Harvard MUN, one of the biggest and best MUNs in the world, came to India this August for the first time in its history starting the first chapter in 2011. For all those dedicated MUNers, HMUN is like the World Cup is to cricketers.
The conference was held at the prestigious World Trade Centre at Colaba in Mumbai from 17 Aug – 22 Aug 2011 with over a 1000 delegates, from over 100 schools, taking part with Student and Teacher delegates from across the globe. The excitement levels got heightened as soon as the World Trade Centre was visible from the aircraft as it began its descent through the azure blue skies of Mumbai.
The Conference area was in a certain ‘MUN mood’ with young men and women dressed up to their formal bests busily and importantly moving around with the weight of World issues at hotels, The Taj President and The Trident Hilton.
Our School was allotted Argentina, as our Country. Argentina is one of the most stable states in all of South America and our student delegation consisted of 9 members and one faculty advisor and MUN Coordinator, Mrs. Sangeeta Gupta.
As soon as we entered our hotel rooms, it was down to serious business. Apart from our stay being enjoyable otherwise, the rush of having to wake up early everyday and manage to quickly eat some sumptuous breakfast and to reach the conference venue never failed to raise the adrenaline of everyone. Our delegation relaxed the moment we entered the taxis so thoughtfully arranged for us by the School.
The five days at Mumbai was packed back to back with frenzied multi tasking activities like polishing the opening speeches, debating, negotiating, networking, identifying and sieving countries through allies from foes, interjecting and asking questions, shouting and screaming. Not only this, what with being frustrated for not being recognized by the Chair, unable to raise point of order and point out factual errors and anomalies in discussions, our delegates still managed to make a strong and long lasting impression on everyone.
We certainly had not gone there to just participate. Our hardwork, long hours of preparation, research work, and our spirit and zeal to be winners always ensured that we won two awards, awarded to Shubhaam Yadav and Rajit Kinra, for Outstanding Delegation in the DISEC – the largest committee of 380 delegates. This despite that other schools had fielded more than one delegation and their team size was nearly 30 in some case. Aditi Gupta and Teja Rayapurredy made an impression in their respective committees, as their draft resolutions were considered extremely successful. Our delegates Aarushi Bahl, Astha Shukla, Ananya Vidyarthi, Shrai Jamwal and Surya Pahal ensured a cohesive team effort.
The MUN Club of the School has succeeded in making its mark on the World Stage as winning even a single award at a conference as prestigious as HMUN proves clearly that MUNers of the GDGWS have made great strides.
All work and no play will make the MUNers a dull team. So, we freaked out on food at Leopolds, the walk on Marine Drive, the car drive across the city, the Gateway of India, the iconic 26/11 Hotel Taj Palace, the bhelpuris and the unavoidable shopping jamborees.
None of all this would have been possible but for our ubiquitous Principal, Ms Neeta Bali who ensured that we got 2 days of solid simulation time and 5 star dream travel and stay arrangements all across.
The cake is always recognized by the icing on it, which was provided by Ms Sapna Yadav, our IB Coordinator who facilitated our success by rescheduling our academic commitments.