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Fresher Queen

Baldwin Women’s Methodist College treats their pre-university freshers programme with a great deal of ceremony and fun — over the years, it has evolved into a sort of tradition with plenty of senior-fresher interaction. 

One of the highlights of this programme is the Freshy Queen hunt, a pageant-formatted event that lets the freshers showcase their best talents and worst sides, all in one go. 

This year, too, the college came together to throw a grand welcoming ceremony for their latest batch of entrants. With the seniors encouraging the students to step up and make a name for themselves, the new batch too soon shed their inhibitions and had a ball.

With a total of 16 students participating in it, the Freshy Queen Hunt was heralded with a lot of anticipation and cat calls. 

The students had to go through five gruelling rounds, in which they had to prove their mettle and how fast they could think on their feet. The participants came with a lot of anticipation, eager to prove themselves. The competition was judged by senior students — including Shreyadhi Das, Namrata Sitaram Saraswathi and Soney B E, as well as Tara Mani, the Kannada lecturer of the college.

The freshers arrived decked in their best, wearing bright red and rosy-pink shades and adding a twist to their outfits by sporting flowers in their hair, ribbons, colourful bindis and dashes of make up. 

Although they were visibly nervous about the competition, most of them manages to swallow their fear and face up to the different rounds. In the first round, each student had to briefly introduce themselves, after which they exhibited their perfected catwalks.
The audience hooted as they watched the participants strut up and down the stage in their get-ups. After this,  they were made to face a general knowledge round, on the basis of which eight students were selected to move on the fourth round.

In the fourth round, the judges asked the students opinion-based questions. In fact, when one of the participants, Shalini, was asked whether she prefers studying from e-notes or text books, she voiced her preference for the latter, explaining, “e-notes are made up of many electronic and chemical components which are non-biodegradable and not eco-friendly. Sometimes, children may not know how to handle it and may misuse it. So, I feel text books are better than e-notes.”

The logic behind this argument can easily be questioned, but the judges were visibly impressed by her confidence. Despite the odd stutter and the palpable anxiety, the students did the best they could and five of them were selected for the next round — a written one. They were posed a question — “What or whom do you put your trust on, and why?” — and each had to write a short paragraph which best answered it.

Based on these rounds, the winners were announced amidst much cat-calling and cheering. While Yusra Muf­eed, a PCMB student was voted the second runner-up, Ha­leema Sadiya, also a PCMB student emerged as the first runner-up. The title of Freshy Queen was given to Shalini, a PCMC student, and she cro­wned with a cute little tiara .