Melbourne NSUers Class of 2018: A trip back to the good times
The Bangladeshi community in Melbourne has its fair share of North South University (NSU) alumni who often come together to take trips down the memory lane. This is probably why almost all of the NSU alumni in Melbourne are part of the registered "Melbourne NSUers" community.
Apart from participating in collective community engagement agenda and having organised the very first glittering NSU Alumni Gala Night in Melbourne back in 2016, this year, the community attempted to recreate the footprints that they left behind as students in the university's famous Banani campus, in their annual event titled "Melbourne NSUers - Class of 2018".
The venue of the event, an iconic Victorian heritage building named the Collingwood Town Hall, resonated the nostalgia of the golden old days of NSU as soon as the alumni walked in. And to relive the experience, the team behind the show set up a makeshift tea stall replicating the popular "Mojo Mama'r Chaa", the crowded canteen at Sher Tower, and another makeshift "Peyara Bhorta" cart that used to be always parked on the road right outside the building. If that wasn't enough, all the guests were made to wear ID cards as if to escape the Proctor's wrath and his lecture about discipline when he spotted a student without it.
Starring the event were NSU's own celebrities Elita Karim, Rasheduddin Topu, and Mosharraf Yaafi - who flew to Melbourne despite their busy schedules in and out of the media spotlight, just to hone in the NSU spirit. They shared their wit, melody, and dazzled everyone with their lustre, while the audience cheered for, applauded and sang along with them in nostalgia and fun. Alumni's little ones pranced about with the beats of the drums near the stage. Every corner of the "campus" reflected images dragged from days passed at NSU.
The event was proudly sponsored by the title sponsor, Top of Mind, and co-sponsors Travel Booking BD, Brentwood, Yarra City Council, e-zone, and Adclub. The contribution of seniors Ziauddin Adil, Kashef Rahman, Zakir Gossain Khan, Sarfaraj Ali Zico, Ehsan Aminul, Muntasir Bhuiyan, Sharfuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Masrur Chowdhury, Md Mahfuz Kamal, Dipankar Aich, Faysal Hanif, and Sazidul Islam for their sheer devotion towards the event's grand success is undeniable.
Belgian painter Erik Pevernagie had once said when talking about walking down memory lane, "We are what we remember. If we lose our memory, we lose our identity and our identity is the accumulation of our experiences. They enable us to retreat from the trivial, daily worries and can generate delightful bliss and true joy in a sometimes frantic and chaotic life." In a place where life is run by clocks, machines, and scheduled monotony, it's these lush green meadows of memories that give us a space to breathe.