University life, as we’ve learnt so far most of the time is about coming across some task you’re clueless of, until you set out to learn doing it (while you do it). Yet, you somehow get it done at the end of the day, like a professional who has been doing it for his/her entire life. Surprisingly, these tasks (or “buckets’’) are ones you volunteer for despite the irony of the situation.
So this is basically how it all started. One Thursday afternoon, one month before the installation, the president (whom we call “Giya ayya’) announced that 28th of August was going to be the big day (especially to him) and that he needed three COs from the first year to organize it. The first position up for grabs was the CO of fund raising. Jalak, who is very “trustworthy” when it comes to finances, was chosen for this. The next CO needed was for the IT work. After many head-turns and look-aways, Moka was appointed as the IT CO. The third division was food and decorations. Despite Batti’s valiant effort to land this position, her lack of height almost got in the way. She had to stand to get the attention of the president and succeeded in the endeavor. Then Giya ayya said that he also wanted a first year to compere the event. Many hands were raised but Maani managed to land the position, being the only girl out of them.
Having become the COs, our first job was to recruit people from the first year into our divisions. Most people thought finding ads would be fun and exciting and picked the souvenir division. Majority of the female rotaractors joined the food and decorations division, along with few guys talented in handling anything to do with “food’’. Our IT CO, “Bio Moka”, went to the extent of stealing personnel from the food and decorations division (NOT Saluni and Tharushi) while our CO of fund raising became so opportunistic that he started collecting ads to cover his personal expenses as well. It was also found out that he said no to a Rs.50,000 sponsorship from his dad; the reason being the eligibility of that money to be spent on the younger son of the family. (NOT Jalak)
After forming our own groups, we set to work in our own way. The CO in charge of handling the “hungry Rotaractors’’ and making the auditorium look better, had to get the support of the IT team to make a Whatsapp group for her division. This was the first time all of us came across Rotaract Installations and this made us quite enthusiastic in going to see installations of fellow Rotaract clubs. One CO was so enthusiastic that he went and bought a blazer the very next day, probably having found his first ad. The other set about on a diet so that he could fit into his old suit.
Meanwhile, a relative of the rabbit-family (Haavi), promised that she would get the printing chores done at a reduced price from a prestigious institution she has close ties to. But we saw stars when the quotation came as it demanded almost all of the funds we planned to raise for the event.
Eventhough Batti had the largest number of people in her division, she always dragged the other two COs with her when she went to look for decorations. These excursions often ended up in some café where we spent half of our monthly allowance to buy some waffle she loved. Maani the compere, who thought her job was the easiest one of them all, had to sacrifice several nights of sleep to memorize how to pronounce the names and titles of the dignitaries properly.
Moka who had a team of talented individuals to help him, ended up doing majority of the work assigned to his division. This helped him (more than the diet) to fit into his old suit. He would sit down at 9.00 a.m. in the morning in front of his laptop at the Blue-side, and stand up only when the lights go out in the night. The only exception he made in between was for Giya ayya. The faces in Moka’s table would change constantly but the ratio of females to males in it would always be a constant of 5:1. 5 being females and 1 being our Moka.
We would like to dedicate this sentence to Wariya, for the support he gave in designing the badges of the board members. Unnamed sources say that he did not get a wink of sleep that night and successfully completed the task on the due date. However, he couldn’t see his efforts come into fruition as a technical difficulty arose and the badges could not be finished before the installation.
Our female rotaractors who saw a golden opportunity to dress up in saree, were quick to grab the volunteer spots available. Some even booked appointments at Crescat to get dressed for the installation. Such was the enthusiasm for the event. While ironing the white table cloth of the head table, the carpet of the stage was also ironed. Flowers were brought in and the hall was made presentable before everyone went to dress up. After dressing up, several photo-shoots were carried out. Some (Pala and Hees) took their very first photo together. The queen of Colombo 07, Hiru, managed to take the most popular photo of the day.
Despite all mishaps and loads of ‘interesting’ incidents, we managed to organize a pretty good installation thanks to a lot of individuals who stood behind us every step of the way and helped us immensely. This concludes the final combined effort of the three COs, Jalak, Moka and Lihini (Batti) with a big Thank You to everyone who helped us.
Written by- Rtr. Thanuja, Rtr. Nadeeshani and Rtr. Viranga.
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