jo Bandhan Hai Kabhi Toot nehi sakta……”… a marvelous song by A.R Rahman and the song was enough to bring the patriotic feelings in the hearts of the fellow XIMBians as they all gathered in front of the Boys’ hostel to celebrate the eve of the Indian Independence Day. Yes, XIMB is celebrating the 67^th Independence Day of India.

14th August, 2013 –  On the eve of Independence Day

07:10 PM: The event started with a speech from Praveen followed by the speech of Tulu Bhaina – who is being taught by the members of the SRC. With a staggering voice and tensed nerves he kept on reading the speech as prepared by SRC. His passion was enough to pull the crowd and grasp their attention.

07:20 PM: Stuti and Anand (the anchors for the event) called out to the crowd to join in and suddenly from the crowd came the SRC members who performed a well choreographed and coordinated flash mob. Few of the all time favourites among the various Bollywood and Hindi Patriotic songs were the theme of their flash. The crowd cheered and jeered and some were even found tapping their feet to the tunes. In the meantime some faculty members, Fathers and Deans also joined the celebration.

07:30 PM: The time was ripe for some patriotic songs and so volunteers from the crowd were called to sing some numbers. The SRC members were also ready to contribute and sang some wonderful songs to grace the auspicious occasion. The mess Bhainas also sang their song followed by the Indian National Anthem. What prevailed was the pin drop silence and stand straight position as all joined their voices to pay tribute to mother India.

08:00 PM: X stage the cultural committee of XIMB had prepared a video about the lackadaisical attitude of the student community towards celebrating Indian Independence. The demining nature of the video was enough to raise the adrenaline level high among the crowd. What followed was a candle march. No one has expected such a huge turnout that at one point even 500 candles seemed to fall short. However the future managers of XIMB managed by sharing their candles with their patriotism!!!

08:10PM: Lighted with candle flames all along the X-walk was a fascinating scene to watch. The slogans like “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram” brought a feeling of allegiance for Mother India and respect towards the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the safe future of the Indians.

08:20PM: The crowd took a walk a round of the campus with candles shining bright in their hands and finally came to a halt near the stage in the XIMB ground. There is that one moment in every Indian’s life, while celebrating the Independence Day, when you feel absolutely proud to be an Indian, placing the lighted candles along the border of the Indian Map drawn on the stage was such a moment for all the XIMB-ians who participated in the celebrations and then the candle march.

08:30PM: The event ended with a thanksgiving speech from the SRC co-coordinator Sumit Samal only to start again the very next day.

15th August, 2013 – 67th Independence Day

08:45AM: The crowd has started gathering and this time almost all the faculty members along with their spouses and kids joined SRC to celebrate the flag hoisting event. Director, Fr Paul Fernandes, hoisted the flag with cheers and salute from the student strength. It was followed by some motivating speeches from the deans and the student representatives. Finally sweets were distributed and thus the celebration came to end only to mark the beginning of 67th year of Indian Independence.

Signing off: Swayambhu Dutta, a fellow SRCian sorry….an XIMBian….nahhhhhh……an INDIAN . JAI HIND!!

Photo Courtesy: Kaustav Acharya