By Sulith Perera
Having celebrated the 500th educational meeting ceremoniously the week before, Gavel Mora decided to participate in a tripartite with the Gavel Clubs of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and the University of Colombo. The organizing committees from the 3 universities had played a superb role to make this special trio meeting a memorable one. It was held on the 12th of February, 2023 at the Zoology Auditorium of University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
As we stepped into the hall, our hearts were immediately captured by the enchanting ambience that surrounded us. Heart-shaped decorations, carefully crafted from delicate paper, adorned the table, while flickering candles nestled in glass containers added a warm, romantic glow to the room. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it was fitting that the theme of the meeting was “A Love Confession”.
The president of J’pura Gavel, Gavelier Loshini warmly welcomed us to the tripartite.
As per tradition, we all stood up to sing the national anthem. After the national anthem, we gave the gavel oath, which was something new to us at Gavel Mora, but was common practice to J’pura Gavel. After that Gavelier Loshini handed over the controls to the Toastmaster of the day, Gavelier Sayuri, from the University of Colombo.
Gavelier Sayuri started the proceedings with a beautiful poem composed by herself. Then she introduced the General Evaluator of the day, Gavelier Sathmi, from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Next the General Evaluator introduced the Timer, Ah Counter, Grammarian and Table Topics Evaluators for the day.
Next, it was the Round Robin session. The Round Robin Master for the day was Gavelier Shibly from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Everyone was given a chance to share their personal comments on the topic, “Is all fair in love and war?”. There was a mixture of philosophical, romantic, funny, and informative ideas in the round robin session. After successfully concluding the round robin session, meeting control was given back to the Toastmaster.
After the round robin session, it was time for a game. Gavelier Sayuri invited Gavelier Hansika to explain the game to the fellow gaveliers who were eagerly waiting to take part in it.
Then the gaveliers in the hall were divided into 6 groups. Each group was given a topic to act out in front of the gaveliers. Some of the topics were love towards grandchildren, parents’ love towards children, etc. To make the game more challenging, Hansika provided us with a set of words and instructed us to use a minimum of 10 words from the list.
Short dramas compiled by the teams were super enjoyable. Teams acted on the topics with their full effort. Since all the topics were related to love, the session became very interesting. To make the session more attractive, all the teams used humor in their dramas. Everyone was bursting with laughter.
Following the game, the Toastmaster introduced the Table Topics Master of the day, Gavelier Odil from University of Moratuwa. He displayed the table topics on the screen and there were a few surprise topics in a separate box. Some of the table topics were: a piece of tech other than mobile that is vital to you, the beauty of someone who asks for nothing but company, a leap of faith for love, etc. Gavelier Thulasithan’s love towards the LP gas cylinder made everyone jump out of their seats with a giggle. Many expressed their willingness to take a chance at doing a Table Topic on stage. But only a few of us got the chance to speak due to time constraints.
Finally, the controls of the meeting were handed over to the General Evaluator, and he took the Timer’s, Ah Counter’s, and Grammarian’s reports. At the end, the General Evaluator gave his report, and the meeting controls were given back to the Toastmaster of the day. She beautifully summarized the events of the day. Before handing the controls back, she sang a part of a song which touched the hearts of all gaveliers present. And at last, the President of the Gavel Club of University of Colombo and the President of the Gavel Club of University of Moratuwa gave the Vote of Thanks and ended the meeting together in style. After that we took a group photo.
It was a memorable experience to all gaveliers from all three universities, because it was the first ever tripartite meeting. We made many new friends and met some old friends as well. We look forward to another such memorable Gavel Meeting.
