In 2006, I was in my second year in the university and by that time my senior team had already travelled to Dhaka to take part in the 6th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet (SAESM). My first impression about SAESM was that it was a platform for undergraduates in Sri Lanka for proper exposure to shine at an international forum. At that point I too made up my mind that I should also take part in SAESM at least once during my undergraduate career at University of Colombo and ever since dreamed of competing and winning at SAESM.
Shanaz Saleem |
Then, in 2007 the 4th SAESM came to Sri Lanka. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get fully involved in the preparation and organizing of the event as I was busy with exams. When there was only a week for the conference to begin, one of my lecturers came to me and asked me if I would want to take part in the quiz competition for SAESM and since it was an honour to represent my country at an international conference I agreed. That is how I actually got to experience the real feel of SAESM. I was only able to attend the conference during the two days it was at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo.
The setting, the atmosphere and the whole environment took a prestigious appearance. It was exactly what I expected; so formal and ceremonial like, authors delivering their presentations in a professional and serious manner and the audience grilling the paper presenters with their questioning afterwards. It encompassed all the attributes of an international conference. Unfortunately our quiz team didn’t perform very well but we came 4th among the six teams that took part. It was not a disappointment but a stepping stone for me as my enthusiasm to try for another SAESM just grew more.
5th SAESM, Delhi, India 2008: This is perhaps the first time I got to be fully engrossed in SAESM or rather experienced SAESM for the fullest. It is here that I actually got to feel that SAESM is not merely about presenting papers and taking part in othe competitions. There is more to SAESM. It was more about interacting with our brothers and sisters from the region, sharing ideas and views, getting an insight about their culture and basically feeling the South Asian blend. I made a lot of friends with whom I still keep contacts with. It was a wonderful experience. I still remember how Pratick and Arghya from India helped me and my friends to get back to the hotel when we were struggling to find our way back from Connaught place; how our friends from Pakistan and Nepal helped my team mate Ranmini Vithanagama when her laptop crashed during the conference, it was such a warm and dear feeling. There are ideas perceptions and values which I gathered from the friends I met at SAESM which throughout the years I used to better my own self and personality. As I see, this is what SAESM is all about; this is the kind of brotherhood that SAESM promotes.
I am one of the lucky few who got the chance to attend SAESM for the third time when I made the trip to the 6th SAESM held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2009. By this time I was more relaxed about the whole event since SAESM was not new territory to me anymore. But every SAESM has its own specialty. What caught my attention the most was to see how collective and united the organizers from Bangladesh were. Together they managed to make the 6th SAESM an impressive event. Out of them, Abir and Farjana our team coordinators from Bangladesh will always be in our minds as they were basically parenting our team.
SASEM 2009 was also special for me in another way as after 3 attempts I actually was able to bring honour to my country and my university by winning the medal for the best paper under the theme “Food security”. This is the trip when I actually got to fulfill my dream that I had 3 years ago.
(The writer was an undergraduate student of the University of Colombo and, won the award for the Best Thematic Research Paper under the theme “Food Security in South Asia” at the 6th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet, held in Dhaka in 2009. She presently works as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Health Policy). |
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