Un 14 juillet très sympa !

A happy 14th July indeed !
Written by Nandita Kotwal, FYBA (Compulsory French class)
Submitted on 2 August 2009


The French National Day not only marks an important happening for the people of France but it also marked a new beginning for the Cercle Français – the cultural wing of the Department of French Studies, Ruia college. After being on the verge of closing down, the 14th July celebration was the first major event hosted by the Department.

The atmosphere was stimulating due to the presence of our distinguished guests and speakers which included our college Principal, Dr. Pednekar, Prof. Engineer- former principal and Head of Dept of French at Ruia, Mr. Martinez- Director of Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Prof. Nitin Potadar who is a professor of Mathematics at Ruia. A huge crowd showed up which added to the program’s success. It was heartening to see, that students who weren’t associated with the French dept, also showed an interest and came to see the programme ! Both junior and senior college French students participated in the programme. Teachers from other departments as well as Prof. Trupti Gujral, French teacher of the Junior college graced us with their presence.

The event was the organized by Dr. Vasumathi Badrinathan, Head of the Dept of French Studies, Ruia College. With her help, guidance and motivation the students of FYBA French, put up a good show which everyone loved and enjoyed!

Dr. Badrinathan started the event with a welcome speech in which she thanked everyone who was present for being there. She also expressed her happiness at the revival of this age old department. She spoke about the importance of organizing such events, in order to motivate students and to create the important link between language and culture, between India, France and the francophone world. This was special she said, as this 14 July, France’s guest of honour at Paris was none other than Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister. What more, for the first ever time, 400 Indian soldiers would march on the Champs Elysees for the traditional French military parade ! What an honour indeed !! She also explained the importance of learning foreign languages in a highly globalised world and the connect this provides with other peoples and cultures. She said, She also stressed upon an interdisciplinary approach in learning and language learning in particular.

Prof Dr. Pednekar then enlightened us by saying a few words. He also noticed the colour co-ordinated dress code of the students which represented the French flag. After that, Prof. Engineer who headed the department for 39 years, reminisced about old days, his journey with French and the days when learning French and going to France was not as easy as it is now. Next, Rashmi Joshi and Yash Sampat presented a slideshow in an innovative manner, which gave the students a colourful insight on the French Revolution and how 1e 14 juillet is celebrated in France today- lovely feux d’artifice at the Tour Eiffel and the famous military parade- le défilé militaire.

Prof. Nitin Potadar gave us an interesting talk entitled The Contribution of French Mathematicians to the Universal understanding of Mathematics. We learnt about the long connection between India and France in the field of mathematics, and gathered interesting details about French mathematicians. Andre Weil for example had spent time in India at Aligarh Muslim University, was well versed with Sanskrit and endorsed the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita ! Now whoever knew that !!!!

Shahrish Sayyad and Jigisha Thakkar, then conducted a quiz on France and the response and enthusiasm it got was amazing! Students who answered the questions correctly were rewarded with interesting ‘French’ gifts- lovely coffee mugs with the French colours and Study in France caps which the students just loved! Mr. Martinez encouraged the students to learn French and discussed the career opportunities and advantages of learning French. After that, the students performed and sang popular French songs like Aisha which was sung beautifully by Nishant Deshmukh . Then, Lavanya Seshadri, Aditi Tawde and Ashwini Vaishampayan sang Champs Elysees which the audience had a lovely time hearing and they also sung along with them! The program was concluded by a small thank you speech by Vrinda Gandhi and words of appreciation by Dr. Vasumathi.

All through the programme, G-12, the audiovisual room was jam packed ! Record crowd for the event !! The success of the event was because of the hard work put in by Dr. Vasumathi who took a lot of efforts in motivating the students to do something different and also helping them to get things done on time. In fact, we got this programme through in a very short time, just about a week after college started. The lovely posters which were made for the publicity of the event were appreciated by one and all. The backstage work was executed perfectly by Toral Gala, Kanaka Joshi, Bhairavi Somaiya, Dhanashree, Niharika Vankar and Vishakha were truly everyone’s host and dost ! This event opened up new vistas for the existing French department and I am sure that all the students and staff of our college will look forward to the future events hosted by the Dept with great hopes and high expectations !