Saathi Trivia Weekend : Team-1 #NustaRada

All the covid-19 news, work, and no play make Jack and Jill dull, sad people.

That’s exactly how everyone felt staring at their screens with hours of online lectures, assignments and receiving no good news whenever students checked their phones. Saathi Trivia weekend was like a breath of fresh air filled with positivity and fun for all. It was a much-needed break from the monotonous chaos around.

The participants were categorized into four teams: Team Jagatbhari, Team Nusta Rada, Team Bass Ka Bhava, Team Vishay Hard.

Each team had their own meeting on Saturday in which they would be choosing representatives from their team who would represent them in the Trivia Weekend finale. The hype for Saturday’s meeting could easily be seen in Team Nusta Rada’s WhatsApp group, as everyone was keen to escape from their daily lives into something much more fun-filled and enjoyable. It all started with the group leaders, Ratnashree, Shreya, and Riya, asking to guess the team’s name by giving a hint that it was related to a very much used Marathi slang, finally, after a lot of guesses, a volunteer hit bull’s eye by guessing ‘Nusta Rada’. Participants from Team Nusta Rada were then divided into four sub-teams. What volunteers did not know was that each team had been assigned a unique name, which they had to guess during Saturday’s trivia session.

So as Saturday rolled in, everyone was very high on the josh. The meeting started with a sweet yet funny introduction by the leaders and then they proceeded to the first task, which was to guess the name of the assigned sub-team through a riddle. True to Trivia fashion, the names lived up to the legacy of being unique; them being: Team Zingaat (did you start dancing already?), Team Dhingaana, Team Lai Bharii, and Team Circuit (Bhai ne bola karne ka, matlab karne ka). The next round consisted of two really tongue twisting tongue twisters per team, giving an example: chaar chor chaar chaathe main chaar achaar chaate, chaat chaat kar chaar chatha chor churakar bhage. If you need a few seconds to physically untie your tongue, please take them, because the students certainly needed to after that round.

The next round was a debate round in which the topic was: Eat to live or live to eat? (where are my foodies at?) We being Indians, who are very passionate about food, there was a point when it became heated but the leaders handled it quite well and the round sailed smoothly without any major hiccups. Nonetheless, what do you think: do we live to eat or eat to live? Living to eat sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

The next round was Bollywood Dhamaka. Here the teams had to guess the song, actor, and actress featured in the song and the movie from which it was taken, by listening to a short preview of the song being played. Each team was given three songs to guess. Some of the songs featured were Chura Ke Dil Mera, Daaru Desi, It’s The Time To Disco, etc. Wait! Don’t turn on your music streaming apps, the best part of the evening is yet to come.

After the announcement of the winning team (Team Dhingana), we were shown pictures and videos of previously held Saathi events and fest. It was obvious that the first years were burning with jealousy but also crying their eyes out because they felt so good by just looking at the videos and pictures. The entire picture and video showing session seemed like a really sweet gesture by the leaders to make the volunteers feel like they belong, to make them feel at home. And they succeeded in doing just that and more. Saathi has been like a family since the beginning and now more so, where volunteers don’t just work for others out of compulsion, but out of love and with a feeling of belonging. After the video, which left most of the first years cursing corona, volunteers and blind students shared their heartwarming experiences. One could make out of those shared experiences: the relationship and bonding between a volunteer and blind student goes way beyond being just a volunteer and a blind student, instead, it develops into something more intimate and meaningful–a friendship.

And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, Saturday evening ended. Even though everyone could not make it to the finale, everyone was really excited to see the other teams and how they would be doing against each other. Everyone had probably extinguished their data pack, and their cheeks were hurting because of smiling and laughing throughout the entire session, but the time spent was worth it all.