~Mahira Saraf
We hope you saw how our SKCF family celebrated Diwali this year. We can tell you from our experience that we are lucky to be a part of this family with our members’ hearts filled with joy, kindness, and excitement. What we saw, felt, and experienced at the event is more than we can express in words. With a burning diya’s light hitting like a ray of sun our students’ smiles, the rising sound of claps as their classmates performed overwhelmed us with emotions of gratitude and serenity. The most highlighted element of the event was a tree, made up of painted hand imprints of our students, symbolic of our growth, success, and unity.
Now it’s time to go behind the scenes and appreciate all the efforts it took to make this event blissful.
DECORATIONS
The preparations for the event began two weeks prior in collaboration with the National Institute of Fashion and Technology, New Delhi. The President of the social club NIFT Delhi, Kartik Garg sir, was also present among us along with their team for preparing decorations for the main event. Our students were divided into five groups, each working on different activities-
- Card Making– Our students drew and cut out Diyas and pasted them onA4-size sheets. All these cards were placed on a table together and were later distributed to all the volunteers as a beautiful token of appreciation for their hard work.
- Diya Painting-Students painted multicolored and bright diyas with pastel-colored beads in the center of the diya. Some students were also sticking mirrors on the edges of the diya to give it a lustrous finish. These diyas were further distributed to all our volunteers so that they can decorate their houses with them.
- Paper Lanterns-Did you know that using scissors, tapes, and staplers, one can make paper lanterns? Even we had no idea until we saw our students making them with their small hands. It requires a bird’s eye focus to make equal cuts with equal distance. These beautiful lanterns were hung on the trees along with lights wrapped around them on the day of the event.
- Candle Decoration-Simple white candles, don’t appeal, right? Children at SKCF, with the same thought, decorated candles by sticking some beautiful and vibrant colored beads all over them.
- Leaf Imprint Toran / Bandhanwar making-We marked a tick mark against promoting sustainability on our list as our students applied paints on a leaf and pressed its impression on a paper. Students like Madhuri and Biba went further to make butterflies out of those imprints. How imaginative!
This year, we decided to go ‘Vocal for Local’, therefore, all stationery items were bought from local vendors. Rangolis were prepared by volunteers of the event for which they reported at the venue at 10 AM.
PERFORMANCES
Besides this, our students gave mind-blowing performances and for the choreography part, we took help from our volunteers who helped our students to master coordination within two weeks. Meanwhile, Vivek- one of our students prepared a very fluent and clean speech on Diwali, its importance and meaning. Komal- our little nature lover, tried her best to promote the message of protecting our environment by not burning crackers this Diwali. She figured out other alternative ways to celebrate Diwali, in a much more eco-friendly manner. Omnath and Guddu, both bright-minded students, took hours to prepare and recite an influential and celebratory poem. Costumes were arranged for students who had to give a dance performance and our volunteers helped with makeup. Three photographers were also hired to cover the event.
WEB, HR, AND SOCIAL MEDIA DOMAIN
While our students did a lot of hard work, our Web and Social Media domain put their best foot forward. The Web domain prepared a separate website for our Diwali Event, along with a countdown. Click here to visit the website. The HR domain sent invites to volunteers, ex-volunteers and chief guest Retd. Major Ranvir Singh. The Social Media Domain gathered all the information they received regarding the preparations of the event and posted it on all social media platforms to gather more support and participation.
REFRESHMENTS AND GAMES
Refreshments like Samosa, Golgappe, Burgers, Kachoris, Cold drinks, Chips, Peanuts, Aloo Tikkis, Fries, and many more food items were arranged for students and volunteers. We searched for local cooks near our venue, contacted them, and booked them for the main event. Fresh food was being cooked and served for more than 140 members. When we were deciding on games, we went for musical chairs for our volunteers to remind them of their old days when they were in junior school.
In India, it is often said, “Taali Ek haath se nahi bajti”, which means that a single hand cannot clap, in other words, it takes two to Tango. Here, one hand was our student’ team and the other was our volunteers’. Diwali 2021, has been a huge success for our family, and hopefully, there are more to come.
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