Diwali, popularly known as
‘the festival of lights’, was celebrated this year on October 18
th and 19
th with great fervour and enthusiasm all across the country. We the students of LIBA had our own extended celebration of the festival on
October 20th. Deepavali or Diwali as it is popularly called is celebrated to commemorate the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya along with his wife Sita, and brother Laxman after being in exile for 14 years.
The Diwali event at LIBA was organized by the
Student Affairs Committee (360 Degrees) and was conducted with great energy and enthusiasm.
The opening of the event was marked by a keynote address to the Full-time students of F16 and F17 by the respected director of LIBA, Fr. Christie followed by a short talk by Professor Anthuvan on the reasons we celebrate this festival and the history of our country vis a vis Diwali and the valuable lessons we can imbibe into our lives from the story behind Diwali.
The celebrations kicked off with a Group dance by the students of the F17 batch where they swayed to the beats of some popular Bollywood songs.
This was followed by a group dance from the F16 batch which was equally entertaining and enjoyable. By now, the crowd had completely soaked in the atmosphere and were enjoying themselves thoroughly. To make things more participative, a game was organized wherein four teams with 4 members each would compete. The objective of the game was to collect balloons from the 360 committee representatives standing at one end, and run back across back to your team and hold the balloon between yourself and a teammate without using your hands. This sequence was to be repeated four times till each team member had a balloon between them and another teammate. The team to complete the task first would win.
Post the games, everyone broke for dinner. The dinner was organised near the OAT and the menu for the night comprised some lip-smacking North Indian delicacies. After the dinner, the stage was set for the students to dance their way through the night with ‘DJ Night’.
There was a mix of Hindi, English and Tamil songs played which ensured there was something for everyone to groove to and which nicely summed up the diversity of cultures that LIBA proudly holds. As students danced their hearts away through the night, the event ended befittingly with a tribute to LIBA itself; a dance to the LIBA anthem. With that, the Diwali event and celebrations came to an end. The event was a grand success with students showing up in full support and with all the enthusiasm and energy to make it an unforgettable and enjoyable evening for all.
While it brought to an end this year’s Diwali celebration, we are sure next year’s event will have a whole new list of surprises and events lined up as we hope to make it as splendid and enjoyable as this one was.
About the Author:
By Akshay Pankaj Dhawan
PGDM (2017-19)