It was early in the morning. Outside it was a new dawning of a chilled day in December. All the students at Lady Doak’s hostels were sleeping by snuggling inside their bed sheets, dreaming that the dawn breaks a little late in this cuddly weather.
I had no choice but to getup early and get ready to do the volunteer work that I signed up as a part of my services at the Wilcox Chapel. Yet, it is always a joy to use what you have for the Lord. I got ready and walked up to the next dorm where Amala Jeyashali, my junior would join me to do the work.
Around 5:30 AM, me and Amala walked towards the lovely chapel while all our other friends were still in their cozy cubes. On our way to the chapel, we crossed the mess, which was very busy. The old women who worked there busily chopped the vegetables and prepared meals for the hundreds of young girls which will be ready by 7:00 AM onwards.
Once we reached the Chapel, we took our colour chalkpiece box and the duster. We prayed and headed back to the blackboard which was in front of the chapel and wrote the Bible verses related to the Christmas day.
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have eternal life - John 3:16
Then, we decorated the board with Christmas themed drawings. Yes, Christmas celebration and plannings were executed at the chapel and the Hostels from Day 1 of December.
THE COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION.
One of the most awaited celebration in our college is the Community Christmas celebration. It was held in the Golden Jubilee auditorium. We, Doakians, gathered and celebrated the day with triumphal roar. It was one of the most energetic gatherings we had at our Lady Doak college.
The mandatory programmes were the manger scene, songs from choir, choreographies, skit and the Santa Claus dance. The Santa’s dance with the jingle bells song in the background was a hit among us. Santa was running through the cheering students. The Santa shook hands with some of them, danced with some of them and running joyfully by showering chocolates over the students. Every Doakian who got the chocolate brimmed with joy like a child.
No Christmas celebration is complete without Nativity Scene. I felt so blessed when I got the chance to play the role of mother Mary in the manger scene. The scene was totally angelic. The gentle presence of Joseph and assuring presence of angels, the shepherds who were at awe, the mighty presence of the wisemen, who were following the star and their shining gifts took us all to Bethlehem itself. I was sitting still by carrying the gentle baby Jesus close to my heart.
In another community Christmas celebration, along with the other friends we did choreography. That was my first time to do the choreo before the gathering of the whole college. It was a powerful experience which strengthened me so much to face huge number of people at a time. After we finished the choreo all of us were holding the hands of each other and praying. I was shaking the whole time of prayer with awe and joy of the Lord. The song of the choreo was “Ummai pola indha ulagile”. Another choreo we did where we used the satin ribbon was for the song “Everlasting Father”. We were given the famous pudding cake and spicy mixture by the college after the celebration. Those stage performance which we did as a group developed the team spirit and more confidence in all of us.
CHRISTMAS AT CHAPEL
One evening, I went in to the chapel as I was invited to decorate the Chapel for Christmas. We have been warned strictly that we should not use the cello tapes in the wall while doing the Christmas decoration. Many students from the hostels came. I was standing with Brindha and was brainstorming on what to do with the instruction. It was Dr. Synthia Mary Mathew, the then Chaplain passed that instruction. We started to use some strong thread and tied it the nails that were already there in few places and hung green and red sparkling colour papers to adorn the walls and placed few Christmas wreath to decorate the wooden shelf.
At the corner of the altar was the Christmas tree, which was beautifully decorated with the Christmassy tiny decorative items like tiny bells, santas, glowing balls, and gift boxes. Once we were very fortunate to decorate the chapel Notice board during Christmas time as hostellers( SJDH ).
Chapel was the most busy place during Christmas days. It was flooded with activities. The Chaplain and the SCM leaders delivered the announcements on the title or theme for Christmas. All the competitions were held on those selected themes every year. There were competitions for verse writing, essay Writing, solo singing, group singing, drawing, memory verse writing, quiz, skit and choreography. It was pure joy to practice choreography with friends and juniors. We searched for theme based songs and invited friends to participate, juniors like Jebamalar, Vincy, Pauline, Beryl, Varshiya, Diana, Shirly sis, Evangelne sis and many others who gave their best with so much enthusiasm to bring glory to God. Skit competition was a huge hit among all the competition. Each hostel performed a single skit representing their hostels. The best skit of all was to be performed on the day of Hostel Christmas Celebration and at community christmas celebration.
Once I acted as a “Sin Eater” character in the skit which was named after it. The sin eater was dressed in complete black dress, only the hands of the character can be seen with huge sharp nails. The audience were thrilIed at our performance. It was directed by Carolyn Rubavathy, enacted by many of us including Beryl, Anita and Pauline. We won the second place for the skit. We were representing the PRB hostel then. We were so joyful to perform it again in JX auditorium.
