SOIS works.

In step representatives of SOIS. The new batch of students of Indian origin is received at the gates of Changi Airport. We get a survival guide, some senior-friends and a phone number (no points for guessing whose). Month-long from then, SOIS members orient the ‘freshies’ with the ways and lays of Singapore and NUS. Life is good.

Time flies and in a whisper it’s the mid-semester. We’ve all been down and studying. It’s time to awaken the dormant muscles – its sports time – its Kreeda. Teams of Indian students compete in this exclusive sports and games event. Competitiveness is soon lost on us and all we have is fun – pure and unadulterated. Though they did award a Champion team but strangely all of us were smiling and cheering as we went back.

April arrives and the nostalgia of a vibrant Indian spring stirs us up. We lend our voices, strum the guitars and beat the drums. We ride to NTU for Tarang and flaunt our musical tidings. This one-day-give-it-all affair has NTU winning the overall trophy – but then we’re the hosts next year.

The year is done with – we’ve been here for one – away from home – in a home SOIS has helped us build.

Exams finished soon and everyone was home as soon as they could. A well deserved first holiday – one month of relaxation and we were back to our ‘karmasthali’. Second semester meant studies were going to get harder – and so was the fun.

Suddenly SOIS thought we were frolicking too much. So they sat us straight-faced at the UCC and we acted couth for a change. Being staged was our own SOIS play, The Mirror has Two Hands, for the annual Nautanki. However sombre we might have been through the play, at the closing-presentatio

Some topics in this essay:
Teams Indian, Thank SOIS, Comes March, , NTU Tarang, Lo Behold, Pongal SRC, Pakistanis India-Pak, Period April, NUS Life, classroom help, help sessions, classroom help sessions, †home,