Best winters ever

Kickoff

I still remember it was 29th September 2008, I was in Connaught Place with a friend of mine doing shopping. Actually it was my birthday that day and I was enjoying my day. Then I got a call from a person called Vipul Sharma. He introduced himself as a pass out from DLDAV Model School Shalimar Bagh. Hearing this I jumped to excitement, well that's my school!! It's almost 10 years since I passed out from school and someone from the same school called me! I miss my school badly. I mean I am sure there must be many others who feel the same like I do. After exchanging some notes Vipul suggested me that there should be an Alumni Association of our school. That's very true and I also felt the same. He told me that he has a plan to make this venture a success and wanted to meet me on 2nd Oct 2008. Well he was firm and determined and I thought that this is it! I was so happy that someone also loves the school the way I do and wants to make a formal association. Without any second thoughts I said, "Yes".

Commencing

Then came 2nd October, it was my holiday and I was jumping in excitement that day and why not? I was about to visit my school after so many years. Things have changed a lot in these years. After school I gave entrance tests and somehow got selected in Engineering. After completing graduation I have worked in so many companies, met so many people but there is something that I always missed and that's the School life. No matter where I go I can never forget the wonderful and amazing time I spent there. Whatever I am today is because of the education that I received there.

On that day I went to the school and started waiting at the school main gate. I was peeking inside the school checking out the changes happened in the school building. Vipul came almost on time and in a while others came too. We all went inside the school reception and started the discussions. That day we all decided that we would organize an informal get together on 5th October. Vipul had organized the first meeting in September to lay the first stones of the Alumni Association and to share his idea with others.

Tough days

We all know that on 5th of October there was a wonderful get together It was amazing to see so many people turn up in just a 2 day notice. We all had a nice time in School that day. Vipul got the speakers on rent and played the songs from his iPod and it was nice to see everyone dancing in the school reception! We also registered many Alumni members by getting a form filled from them. We were able to build the database of many people on that day. Then started a long tiring but wonderful journey. After the initial success of the informal get together we all agreed that we should form a formal Alumni Association and host an Alumni meet somewhere near New Year. We met at CCDs in the evenings to discuss the future plans of the Association and on 15th November we presented this idea of the Alumni Association and Event to our respect Principal Madam. She was equally excited about the event and expressed her full support. It was also decided that we would take more executive members in the association. On 5th October many people nominated themselves for working with the Association, we called those people for an interview cum discussion and selected three more executive members. We first wanted to do the event somehere near Diwali but then we shifted to Christmas, that didn't work too. So we finally agreed to do the event on 25th January. The venue would be School Lawns.

It was a tough job to do. We had no clue about what we were doing and none of us had the experience of organizing such big event. The worst part was that we had no money to do the event. So it was obvious that we would looks for sponsors who can give us money :) We made a team of people who spent day and night looking for sponsors. They did manage to get some money but still it was not sufficient to host the event. In December we also launched this Alumni website. It was really important to have an Alumni website that would act as a single place of interaction among Alumni members. I knew some web development, so I took up this challenge to develop this website. I just can't explain the joy that I found working on this website I never thought that I will get to do something for the school after so many years. We used to meet every week, sometimes 2-3 times a week to discuss the progress of the event. We started selling the Invitations 2 weeks prior to the event, and it was difficult to convince people to buy it. We made a team of people who used to call the people to sell tickets. Till two days before the event we were not sure if we’d be able to make it to pay for all the expenses like tent, caterer, sound, dj, lights, food and other miscellaneous things. We made up our minds that we would all contribute whatever money we can to reach our target but thanks to our last minute sponsors we were able to collect enough money. In the last couple of days we were able to sell enough tickets.

Success

Aikya 2009 was a great success. The response that we received that day was overwhelming. It was a perfect night to have the get together in the school lawn. The weather was pleasant and the lighting made it look magical. The event started with a rock show by a band of one of alumni and then the performance by a dance troop. Then a play on school life, I was extremely happy to take part in it. Just immediately after the play I went into the crowd and asked them about their most memorable day in school. I also got a chance to interact with some of our teachers and our principal Mrs. Adarsh Kohli. The event proceeded with other performances, speeches by Principal, President and Vice President. We had a good time on 25th January and I am sure that all of the Executive Members of our association must be extremely proud. It was their sheer hard work that made it possible to organize our very first Alumni meet.

Best winters ever

It was one of the most memorable winters I have seen in my life. I still reminisce the days when we used to meet early mornings to discuss the progress. I am glad that I made wonderful friends, I never met them in the school but it was the love for our school that brought us together.

Together Forever