Once I participated in a quiz with my friend Angella, who won the memory verse competition many times. She was a person well known for her memory power. The secret behind it was her thirst for memorizing Bible verses.
Another unforgettable performance was our group singing performance we used the various types of clapping of our hands for the song named “Our God is an awesome God". Certificates and books were awarded for prize winners.
CAROL ROUNDS
What is Christmas without Carols ?
Chapel office bearers , chapel representatives, assistant representatives, Professors, all of us went for carol service for a day in the campus. The music of the Christmas songs filled the whole campus that day.
All the hostels from the Pandiyan Hall to Amy Hostel were decorated with lights, lamps, flowers, stars for Christmas. Hostels were competing with each other to win the prize for best hostel Christmas decoration. Some hostels were decorated to give snow like look, fully in white, some set the manger scene on a mountain setup, some had grown grass and gave a farm kind of setting, some had waterfall setting.
It was a joy to visit hostels during Christmas days. As I served as a chapel representative and assistant representative for many years, I took part in the carol rounds representing SCM. We started the rounds from the chapel and sang the carols in every hostel. Everybody were waiting curiously to see the Santa who was also doing the carol singing with us. Once when Sweetlin akka dressed up as a Santa, I ran and gave her a tight hug. Hostellers gave shouts of joy and welcomed us when we neared their hostels. PRB hostellers lit up candles in all their floors to make it very special. The SCM president and others carried special gifts to each hostel. Mostly it was a beautiful Bible verse frame. It was such adventurous, joyful carol rounds.
We also visited the houses of the non teaching staff who were living in the quarters inside the college campus. And we got the priviledge of visiting the house of our principal mam Dr. Mercy Pushpalatha, which was inside our campus. We received some yummy treats from her. I was totally thrilled when visiting her house.
Another date was fixed to visit all the professors who were willing to welcome us in their house for carol singing. All of us dressed at our best and boarded the yellow coloured college van. We were singing the carols all along the way to each professor’s house. Each house was in different areas of the city. That was the only time I felt like I covered all the places in Madurai. We visited the house of Dr. Roopa, we took pictures in the spiral staircase of her house and near the musical instruments that were in her house. We saw something similar to a notice board at her house where she pinned beautiful photos of her grandchildren. Another peculiar and intresting thing was her collecting of small drinking glasses which she collected from her visits to various countries.
I never knew that the trip would unfold so many beautiful things about our professors.
We visited the house of Vanitha mam of English department, Dr. Rachel Barnabas the then HOD of English Department, Dr. Suka Joshua welcomed us in to her house with a warm smile and gave us delicious plum cakes. When we returned to our hostels by late night our bags were full of cakes, chocolates, book marks etc..
Another heart touching visit was our visit to the Meenakshi Mission Hospital. When we went there a team of doctors welcomed us and allowed us to sing the songs of Good news at some of the halls where sick patients were there. We not only sang Christmas songs but also songs of healing. Some people had tears in their eyes while they were listening to our singing. We earnestly prayed to God for their healing and moved on. A team of doctors thanked us for visiting their patients and gave us a return gift in memory of that visit.
HOSTEL CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION.
The hostel Christmas celebration mostly held at GJ auditorium. On a marked date evening, all of us, the Pandiyans, Wilcox girls, Gayloardians, Harilakshmi girls, the great James Doakians, PRB ladies, Amy Hall girls dressed well for the celebration and gathered at the GJ auditorium.
We sung Christmas songs, we had skit from the hostel which won the skit competition at the chapel. I never forget the day when we sung the song, "Deva Maindhan Piranthaar", wrote by my dad at the Hostel Christmas Celebration.
I did the compering with Santa Claus on the stage. A junior of mine donned the Santa costume that day. While compering, I announced on the mic, "Now, Santa will talk to all of you". But then my nervous junior, from behind the Santa mask said, "Akka, Neengalae Pesirunga akka". (Meaning - Please do the talking yourself), this left the audience in splits.
Santa then delivered the Christmas message of the love of Christ for the mankind.
We did the manger scene by playing the song of Chris Tomlin named “Here I am to worship”. We were given Christmas feast at the end of the celebration. When I was at PRB, we took our food and formed a big circle to eat together. In that particular day all the hostel girls had this habit of visiting every hostel and taking pictures near the decoration. It was fun.
At our Lady Doak college the Christmas season was filled with joy, love and unity. We celebrated the birth of Christ together as Doakians. We celebrated by decorating, singing, participating in events and programmes. Yes, we were living heaven on earth.
Merry Christmas dear all...
Comments