Annual Day

The Eighth Annual Day was organized in precisely the same way in which the SJA had operated in the last academic half-year: with swiftness and extreme stealth. Hardly had we recovered from the Invicta-Outlawed hangover, and gotten over the postponement of the Annual Elections that we realized that the Annual Day was upon us again.

The event was graced by Mr. R.N. Jhunjhunwalla, Managing Partner, Khaitan and Co. as the Chief Guest. In his address, he congratulated the NUJS student community heartily on their manifold achievements and endeavours and urged them to maintain an adequate work-leisure balance in order to ensure that their juridical potentials got utilized to the fullest. The SJA President then came forth with his annual report, highlighting the achievements of the Student Body in the last six months of its tenure. And the lists were impressive indeed. In the last two hundred days, Ashish and his merry men had ensured inter alia, a fully functioning gymnasium, the completion of the University auditorium and Wireless Internet in the Library in addition to organizing Outlawed, Invicta and the NUJS Debate on far larger scales than ever seen before.

The Awards Ceremony that followed felicitated a diverse group of students for an equally diverse set of achievements throughout the academic year. While Pranay Chaturvedi and Ankur Dalal were lauded for publishing their first book, some won accolades for their Sporting, Debating and Mooting achievements, and some were crowned University Bhaiyya. Animesh and Tanya were adjudged Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year; and Sarbajeet bagged the Best All-Round Student Award. The Magazine Committee, not unusually, won the Best SJA Committee Award for its first time ever.

The cultural segment of the event kick-started with Shameek Sir and Anirban’s (from the LLM Batch) rendition of Bangla rock numbers. Neat Karaoke performances by Kinshuk, Udit and Zorthanpui were then interspersed with Ashish Arun who emceed on in his inimitable style, introducing newer and innovative awardees on stage, such as the Best Class Rep., the Best Office Bearers, and the Best GB Member. Three hilarious short plays performed commendably by Animesh and Sudarshan followed, which had all and sundry in stitches. Alarmingly, even Sayak from the Final Year shared stage time with Ashish in doling out his legendary PJ’s that critics have long acknowledged to be far potent than an mg of Zyklon-B.

However, the show was most definitely stolen by the girls from the Fifth Year with their dance-medley finale, featuring Bollywood classics from over five decades. The medley also featured a cameo by Dore who did a convincing Ranbir Kapoor, jigging to Bachna e Haseenon; and six shaded boys who suddenly entered stage without cue, rhyme or reason, shaking themselves to Emotional Atyachar. It all ended with a bang with all of the Fifth Years running onto stage and bopping away to Deewangi from Om Shanti Om.

The Annual Day was thus the culmination of an eventful year, and made it abundantly clear that the subsequent SJA had a lot to live up to indeed.

Farewell Party

The Fifth Years’ Farwell Party at the BNR Club, Kidderpore saw its usual array of poignant emotion, boisterous revelry and the customary dash of smashed furniture. While the awards ceremony was funny, if a tad on the embarrassing side, and food and wine flowed merrily, the dance floor, unfortunately had to be shut-off early. The Club’s sprawling lawns, quaintly decorated pier and the invigorating Ganges air formed the backdrop to their concluding College party.

Badminton Mania hits NUJS

Following the installation of light bulbs near the green patch in front of the Boys’ Hostel, badminton mania has hit NUJS with a vengeance. Ignoring wind currents and mosquitoes, games have been known to go on till 2 am and many a would-not-touch-physical-exercise-with-a-ten-foot-pole upstanding student of this college has been spotted making graceless swipes in the air.

Convocation and Alumni Meet

The Third Annual Convocation was the first event to be held in our new and most impressively constructed auditorium.

With the Chancellor of the University having unfortunately being called off on urgent business at the last moment, the event was presided over by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tarun Chatterjee, with Hon’ble Mr. Justice (Retd.) J.S.Verma as Chief Guest. The vibrant Batch of 2008, as well as LLM and M. Phil students were awarded their degrees by Justice Chatterjee, who emphasized in his spirited Convocation address upon the importance of lawyers as responsible members of society. Justice Verma, in his address highlighted the principal challenges facing the legal profession currently and the role that our bright graduates can play in redressing them.

The degrees were followed by the awarding of the Endowment Medals, monopolized by the nerdy duo of Rahul Chatterjee and Nirmalya Ganguly. Later, the newly graduated huddled gleefully in groups outside, taking photographs, interacting with teachers or guzzling on a delicious Bijoligrill spread in the quad. Soon afterwards, it was time for the batch photographs, and no sooner had the cameras flashed that a hundred-odd caps were up in the air.

Convocation night saw the much anticipated First NUJS Alumni Meet at The Stadel, attended by about 75 alumni members, most of whom combined their understandable joy at being back to their alma mater with astonishment at the changes that had come over in the last few years over the place that they had grown to love after five long years. Over delicious food, the Alumni relived old moments, fond memories and gleefully recalled the days when they were younger, slimmer and less responsible.

The old order might change; the auditorium might finally be made; and hostel curfew might have been relaxed: but as that day proved conclusively, there are some things that never ever change.

Saraswati Pujo

The Goddess of Learning was invoked with the usual piety and fanfare by the theist and atheist community alike. Decked in traditional wear and armed with Taxation and Interpretation of Statutes Modules, the NUJS community proved that it did value its Gods, if only for tiding away the incoming end-sems. Apart from the usual community-lunch and the evening Antakshari, this Pujo was notable since girls were allowed to go for the immersion for the first time.