It was indeed an exhilarating moment for ICS when we won the overall challenge trophy of “Aaradhana ‘98” , an all-arts competition , annually organised by Ngee Ann poly’s Indian Cultural Society. Not only did we make history by participating in all the events organised, we also went on to win the much-sought after challenge trophy.

The semi-finals and the finals were held on the 12th and the 26th of September respectively. Four major events took place. The song competition was split into 2 categories, namely solo and duet, and the other categories were dance, fashion parade and kathakaalachebam.

The dance, put up by 6 of our girls to the tune of “ Gal Ban Gaye” was both an eye-captivating and entertaining bangra piece. Though the competition was rather tough and our girls did not get into the finals, it would not be a lie to say that the girls did give their ultimate best for the performance.

In the solo category for the song competition , we had Vanitha (sci 1) who walked away with the consolation prize with her rendition of “Chinna chinna kanavugaley” . Kanna (eng2) and Priya (sci 1) did NUS and ICS proud by clinching the 1st prize for the duet section with their astounding and lovely rendition of “poomalaiye”, which was thoroughly appreciated by the all.

The fashion parade was a resounding success with both Harikumar (eng 1) and Fareena (arts 2) sauntering away in their intricately designed costumes to the tune of “theka thuje tho” from “koyla” . Once again, ICS had its proud moment when they were both crowned Mr and Miss Aaradhana, after clinching the 1st prize for this category.

Audience were treated to a feast of comedy during the kathaakaalachebam segment. Our team, which comprised of the talented trio, Kanna (eng 2 ), Muralee (eng 2)and santosh ( eng 4) bagged the 3rd prize with their hilarious performance which had the audience enjoying every moment of what they saw. The precious moment came for ICS when the results were announced that we had clinched the overall challenge trophy for this much hardly fought competition. This annual event, which has practically most of the tertiary institutions, polys, jcs and even secondary schs taking part in it, was indeed a marvelous acheivement for us. Congrats to all the winners once again.

For further information regarding participation in forthcoming events such as this one, please do feel free to contact any one of the committee members. Good job once again ICS!

Barathi Manogaran
Arts (I)