REPORT ON HARRY POTTER TURNS 40!

ORGANIZED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, THE BHAWANIPUR EDUCATION SOCIETY COLLEGE

COORDINATORS: Sonal Kapur, Neetisha Jha, Soumyosree Banerjee, Soumyajit Chandra, Srimoyee Roy
PLATFORM: Google Meet
DATE : 30th July, 2020, Thursday, 3.30 PM to 6.15 PM

Harry Potter, one of the most beloved fictional heroes immortalised by countless readers cutting across space and time, was born on 31st July, 1980. On 30th July, 2020, at 3.30 PM, The Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College, arranged a grand celebration to commemorate his 40th birthday. The programme was attended by around 180 registered members of the audience, including Dr. Suchandra Chakravarty, Teacher-in-Charge, Prof. Debjani Ganguly, the Vice Principal, and other faculty members and students of the department and college.

Following the welcome address delivered by Neetisha Jha, the programme was carried out, divided into eight segments:

1. ‘A Trip Down the Pensieve’: an introductory screening of the trailers of the Harry Potter film franchise;
2. ‘Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees’: a presentation of musical tributes by the students of the college (four participants);
3. ‘A Swish and Flick of the Brush’: a presentation of posters and artwork prepared by both students of the college as well those belonging to other institutions (18 participants);
4. ‘Donning the Cloak’: a cosplay demonstration by the students of the college (three participants)
5. ‘Harry Potter and the Words That Lived’: a reading session where students of the department read out short excerpts from the seven books of the series (12 participants);
6. ‘Interlude’: a skit titled ‘The Jinxed Vacancy’, prepared and presented by the coordinators of the event, was screened;
7. ‘Yer a Wizard Too!’: a reading of fanfiction authored by students themselves (4 participants);
8. ‘And the House Cup Goes To…’: a quiz contest held among four groups of students, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, based on the four houses of Hogwarts (25 participants); group Ravenclaw won the quiz contest. This was followed by a short quiz open to the members of the audience;
9. ‘Beyond the Veil’: a concluding screening of the memorable sections of the books and how they had affected readers worldwide was a fitting and rather sentimental end was the last segment of the event.

This exciting segment was followed by the Vote of Thanks delivered by Soumyosree Banerjee and Sonal Kapur. Due acknowledgement was given to all the copyrighted material used during the programme.

The celebratory event, consisting of music, artwork presentation, cosplay demonstration, reading sessions and quiz contents, was a great success. Not only did it allow the students as well as the teachers to engage themselves creatively in these otherwise pandemic-induced gloomy times, but also served as a nostalgic and diverting session for the members of the audience. In keeping with the spirit of ‘Harry Potter’ ( both, the hero and the book series), the event proved successful in sending a message of hope, friendship, love and togetherness as well as a felicitous reminder that “….happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light”.