What can be more fun than an evening of music, dance, games and your very own ‘Jam session’?  That too your very first ‘Jam session’. This would be a dream come true for me when I was a child and DI made this dream come true for its 6 to 17-year-old little members on Saturday September 29, 2018.

Excitement was palpable as one child came in after another, dressed suitably in their partywear. As the lovely organizers Brinelle, Lorraine and Shweta ran through their plan for the evening, the talented DJs Leon, Jonathan accompanied by Kevin huddled over the mixers, planning the music that soon filled air. The venue, Zach’s lounge has been done up with blue, red and white balloons.

The younger lot came in and sat together on one side of the room and soon we had the older ‘teenagers’ grab seats on the other side. While the ‘pre-teens’ could be seen giggling, pushing, pulling, and thoroughly enjoying themselves, the teens, spent the time taking selfies, groupfies and catching up with each other. The ‘pre-teens’ could be seen looking at the teens and it seemed, wondering when their time would come to be the ‘cool’ teens. Cindy, a cool teen herself, hopped over to the other side to take a much-awaited selfie with the little ones. The little ones, suitable pouted and posed as the selfie was clicked.

Soon it was time for the party to start. The DJs worked their magic as one popular foot thumping number followed another. The melody of the much loved ‘Despacito’, ‘Thunder’ added the zing to the excitement.

The first game for the evening, ‘4 corners’ started and soon children were running and selecting their corner amony the 3 corners we had. The options were red balloon corner, blue balloon corner and the white football balloon corner. Beautiful Brinelle would choose her corner and those children would be out. Initially it was decided that all children would continue dancing but those out wouldn’t participate in the 3-corner game anymore. After a couple of rounds we realized we couldn’t tell apart who was out and who wasn’t. An announcement was made, asking who all were out in the first 2 rounds and no one except Jaden Robinson  and Ari D’souza raised gtheir hands admitting that they were out. Lesson learnt – don’t expect children to own up, specially when they are too busy enjoying themselves. Zaphyia and Adrian were the well deserving winners and received their prizes.

While the game was being played, 9-year-old Kane, danced away at the other end of the hall, displaying his incredible talent in hip hop.

Children were ready for more and the second game for the evening started. Brinelle was now ‘Simon’ who loved ordering the children with what he said. Lovely Lorraine explained the rules of the game ‘Simon Says’ and the game started with Simon asking all to jump. When Simon asked the children to start laughing, their laughter was just so infectious, we all started laughing. Simon asked children to put up their right hands, little Agastya put up his left hand evoking another round of indulgent laughter from the few adults in the room. We adults too were thoroughly enjoying the party. The spotters did their best to spot mistakes in executing what Simon said, but the DI children were just too smart. Finally, after several attempts to spot errors, the final 8 were declared winners. The winners it seemed loved their prizes of chocolates as they gobbled up their wins in the next few minutes.

The DJs decided to change the tempo of the music to Bhangra. Children loved the music and showed off their sharp dance moves. The dance competition was on. Lorraine judged little Anika Neogi and Ishana Gambhir as the best girl dancers. Kane Kennedy and Jaden Robinson were judged the best boy dancers. A round of Maaza followed for the thirsty but excited partiers.

A loud emphatic ‘yes’ was heard when the party goers were asked if they wanted more games. Brinelle, wearing many hats today, was ‘Queen  Sheeba’ now. Her calls for hairbands, glasses, lace shoes, long earrings got several children out. 6 children won this game.

Finally, we had the teens join the dance floor and started grooving to the electrifying music. Eshaan, in a red t-shirt was seen dancing with joy and abandonment and when asked if he was learning dancing said, that he loved dancing and had dance CDs which he practiced from. His joy in dancing was very evident and infectious.

43 children, hungry after their abandon enjoyment, lined up to receive their boxes filled with delicious goodies from Saldanha Bakery. The delectable contents were polished off by the appreciative party-goers.

The party was not over. Each received a cool neon glow band which soon adorned every little wrist. Children danced away till they were collected by their parents. The party was a super hit and the DJs did a fantastic job. DJ Leon, in Julian Day School himself, plans to pursue Music Engineering after school. The lovely organizers, Brinelle, Lorraine, Shweta and Tanya did a fantastic job – evident in the smiling faces all around. Thanks to Lorraine for organizing the DJs who were brilliant.

Perhaps another Jam session is being planned after the super hit session today. This time with Teens only who did enjoy but perhaps would have enjoyed one exclusively for teens even more. Food for thought, or jam for another jam session?