Photo Feature

UODA WEEK 2008: Festivity of youth

Siddique Hayat Khan

When did you last witness the whole Dhanmandi area take a festive look? Colorful procession after procession heading towards the lakeside? Last year Pahela Baishak? Wrong, it was the morning of January 19, 2008. Rallies with colorful festoons, banners, balloons made passersby wonder what was going on. It didn't take them long to figure out that it was the beginning of “UODA (University of Development Alternative) Week 2008”. Because twelve departments brought out separate rallies from their own campuses spread over a large part of Dhanmandi, the whole area turned into a huge exhibition. The departments are Business Admin, Pharmacy, law & HR, English, Media & MS, CSE & ETE, and Biotech, Fine Arts, Mol. Medicine and Music, each one being unique in their colours and compositions. There were boys and girls singing and dancing with painted faces and masks, bride and bridegroom in colorful bridal attires riding on chariots, fire spewing stunts, and what not? In about two hours time all these rallies converged on Road No. 12A Lake side (beside Takwa mosque), where a stage was built earlier. The huge body of students and faculty members numbering over 2,000 met there and the week long program was announced open by the honorable President Mr. Mujib Khan and the Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Emajuddin Ahmed.

During the week many interdepartmental and individual events took place. The interdepartmental programs included Bangla and English debates, song competitions (modern and folk), extempore speech, etc. In the English debate the winners of the first round were Business Admin, English and L.H.R. In a tense final round English department won against the L.H.R., while the Bangla debate was won by L.H.R. On Jan 23, Businesses Admin dept arranged a blood donation program. The outgoing BBA 7th Batch brought out their own rally on the morning of Jan 24. They also held their own cultural function and a lunch that was graced by the presence of the honorable President, Vice President, Registrar and Dean.

The closing ceremony was held on the evening of Jan 25 at UODA auditorium with Prof. Sirajul Islam Chowdhury as chief guest and Mr. Matiur Rahman, editor of Prothom Alo as special guest. The honorable President Mr. Mujib Khan, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Emajuddin Ahmed, Vice President, Registrar, and Deans of all faculties were present on the occasion.

( Sr. Lecturer, UODA)