Hushed, unsuspecting and cold we bustled through the Changi arrival gates. We had no friends nor mentors - Yet !.
In step representatives of SOIS. The new batch of students of Indian origin is received at the gates of Changi Airport. We get a survival guide, some senior-friends and a phone number (no points for guessing whose). Month-long from then, SOIS members orient the "freshies" with the ways and lays of Singapore and NUS. Life is good.
Time flies and in a whisper it's the mid-semester. We've all been down and studying. It's time to awaken the dormant muscles - its sports time - its Kreeda. Teams of Indian students compete in this exclusive sports and games event. Competitiveness is soon lost on us and all we have is fun - pure and unadulterated. Though they did award a Champion team but strangely all of us were smiling and cheering as we went back. .
November 4. Exams were looming close but then who cared ! It was Dipawali. All we wanted was food and crackers and dancing. SOIS must have read our minds - they had exactly that. We had loads of amazing Indian food, lit up sparklers and danced late into the night to Bollywood tunes. One could not have had a better diwali away from home.
Too much fun at Diwali soon has us panicky with exam-jitters. There is too much of the un-understood and the never-read stuff. Thank SOIS ! for the classroom help sessions where the friendly seniors cleared all our doubts and corrected our follies for a whole week. We managed to handle all unfriendly questions.
Exams finished soon and everyone was home as soon as they could. A well deserved first holiday - one month of relaxation and we were back to our "karmasthali". Second semester meant studies were going to get harder - and so was the fun. .
In January we celebrate Pongal. The SRC evening is resplendent with lights. There are venpongal and sakkaraipongal and gulabjamuns. Kolam sits on the SRC steps. Songs and gaiety are in attendance.