Memories keep coming and thoughts just build them more. I asked myself, if there could be one memory to be shared with my honorable readers, what it should be?
2004-05, was the last year of my engineering and of my batch. 01 batch, what we call it to be. Batch that successfully justified its intake and raised the bar of competitiveness. Something revolutionary happened in the year that boosted my faith in team success.
It was the last year and we wanted to make a mark in 'Theater'. We were trying from three years but could not make a mark to our potential. We had a good team but lagged the polishing of a professional touch. YAC Sir, blessed us against the professional void through a able Director.
As an Engineers, first time we learned things professionally in Theater. We had a team of 6-7 boys. The minor talented boy in the group was trusted with the major role in the act. It was our last chance to prove our worth. We worked hard and were awarded the best play at university level. Work was appreciated and the group was happy to finally make a mark. The story does not end, it begins...
Team qualified for the West Zone Championship. Every one was happy till we finally heard about the saddest phase of any Engineer's life - EXAMINATIONS. Our dates of exams overlapped with that of west zone. As usual, the hope to do something with extra curricular was sacrificed in name of better future, being Engineers with good score sheet.
Team from home science department replaced us. What we built in three years went away within three seconds. We did what engineers do the best, we gambled. We joined hands with home science girls and made a fresh team with their majority. There are rare occasions for Engineering guys to be amongst many girls, we felt lucky to be allowed to visit home science college every day. It was difficult then what it felt, but we got our team in place. Vishal did a fantastic job and got the team in right format. He and YAC sir were the back bone for this new formation and probably the best guys who could have done this.
Finally we were in Jalgoan for our day. We were nervous and almost with minimum hopes to do good. We were competing with the best Theater Colleges in the West. Mumbai was 17 years champion in our category. To make the case worst their was an open stage to which we were not exposed before. Our throats were bad before our act. We lost all the hopes. We just got together and decided to give our best and feel the spirit of participation. I was afraid as we did not had our original team. The open stage spoiled lot of our confidence but I thought we did good untill something shocking happened. Vishal, our back bone, broke down in cry after the act, for me everything ENDED.
Next day Vishal and I took the train back to complete our vivas. We traveled for 14 hrs sitting on the door step of the train compartment with a shaken confidence. The lost was in mind if not in words or conversation. I did what engineers do the best, they start with high energy and high hopes after every exam.
I was climbing the ladders to give my VIVA, in other words finding Bihari OR Mahendra for last moment blessings. A voice came from the back, it was Vishal. He said, we lost. It was though not surprising but still just a minute set back and then back on the search of Bihari and Mahendra. Vishal pulled me back and said some xyz college won the second prize. Rest of our team was there in the function, hoping that we might get second as Mumbai was first for sure. They all were returning back and they heard that first prize was to SP University......WE WERE THE CHAMPIONS....Rest of our Team, of 25 girls ran to the stage to lift that pride and we just missed it....just missed to be over there. I was in complete shock and happiness all coming at same time. We went to receive our team and it was the best memory to visualize the victory through their words. It was the best team effort and the feel was amazing.
My Team became the West Zone Champion in 'One Act Play' and we went to Nationals and stood 4th. You might have just finished reading the previous line BUT we LIVED it. We qualified for the Nationals, no not a big deal to be in Nationals, but the pride to work in a team and lead to success was worth celebrating. It might be just bunch of words, may be a smallest thing to happen, but for our team return on 3 yrs of investment and HOPE.
This blog is dedicated to all the team members from Home Science Stream, GCET team, YAC sir and Pradeep Sir....Cheers!!
