On 20 February 2015, the Student Council celebrated the literary day in the Anatomy lecture hall. Mr Ram Pandey, secretary and Dr Anupama Gupta, officer-in- charge of the Literary Society organized the events such that MGIMS students could unleash their raw talent in off and on stage competitions.
Remarkably, the council received a large number of entries for the off stage competitions. Students showed that as well as enduring the dull and drab medical curriculum and surviving the drudgery of the medical school, they also toil to sharpen their command of several languages - English, Hindi-Urdu and Marathi. The aficionado among the audience quickly realized that MGIMS students are gifted with a well-developed right brain too, capable of balancing their more talked-about left hemisphere.
Among the several competitions held during the week, Stephen Sangma and Pranjal Singh’s essay on Viva, an awkward situation were adjudged the best. Pervez Aalam, Anagha Patharkar and Khlainboriang Nongbet wrote pleasing poems to earn individual prizes. With so many delightful and creative entries, picking a winner was not an easy task. However, in the end it was Anagha Potharkar and Ram Pandey who walked away with prizes for their short story writing skills. And Shiva Manwatkar and Rasika Zade (English) and Ram Pandey and Anuksha Dhepe (Hindi) showed that the illegible and indecipherable scrawls doctors are popularly associated with is a myth; MGIMS students can play with the alphabets to generate a prize-winning calligraphy that was a treat to watch.
Dean KR Patond lit the inaugural lamp - letting several events to emerge from the deftly disguised darkness. The ‘on stage’ competitions triggered a generous participation of the students and faculty alike. Antakshari, based on popular Bollywood songs, has always enthralled the audience; this year too the contestants were all too eager to sing the first verse of the movie song that began with the consonant with which the previous contestant’s song selection ended- always trying to remain one-up on their rivals. The audience kept on swaying and tapping their feet rhythmically as the heart-tuggers filled the Anatomy lecture hall. The razzle-dazzle race for Antakshari was won by 2013 batch.
The quiz took everyone with a pleasant surprise: the quiz masters innovated the structure of the rounds and made a creative use of audio-visual aids to inject novelty and suspense into the quiz. A round on medical subjects and one on the life and times of Dr Sushila Nayar received thunderous applause from the audience. Rajat Sharma and Urmila Phad (Class of 2011) emerged as winners in the quiz. Mayur Ingle and Manoj Maurya won the extempore irrelevant speech challenge. Finally, the faculty was challenged to summon the courage to translate English drafts into Hindi- a task that amused, entertained and tickled the audience.
The audience found it hard to be reduced to a bunch of silent spectators and could not resist the temptation of actively participating in several events- offering clues, whispering the hints and vibrating their cords to generate melodious rhythms. Pervez Aalam stole many a hearts by reciting his prize-winning ghazal, as did Dr Pravin Khairkar who chanted a captive hit.
The literary day was as much about the love for languages as it was about music that transcends languages. It was indeed a mellifluously rewarding evening.