GISA event: Parichay

I had no accurate idea about the number of Indian students enrolled at University of Massachusetts (UMASS), Boston until I attended the Graduate Indian Students' Association(GISA) event yesterday. My social life had reached an all-time low last semester, where I contented myself with the route: home-class-home.(Not counting the team meetings :D ) Nevertheless, with the increased intensity of reading assignments and consequent need for a break, coupled with my roommate's enthusiasm, I found myself heading towards the campus on a Saturday evening.
Aerial view: UMass, Boston. Photo courtesy:umb.edu
Campus Map. Photo courtesy:umb.edu(click here for wikimapia view of University of Massachusetts,Boston campus)

We took a detour to Campus Center and discovered a new elevator on our way to the ballroom A on the third floor. The agendas for the evening included :
-formal introduction of the attending students, (where people you want the phone numbers of don't say it, and those who are eager to disseminate the information are the ones you don't want of :P)
-fish pond, (an indoor game where you get to write anything anonymously on small chits which are read aloud later)
-a treasure hunt, (you know this if you are an Agatha Christie fan; one clue leads to another and the game continues until you find the treasure. Obviously, the first to reach the treasure wins.)
-and dinner followed by two short and sweet dance programs by the students.

The fish pond yielded some hilarious results where one of the chits read : X has verbal diarrhea, and a few others read: Vote X for the president of GISA. It was repeated such a ridiculous number of times that appeared absurdly funny. A third one was addressed to a girl and went something like: Itna kyu akaadti ho, Khudko Miss UMass samajhti ho, Hum desi ladke mar gaye they kya- Jo firango k saath ghumti ho. A Romanian classmate was attending the fish pond, and I sure had a tough time translating this one for him. :D

The treasure hunt made us run like there was no tomorrow and by the time I reached home, my feet were hurting big time. But I enjoyed it so much that I went jogging by the bay today just to feel the thrill again.( Hope I continue with the habit - need to shed quite a few pounds before Summer- those Abercombie and Fitch numbers deserve some justice.)

Anyways, back to my books and assignments, but definitely a good change of tasks and a scope to meet seniors, freshers(Spring'08), batchmates (Fall'07) from College of Management and even students of other departments whom I hardly get to interact with otherwise.


Photo courtesy extended to Kaushik Prakash and Puja Raut for the last two pics in the ballroom.
Humor Highlights:
# Blame it on the language: A girl told the guy who was performing the door-keeping duties by striking off names from a list, "You have entered me...". I kept biting my lips to check my laughing out loud.

# Partners in crime : A chap put his chair on my foot while shifting his seat and called up my roommate later to make sure that I was okay. I convinced her to say to him that I was bleeding profusely. Only when he was repentant enough, we laughed it off. Well, I am an innocuous girl...most of the times :P

# Mrs. Hercule Poirot? : One of the clues in the treasure hunt required us to find a GISA property. Believe it or not, I picked up a worn-out mitten, thinking 'This could be it' :D