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Sunday, March 02, 2008

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

18 comments:

zoxcleb said...

welcome back to the world of ppl ;-)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@zoxcleb
Oye ! I need people for my course. My teammates at least. :P I meant "social life" other than team meetings :D

Occasional Brilliance said...

"You have entered me..."

ahem ahem... lolz... sounds like you had fun...

Sam said...

dat snds lyk real fun.. anywyz, the humor highlights were well... really funny.. but worn-out mittens??? :o

zoxcleb said...

hahaha....
the world of ppl is a social one, where there is no agenda... u were in that world... now u have re-entered this one! :-)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@zoxcleb
On the contrary, I believe that in the world of real people, there's always an agenda. :)
Btw, thanks for the link. Laloo ki Jai ! Jab tak samose mein aloo rahega.. Suna hai Bihar mein Laloo rahega :D

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sam
I was out of breath & out of my mind from running across the campus. Don't blame me for aberrated thinking. It was thinking under the influence of adrenaline( something like driving under the influence of alcohol)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@bubbles
I had :D I wonder how no one else noticed the double entendre.

Anonymous said...

Last time i entered a women was April 16th 2007 in Newyork, i mean Liberty statue. LoL

Aparna Ganguly said...

@dolby
Lol. You almost had me there with the first fragment of the sentence :D

Still Searching said...

Oh yeah totally! I heard there are many many Indians in Boston...

And errr.. you went jogging in the snow?? Thats a LOT of enthu!

Aparna Ganguly said...

@ still searching
Oh no, it was pleasant yesterday. Not that cold, only about 3 degree Celsius. Quite warm and sunny if you ask me. :D But the wind by the sea got me :(

Yeah, Boston has a lot of desis in certain pockets but NJ really is mini India.

ILA (a) இளா said...

Good shots.. i have been to boston couple of times and didnt get a chance to get thro the campus. Lets try next time..

Sam said...

@aparna:
the double entendre was well caught... and honestly u did well not to burst out there.. i wud have failed miserably!! :P

but seriously.. worn-out mittens!!! sheesh... was that really adrenaline pumping through your veins??? :P

Aparna Ganguly said...

@sam
Or maybe an overdose of Japanese anime on Agatha Christie's works. :D Plus, I had read Murder of Roger Ackroyd again last week. The mitten was just one of the many things I picked. :P

Aparna Ganguly said...

@ILA(a)இளா
Oh maybe you should ! If you are driving, you will love it by the sea in Summer. And if you take the red line, there's a free shuttle from the JFK/UMASS T-station.

ILA (a) இளா said...

@aparna
Will be driving to boston, more precisely to Lowell. Have to plan for boston one more time and yet to see lot of place, since I missed lot of attraction due to chilled weather by mid of Nov..

Aparna Ganguly said...

@ILA(a)இளா
Yeah, it was cold this Winter. But it's Springtime now- buds on the trees and rugby-playing boys on the fields have arrived :D