Sanskrithi gave me the chance to visit new places. Every trip we wanted to go for was preceded by requests to the college faculty, permission from our respective heads of departments and long letters and pleads to our hostel manager!
We were finally taught the longer version of Dashavataar when we had to perform at a fest in Pondicherry. That was one of our best performances till date and I can still recall the way we all screamed in surprise when we realized we came first! J The trip to Pondicherry was great fun! I remember that by the time we removed our make-up and changed out of our costumes, it was very late at night and all the food stalls were closed. We then went out of the campus and got bread and jam from a grocery. Without plates and spoons, we somehow managed to make jam sandwiches and had them at midnight! Our non-theme dance the next day, on a medley of songs from Devdas, was unforgettable too – last minute practices, lack of coordination, mismatched costumes and pure chaos on the stage! :D
The whole group, juniors and seniors, went to perform at PES, Kuppam. Travelling with a huge group, the fun we had during the journey, meeting the senior professors, and performing in front of a huge audience there are some of the things that I remember.
No description of Sanskrithi will be complete without talking about our historic Cultural Exchange program. We worked on this for many months, trying with different universities, finally landing at IUP, US. The team worked on choreography, learning different styles of dance, rigorous practice sessions, photo shoots, and planning the trip. Planning the trip involved working out the finance aspects, the accommodation, the travelling, all the logistics, etc. All this hard work definitely paid off! Every part of our trip was fun-filled and memorable; visiting world –famous places in New York, the video shoot for Asianet Channel, meeting many hospitable families, all the snow, the unlimited pizzas, making new friends, imitating the American accent, playing games, learning Ballet, conducting workshops and of course rehearsing for our performances…the list can go and on. I can surely say that this program is something I shall always remember and I think all of us learnt a lot from these experiences.
The team at IUP
Our last trip as a group was to NITK, Surathkal. We had wanted to go there since our first year and finally got a chance in our final year! Like all the others, this trip was great too! We had a good time for two days there. After hours of waiting, we were finally given accommodation in a nice place there, and that’s where we slept, ate, practiced and got ready for the show. We enjoyed playing on the beach, meeting old friends there, exploring the large campus and drinking loads and loads of Amul Buttermilk! We had gotten ready quite early and the competition got delayed, so there we were: eight of us in black costumes, faces covered in make-up, with swords in our hands, and the hot sun glaring down at us! We were very exhausted by the heat by the time our chance came to perform. That evening, some of us went for dinner while the others enjoyed the rock concert on campus. A pleasant surprise awaited us there when we realized that the food was so much cheaper than Bangalore! We ate and ate and ate some more and were happy to see the small bill! :D
These trips with my team have been a learning experience, and despite the little obstacles that came our way, we had loads of fun and got a wonderful chance to bond.
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