MAARG 2014 @ IISWBM

How much sad or depressed you may be, but a sight of children playing, singing, dancing and laughing their heart out, is always a treat for the eyes.  The energy and joy they radiate is sure to bring upon a smile on your face.  Pretty much the same happened to me when I entered the auditorium of IISWBM on 6^th March 14. It was MAARG ’14- An event, to make a difference to the orphans of Chandanngore Prayas Society.   

The day before, I had my group discussion and personal interview at IISWBM, where I heard about the event from my roommate Koushik Debnath! Yes, he is currently a student there. I was pretty excited about the same. Though the event was only for the college students, still I had an urge to experience and be a part of MAARG! Sayantan, also a student at IISWBM, had invited me to be a part of his team in the Intra-College T-shirt painting competition!  Phew, that almost was going to kill me and him. Why? Let’s keep that a secret! ;)

When I was at the college, the cultural program had already started.  The children were performing various activities viz. dancing, singing, drama etc. That’s where I saw two little girls performing a dance on one of my favorite song – “Aisi Deewangi” from the movie Deewana. I was grooving on the music and the performance till the end.  What an engaging performance it was.  It was followed by many more drama, singing and recitation performance.  A quiz competition came up after this. The kids were asked a question coming up on the screen and the one with correct answer was given a chocolate bar.

Next was the sit and draw competition for the children. They were guided to a classroom 404 where they were asked to draw anything that came up to their mind. It was bliss to see those kids express their mirth on a sheet of paper. The vivid sight had made me travel back to my childhood days when I used to take part in these kinds of competitions.  I wished someone could have discovered a time machine and I could really fly back to those good old days. Anyway, the next room 405 had a t-shirt painting competition in store. And it was for the students of the college.  Sayantan had already considered me in his team. We were given a yellow tee, a few colors and brushes to paint. Sayantan had an exclusive yet fashionable idea of illustrating ‘Blue Eyes’- a famous song by Honey Singh, in a creative way.  Others also had very exciting, colorful and brilliant ideas imprinted on the tees.

By this time, we were hungry and went to the SAC- Student’s Activity Corner, where the students had given food stalls. The tagline put up outside the SAC was very interesting- “Forget Canteen! Visit SAC” The total income of the stalls was to be donated to the kids. That was again a very noble cause.

“Chal lets go the auditorium. The magic show is about to begin”- I heard a guy saying it. A magic show? Wow! That was a just awesome. I don’t even remember when the last time I saw a magic show was.  Joyous and excited, I went along with Sayantan. The show had just begun.  The kids were enthralled by the magic show.  The magician was too good! We have all seen the magic; he was delivering, in our childhood. But the funny way of delivering and his act of engaging the spectators had still kept the charm. No surprise, the kids were so much excited.  Finally it was time to end a beautiful day. All the kids were given a bag, books, copies and toys. The winners of sit and draw and t-shirt painting competition were given away mementos.

When I asked a kid about how he felt about the day, the way he answered was heart touching. As if it was one of his best days. Though they lost their parents, still they live each day as it comes and stay together as a family.There was a sense of cooperation, love and selflessness among everyone. I wanted to speak a thousand words but nothing came out.  I was overwhelmed.

As I sit down to write this, I am thankful to IISWBM to let me experience such a wonderful event.  Thanks to Koushik Debnath, Sayantan Chakrborty, and Parama Bhattacharya for their sweet time. And thanks to Ashmita Pal for letting me use the photographs she took at MAARG 14.