Wednesday, August 11, 2010

MAC Meetup No. IV

The adjective "Epic" had just redefined with the advent of M.A.C. The 4th Official Mumbai Anime Club Meet-up turned out to be one heck of a grand meet. Surely enough, the hard work of the organizers paid off, and deservingly so. :)

Improving stuff is hard and it's even harder when it comes to lots of people. Mumbai Anime Meet-up No. IV is one such example. With the count increasing by 25% from last 32 people to around 40+ this time, it would be with no doubt written in the history of MAC in a gold pen with a silver tip and royal ink.

Now those attending would have experienced the events that occurred during the meet. However there was a lot of stuff happening in the back that only the organizing staff knew. It all started the day before the meet-up took place, i.e. Saturday...

The Day Before

Supposedly, everyone who was organizing (namely the staff) was called up a day prior to discuss about the activities that would be taking place. The Anime Quiz, the hilarious Drama and other planned activities needed to be discussed and enacted. It was around 5pm when most of the members started arriving and thus began work.

Firstly, the place needed a touch up (like always). And thus with a broom in their hands and a smile on their face, M.A.C’s official cleaning crew began cleaning up the place. Not a speck of spider web or dust was left behind. I still remember Rachi-san shying away from the lights due to fear of cockroaches (lmao!!). However, Daanish courageously took the responsibility and helped clean those hard to reach areas.


(The official cleaning crew of MAC ^__^)

Meanwhile, the rough draft of the play was ready. Popo-san was ORIGINALLY supposed to play Piccolo, but since he wasn’t able to come, the responsibility of playing Piccolo got handed over to me (sigh!! Curse you POPO). ~_~ The actors sincerely got involved in reading the scripts and preparing for their roles. After nearly 2 and a half hours of practice, the drama club finally managed to get a decent play going. Rachi-san and Sammy gave us awesome ideas to make the characters realistic and funny. XD

After the practice was done, it was time to put up the posters, a task which turned out to be quite funny. XD. I remember Sammy and Rishabh picking up Akshay-san and then Anirudh so that they could put up the posters. Poor Anirudha got touched in so many places (!_!), and our dear prez Akshay-san was commented as “being too heavy” by Sammy =P Finally the stool was brought and with it, the posters were hung. ^__^ Something else was hung behind Akshay-san’s t-shirt (which I managed to take a snapshot of). ;) I think it was Sammy who put the tape XD

The Meet-Up


Work began early for the staff, who came to the HQ before time. Niwa-san and others hung the most adorable Anime poster (>.<) at the gate of the HQ. (I’m so much in love with it, sigh). Meanwhile, all the actors had a wonderful time laughing over Piccolo’s turban -.- No matter how much we’d try, it’d keep falling off XD. Although, Sammy came to the rescue once again, and managed to make that turban sorta thingy, HOLD its position. I for one found it quite embarrassing to go down to the hall with that THING on my head. >_> Especially the antenna. Popo was enjoying it the most it seems. o_o

Now, let there be envy. >:) The day started with introductions as usual with some usually stage frightened old members :P. The orders were taken from all the members who’d wished to eat something from McDonalds. As new members kept on arriving, the excitement for the events increased more. One could see the group of ladies going “Ohh how kawaiiii!” over the Anime figures kept on the table. Akshay-san duly pointed out to Niwa-san that it’s the right time to take a picture of girls going crazy over Anime. XD


(Yes, the girls did seem to have a mighty fun time :D)

Soon enough though, the activities started. It was time for the quiz. The hard questions had many questioning themselves with "Am i really an anime fan?" Around 25 questions were asked, which everyone had difficulty answering. (I should be careful with the questions next time >.>) Call it luck or call it a miracle or just a random choice, the winners were Sammy and Popo with 6 questions correctly answered. A (free) manga choice was then available for them to choose. Lucky dogs. !_! Although the girls did put up a good competition and they seemed to know the answers for real =P


(Rachi-san asking the questions from the quiz XD)

It was then time for the play ^__^.



The very first MAC play had people hooked on. The actors were eager to finish it off quickly :P. The play concerned some famous anime characters who had heard about the awesome MAC and were getting ready to reach the HQ and the experience they had on the way. The play had the lookers’ lmao-ing and rofl-ing with the awesome Picollo and Ban-Ginji act =)). And how can you forget the non-otaku aka Nikhil who played his part really well. U rock dude :P. However, for ALL of us, the surprise of the act was Gogo-san. The raw energy and intensity through which he performed (believe me, we were NOT expecting this) was awesome. Great work, Taichou!! \m/

With me playing Piccolo , Dodo playing Ban, Akshay playing Ginji ,Nikhil playin the loser non-otaku and Gogo playing Goku, the play was a runaway hit with 100 views and counting on the YouTube page. Arigatou Rachi-san aka Director-sama for your awesome work both on the script and making actors out of all of us. :) Drama club has been OFFICIALLY declared open. We’re looking for members to join in, so don’t be afraid and PARTICIPATE. ^__^

The food arrived shortly, and was eaten in a very organized manner with some exceptions like Chantel >.< who in fact was very supportive despite the mistake. So nice. :) We promise to not do the same blunder again (or let McDonalds do the same xD) Another highlight of the day was the very first Movie screening. As Niwa-san started the screening people's curiosity won over their blabbering :P. The AMV was bloody awesome. Also the K-On and the Ragnarok videos were pretty cool. The movie being aired was Summer Wars and people didn't move from their seats till they saw "The End" written in colored font on the TV screen :P. *Pun intended* XD. Sigh, for the 2nd time in a row, the DVD Player somehow failed us. However we did get to watch more than 75% of the Anime, unlike last time. So its good progress XD It was then time to have the Group Discussions, which was formally explained by Akshay-san. The discussion went on about “Indian Anime Club” aka IAC and members were explained about the plans in setting up an All India Anime Convention in the near future. Members were excited to hear about it, especially more when Path-san and the staff found it suitable to have that Convention in our city itself. \m/ M.A.C also had lots of new things to add like memberships, karaoke rounds, more plays, more quizzes and a sketching contest which Akshay-san rightfully pointed out. Many members including first timers contributed wholeheartedly for the MAC Fund :O :) We were not expecting such a generous contribution X_X, but I guess it just shows how much fun they had in the meet. And this it just motivates us more to make M.A.C expand and get even better. ^__^ Arigatou to all those who donated. :) After the usual photo sessions around the Anime poster, people moved out vowing to return again. And the usual crowd, went off to Jugheads for the After-party. You can end the envy now :P.

5 comments:

Pyratic said...

*thumbs up*

rachi said...

awesome ^___^v

Abhishek said...

Meetup IV - Ownage \m/

Unknown said...

hey u forgot Akshay screaming over a tennis ball
but anyways sugoii work
just loved it

KuraYami said...

Hehe abhi u were a awesome piccolo..let popo be jealous >:P