“We felt at home away from home with our friends at SRM AP who have become family”- Apurba Kumar Howlader (3rd year, Mechanical Engineering).

As dusk fell on the eve of the new year, an extravagant celebration was witnessed at the SRM AP campus. The basketball court was stunningly decorated with disco lights, a perfect backdrop for the celebration.

The ambiance was set with soulful performances by “Diversity”-the student’s band led by the lead vocalist Asim along with Suchet B Thapa on guitars, Srijan B Thapa with clap box, and Srijeet Tomrokar as an acoustic guitarist.

The new year is the time to cherish the fond memories of the passing year before bidding farewell to it. The students participated in the competition “Rewind 2019” where they had to create a video on their memorable moments spent in SRM AP. Sukumar (2nd year, Computer Science Engineering) bagged the first prize in the competition whereas, Parshal Chitrakar (3^rd year, Computer Science Engineering) himself narrated his year’s journey on camera to become the runner up.

The much-awaited “DJ Night” began right after where the students grooved to English, Hindi, and Telugu music handpicked by Sukumar. “Nothing could have been better than this celebration right before the turn of the year where we got to spend time with our mates”, says Sreelekha Bhuvaneswari (2nd year, BSc.Physics)

The countdown to 2020 began at midnight and soon enough skyrockets shot off to declare that we stepped into the new year. A cake-cutting ceremony by Wng Cmdr Venkataachalam Sekkappan (Director-CLM) marked the end of the day. Suchet B Thapa (3^rd year, Mechanical Engineering) wraps it up aptly by saying, “The jazzy celebration is a 20 on 20 to begin the year 2020”.

On 10^th January 2019, Photography Society- SRM AP’s photography club, began its aspirational journey of helping the students follow their passion in photography. The club is headed by the in-house photographer, Hemanth Kumar K and started off with 25 student members.

They have come a long way since then and celebrated their first anniversary with 80 kids in the orphanage- Chiguru Children’s Village.

The student members of the club- Hemanth P, Hemanth N, Sathvik P, Jayanth S, Chetan M, Sadwika, and Harini along with their mentor Hemanth, Vineesh Sagar (Manager-Student Affairs), and Neelima Krishnakumar (Student Counsellor) arranged for 240 books, a large cake, and headed off to share their achievement and happiness with the kids at the orphanage.

The kids ecstatically enjoyed the fun-packed day playing games, eating cakes, and simply running around with the sheer joy of having people around them.

Hemanth Kumar says, “All this while we tried being unique when taking photographs, and the will to do something different on our club’s anniversary made us choose to spend the day sharing our happiness with the kids. On seeing them smile, we forgot our own struggles and problems, and thus, we plan to continue doing similar work in the coming days. When we look back a few years from now, we would know we captured the memories of the day in not just our cameras but imprinted them in our hearts”.

This year SRM AP celebrates Republic Day in the most unconventional way that has enabled the females of the district to come together and rejoice the occasion. Words went out a week ago to the women hailing from the adjoining villages-Nidamarru, Kurugallu, Neerukonda, Pedhaparimi that SRM AP will be hosting Republic Day themed Rangoli competition on 25th January, 2020 which will be open to all the women living in the district, students, faculty, and staff.

On 25th January, registration for the competition began early in the morning and was closed by 8 a.m. Close to 60 contestants participated, and each were given 5*5 feet of space in the atrium area to make rangoli. Cheered by ample spectators including students and inhabitants of the nearby villages, the participants transformed the floor of the atrium into picturesque blocks of art.

Close to dusk, the winners were declared and Ms. Manimanjari from Ravella village bagged the 1st prize by making a rangoli that pledges to save the environment and the society this republic day. Mrs. Bharati and Ms. Malleswari from Mangalagiri received the prize money for being the runner up and 1st runner up respectively.

Students, faculty, and staff of SRM AP gathered early on the morning of 26th January 2020 to celebrate the 71st Republic Day of independent India. The event began with Pro VC, Prof. D Narayana Rao hoisting the national flag of India.

The patriotic mood was heightened by Prof. Rao’s speech where he expressed his reverence towards our freedom fighters who gifted us the freedom of speech, expression, etc. Saluting their sacrifices, he emphasized that independence enabled our nation to prosper and become one of the fastest-growing economies today; the nation that was battling famines 70 years back is one of the largest food exporters of the recent times. He further adds that our enriched education system has presented to the world Satya Nadella-head of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai- head of Google, among many others, who have their roots attached to India, and that SRM AP purposes to impart knowledge and values to the students who would in the future contribute towards making India proud in international spheres.

Thereafter, the students portrayed their sense of patriotism through phenomenal singing and dancing performances.

Trailed by the performance, Prof. D Narayana Rao (Pro VC), Dr. D Gunasekaran (Registrar), and Dr. B Sivakumar (Dy Registrar) gave away prizes to the winners of the Rangoli competition that was held on 25th January 2020 (https://srmap.edu.in/events/colour-filled-republic-day-celebration-neighbours/), where the neighbours expressed their contentment of being associated with SRM AP.

The celebrations at the campus made everyone contemplate their responsibilities towards upholding the ideologies of our national heroes and building a nation that would be admired by all.