By Damsith Adikari
The new year 2023 had just started and some of our gaveliers were enjoying the holidays while some were caught up in loads and loads of academic work. However everyone had the same request, a gavel trip. And our wish finally came true, but not in the way we expected. It was even better than a trip. It was a visit to another gavel family! Ruhuna gavel had invited Gavel Mora to visit their university for a joint meeting with them and we accepted their invitation with overflowing joy. The responsibility of organizing this much awaited event was assigned to me and Gavelier Chamath.
After weeks of organizing, the day finally arrived. All the gaveliers came to the university exactly at 6.00a.m. as per the plan to start the journey as early as possible! Just kidding, it was nearly 7.00 a.m when we could depart.
Even though it was a two-and-a-half-hour journey, it felt like only a few minutes thanks to Pavan’s fabulous guitar skills and Zafra’s delicious brownies.
We arrived at the Ruhuna University a few minutes past 9 and decided to take a trip around the Ruhuna University since Ruhuna gaveliers had to do a few more preparations for the meeting. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration when I say that Mora Gaveliers felt pretty jealous about the beauty of Ruhuna University. We even met a gorgeous peacock and saw some breathtaking scenery. The view of the sea from the top of the university was truly marvelous. After a few minutes, Ruhuna Gaveliers informed us that we could start the meeting so everyone rushed to the meeting room.
As when we stepped into the meeting room, we were handed a playing card each. Then the president of the Ruhuna Gavel Club, Gavelier Chinthanie started the meeting with a lovely introduction and handed over the control to the Toastmaster of the day, Gavelier Ravisha. And she explained about the theme for the meeting, ‘Back to the classics’, which meant that we got to time travel to the 80s and 90s! And then the controls were handed over to Gavelier Pesala, the Round Robin Master of the day. The question for the session was, ‘If you could be any type of character from the 80s and 90s era movies, what would it be?’. And the session was conducted in a rather strange way; whenever a Gavelier had his turn, he chose a card from a card pack and the person who had that card had to speak next. And everyone loved this ‘Roulette’ type of session and it was a great way to break the ice.
After that, Hesandu did his 3rd CC speech titled, ‘Happy Birthday’ which made us see another side of birthday ragging. And then it was time for the Table Topics session. Table Topics Master, Chamath revealed the topics and invited the volunteers to speak. Gv. Dilushi’s speech about anime, Gv. Abdullah addressing about depression, Gv. Madhushi telling us to follow our dreams, Gv. Hesandu’s dramatic speech about the future and Gv. Gavin’s statistical approach to the economy made this session a very exciting and interesting one. At the end of the Table Topics Session, the Table Topic Evaluators, Nirodha and Ravin came on stage and presented their evaluation reports.
After that, the controls were handed over to the General Evaluator and that was me. After I got the Timer’s, Ah Counter’s and Grammarian’s reports, I presented my own report and gave the control back to the Toastmaster who then Invited Gavel Mora President, Gv. Suthira to conclude the meeting.
Then we took a quick group photo after which we got our lunch.
Then it was again time for more sight-seeing!
Ruhuna Gaveliers showed us all the famous places in their university including ‘Sadalu Thalaya’ which had one of the best views I have ever seen of the sea. After that we headed to the beach and stayed there for a few hours chatting and taking pictures.
The hardest part of the entire journey was to get everyone off the beach and into the bus. After another few hours of singing and playing movie charades, we finally reached our university marking the end of a day that was filled with lots of new experiences and unforgettable memories.
