It was on Friday 22 March 2022 that a new student organization HOUR planned and hosted an event to commemorate International Mother Earth Day.
The event started early in the day around 10.30 am, with the entrance of various pioneers and dignitaries in the field of architecture. As all momentous occasions are marked, this one also was marked by the lamp lighting. The awe and admiration of the audience were palatable and the crowd was filled with electric energy never seen before.
After welcoming the guest, we had talented students displaying their literary skills with a wonderful speech. Soon after that, we had a short planting ceremony to celebrate mother earth and make a positive impact on nature.
We had the guests coming up and enlightening us all about aspects of architecture we weren’t aware existed. Soon after that, we had a little but impactful dance to thank the guests for coming to the event.
The hosts Sonal Poddar and Kartik Saxena kept the audience pining for more. We had a presentation from the chief guest Mr. Surinder Bagha, President FSAI Chandigarh Chapter on sustainable architecture. The chief guest then introduced and established the FSAI chapter in LPU held by an oath-taking ceremony and President, Jasmeet Singh, speech.
The ceremony continued with a speculative Dance-Drama: Dance of Glory by Vanshika Kukreti which was choreographed and performed by Vanshika Kukreti on the stage, showing how harsh human beings are on nature and how they kill the animals for their greed and sham-pride. Prof. Himmat Bhatia then carried out a short speech on conserving nature and another short speech by Kartik Saxena on the importance of the day. The first part of the day ended with the amazing poetry recitation by Dipali Diniya – ‘प्रकृति और खूबसूरती’. The art exhibition started then, where the paintings, digital arts, photographs were exhibited.
The uproarious second part of the day was hosted by the duo – Sourav Saha and Sonal Podder. The celebrations commenced with Dheeraj K.N, a 2nd-year student from the Bachelor of Architecture department, who shared his beautiful acoustical singing voice and left the crowd absolutely mesmerized. He sang a total of 6 songs as the audience couldn’t stop asking for more. The show was carried forward with an amazing video, Pasoori: Art of Self Expression, prepared by the second-year students of the Architecture Department.
The next event for the day was presented by Mr. Pradeep Barod who received a bouquet and showed us how we could utilize waste products and make them into origami. He guided us throughout the whole process of creating the origami. He did his magic and left the audience totally dumbstruck, when he, with the flick of a hand, turned a normal piece of paper into a beautiful flower. Pradeep sir then presented the flower to our very own HOD, Mr. Nagendra Narayan, who was beyond impressed by his skills and praised him. He continued to show us more of his talented works leaving the crowd even more dumbstruck.
The evening continued with an informative video presentation prepared by Mr. Mostafizur Rahman sir. He documented his trip to East Kolkata wetlands and shared all his knowledge on the wetlands with us, through the video.
Next, on the stage, came Johnson, a B.Arch. 5th-year student. He started off with a jaw-dropping impersonation of Barak Obama, Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, etc. and went on to make Formula 1 race car noises, all with his mouth. He even did the impression of the famous song “Heal the World” by Michael Jackson for the occasion. The audience had the mobile flashlights on and enjoyed thoroughly, singing along.
Moving on, we had the HOUR Felicitation where all the founding members of the organization were welcomed on stage and gave their own introduction to the audience and shared their establishing journey.
We then had Sheikh Sibat on stage, who enlightened us with a very informative interview with the very qualified Ar. Tara Singla. Tara ma’am shared her knowledge about architecture and being sustainable with it and the audience enjoyed the conversation and drank every single word that she had to offer. Her words, “Sustainability is not expensive, it’s just intelligence” left an imprint on the minds of the audience.
After the formal session, Vanshika Kukreti and Naina Sharma entertained us with a beautiful dance performance they choreographed themselves.
We also had Dr. Sourav Lakahnpal joining us in the end to felicitate our guests and HOUR, he too left deep and everlasting impressions on us.
The final event for the day was by the very talented Johnson and Parichay Sunar Gadaily who left the crowd hyped by their amazing beatboxing. They had the audience jamming and excited. And to add to the excitement, Abhay Tripathi joined them on stage with his skilled rapping. He then moved on to freestyle rapping as the audience kept throwing words at him, which he incorporated into his rap. It was a perfect ending for the perfect day.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Sourav Saha, CEO, HOUR and Sheikh Sibat, Co-CEO, Hour, officially concluding the LPU’s International Mother Earth Day 2022 celebrations.
