Mumbai Anime Club is two years old now!! Being a new member I can neither comment on its progress so far nor can I give an accurate description of the Meet itself as there are people much better suited to the job than I. But what I CAN write about is the amazing experience all of us volunteers had in our attempt to make the Meet successful. This is just my rendition of it.
My involvement started with a simple idea for the play. Nothing more than that. I never thought anyone would have taken it seriously, but the big-hearted MAC members did, and voila! soon enough a rough draft of the play was formed! And that, folks, is how it ALL began...
Being a certified jobless person, I decided to volunteer for pretty much everything. It at times felt like a bad idea (read 'several times'), but in the end I was kind of glad, considering the number of awesome people i have met and the number of incredible memories I have had - from simultaneously jamming and cooking Maggi, to eating chocolate sandwiches under the torrents of the first Mumbai rains; from devouring extra pavs for pav bhaji after an exhausting shopping day at Crawford's, to playing antaakshari with loud, hoarse voices. These past couple of months have gone by in such a blur!
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| maestro at work |
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| our aspiring Maggi cooks - Cassius and Mizu |
But life has a strange tendency to complicate itself. We have had a more than enough share of drama on our hands as well. These were the moments when I felt so hopeless, so lost and so defeated. Chances were slim, hopes were bleak and our excitement was overshadowed by the growing tension. But then suddenly we got news of an alternate location being available for the Meet! And that was what fueled all of our enthusiasm all over again...this time, double-fold!
It was at around this time that Ritu, Kamya and Eisha and I decided to make the art stall for the Meet. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, we decided this only when there were 5 days left for the Meet. We all tried our best, along with Rajasi being considerate enough to contribute, and we finally managed to to put something up! And well, I must admit, all 5 of us did put up a good show, especially the mind-bogglingly beautiful bookmarks made by the twins Eisha and Kamya!
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| pretty, ne? |
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| soooo many!! *_* |
The other segment of the Meet that urged several impromptu changes was the cake. The Cake! I am sure all of the members at the Meet must have had a slice of it. Its ingredients included, but were not restricted to, 2 kilos of chocolate, 500g of flour, 6 eggs, a bucketful of hard work, two tons of panic and stress, with one final sprinking of satisfaction and delicious relief in the end. In spite of all the last moment changes, Adrian and his colleague (whose name I still do not know...oops.) were patient enough to see it through. Special mention goes to Gauri, Brinda and Yogesh for helping out.
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| the final product!! |
I hope you all enjoyed the performance that we, that is, Ritu, Kamya, Eisha, Padmanabhan and I put together. What y
ou all might not have known is the fact that we almost shelved the singing because we didn't have more than 2 serious practice sessions. But then Ritu and Reetam saved us all with their awesome guitar skills and the performance was salvaged. They are the absolute heroes of the performance!
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| singing for the love of anime |
The play, Wasabi Vibes and the Okonomiyaki were the three main contexts under which quite a number of unofficial meets happened, with our generous host being Yogi Bear. The time we spent making it all happen greatly overpowers the mistakes we did at the Meet itself. Making the play with Ghag, Bhan, Kanse, Melon, Reetam, Zohra, Mizu, Cassius, Elsie, Ankur, Nikhil, Leon, Pushkar and Rajasi has been the primary reason for all the 'majja' i have had these vacations. In spite of all that you guys have been put through, you never lost faith and I can never ever thank you guys enough - for every single moment, and for every single memory!
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| and kanse is too short! |
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| our tobi darling! |
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| definitely not a maestro -_- |
And that leaves the only other event which i volunteered for, and that was palmistry. There is nothing much to say here, except that I hope I did not offend anyone, or hurt anybody's feelings. I am so sorry if I rushed any of you customers... I tried my best to give each and everyone of you as much of a detailed reading as i could in the limited amount of time.
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| palmist taking a photo break |
The other events of the Meet, like the screening, origami, tarot and face-painting and tattoo-making, were the ones which i did not meddle myself in unfortunately (or maybe fortunately! ). Their credit goes to Yasser, Elsie, Reetam and Ritu and Kamya respectively. If it hadn't been for them, the Meet wouldn't have been as amazing as it was!!
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| And didn't we all just ADORE daily lives of high school boys?? |
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| Fairytail FTW!! \m/ |
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| tarot |
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| origami glasses! |
Saying that the Meet was successful is an understatement. It. Was. BEYOND EPIC! Beyond epic Okonomiyaki, courtesy of Gauri, Brinda, Yogesh and Nikhil. Beyond epic cosplays by Leon, Ankur, Reetam, Cassius, Elsie and Kanse. Beyond epic Wasabi Vibes performance by Reetam, Ankur and Cassius....EVERYTHING can be rightfully and scientifically classified under the genome of Beyondisetae epicus!! (okay i am kinda running out of adjectives now...)
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| and THAT, my friends, is how an okonomiyaki looks like! |
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| watashi wa L desu |
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| The Joker vs. Byakuya |
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| lets put a smile on that face! |
After all the hard work, it made us volunteers so very happy to see such great views on Facebook. The only regret which I hold is that that I didn't get the chance to interact with all the other members present there, new and old due to my crazy schedule. I wish I get the chance to talk to you all in the next meet when hopefully, i wouldn't be so preoccupied in running here and there!
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! |
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [2] |
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [3] |
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [4] |
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [5] |
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| best 30 bucks spent on a prop! [6] |
MAC has been so gracious to me. So warm, so friendly and so welcoming. If I start thanking each and everyone, then this blog would run for several more pages (and wouldn't everyone just lurvvee that?! ). i genuinely hope MAC progresses much much further, at a much faster rate, with more and more members joining in. With the colossal roller coaster ride that MAC has to offer, I'd like to quote Bilbo Baggins by saying, 'I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!'
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| and this is just the half of the total turnout! |
On this note, I'd like to mention:
1. Photo courtesy, Gopish.
2. Sorry if i have forgotten anyone's name...my memory isn't very reliable.
3. For the Love of Anime FTW!!
4. and last but not the least, one...two....three....YASUUUUUUUU!!!!!
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| so what if I can't be seen in the group pic? yassu baba gets his own! XD |
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