Madras JAM Association.

For beginners, JAM is Just A Minute. That hilarious competition that you've always watched from the seats during the college culturals mainly because you didn't want to participate and make a fool of yourself on stage. But, you discover the joys and pleasures of JAMming only when you do make a fool of yourself. Some people fear this "embarrassment" and never take part in JAM again, while there are others who take that mockery as an insult and participate the next time to prove a point.

Let me bore you with some personal stories. People who even remotely know me, know that I am a JAMmer. It wasn't a one day thing. I signed up for my school inter-house JAM in 10th std after watching a riveting JAM the previous year. The first time on stage was quite an embarrassment, understandably. I managed to get just 1 objection and when I got the chance to speak, I screwed up with a pretty basic Grammatical Error. That went on to be my last JAM for the next 2 years. Some Departmental Culturals at Ethiraj during my 1st year in College was the first time after that debacle at school. This time, I didn't manage to get even a single objection my way. The Moderator stopped the JAM for a moment and reminded me that I was indeed a participant! That was extremely embarrassing, in front of a woman's college! I was angry and I vowed to come back. I did and ever since then, I've been participating in every random JAM i've heard about and won quite a few. Not to be boasty, but I think I am pretty good at it.

JAM helps in many ways. It improves your English by leaps and bounds, helps you get a command over basic vocabulary, makes you think on your feet and importantly, helps you make tons of friends.

Everytime I participate in JAM in some college, there are always some new comers. It's very heartening to see this. But the sad thing is that I never see them again at any other place and that's when it becomes disappointing.

It was after such a JAM at Stella Mari's today that Francis and I hit upon this Idea of creating a JAM association. Francis is a friend of mine, who I met during one disastrously bad JAM at KMC, who's doing his Vis Com 2nd year at Loyola. This association will essentially be a place for JAM enthusiasts to continue their passion and for wannabe JAMmers to come and practice and learn the intricacies of JAM. As of now, we have only 2 members, but I am guessing that as word spreads, there will be more. The present rung of JAM moderators who've passed outta their respective colleges will also get an opportunity to sit on the other side of the table.

We plan to get together on a monthly basis, pool in some money and JAM. Winner takes all! So here's an open invite to everybody. Join the Madras JAM Association and try your hand/mouth at JAMming for money. I'll be creating a Facebook page soon and I'll post the link here. Let's see if this gets any mileage.