taken in raag room right after psenti concert

rajiv n kari at sky

psenti semites

funky snap! ;) with the inevitable tilt!

after lots of effort - the heads straightened!

dude - sriram... chillax!

raag farewell!

ok.. today was rag farewell. this is probably the first text blog on this blogspot.. and its amidst comprees.. and if am still doin it thats an indication of how much today has had an impact on me!
we (2003 batch at raag) wanted to say so much! SO MUCH is not even the slightest indication of how we've learnt from each of u guys.

am gonna try n make this short -- but its gonna be a tough task - am sure. havin been n the club for almost 3 years now -- we ourselves have seen such a huge transition in the way the club was and the way it is now. it probably would be self explanatory for ppl/alumini from the 2000 batch onwards... but to the rest -- i guess this would give a clear picture -- i would like to quote kari - he said " i possibly cant ask for a better time to leave campus - right now am too happy about the way things are around me. my psenti sem has been raag for me! "

and as everyone else said -- "the batch of 2000 -- definitely a class above the rest when it comes to talent -- they laid the foundation for raag -- they were the ones who dreamt of raag being the way it is right now! "

if only a few of u guys can atleast make it to campus soetime to see raag and all of us -- and the way we all are -- it wud make us jus too happy! :)

in short today was a great feeling. yes, ofcourse -- mixed emotions as always. i thnk we did it all today. met up at sy at arnd 4.45 -- and for the FIRST TIME -- took a batch snap! ;-) -- that will be uploaded real soon -- keep checkin the page! for updates!

yup --- it was super fun -- with loadsa unavoidable discussions abt cdc's and grades - thanks to certain ppl in my batch :P! in anycase -- we guys moved on to vijay's from there! many amongst us -- rushed to get the cakes and the laptop and the speakers and the hand made charts and etc etc... while the rest had a happy long walk in the cold all the way to cannought!!!

yup -- so we guys met up at vijay;s by arnd 6.30 P.M.

now yeah -- most of us might have dreamt of this but then it has become almost a routine at raag now. am talking abt kari's favourite -- baked chocolate cakes! today was the 12th such cake ... now reasons for such frequent cake baking sessions are many ---

1. b'days -- the new thing we've done this sem -- is get personalised gifts for every person and make personalised cards as well - whenever time permits!!!
2. 8 solo concerts -- RANJINI have happened at raag this semester
3. a wonderful batch of seniors
4. an even more adorable batch of juniors -- 2004 and 2005 u guys rock!

so yeah - it was the 12th cake today. and i ll take this as an opportunity to thank the guys who whole heartedly treated all the girls one night to dinner -- for all the cake baking and the love and affection.... :-) thanks a lot!

so yeah -after the cakes and a much awaited arrival of none other than mr.HARIJI -- are u guys wondering why? well -- then take a look at these : - )

yup -- these were the specially made gifts. we clicked random shots of raag room and made a collage on photoshop... we later got em printed as a photograph and got hand made photo frames (which some of the "seniors" thought -- were hand made by us -- mebbe we shd have left that as an unclarified assumption - what say soumi? wud have saved a few laughs or what? " )

it was too exciting and personally i was getting too impatient to know how they would react. there was so much of work and thought and more than anything -- love and emotion that had gone into making of this particular piece of memento.

well this was jus the smallest part of the farewell plan today. the bigger one , is my personal favourite. now what am i talking about? its this whole huge chart -- which had palm prints of all of us clubbers in different colours.... and on it were pasted small black n white pictures of each of us -- and on t was written a "one - liner" characteristic of us -- something that would help em associate us with -- something that would bring to life lots of fond memories. we had that done and laminated it. neatly rolled it into a cylinder -- tied it up with a small piece of red satin ribbon and gifted the 4 gifted ppl this as well!

now -- what was work session like? while we did this amazng piece of art???

for the first time -- there was no scheduling of work that was done! the ENTIRE CLUB met up. and a mention that it was like a week before the comprees is very very important! (hasnt raag changed chak? :P )

yeah -- so there was no allotment of work AT ALL. everybody contributed watever they could wihout even havng another to push and pull and throw the weight arnd to get work done ( like how it used to be ... i dont know how long ago -- but sure does seems like ages when i last complained about raag and the non-involvement of clubberz as such! - soumi manojh and shanky would definitely agree - I KNOW!!! ;) )

there was so much of work that was goin on simultaneously - write ups - chart work - farewell invites - photo cutting - ganesh on his violin providing some superb entertainment -- oh and we even recorded what all he played and manojh;s dappangs with a lil help from my mic and sound recorder!!! )

it was incredible fun! raag like most of u guys would have never seen before!

anyways -- coming back to what i started with --- farewell! well the write ups happened -- and then followed the most awaited food! oh before that psenti speeches. for the first time -- we dint have ppl fussing about having to give speeches... with semester wise accounts that each of them gave -- i got a clear clear view of how much of a change there has been in rag when it comes to bonding and attachment that grows within people in a club.

yes there have been times in the past when lots of us have wished -- why is raag more like a duty? why dusnt it feel like other clubs and depts! well if u still think that -- then i have something to say. and u guys better get that straight!!!! RAAG STILL DUSNT FEEL LIKE OTHER CLUBS AND DEPTS. ITS MORE LIKE HOME. one place where each of us find complete comfort and ease in speaking to the other. when there are events like NR and SANGAMAM -- is feels like a "Function" in family (like how rajiv said today! ) :-) it defnly does.

the freshers probably are the ones who do not know what a talkin about -- but though they are a real small batch -- they are amazingly talented. and have bonded so well with the club :-) u guys are the luckiest -- for raag is at its "golden period" (quoting words that made me happy from today's evening - words that were voiced from teh very bottom of their hearts)

yup - after dinner and after all of this -- we all huddled together around my laptop. if u are wondering -- where we were -- its still at cannaught -- at vijay's. we had manojh's woofers and my laptop and something very very dear to all our hearts yet to be witnessed...

infact -- we kinda managed to create a home theatre efect despite the cold! switched off the lights at vijay's and yeah we played what was named "raagfarewell_0001" . it was a chut movie that ran for five mins -- with really nice "kodak moment" pictures clickd thru the semester -- thanks to sriram and manojh's digi cams.. and running captions. i guess people liked it... but more than that -- it was when the realisation that "these are probably the last few memories" sinked into our heads.

ALL of us were in tears. words lost all meaning. it was mere glances that conveyed oceans of emotions... to put it all in a few words and conclude would be grave injustice. but i cant leave without saying this -- ORG COMM 2k6 -- u guys have been amazing! we've done it ALL cos of ur suport. and what we learnt from u people -- we shall always teach others... love ya loads and miss u guys even more! 3 years with all of u was too short a period..... come back for sangamam!