CLUB DAY 1998 REPORT

Come January and Gym suddenly assumes a festive air. Preparations for yet another Club Day are underway. It all starts with the Director, faculty and the G-Secy. putting their heads together and chalking out the blue- print of the festivities.

Gym strength (or rather the lack of it) has forced every Gymmie to take part in all Gym occasions in the recent past. Even this year, there were only 28 of us. Having a first year batch helped. They being the most active and enthusiastic lot assumed a sizeable share of the responsibilities.

Club Days have been judged by the culturals. The preparations for the culturals began, as usual, with formal meetings in the lounge- continued over tea and maggi in the night mess. Ideas were presented and rejected, phattas flowed freely, and out of the mist of uncertainty emerged the shape of the culturals. Now, the core teams got down to serious business of script- writing, finalizing the sets and the actors. The musical guys took over the T.T. room, converted it into their studio and got going with their rehearsals.

Meanwhile, the J.G.Secy. and his team was not sitting idle. They made a round of the Simis' houses to get ideas and recipes, scratched their heads for the design of the cake and did material planning for arranging supplies from Munger and Calcutta. And mind you, synchronising all this so as to avoid any clash with the schedule of their projects at the prod. lab in IRIMEE.

Amidst all this resource crunch, we were fortunate to have Anirudh'91 and Deepak'92 to take over the reception work.

Time flew, and before we could realize, it was 13th. The Sams started arriving. The 1948 batch was the foal batch this time and was represented by Mrs. and Mr. Anup Singh, Mrs. and Mr. Sabharwal and Mr. Dhaliwal? Other Sams included MrP.C.Sen'49, Mrs. and Mr. R.C.Sethi'52,Mrs and Mr. N.C.Sinha'57, Mrs. and Mr. R.N.Aga'61, Mrs. and Mr. Ram Deo'61, Mrs. and Mr. V.K.Vij'62, Mr. V. Anand'62, Mrs. and Mr. Sudhir Sah'65.

The Gymmies had a great time interacting with the Sams. It made them feel Proud to be a part of this great institution, to be able to share their experiences, their love for Gymkhana and memories of this place.

As has been the practice over the last few years, there was the Old Boys' Dinner at the Director's Place on the 13th evening. This gave the Gymmies the opportunity for last minute rehearsals.

The dawn of 14th marked the 70th anniversary of Mr. H.V.M.Stewart's joining as the first Special Class Railway Apprentice. The day's first engagement was the IRIMEE annual day function. The '93 wallahs got their certificates and awards. The guests were given a demonstration of the highly impressive final year projects.

After IRIMEE, the scene of action shifted to Gymkhana, where a bout of madness (Paagal Gymkhana) awaited us. Beer and CDs flowed freely and there was an atmosphere of great camaraderie as everybody present indulged in fun and frolics and tried their hands at the various games. The traditional tug of war was retained by its traditional winners - the Simis.

The fete was followed by a grand lunch in the quadrangle. The carefully chosen, tastefully prepared and expertly presented delicacies were praised by one and all. After lunch, the Sams assembled in the dining hall for the JA meeting.

As the sunset drew near, it was time for the high tea. The venue was the central lawn, with a beautifully illuminated Gym serving as the ideal backdrop. The Club- Day high tea, as usual, was one of the big occasions on the social calendar of Jamalpur with about 300 guests present. This year the cake was of the shape of the Gym insignia with 'Old friends Old comrades' written below it.

After enjoying the cake and the other goodies the guests moved on to the quadrangle for the cultural program. The compeers for the evening were Vaibhav Singh'96 and Abhishek Raghuvanshi'96 - two firstees trying to discover the various facets of Gym life. With the Fifth Pay Commission choosing to ignore the SCAs, they were contemplating taking up other jobs to make both ends meet - this was the theme for the first Hindi play. The second Hindi play was about a complicated love triangle involving two probationers and a young faculty member. Both the plays sent the audience into fits of laughter. The Punjabi song 'Ho gayi teri balle balle' by I.Dihana'93, a veteran of many such appearances now, was a great hit and so was the melodious rendering of 'Quit playing games with my heart' by A.Garbyal'94. The pick of the evening were the two guest items - songs by Mrs. N.C.Sinha'57and a hilarious skit by Mr.V.K.Vij'62 and Mr. V. Anand'62.

The best, however had been saved for the last. An improved version of 'The Gym Odyssey', the shadow act which featured on the last Club Day also, took everyone back to their Gym days - a very fitting finale to the successful cultural programme.

This year we had a new addition to the Club Day celebrations. After the culturals, we were invited to the CWM, Mr. Nikhilesh Jain'65's place for a cocktails and dance party. The wooden dance floor and Mr. Jain's music system made the ideal combination for a high voltage dance party. The party continued till late in the night.

Next day, it was time for the guests to leave. The atmosphere was emotionally charged as everyone bid adieu to Gym with a heavy heart and fond memories and a promise to be back for the next Club Day.