Family Day

When we first heard that the Kulliyyah of Science’s Family Day was going to be cancelled, boy were we disappointed. But fortunately, the organisers managed to solve the problem caused by IIUM’s ‘observation’ of the elections. I’m sure there was much to see on the 24^th of February. People hanging election posters, flags (only to be out-hung by another higher flag). It’s been scientifically proven that blue and green are soothing to the eyes. Perhaps they needed a break? Back to the topic, although we didn’t have the sand and beach, the atmosphere at the Family Day was great. Some events like sand castle had to be scrapped due to KOS’s lack of sand. But we made up for that by adding a few more games.

There was coconut bowling (biggest nut we ever threw in our lives), futsal (with four goalposts–double the confusion, double the fun!), galah panjang (where all the galahs screamed a lot), helicopter (a game where you pretend you’re a chopper and compete in a race where air crashes are possible), paper princess (dress up in old newspapers with headlines like ‘Holy war against monkeys’ and ‘Polis kata jangan’), baling selipar (where Asadis and Batas turn into deadly projectiles), war game (Unreal Tournament-style four-sided balloon fight in the middle of the KOS courtyard), water balloon (girls’ game of pass-the-bursting-parcel), straw building (no, you don’t build straws), konda-kondi (ball version of baling selipar for our delicate girls), pancing botol (where bottles are fish and bait is shoved down their throats), treasure hunt (a game full of aches for the feet, heart, and head), gunny racing (four people in a gunny–4WD redefined), and musical chairs (where push comes to shove, and shove comes to scream).

Magenta emerged the surprise champions this year, accumulating 260 marks. Coral and Chartreuse both tied at 230, while Dodge Blue trailed behind at 175. Magenta had a series of first-place wins earlier in the competition, thanks to the stellar performance of their girls. That gained them a big lead early on, and despite a low-key performance by their guys later in the games, they managed to win. You guys deserved it you sly underdogs!

Chartreuse was a real dark horse that day. They didn’t have a lot of guys, and had someone’s drapes for a flag (probably bought at Kamdar on Saturday). In spite of that, Chartreuse dominated a lot of the games earlier on. But even though the guys ruled the roost in both futsal and coconut bowling and the girls won paper princess, they had a lot of third-place wins towards the end, which allowed Coral to tie with them.

Coral, the apparent powerhouse, and expected winner based on sheer number, didn’t win surprisingly. Maybe it was just the i-QUEST shirts, which gave everyone the impression that they were everywhere. They had their shining moments, but never had a real lead and only caught up with Chartreuse later in the day through a few second-place wins.

Dodge Blue had the most dismal performance. They didn’t have a lot of major wins, which was why the gap in marks between them and the rest of the teams was very obvious. The staff didn’t miss out on all the fun either. They had representatives as well. Dubbing themselves Team Rocket (early declaration of support for the 8^th?! 0_o), they had a few second-place and third-place wins, which was not bad since they were short in manpower.

It was really great seeing everyone just having a good time that day. Even those that didn’t play came to give support. The staff bought their families over, and even Prof. Ridzwan, Dr. Ahmad Aman, Dr. Jalal, and Dr. Ibrahim Shogar showed up in sports attire! Just before the prize-giving ceremony, the Dean was mentioning the possibility of having the Family Day next year at KOS again. Well, he was outvoted by everyone. We all know that's impossible... Unless someone rigs our votes =)