Now that’s what I call Farewell

Friday was a busy day. My overall attendance in my courses allowed me to skip the classes in the morning. As a result I took the liberty of starting my day rather late. The evening and night was promising as there were 2 events planned. First there was the Farewell from our department and then there was the Farewell from the hostel (called ‘Kheech’ which means ‘pull’ as in ‘leg pulling’).

All those concerned were fairly excited about both the events. The first one was to include dinner and cake while the second one was to have snacks and drinks. But after the events, I realized that they were just add-ons.

The Department Farewell provided an opportunity for our entire class to unite, probably the last one. Though it started a little late, as usual, sometime in between I felt that it should never end. Almost all the department students from the 2002 batch were present as well as many from the 2003 batch (the ones who organized) and other juniors. The initial delay was mainly due to people not making the effort to reach in time and to some extent the organizers wanting a little more time. I and my group flocked the back row of the room in which the farewell was being held, maintaining the tradition of being the backbenchers.

The students were not that willing to part from their own groups initially and so when they saw that there was tome until the event began, started their usual conversations and what ever they do in their groups. I felt that the entire motive is being lost for this is nothing new and we do not need a special event for this. The organizers may have realized that the crowd may be getting a little restless and so the program started with one of our batchmates singing a song. The entire room went silent and flashes from all kinds of cameras were seen.

However, after that the stage was open for anyone who wished to show his/her talents. Back, in our group we were planning to do our own thing with some songs. Though two guys were called on stage they rather passed the onus on the audience and rightly so. So some suggestion was required for a song, the whole batch can sing in chorus. I seized that opportunity and forwarded the song we had been planning to sing in our group, namely ‘Jhuma Chumma’.

The song was sung and half but only by half the class as the other half was busy laughing at the choice of the song as well as the lyrics. The song was followed by prize distribution which I give a damn to (I have not even heard of the events) and a small speech from one of the professors for which I cannot be more unconcerned.

Backstage the first yearites were busy preparing a skit and a dance performance. These brought about the energy in the party. Meanwhile, we were joined by two other professors who also gave their speeches. While the first one talked in a traditional fashion about ‘… this is also a time of introspection …’, the second one was telling us about what not be in 10 years from now, namely a professor. The latter was desperately looking for some words to say to us but he did manage to come up with ‘… The fun part is over and now there would be many problems you would have to face in your future life, first of them being Hair Loss … ’. The audience had their best laugh in a while as jokes and sarcasms kept poring in.

Finally, there were the titles given to each outgoing student. Most of them were more than appropriate and it was a nice way of telling what image the entire batch has of a person. This was followed by the cake cutting ceremony by one of the faculty (as there was a chance of a fight between the students). The cake satiated the hunger of people’s clothes more than anything else. This may be a way to remember the farewell and also the dress you wore. The dinner was also quite satisfying, even though made available after some half an hour.

Overall, it was out and out fun. I regretted not being part of the farewell last year as an organizer. One thing which I also saw was the students are so much terrified by the professors that, they get scared even by the thought of the professors being offended in any way. So, there was none of the Professor bashing as one could expect from such a farewell. The other farewell was also fun but may be in some other post.