The Scavenger Hunt - A Grassroots view

I’ll admit it, when I first got an obscure text from an unknown number at midnight, saying “Your first clue is Kalutara”, I was confused. What clue? What’s happening in Kalutara? Do I have to go to Kalutara? What? I was about to text back “Wrong number, dude” when my brain finally came online. This was about the Scavenger Hunt organized by the Rotaract Club of CCS! My confusion was immediately replaced by excitement. Looking back at the event, the excitement was justified. Even with the whole country put on hold due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the RACCCS had managed to organize an amazing day of activities for its newest members; all completely online, from the safety and comfort of our own homes!

The next morning, it became clear that the cities were texted to divide us into teams named after the countries. As a member of team Sri Lanka, the first thing we did was immediately change our team name into a MUCH cooler name: “මේඝ ගර්ජනාවේ අග්නිජාලය” (Ok, fine, I don’t exactly know what it means either, but it sounds cool, right?”) I was so happy that my team members (and now, my friends) were all truly brilliant, kind, outgoing people who were very easy to get along with.

The presentation competition discussing new project ideas, the exhilarating trail of puzzles and clues and even the quizzes about the history of the club, gave us so many opportunities to work together as a team to highlight our individual strengths and develop our weaker skills as well. I’m grateful to our seniors for taking the time and effort to organize this event as I am sure that everyone had a wonderful time making new friends, brainstorming new project ideas to find ways to give back to our community, and of course, solving the scavenger hunt puzzles.

Although, I think it’s fair to say that perhaps team “මේඝ ගර්ජනාවේ අග්නිජාලය” enjoyed this day the most, as we were crowned the overall winners of the scavenger hunt. (Yes, that was me shamelessly bragging about our victory, I’m super proud of us!) I want to take this moment to thank my fellow team members, Anuka, Windy, Shamee, Sanuri, Bilal and of course, our team advisor Dasuni akki, for being so great and also for powering through the many technical difficulties that inevitably occur in online meetings! And finally, as cheesy as it sounds, I think that anyone who took part in the event, improved their skills or even made a new friend won the Scavenger Hunt as well.

I hope that this was just a taste of the many amazing RACCCS memories that are yet to be made!.

"ඔයාගේ පළමු හෝඩුවාව තමයි- කළුතර ".... මැදියම් රැයේ පහුවෙලා ටික වෙලාවක් යනකොට මේ වගේ කෙටිපණිවිඩයක් ඔයාට ලැබුණොත් මොනවද හිතෙන්නේ ?? ඔව් !!ඔයා හිතනවා වගේම මමත් ගොඩක් පුදුම වුණා. කළුතර??? මොනවද එතන සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ? මේ දේවල් මට වැදගත් වුණේ නැති නිසා මගේ ක්ෂණික ප්‍රතිඋත්තරය වුනේ "ඔයාට වැරදීමක් වෙලා" කියන එක. හැබැයි ඒ වෙලාවේ මට මතක් උනේ CCS එකෙ Rotract club එක මේ වෙනකොට සංවිධානය කරලා තිබ්බ Scavenger hunt වැඩසටහන. ඉතින් සිද්ද වුණ දේ මොකක්ද කියලා කියල හරියටම දැන ගන්න කොට ඇත්තටම ඇති වුනේ උද්යෝගයක් !! මේ ගැන හැම දැනගන්න හැමෝම මගේ උද්යෝගය සාධාරණයි කියලා කියාවි. කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගතය ව්‍යාප්තියත් එක්ක අපේ රටේ හැමෝගෙම වැඩකටයුතු එක තැනක ඇණහිටලා තිබුනත්, Rotract club එකේ ජේෂ්ඨ සාමාජිකයෝ හැමෝම එකතු වෙලා අලුත් වැඩක් විදිහට අලුත් අලුත් සාමාජිකයෝ හැමෝටම නිවසේ ඉඳන්ම අන්තර්ජාලය හරහා සම්බන්ධ වෙන්න පුළුවන් මේ අපූරු වැඩසටහන සංවිධානය කර තිබුණා.

