International Day @ NUS - a cosmopolitan extravanganza

Hi
I saw an amazing sight on the Mumbai train yesterday. A little boy, around half my height, probably in the 1st standard was trying to get onto the train. None of the adults in that compartment were willing to move over and let that boy in. Eventually another school kid pulled him up. He was clutching onto the pole and hanging out of the train. I sincerely hope that he reached home safely. This incident is a reflection of the society we live in - even little boys have to fight for space. It is also a reflection on the Mumbai Corporation. For a financial capital, the city's transport systems are woefully under-developed. I am not even comparing things with Singapore. Delhi has had an effecient metro running for the last few years. Bombay deserved this metro atleast 10 years ago. And only now are they talking about it.

Fortunately, for every dismal event such as the above there exists a happy event. One such event was the International Day at NUS. This was the most significant extra-curricular activity of the first semester. It was a congregation of the entire NUS MBA under one roof, no small feat by itself. The first year students were responsible for all the stage events. There were a couple of highlights. The Chinese students in the batch enacted the Peking Opera. This was a confluence of song, dance, costumes and Chinese history. The costumes were opulent and the screenplay was magnificent. The Koreans showed their prowess at Karate (or was it Kung-Fu - I get confused). Rang De Basanti made an entrance through the song 'Roobaroo'. And the climax was an Indian and Western dance fusion by the Indian girls in the batch. Once the official ceremonies were over, the real fun started.

Shivdat and Mirnal (NUS MBA students) played DJ as the entire batch got into a frenzy of dance. Yours truly, a self confessed novice at dancing, got into the action too. Much to my surprise, there were some amazing dancers in the batch. Du-Fei deserves special mention here. Fortunately, there were many more like me, terrible dancers but having their fun.

What was my contribution to the event? Sadly, nothing. I cannot dance and sure as hell, cannot sing. So, that pretty much ruled me out. In fact, there was an interesting story before the event. Initially, there weren't many events scheduled for Int'l Day. People were busy and Int'l Day wasn't the biggest priority. That got our seniors concerned. Feelers were sent out that Int'l Day was an important event @ NUS and we needed to be more active in our participation. So, the idea was formed for a Salsa Dance. There was one SMALL problem though. There were about five to six girls in the batch who knew salsa but only ONE guy. So, I gave Salsa a shot. I started with the basis of Salsa - "1,2,3" "1,2,3" the rhythm went. But there is a limit to which a donkey can be turned into a horse. My inhibitions defeated me and I gave up on Salsa. Eventually, the dance had to be dropped because there weren't enough guyz. What can I say?? Here was a great oppurtunity but there were no takers.

So, I limited my participation to dressing up in a Kurta Pyjama. This function was the only occassion when I used it. Accompanying my Kurta Pyjama, was a pair of Adidas floaters. You can thank the airline baggage limit for that combo. Everyone had dressed up in their traditional costumes. And a lot of them were looking really pretty. That evening was truely a feast for the eyes, heart and belly.

Read Sourabh's brilliant blog in Int'l Day: http://nusmbabuzz.blogspot.com/2007/10/international-day-14th-sep-2007.html

Read Colleen's story on the background work for rendering the Peking Opera:
http://nusmbabuzz.blogspot.com/2007/10/one-team-one-dream.html

Read an exchange student's take on Int'l Day:
http://nusmbabuzz.blogspot.com/2007/10/totally-new-experience-during-exchange.html

Cheers,
Suraj