UDAAN - the pride of Herambites

A Student is created not only by reading books but gaining knowledge outside the book too. The marks scored is definitely an indicator of how well the student has prepared for the exams but it does not guarantee the essence of his behaviour in outside world.

At Heramb, we try to make a complete student. Academically strong, socially responsible, morally aware, healthy thinking and Balanced

life are some of the key ingredients we inculcate amongst students over the past 18 years.

The Annual Cultural fest culminated with Prize Distribution is what UDAAN stands for. The crux of this event is simple - Of the Students, For the Students and By the Students. The entire arrangements for Udaan is done by TYBcom students every year. Infact, the name Udaan was suggested by a Student way back in 2003 (The first batch of TYBCom). To add more meaning to it, the tag line added in next few years was -The Journey Begins.... The journey here referred to the Journey of Life. As in those days, the annual exam concept was followed, entire syllabus of TYBcom would be completed would be completed by Jan-Feb and Udaan used to be a Farewell function.

Cut down to 2020, Six students of TYBCom, agreed to become Volunteers for conduct of the cultural event. With a week left for the function, they got their act together beautifully. Nimesh Thakur, Jayant Thorat, Dineet Poojary, Gomathy Iyer, Gauri Dalvi, Bhuvna Iyer understood their roles and responsibility so perfectly that division of work and then proper coordination was the highlight of the Team. In so many years of conducting this event, I never found such a coordinated group of boys and girls. This is what is mean by a complete package of students - We had topper of SYBcom in this group as well as they were ready to do any kind of work allocated to them.

As a group, the boys and girls went to each division of XI to BCom and invited students to be a participant for the event and also invited them to come fot the function too. This being the first year of such a huge gathering, we had 18 participants in dance program and a fashion show as a part of the Cultural fest plus 6 students exhibited intention to become Anchors of the show. Everything was perfectly prepared. Gauri took care of coordination with Anchors, Bhuvana did the coordination with fashion show/dance participants and Gomathy took responsibility of songs edit and rearrangements. The boys ensured to be physcially present during all auditions as well as practice providing other help like sound system, breakfast arrangement and other things.It was a nice sight to see, some responsible faces where work allocated was executed to perfection.

3rd February, 2020 was the date decided for the UDAAN 2020 and the event plan was cultural fest from 2pm to 5:30pm and Prize distribution from 6pm to 9pm followed by dinner.

We were very clear in mind to start the cultural program from 2:30pm onwards irrespective of the crowd (Indian mentality to reach late always). As per plan, the program started at 2:35pm with lighiting of lamp and dance program followed. Though the students were not proffessional but their practice made it look as if they were prepared for a long time. My daughters Vaivi and Srivi too participated in dance program. (I ensure to practice my preaching at home too)

The final program was the Fashion show with theme of Unity of India. 14 girls in 7 pairs represented various states and religion of India viz) Maharashtrian, Mommedian, Goan, Kerala, Punjabi, Gujrati and Kashmiri. Once their performance ended, the teachers potraying different Inspirational Leaders of India entered the stage. A special mention of the teachers and the character potrayed: 1) Harshal Sir - Veer Savarkar, 2) Bapat sir - Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 3) Riyaz Sir - Bhagat singh, 4) Dinesh Sir - Rajguru, 5) Avishkar - Sukhdev, 6) Komal - Jijau and 7) Myself (Vishu) - Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. No doubt students enjoyed every moment of these special charismatic leaders. There were goosebumps as described by many students and the energy level reached the roof tops.

Post the fashion show, we had jam session for 40 minutes for all. Students and teachers dance their heart out and enjoy. Many students attend Udaan for these 40 minutes only. Special mention of Ganesh Shenoy, Swapnil who agreed to my request to operate the DJ system of the hall and help us in the smooth conduct of Udaan.

The second part of the function was Prize Distribution for all those who had performed exceptionally well in their academics during 2018-19. As I had mentioned earlier, we also felicitated students who won the Heramb Quiz Challenge - an online quiz conducted for 3 months from Oct 2019 to Dec 2019 based on MCQs covering entire commerce syllabus. We had Weekly winners, Monthly winner and a overall Quiz Winner. Also, students who had performed well during our weekly class test in XII commerce were felicitated and a Student of the Year Prize was awarded.

The entire formal function was hosted by Harshal sir and Riyaz sir beautifully. Progress Report was read out by Bapat sir and names of prize winners was called out by myself. On the wings were Akshay Kawade, Akshay Gaikwad, Karthik sir helping arranging Students as per Serial Number. The prizes handing over was taken care by Payal, Avishkar, Santosh, Vaibhav efficiently helped by Gomathy, Gauri and Bhuvana. Samim sir and Biju sir occupied the dias along with Chief Guest for the day. The prize distribution ensured over 190 prizes were awarded in the next 3 hours.

Udaan 2020 was graced by the presence of Dr. Adhir Ambavane. Adhir sir as he is fondly called by students agreed to be our Chief Guest. Special thanks to Gulabrao Patil sir, Devendra Mane, Rashi Kadam, Santosh Bachav, Pranil Chaudhari, Samir Kazi, Razia Kazi, Babu Sawant, Vijay Parab for coming down to attend the program.

This Udaan had one more unique attraction. The prize winners were awarded with Medals, Trophies and Discount coupons. These discount coupouns were provided by Hotel Food Platform, House of Champions (Gym), Infobyte Computers, ICA -Institute of Computer Accountants, AVtech technologies (Speakers/headphones) - which are primarily useful for students. Thank you each one of you for this sponsorship.

The function concluded by a speech from Adhir sir. The highlight of the prize distritution was Gold Coins won by 3 students who had scored above 90% in previous academic year. Ms.Sudarmati Konar, Ms.Sreelakshmi Nair of XI commerce and Ms. Sneha Nair of XII commerce were the True Winners!!!

A delicious spread of yummy food was offered to all invitees post Vote of thanks proposed by Bapat sir. The National Anthem concluded the program in true sense. The prize winners and their parents were the invitees of the program. Photos/Videos of prize winners were taken, lots of selfies with teachers and students is always a good experience and ofcourse, chit chats with food create a different level of energy in the food hall.

Special thanks to Suresh Mani (Ex student of Heramb) for being there the entire event clicking pics and providing me the same at the earliest to put it up here. 

Udaan 2020 was a wonderful experience in many aspects!!! Looking forward for yet another edition in the next year with lots of entertainment, fun, discipline and hardwork that yields good results. Sharing the highlight of Udaan cultural moment - Entry of Jijau and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj!!!