රැය ගෙවිලා ගිහින් උදෑසන වෙද්දී නම් අපිට ඇති ඇතිවෙච්ච කුතුහලය නැති වෙලා තිබුණා. විවිධ නගරවල නම් කෙටි කෙටි පණිවිඩ මගින් ලබා දීලා තිබුණේ සාමාජිකයන් කුඩා කණ්ඩායම් වලට වෙන් කරන්න. කළුතර විදියට තිබුණු අපේ කණ්ඩායම ඒ නම "මේඝ ගර්ජනාවේ අග්නි ජාලය" විදිහට අපි මුලින්ම වෙනස් කර ගත්තා. (නමේ තේරුම ගැන නම් ලොකු අවබෝධයක් නැති වුණාට නම තාත්වික විදියට තියෙනවා කියන එක අපි හිතුවා ) ඉතින් අපේ මේ කණ්ඩායමට මිත්‍රශීලී වගේම හොඳ දක්ෂ සාමාජිකයන් පිරිසක් එකතු වෙලා හිටියා. මේ වැඩසටහනේදී අලුත් යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න වගේම අලුත් පෙහෙලිකා, කෙටි ප්‍රශ්න තරගාවලි ද පැවැත්වුණා. මේ හැම දෙයක් ම නැවුම් අත්දැකීම් ලබාගන්න දක්ෂතා වැඩි කරගන්න අවස්ථාවක් වුනා.

එකට එකතු වෙලා වැඩ කිරීම මගින් අපෙන් සිදුවෙච්ච අඩු පාඩුත් අඳුනගත්තා. ඒ හැම දේකටම මේ වැඩේ ලස්සනට සංවිධානය කරපු අයියලා අක්කලාට අපි ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙන්න ඕනේ. ඉතින් මේක ඝර්ෂ නාවේ අපිට ජාලය වුණු අපේ කණ්ඩායමට නම් මේ පැය කිහිපය ගොඩක් සතුටු හෝරාවක් වුණා කියලා සැකයක් නෑ. පැවැත්වුනු තරඟාවලි අතරින් අවසානයේ දී සමස්ත ජයග්‍රහණය ලබාගන්න අපේ කණ්ඩායමට හැකි වුණා. ( මං නම් උදම් අනන්නේ අපේ කණ්ඩායමේ ජයග්‍රහණය ගැන නම් තමයි ) අපේ කණ්ඩායමේ අනිත් සහෘදයෝ වුන අණුක, ෂමි, වින්ඩි, බිලාල්, සනුරි මේ ජයග්‍රහණය අනෙක් කොටස් කාරයෝ වුනා. අපිට ධෛර්ය ලබා දෙමින් අපේ කණ්ඩායම මෙහෙයවපු දසුනි අක්කා වත් අමතක කරන්නෙ නැහැ. ගොඩක් දුෂ්කරතා මධ්‍යයේ වුණත් හැම කෙනෙක්ටම ගෙදර ඉඳන් ම සතුටු වෙන්න දැනුම ලබා ගන්න, අවස්ථාව ලබා දුන්න ජේෂ්ඨයින්ට ආයෙමත් ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙනවා.

මේ වගේම තවත් ගොඩක් හොද අත්දැකීම් ජීවිතයට ලබා ගන්න පුළුවන් වෙයි කියලා Rotract club එකත් එක්ක එකතු වෙලා ඉන්න අපිට කිසිම සැකයක් නැහැ .

"தோட்டி வேட்டை"

யெசினி லியனகே ஆகிய நான் ஒப்புக்கொள்கின்றேன்.

