This fall semester had been under way over one month after which an exciting and long-awaited MBBS OPEN DAY was successfully held in the south-east facing entry square of medical building on a fine Saturday afternoon, ultimately adding vigorous life to the daily back-breaking schedule of the MBBS students of Tongji University School of Medicine (TUSM). The first-ever outdoor event of MBBS OPEN DAY, favored by the blissful weather, attracted a large number of Tongji faculty and students as well as numerous visiting passers-by across the campus.

A fun day as some faculty and students thought, amazingly entertaining was the very first MBBS OPEN DAY at TUSM. To begin with, we, the MBBS students, were introduced briefly by the chair of the event Umar Mukthar and Safwaa Mahmood and members of the MBBS alumni core group who have made great contribution to the event, welcoming the guests and students. What an impressive opening remark stirring an excitement in the crowd!

Following the brief introduction we had our first glimpse of the MC’s of the event, Shasif Rauf and Kombo Rerai who later announced the first performance of the event: a guitar duet by jessy eljadael and ken. It was an acoustic guitar duet with soothing notes of music, all in all a great performance by the duo winning a huge round of applause.

After the beautiful keys on the guitar, the MC’s invited our honorable dean to come onto the open stage and say to the MBBS students and his fellow colleagues a few words which turned out to be words of heartfelt encouragement for all the medical students to go and continue studying hard and become great doctors of the next era. We are indeed inspired. Jessy and Ken smiled ever-so happily when the dean praised the guitar duet for their performance. It is a little encouragement that always inspires a great deal. In the eyes of the 2013-2014 academic scholarship winners as well as the MBBS logo prize winner, the event was of great significance and truly inspiring when they were awarded the certificates by our honorable dean in the following awarding ceremony, which could be one of the most unforgettable moments they had in their lives.

the 2013-2014 Academic Scholarship Winners

the 1st Prize Winner of MBBS LOGO Contest

Top three finest MBBS logos

The MC’s next announcement is ‘Solve the riddles’, the first game for the day that initiated a hail in the crowd. The MC’s called out volunteers and divided them into four groups and handed a sheet of paper to each group to solve the riddles, after a breathtaking five minutes of working the brain time was clocked and the winners were announced and awarded a prize.

Up next, were Shasif’s words drawing attention of the crowd towards the next performer, a Chinese medical student who was going to entertain us by playing Titanic on her flute. This melodious tune was so familiar that we could not help humming and clapping along with the beautiful musical notes.

Entertainment is always followed by some fun time and it was again the time for another bonding game, the ‘Blind folded walk’. In this simple game there were groups of two people in each group one person blind-folded and another person guiding him or her through the obstacles and reach the finish line, I enjoyed myself playing the game and reaching the finish line and towards the next performance.

The Next performance was a duet by Kombo and me singing a rhythmically beautiful music song called ‘Broken strings’, as the feeling of nervousness hits any confident performer, I could feel my sweat tickle my spine. I could hear the crowd cheer and enjoy themselves loving what they were seeing and hearing, the cheers helped us go on and complete the sweet song and leave the crowd awestruck. After the spectacular performance the MC’s resumed into action and announced that it was time for a short tea break to revive the energy everyone had lost in enjoyment. The tea break was refreshing with a variety of delicious snacks, coffee and tea. The students were thankful for the provisions and enjoyed their snacks and drinks.

After the short break, the event was resumed by the MC’s announcement of the next performance, Taichi, by a Russian folk who performed his taichi to perfection leaving the crowd in admiration. Our next funny game is called ‘Truth or Dare’. The players are chosen by the audience by naming a student from each MBBS batch to represent them. I was chosen to represent my batch and had lots of fun in the game making the crowd giggle and enjoy every moment. It was followed by another game called ‘musical chairs’ which had brought a lot of people together fighting for a seat until one was left as a winner. The grand idea of games had bonded many people together laughing and enjoying themselves.

Finally the MC’s said it’s time for the last performance of the splendid day, A self-directed skit was performed by a half dozen MBBS students who are Inesh, Shasif, Hassam, Kainat, Sumaiya, Sinthu and myself Ismail, depicting a story of an Indian student’s journey to shanghai to achieve accomplishment of being a doctor. The skit was extremely successful, making people laugh uncontrollably and receiving much more cheers than any other performance. Every joke in the skit made our audience burst out laughing. What a stupendous performance by the actors it was! No doubt it was the master piece of the day.

The MC’s finally announced the end of the very first MBBS day at Tongji University setting up a high standard for the following year. We all are looking forward to the next MBBS DAY until which we have to wait. Hoping the next year will be better and better. Thanking the TUSM for such a splendid and unforgettable day.

Edited by Mohammed Ismail

Revised by Lisa