Meth Mihira 2013

Faith in Humanity, Restored - METH MIHIRA

Being Human. You can't be a good Civil Engineer if you aren't a good Human. In the hectic academic schedule, Civil Engineering students rarely get a chance to showcase their Humanitarian side. Civil Engineering society of UOM decided to hold a program called "Meth Mihira" for physically and Mentally Challenged kids of “Meth Mihira center ". Mora Civil students brought students from the aforementioned school and spent a day with them.

"Spending time with someone is the best way of saying I love you”

Organizing a program like this is no mean feat; Yet Civil Engineering Society's organizing committee overcame all the difficulties with the help of all the students from the department. Without the help of the students, it couldn't have been achieved.

Kids from "Meth Mihira center" came to UOM in the early morning of "14/12/2013". Kids were accompanied by the Mora civil students to the Civil Auditorium where they were provided with Breakfast.

Now that the stomach is full, kids and the students of Mora civil were treated with a feast for the eyes. Both of them separately and jointly participated in many dance and drama events.

                 

After the event, kids were brought out to the lobby where they were given papers with letters "M-E-T-H-M-I-H-I-R-A”. They started to paint the letters with the crayons that were given to them. All the kids took part in it with great amount of enthusiasm. Except few young boys, who took blasting balloons with their legs as their main job. Mora Civil students continuously gave balloons for them to blast it just so they can see the smile in their faces.

A Sri Lankan function isn't complete without a game of Cricket. After coloring Meth Mihira, male kids played cricket against Mora Civil students while female kids accompanied by the girls of Mora Civil where they had fun activities like singing and dancing. Kids showed exceptional talent while playing cricket and blasted Mora Civil bowling attack to all parts of the grounds. After a scintillating hour of Cricket Kids were provided with lunch in the common room.

  

And fun doesn't end there. After having lunch fun resumed, as they had Karaoke songs, dances and songs for another hour. After which they were taken to the bus. It was all too emotional around the bus as both the kids and undergraduates bid farewell to each other. ‘11 batch donated several essential items which included a printer, scanner and sawing materials etc. 

Bringing the students to the university and spending time with them and showing them there are people who care about them, kids saw that world isn't that bad after all. It was a successful event from Mora Civil.

Faith in the Humanity, Restored.

The annual cricket tournament of the Department of Civil Engineering

The annual cricket tournament of the Department of Civil Engineering

Engineers are renowned for their technical intelligence and competency in design and analysis. Civil Engineering too has the same base; it is an art entangled in a triangle of technology, design and innovation. Even though the social perspective towards an engineer is basically based on the above mentioned statement, it is not entirely true.” Civil Engineers playing cricket” would alter the above mentioned misconception that has been embedded in society. The Civil Engineering Society of University of Moratuwa has initiated many events to encourage undergraduates to get involved in different extracurricular activities and the annual cricket tournament is one such event.

This year the tournament was coordinated by the students of Level four. Early in the morning, on 27th of July 2013, the tournament commenced with the sole intention of enhancing the fraternity among the three levels. The event was organized by the CES in collaboration with students from level two and level four. Level four students looked into the integration and coordination of the flow of events while publicity and ground arrangement work were handled by level two students.

There were three women's teams as usual; one from each batch, and the three levels had two men’s teams from each batch as well. As per tradition, there were two additional teams to make the tournament more entertaining and enjoyable; the "President's Team" and the Lecturers' Team. All the matches were planned to be conducted in a league basis, and the winning

and qualifying teams were selected according to the run rate. The matches were played in two

groups, each group consisting of four teams. Group A had, level 2-A, level 3-A, level 4-B and the team of lecturers while group B had level 2-B, level 3-B, level 4-A and the president’s team.

The two best teams of each group procured the opportunity to enter into semifinals and eventually the two winning teams of each semi were to compete for the championship.

The presence of the lecturers was highly appreciated and CES wishes to extend a special gratitude to the lecturers; Dr. Jagath Manathunga, Dr. Rangika Halwathura, Dr. Udeni Nawagamuwa, Dr. Mahesh Jayaweera, Dr. Nalin De Silva, Dr. Lalith Rajapaksha, Dr. Lesly Ekanayake, Mr. Loshaka Perera, Mr. Bamunawala, Mr. Wasantha Pushpakumara and Mr. Buddhika, who sacrificed their time to be a part of this tournament.

 The first stage matches were held within each group and level 3-A and level 4-A from the two respective groups of A and B had outstanding performances from the beginning itself. In group A, level 3-A and level 2-A were selected for semifinals.

There was tough competition among teams in group B, so the atmosphere became very

tense and competitive. Eventually the president’s team and the level 4-A team were chosen for semifinals according to the run rate. The first semifinal was between the teams; level 2-A from group A and level 4-A from group B. It was victoriously ended by the level 4-A team leaving the level 4 students in anticipation of an overall victory. The second semifinal match was played between the level 3-A team and the president’s team. This match concluded adorning level 3 students’ faces with bright smiles as they too got the opportunity to compete for the championship.

The attraction for the women’s teams was intense as ever. Throughout the tournament, the level three girls’ team performed exceptionally well, and their talents were highlighted not

only in batting and bowling but also in fielding. The synergy of the team was reinforced by the special talents shown by Heshani Godage and Dulshani Wickramasinghe, who played as opening batswomen.

 Although the finals started with the fading sun light, the joy and the cheerfulness did not vanish in the dusk. All were so attentive and cheering, jeering and supporting their team members and praying for victory.

The match was limited to six overs and the toss was won by the level 4-A team. They invited the opponents to bat first and the opponents scored 107 runs at the end of their innings with five wickets remaining. The real competitiveness jutted out when the level 4-A team started the follow up. The first wicket of the team fell at the very beginning of the innings bringing dismay and disappointment to the students of level 4. However Lalitha Prasanga’s wizardry performance lopsided the speculations that were made with the fall of the first wicket. Along with his partner, he managed to bring the team's total to a 106 within 23 balls and crowned the team with rays of triumph.

 The best women's player of the tournament was none other than the opening batswoman and the bowler of the women’s team of level 3; Heshani Godage had two half centuries in the two matches played. Lalitha Prasanga was chosen and named unanimously as the best batsman for

the 225 runs scored inclusive of a century while Ravihansa Suraweera was awarded as the best bowler of the tournament. He had 6 wickets within 7 overs for 42 runs.

The women’s championship was taken away by the team from level 3; a well deserved victory as they won both the matches they played. At the end of the day, the trophy for the overall championship was proudly held by the captain of level 4-A team with an open invitation for everybody to take part in their team celebrations.