Unforgettable

Not exactly a story Its an article, but hey this is writing too. Your reviews are appreciated

Unforgettable.

If you have ever been to the Royal-Thomian Big match you have probably encountered a chap wearing a straw hat, carrying a load of books and proudly flashing his badge everywhere he goes. These fellows I have been told work tirelessly for months to bring you the Big match souvenir. A tome of a book that carries in its pages most of what we hold dear about the big match.

In the year 2008 there surfaced another group of passionate students who spend 3 days running to and fro the lengths of the SSC. These boys wear a hat, a pass around their neck and a walkie talkie at their waist. It is because of their efforts that you may at any time revisit the sweet joyous memories of the big matches that have passed. It is because of them that those unlucky enough to fail making it to the SSC may catch the action in real time. Who are they?  “They” are none other than the MURCLIVE crew.

It was my first time being a part of this amazing crew and I soon learnt that preparing a 3 day live streaming of the worlds greatest cricket encounter was no light task. There are the funds, equipment, manpower, licensing, authorization and so much more that made the completion of this feat all the more daunting.

Our first challenges arrived 2 weeks before the match itself. With the guidance and support of our amazing seniors we set out to fulfill what was to me a seemingly impossible task, “Rs.600,000 in 2 weeks”. However the dedication of our crew enabled us to cover this budget in an extremely short time. Our first challenge ceased to be a challenge at all.

With that out of the way our seniors began training us on the more technical aspects of things and the mantra of our training “your camera is your brush; the world is your canvas USE it” the words of our project chair Nisal Aiya is still etched in my mind. We learnt as much as possible; thinking about things like panning, aperture, noise reduction, focus, shutter speed, ISO and a host of other stuff that still hurt my brain.

I have perhaps painted the picture that the preparation for this feat was a bed of roses; I deeply apologize for that because that would be tremendously far away from the truth. Like any other project our crew faced a gazillion challenges, but what I truly admired was how we as a crew worked together to successfully counter each and every one of them.

Alas the 12^th of February dawned upon us and all those sleepless nights, painfully long and boring meetings, classes cut (which I honestly didn’t mind) was going to pay off for everyone, top board, junior and senior committee. All 20 members of our crew were at the SSC press box by 5.30am, I might be wrong but we were probably the first set of school students to set foot on the SSC grounds that day. Everyone was hyped up with great expectations for the 3 days ahead. And believe me our expectations were not only met they were surpassed. We had another meeting and were divided into our rosters. At 8.00am with a bright blue pass around my neck I set out to the SSC grounds struggling to remember where on earth cam 1 was stationed.

After around an hour of searching I finally found the camera in front of the boy’s tent. As I switched on the camera and realized I could see virtually any part of the grounds with this I had a queer sense of pride and motivation flow through my veins. My selfish pride was cut short when the guy at the vision mix started screaming into my ear “take this shot take that shot”. Apart from going deaf during these 3 days I was given various responsibilities like vision mixing, photography, conducting interviews and so on. The experience I gained from these tasks was priceless. The whole junior crew went home with a lot of experiences from this project.

It would however be greatly wrong of me to portray my MURCLIVE experience as all work and no play. It was in fact play, play and more play. Setting aside that working itself for the media unit to me is happiness, playing absolute hell with our walkie talkies, rescuing vidcams from the rain, viewing with awe the antics of our drunk old boys from the press box, making friends with the old boys various tents, dragging people through mud, food fights staying at the press box overnight, the Rs we gave, the awesome top board treat on the last day, singing sessions and the pranks we played on the top board are a few of the many memories I will cherish from this project forever.

Being a part of the MURCLIVE crew for us juniors was a life changing experience. Working with such a diverse, innovative and elakiri set of people taught me many things but what I took most from this project is a deeper love for mother Royal. I now have a deeper understanding on why my seniors sacrifice so much for her, and why the senior prefects are more than willing to spend an extra year with her. It is because of her that we are who we are “Royalists”. I have decided to stick firmly to my oath and “…will strive to hand down this College not only less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was handed down to us”.

Finally I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our top board that will be passing out next week. Thank you Lasindu Aiya, Vimukthi Aiya, Sithum Aiya, Chamatch Aiya and co. for allowing me to be a part of this amazing project and supporting me in all my endeavors within the past year. We will seriously miss you guys and I wish yalll the very best of luck in your future endeavors.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     -Kaif Sally-