Started this post on 2nd March 2009, and then it got lost in drafts… Anyways, decided to get going and share the incident that i remember vividly today, 12yrs later!!
It was sometime during Feb ’98, i was in my final year of B Com at M O P Vaishnav college for women, and the day began with a notice from the principal. The Circular said we all need to either pay an additional 2k with our fees or figure out another way to contribute atleast 1 lakh per department towards the college Auditorium fund.
[brrr…brr…. rewinding..] Let me give you a brief on my college– when i joined in ’95, it wasnt very popular, infact most people dint even know where it was…was a nightmare giving directions to friends and autowalas…. go near the CA institute on N H Road, turn left near the tree at the corner of the street.. there was no Ispahani center back then!! 🙂
And our college had only an Open air theater at the back, where we held all shows, and when it rained, gosh, don’t even wanna remember those days…traumatic! rushing into the main building, people screaming, wet and yuck….
So, the 3 stooges and few more from my class approached the principal saying we want an Indoor auditorium, which is when she sent out the circular…
At that time, it was a college that had girls from across income strata, some from the lower levels as well. and so when we heard the circular, me and 2 other friends got talking and then we discussed it with our classmates. We knew not many will be able to cough up the extra 2k, and so why not do something to raise funds? Like have a show or something similar?
The 1st reaction from Principal was – No, this is not possible!! Light music -gah, you can’t make it happen… nobody will come!
We were upset, but dint relent.. I still remember- 5 of us went and sat in the OAT, pulled out a few sheets of paper and started writing everything that came to our mind…
People
Performers
Money
Funds
Sponsors
Tickets etc etc….
With a plan that sounded halfway sensible, we went back to the Principal and this time managed to shut her up!! So did our HOD!!
Thus began the chaos called FUND RAISING!! .we [the 3 of us] ran across town, looking for sponsors, fnding an angel in Shakti Soya.. they had recently done a program at our college and so happily came forward to help us. Oh, and it probably helped that one of the 2stooges had won the big prize of a Scooty in the contest Shakti soya held at college 🙂
The date was fixed for Mar 2nd, Monday, for no reason but that face that Kamaraj Hall was available only on that day!! Yes, that is the hall we ended up booking [only one that kinda sorta squeezed into our budget, hall rental was Rs15000/-]
For music, we finalised on Lakshman Sruti– went to their home, met them, spoke to them, convinced them, and they were sweet enuf to say ” we come for free,dont have to pay us”…
It was already nearing mid week Feb and we had soo much to do… here’s a list of activities that the 3 stooges went through… sheesh, looking back now, what idiots we were!!
1. Got tickets printed with just basic details
2. Sat and wrote seat numbers on all of them [ we spent hours going through Kamaraj hall.. physically.. no jokes]
3. Roped in others from our department to help sell the tickets and brought out a contest saying the winner of max tickets wins a prize
4. Convinced dad’s of 2 girls in our dept [ they were owners of jewellery stores] to sponsor a gift and one more to give a momento for the Chief guest…
5. We were at the hall making sure everything was set, gifts, stage, music, lights, etc etc till about 5pm on 2nd March…!! Had not more than few minutes to head home, change into sarees and return to the Hall [ as the audience began pouring in]
6.. err, true to our fear… last minute, the celeb chief guest dint turn up.. and another classmate knew a star, not so famous, but one who obliged and actually came over within half hour… 🙂
The show was a rocking success.. went on for about 2hrs… everyone enjoyed it… the hall was FULL…we had sold out 1400 odd tickets[remaining were used up by students and sponsors]…
Only thing we had missed out in all this frenzy was to organise a photographer… 🙁 Sigh.. we dont have any pictures or videos to remind us of the night!!
At the end of the show, our principal came on stage, called the 3stooges and praised us in front of the world and sundry!! [how awesome the moment was…. we were beyond proud of ourselves…our parents were so proud and dint stop raving about our achievement…] and yes, we gave prizes to 2 gals who had sold max no. of tickets!! 😀
And… guess how much we raised???? 4.75 – 5 Lakhs…. Much to the amazement of everyone on the College board and teachers and other departments!!
This day will always be special… Every year on march 2nd remember this incident and feel proud of what we achieved… Every time I visit the college, I make it a point to go to the auditorium and say hello.. 🙂
It just goes on to prove that you are a woman with goals and a greater strength to achieve it. Fantastic !!! To do such a show while studying and collecting that money and all – The 3 stooges really deserve a round of applause.
