Blog 13: Extra-curricular activities: General assembly (G.A.)

I have strong memories of two specific events that took place in my school. I think ours and PSBB school were the only schools who had these events, and both were unique in their own way.

The first one was called general assembly or G.A. and it was basically the first two periods of a working day (split into Monday for primary school (1^st to 5^th standard), Wednesday for middle school (6^th to 8^th standard) and Friday for High school (9^th to 12^th standard)).

Every week (apart from the exam season), we would have different competitions like oratorical, debates, mock-news, just-a-minute (JAM), ad-zap, singing, dancing, vedas/shloka recital, fancy-dress etc. Children would be encouraged to participate as per their talent or interest. After the usual morning prayer assembly, the “G.A. classes” would stay back and move to the school portico, where the stage would be set with mike (and props when required). Someone among the students would be pre-picked to compere the event and teachers would enthusiastically guide them. When it was my turn to compere, I remember we sat down with our teachers and prepared an entire script for the show from welcome address to vote of thanks. Timing was essential. After 2 periods, we had a break after which regular classes would resume and so we had to be time-bound and finish before the break started.

We would also have a chief guest, usually from another school or from a field that was relevant to the day’s competition. Once we had a newspaper journalist come when we had the mock-news competition.

Moving on to the competitions, in primary school we had simpler competitions like fancy-dress, singing, dancing etc. I remember once I had dressed up as “Daana-veera-shoora Karna”, (character from the Mahabharat). My enthusiastic mother had given me an entire speech written in ‘Shudh-Hindi’, which I memorized and at the competition, as I was reciting my speech in full ‘josh’ of being the mighty Karna, I forgot the word “swarnim” which meant ‘golden’. As the last line of my speech, I had to say something on the lines of “Itihaas mein mera naam swarnim aksharon mein likha jayega” which means “my name will be written in golden letters in history” (Because of his tremendous deeds of charity). Of course, I fumbled when I had to say ‘swarnim’ but as they say, the show must go on and so I confidently continued and proclaimed, “Itihaas mein mera naam ‘golden’ aksharon mein likha jayega!”

I remember our principal then, a very sweet and highly respected person called Mrs. Hema Srinivasan, guffawed at my blunder but gave me a nod of approval for managing to complete my dialogue. Later, she told me, “whatever the language, you conveyed the right emotion and intensity of the character and indeed his name is written in golden letters in our history!” 😊

At the same competition, I remember my classmate Pavan dressed as Manthara (from Ramayana) and did exceptionally well with a full speech in Tamil. Eventually, we were both declared joint-winners for the day. Mrs. Hema Srinivasan remarked, “today’s winners are two, a she who came as a he and a he who came as a she!”

As we moved to middle and high school, the competitions became tougher but more engaging. For oratorical competitions, we were given the topics in advance, so we would had time to prepare for them. I think we had to speak for 3-5 minutes and there would be someone with a timer and they would press a bell when it was time to finish. The usual structure to follow was: introduce the topic, discuss pros and cons or speak for or against and then have a conclusion.

For just-a-minute or JAM, we had to pick a paper that had a topic and talk nonstop for a minute about the topic impromptu. A lot depended on the person’s gift of the gab, presence of mind and some knowledge of the topic in general. But, these would be general topics, like ‘today’s weather’ or ‘my favorite cricketer’ etc. and if a child was stuck with stage fright or brain freeze, the teachers would encourage him/her from the back, giving some cues and hints so the child could build on it 😊

Ad-zap was a group competition. Groups were given products with absurd names (vroom-broom, shaani makeup (shaani means cow-dung in Tamil)). In 15-30 min, we had to come up with an ad entire sequence, write the dialogues and perform it on stage and make it catchy and yes, the best ad won!

For group debates, we would get the topic and permission (during class hours) for research. We would all go to the library and go through several books, magazines and newspapers, and talk to people in our families and sometimes even conduct interviews among baffled public (mostly parents waiting outside the school to receive their children) to collect opinions, views and ideas to support our debates. Competition was always fierce when it came to debates and each participant took it very seriously!

Mock-news had to be a satire on the day or week’s headlines and we had to present it with a straight face, pretending to be TV news presenters!

There would be judges (including the chief guest) for every competition and prize distribution at the end of every GA.

There was also a season when the “Maggi quiz’ would happen. Maggi noodles wanted to promote their brand and so they would come to schools and conduct quizzes on the lines of the then-famous Bournvita Quiz content. It was an intra-school competition at first and then the school winners would go on to compete at the Inter-school level.

Once, the question posed to the teams was ‘what is the national bird of USA?’ to which no one knew the answer. I was in the audience and I knew it was the bald eagle (thanks to a cap gifted by my California-based aunt, that had the bald eagle picture and written below in bold: the national bird of USA). Now, I was in primary school then and a quiet kid. When the question was passed to the audience, I did not have the guts to stand up and answer the question. But I told the answer to my friend sitting in front of me. He prompted answered and got the Maggi gift hamper as a prize and the entire world clapped for him! He also happily accepted all the credit! Initially, I was so offended that he acted the way but soon realized, that’s the way the world worked. It is not enough to be smart, one also must be brave! Something changed in me that day, I went to teachers voluntarily and asked to be in competitions. Some I won, some I lost but what I gained through the course of these G.A.s is invaluable: the courage to stand up for myself, getting over stage fear, jumping into trying new things even when I had no idea what to do initially and so much more.

I don’t know how many kids enjoyed the G.A.s and how many hated them or felt it was a waste of time. Personally, when I look back in time, I know those events in my school have contributed largely to every small thing I have achieved so far. Often people ask, how are you able to do different things? My answer is simple. I try! Whether I do it well or learn I am no good at it. I do not give up without giving it a shot at least once. I think that was the entire idea of the G.A.s too 😊 

#childhoodmemories

#90snostalgia

#schooldays

#competitions

#generalassembly

#G.A.s

#wonderfulteachers

#amazingschool