Global Village at Ovations '09

The annual cultural extravaganza of Loyola College- Ovations was held this year on the 11th and 12th of September. As every year, it was spectacular and amazing and everyone had a good time. Kudos to Pradeep and Karthik and the Loyola Students Union for pulling it off in spite of extreme shortage of funds (most probable sponsors showed us the back door due to the recession... or so they claim!)

One of the things that set this year's Ovations apart form the previous years was Global Village. Those of you who have attended IIT Saarang and have actually had the energy to travel a considerable amount of the campus would have heard of this concept - where there is a melting potof different cultures on sale. It is basically a set of community specific stalls selling culture-specific items and food.

We put up six stalls - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Africa and (hold your breath!) France. These were a few of the students' communities of our college. I was the organizer for global village, and my job was to basically get the communities interested, help them draw up plans, make a list of what they need, get those things, help them put their plans into action, get them cash and see that everything goes on well during the two days of ovations.

Simple, isn't it?

It was made simple by the very enthusiastic students (most of them were doing PG, they were senior to me but they didn't mind - they were so damn sweet!) who really made it possible along with all the coordination. And the result? Global Village was a huge success. It was probably as big as the Ovations itself (I dare say that) and it saw amazing portrays into different cultures, along with some excellent food that is extremely rare. Everything was sold out, some of the stalls sold out their items in less than half a day!

And buying food and T shirts was not the only thing. There were folk dances by Kerala and Tibet and a mind blowing hip hop performance by the African students.

Too bad that outsiders are not allowed to watch ovations, and hence they could not visit global Village. But here's to all you readers - wait for 'Ignite', the pro shows hosted by Loyola that is most likely to be held in February. We just might have another, possible bigger Global Village that anyone can come and take in the sights, sounds and tastes personally.









Psst - tune in to SS Music on the 27th and do watch the special program on Ovations. Outsiders are generally not allowed to watch, so this might be your best chance!