I had a big smile on my face reading this, went back to my college days. Its such a high illa, this whole organising gig. A genuine effort, not really anticipating any results other than the function itself being a huge hit.. Thanks so much Arti..loved this post..
That ws so nice of u stooges Aarti to do all of this thinking abt so many ppl! Commendable effort and I am so glad it went on so well. We cud see it thru ur writing .. so did nt miss the pics much. Kudos to u!
Admirable!!!! Proud of the 3stooges 🙂 I agree with Uma, this proves you can achieve, organise, plan and make-happen anything you are determined to.
🙂 Worth many, many rewinds 🙂
ha ha..so every girl who came out of college should be told this story 😛 🙂
is this by any chance the female version of 3 idiots ??? 😀 😀 😀
oh forgot to write "Im proud of you my girl" !!! 😀
Hi Aaarti,
I studied in that same – "go near the CA institute on N H Road, turn left near the tree at the corner of the street" college from academic yr 98-2000 and I don't remember this event happening!! sigh sigh…….aah maybe it was before i joined "the" college for PG, else I wdn't have missed it….coz i know the travails of the backyard OAT…..now the college has a happening indoor auditorium…now I know whose efforts went into it….coz my convo happened in that awesome indoor auditorium…..kudos to u 3 stooges!!
//is this by any chance the female version of 3 idiots ??? //
ROTFL 😀 😀 ithu toppu 🙂
oh good Orteedee, whanderful. wid women's day, Kathryn Bigelow, den women makin noise in da parliament. Its time women peepals take up administration. men peepals have messed it up. idiots. i mean we peepals.
have some rough experiences of open air theatres. BJ was complainin dat i nebber attended any of her concerts. i scratched my yeddu and asked her where she is performing next. She said humsadhuani, youth hostel. i said hokkays i be there. i was there an she knows i don like carnatic. i did my usual gorilla stuff to let her know i am there in da crowd. And suddenly it was pouring in buckets an she kept singin every one rushed in to da youth hostel building an i like a fool sat in pouring rain. i thought it will be disrespectful if i ran for shelter. while singin she kepted staring at me. laters she said what an idiot i was. i said i sat in da rain to save carnatic moojic.
she said i am dubbal idiot.
Hi,
This blog will surely be a blessing for you:
http://www.holyoneofisrael-reconciliation.blogspot.com
Have a blessed reading.
God bless you.
Nice. It just goes to show that you get what you want as long as you stay committed to it!
Vidya
All of u– hugss.. thank u… it was quite an achievement[ when i look back at it now].. infact was talking to one of the stooges, who's in town[yayyyy] and after hanging up remembered that i need to mention this post to her tomorrow when we meet!! 😀
Vishesh- dont think every girl from that college knows this story…
Vimmuuu -hugss… :))
well, this is better than female version of 3idiots..dontcha think?? unmaiya solllu… 😀
Deepa- hey, which batch? what did u study??? do u know me??hehe.. iu have this luck- ppl come up and talk to me, saying they were in college when i was but i have no clues who they are… 🙁 [err, we werent rowdies, but just used to hang around the little building]. btw, one of teh 3stooges is Nithya, who was chairman of student council in 97/98 😀 [now, she was popularrrrrrrrr]
Deepa- this happened during my Bcom days 95-98.. and then i infact went on to do MBA 98-2000
Gils — hmfph.. athu vimmuuuva pathu nalla pulla ninaikkatha.. he is No.1 KD!! 😀
Rauf — hieee.. how u doing?? gosh, where are u these days??? i dot know where i am.. sometimes in chennai, other times in blore and in between on the train/bus/road and most days am swimming in work.. actually drowning… 😀
hha… she called u dubbal idiot..hahahaha…. 😀
Servant of the high…. thanks for dropping by!!
Uma, IHM, AJCL,swaram… Hugss… well, yes, this event did prove we were more than capable of doing things, small and big… :)) proud indeed..
Vidya- absolutely…dont know where we got the courage, but we sure went ahead marching… 🙂 good fun, tiring but worth it …
wow!! wonderful, Aarti!! great work, and a day to celebrate, indeed!!
شركة نقل عفش بمكة
شركة نقل اثاث بمكة
شركة نقل العفش بمكة
نقل عفش بمكة
نقل اثاث بمكة
شركات نقل العفش بمكة