‘Vie-06’ the best sports fest in the country was flagged off yesterday by Ms. Reeta Abraham, former Indian athlete & Arjuna awardee, conducted by SBMJC Bangalore. I had been to the inauguration yesterday and the memory still remains very much of the last year I was in-charge of the whole proceedings of the fest, being the Student’s Sports Secretary of the college. I have been to many sports fest in the country from BITS-Pilani’s to VIT’s but nothing is as near to our fest. I am not saying this since I belong to this breed.

Let me start with the things that’s been provided from the VIE organizing committee. Firstly we provide free food, accommodation & transport of higher quality for all the outstation team which participates in this sports fest. This may sound better if I say that we don’t have any grounds, hostel capacities to fit in 500 outstation students & vehicles to drive up that many. The number of events conducted will be close to ten, with lots of events holding men’s & women’s events separately. And Bangalore being such a vast city we have to accommodate everything into consideration while planning for this event.

Basketball is held under lights & Cricket is played with color dress white ball for the semis & the finals. Apart from these two prime events which attract crowds other events such as badminton, football, volleyball, table tennis, tennis, swimming, snooker events are held every year to promote sports in a big way. Most of funds collected are through sponsorship & the students of the sports department have to do everything since it’s for them to learn the importance of doing this fest.

You can imagine the running around I would have done that too being at helm. My ass was on fire for everything & I was ably supported by my team picked & trained by me. Last year we started everything well in advance, as early as in the month of September once we had a little break in the college season. Planning, Co-ordination, Finance, Marketing & Advertising, Strategy & such things to name had to be looked after by this main core team. I was in-charge of the overall activities & took up personally Marketing & Advertising and Strategy for myself since I thought I could do a good job with this. Like wise few other students were given their set which they thought would be good for them. All had to report to me directly & I would propose anything ahead on top to my director.

With Dhanraj Pillai being the Chief Guest for the last year fest, we had to make sure that everything was as much in order than ever before. Cricket attracts in lot more entries than any other game as usual, the main reason for that to start of before the actual launch of the fest. The best part about VIE is not that we get to do all the above mentioned things; it’s something else along with this. All of us representing the best sports college in India have to participate in all our respective events & also win them. If we don’t win I know the kind off bashings we get from our Sports Director.

I remember ‘the’ day where I was in our design place where we get our LCD presentation done. Almost the whole day finalizing on the best suited one for us. And from there had to rush to the airport to pick Dhanraj & drop him at the hotel and then from there to the design place again to collect the CD. After the collection rushed back to the Basketball venue where our inauguration is held since its under lights so that the firecracker show can be lively, to set up things. In the mean while I had to get ready for the inauguration since I had to be up front as the guider of the torch bearer. Once the inauguration was over had to rush to the accommodation, which were set up in three different places due to the number of participants, to check the status of the dinner & also finalize the list for the next mornings break fast. Once that was done had to go to the place where our team meets up to decide the itenary for the next day. By the time this was done over the dinner table it was about 230 in the night. Caught up with some sleep till 400 & had to drive up with my sports sec to the hotel to pick Dhanraj to drop him at the airport. Once that was done had to go the cricket grounds on the way to check in the matches. Then all of a sudden I get a call stating we have a cricket match that afternoon. By the time I reached the cricket grounds after sorting few more issues I was a dead duck. I won the toss and chose to bat first. When I went into bat I saw nothing, I just scored 17 and we won the match the last ball. It was 530 in the evening & lots of work pending still.

This was the way the days used to run. Will try to put in a picture of mine receiving the overall trophy with my counterpart, if possible. Needless to say in spite of all these efforts we also pulled off a victory in many events so ended up as the overall winners. We won the cricket trophy by beating Pachaippas College, Chennai in the finals comprehensively, with me picking three wickets.

VIE-06 Effort is Immortal…………………