11th May 2013. Today was the biggg day - the very day because of which I got the opportunity for this GRAND vacation. And it was awesome !
I was seeing Minni's (my brilliant - younger sister - who pursued her Master's from Fuqua school of Business) college - the DUKE university for the first time - and it looked amazing ! There were 50 years of Blacks signages every where - which signified that this was 50th year of Blacks - studying in the institute. What a way to celebrate and respect nationalities across the world - was the thought in my mind.
We had our close family friends visiting the city for Minni's convocation. Me and Mins were overwhelmed with the gesture of our uncles to come all the way and make us feel belonged in the country of Americans.
For the first time I realized that convocation is such a BIGG event ! It is very customary in nature. (I hv pics in my camera - which I will upload soon - for now some clicked from phn for quick sharing).
There was a long walk of about 15 minutes from the parking to the Basket ball court - where the event was scheduled. The basket ball court - was huugee with flags of popular Blue devils (Blue devils - is the name given to all students of Duke) - who have made it BIG and even not so big ! Also there were parents , relatives, friends , spouses , children etc etc of all the graduating students as a part of the audience. The excitement could be felt with the sound , chirps and whistles by people enthralled to see their love one being graduated on this day .
The ceremony (there was a live streaming of ceremony as well for ppl who couldnt physically be a part of the event):
A stage - flanked with flags of some 30+ countries - representative of the countries - from which the students come to Duke to study - signifying the multi cultural community learning experience. And it looked so pretty. Was wondering - what if all the nations can actually be so close knit - what a world it would be to live in !
There was a procession - that was led by a live band (dont know what exactly is it called) - and everyone in customary costumes and the graduation robe ... Close to 400 people graduated from this school of business that day. There were students with garlands - and I thought may be they are specially honored students for some achievements - only later to realize that they were garlands like we have in India on any auspicious occasion - to ornate the "star" of any event like a birthday boy/girl etc.
Only difference was - that people were sporting the garlands on the dress code of the graduation robe - and it was different ! I was wondering - that the customs across the world are so close to each other ! In some cases - we take them as customary rituals , while in others we sport them with pride !
Procession and seating was followed by - usual round of speeches. Only difference was - there there were three student representatives who spoke and they were exemplary in their oration skills as well as content. They were actually better than the chief guest and the dean. What made them better was - the experience that they spoke about. Also one of the statements that I would never forget was on optimism and it goes like - " Whenever the glass is half filled - we should be positive enough to believe it is half filled and enthusiastic enough to make it completely full ". One interesting part was - that the institute as well as students urged one another to maintain their strong alumni network and stay connected to the institute.
The students presented some amount of money as a token of respect and contribution to the institute.
Then there was round of handing over the degree to the students . Kept waiting for Minni's turn to come - and flash ! It went with a blink. Couldn't really capture THE moment in my camera- as it was a quick walk and she almost ran :( .. It never occurred to me that I could hv taken a video instead of still pic. I was too far from the ceremony stage - and for the first time I realized the need to REDUCTION od picture taking time that should be considered by the popular camera companies.. as the time to process the picture - actually takes it to the next frame !
The ceremony got over - and we were asked to move to the Fuqua building for reception. About 10 minutes walk - yet again. And while be started walking - we saw rains. And I saw it for the first time in real - that it was raining - like 5 feet away from me and not on me and in a couple of minutes it was raining on me ! We all got drenched - well rain doesn't spare - even if u are like really dressed up - in the best of attire .. rains are non partial you see unless you have umbrellas.
All soaked and drenched , we moved for reception - where there was food . The rain was very well managed by the authorities in college - with special volunteers designated to the task of guiding people and warning about wet floor and even distributing towels. Towels was - like super management by the management school ! Food was good - to my pleasant surprise - there was a good choice of vegetarian varieties.
We spent a lot of time there - checking out the school , meeting Min's friends and just exploring the place.
THE EVENING
One of our uncles who came with family left , while the other uncle stayed back to spend some time with us :) . Mins drove us around her campus - showed us the tallest building of Durham - the Duke Chapel and the undergrad part of the university. It was just too prettty..
We also went to a DESI south Indian restaurant (Cholanad Restaurant & Bar )
for dinner - and had samosas (which were pretty different to look at - other than the triangular shape) and awesome cholla bhatoora , uttapam and masala dosa. It was kind of amusing to see firangs serving desi food - usually its the opposite - desi's serve the firang food both within our country and outside..
I slept in the night around 10 pm NC time - thinking this was the end of the jet lag -- but there was more to it !
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