முதன்முதலாக ஒரு அடையாளம் தெரியாத நபரிடம் இருந்து நள்ளிரவில் "உங்களது முதல் குறிப்பு களுத்துறை" என்ற தகவல் கிடைக்கப்பெற்றதும் நான் ஏதும் அறியாது குழப்பத்தில் இருந்தேன். என்ன குறிப்பு? களுத்துறையில் என்ன நடக்கிறது? நான் களுத்துறைக்கு செல்ல வேண்டுமா? என்ன? "தவறான இலக்கத்தை தொடர்பு கொண்டு இருக்கின்றீர்கள் நண்பா" என பதில் அனுப்ப நினைத்தேன். இறுதியில் நான் அச்செய்தியை முழுமையாக படித்தேன். இக் குறும்செய்தி ரோடரக்ட் கழகத்தால் ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்பட்ட  தோட்டி வேட்டை பற்றியது! என அறிய.ததும் எனது குழப்பம் எதிர்பார்ப்பாக மாறியது. நிகழ்வை பார்க்கும்போது உற்சாகம் உறுதியானது. முழு நாடும் கொரோனா தொற்று காரணத்தால் முடக்கப்பட்டிருந்த போதிலும் கல்லூரியின் ரோடரக்ட் கழகத்தினர் தமது புதிய அங்கத்தவர்களுக்காக முற்றிலும் பாதுகாப்பான விதத்தில் தொழில்நுட்ப முறையில் இந்நிகழ்வை ஏற்பாடு செய்து இருந்தனர்.

 

அடுத்த நாள் காலை அக்குறிப்பானது எம்மை குழுக்களாக பிரிக்கவே வழங்கப்பட.டது என தெளிவானது. இலங்கை குழுவின் அங்கத்தவராக நாம் முதலில் உடனடியாக எமது குழுவின் பெயரை மாற்றினோம். "மேக கர்ஜனாவே அக்னிஜாலய" ( உண்மையில் அதன் சரியான அர்த்தம் எனக்கு புரியவில்லை.ஆனால் அது அருமையாக உள்ளதல்லவா?) நான் மிக்க மகிழ்ச்சி அடைந்தேன் (நாம் தற்போது நண்பர்கள்) எனது குழுவினர் மிக்க

புத்தி சாதுரியமும், அன்பும் நிறைந்தவர்களாக இருந்தனர்.இலகுவில் அவர்களுடன் இணையக்கூடியதாக இருந்தது.

முன்வைப்பு போட்டி, புதிய சிந்தனைகள், புதிர் போட்டிகள், கழகத்தின் வரலாறு பற்றிய வினா விடை என்பன எமக்கு குழுவாக செயற்பட வாய்ப்பளித்ததுடன், எமது தனிப்பட்ட திறமைகளை வளர்க்கவும் உதவியது. எமக்கு இத்தகைய அருமையான வாய்ப்பை அளித்து, எமக்கு பல அனுபவங்களையும், புதிய நண்பர்களையும்  தந்த எமது மூத்த மாணவர்களுக்கு நான் நன்றிகளை தெரிவித்து கொள்கின்றேன்.

எமது குழுவினர் இதனை முழுமையாக அனுபவித்தனர் என நான் கூறுவது சரி என நினைக்கிறேன். நாம் இந்த போட்டியின் வெற்றியாளர்கள் என்ற மகுடத்தை சூடிக்கொண்டதால். ( நான் எம் குழுவினரை நினைத்து மிகுந்த பெருமை கொள்கிறேன்) அத்துடன் எமது குழுவினர்களான அனுக, விண்டி, ஷமீ, சனுரி, பிலால் அத்துடன் எமது குழுவை சிறப்பாக வழிநடாத்திய டசுனி அக்கா அவர்களுக்கும் எனது நன்றிகளை தெரிவித்துகொள்கின்றேன்.இந்நிகழ்வில் கலந்து கொண்ட அனைவரும் தமது திறமைகளை மேம்படித்தி இருப்பார்கள் என நம்புகிறேன், அதிக பட்சமாக ஒரு புதிய நண்பர் அறிமுகமானதை நான் இந்நிகழ்வின் வெற்றியென நினைக்கிறேன்.

கல்லூரியின் ரோடரக்ட் கழகத்தினால் எமக்கு எதிர்காலத்தில் மறக்க முடியாத மேலும் பல அனுபவங்கள்  கிடைக்கும் என்பதை உறுதிப்படுத்தும் நிகழ்வாக இதை நான் நினைக்கிறேன்.

Written by:

Rtr.Yesini Liyanage

 

Sinhala Translation by

Rtr.Sayuni Weerasooriya.

 

Tamil translation by;

Rtr.Fathima shameela Mohammed Lafeer