By Indian Cultural Society

To summarise ICS in one sentence, it’s a CCA with a varied combination of, well…Indians. You name them, we have them! Tech/film geeks? Check. Singers? Of course. Dancers? Um, duh. Actors? Absolutely. Indians who love to debate, Indians who just like to sit back, eat some murukku and banter with everyone – we welcome all!

What is ICS?

Raffles Indian Cultural Society provides a platform for fellow Indians to gather and bond with one another and to grow and develop our Indian culture in school. We aim to maintain a strong shared identity and to foster a sense of belonging amongst our members.

So, what exactly do we do?

The ICS journey will begin with an orientation day camp where members may get well acquainted with one another through fun and exciting bonding activities and games.

Sangamam

The highlight of our ICS journey is when the whole CCA comes together to stage a 1.5h drama production, complete with drama, dance and singing. In 2018, we staged our very own production called Sangamam: Athiyaayam. It is something that all of us are immensely proud of and hold very close to our heart because of the arduous but fulfilling and fun journey.

From coming up with tentative scripts which went through changes every other day to the day before the actual production where the members were scrambling here and there, changing clothes and props for scenes like they were born to do so, it was definitely quite a journey. We take care of our own costumes, props and makeup, teaching us to be very resourceful and creative with our ideas. We tap into everyone’s diverse expertises, skills or ideas in order to create as much of a successful production as we can.

Every year, preparations start in February, counting down to the drama which is usually held in May, before the holidays start. Practice sessions, though very flexible, definitely get more intense and frequent as the production date nears, with occasional ICS meetings on Thursdays to consolidate and account for everyone’s progress. Our teachers, Mrs Nair and Mdm Meera were very supportive, helping us with admin matters and staying late to check up on us. Even our seniors who have long graduated years ago and are busy with NS or their jobs come back multiple times to check up on their junior batches because that’s how much they had resonated with ICS when they were in RJ. During this whole season, apart from practice sessions, we have many spontaneous bonding/chill get togethers where we go eat and banter as one whole bunch.

Here are several pictures of our members who were all part of Sangamam 2018!

NJC debate competition

In 2018, we also took part in the NJC debate competition in April where we emerged third out of several competing schools.

Sorchilambam 2019

This year, five ICS members will be selected to represent Raffles Institution at the biennial Sorchilambam, a national Tamil debate competition (of which the finals will be screened on the Vasantham channel).  In 2017, our debate team clinched the second place.

Sinda Youth Leaders Seminar

In addition, we encourage our members to go for activities arranged by the Indian communities or organisations in Singapore as this facilitates the interconnectedness of the Indian community and exposes us to many current social issues.

This year, 12 of our members went for Sinda Youth Leaders Seminar (SYLS) where we got the chance to engage in many fun activities that taught us to be more mindful and compassionate towards the society around us as well as challenge ourselves to be more outspoken. Check our their Instagram page for more details! – @syc.echo

So what are you waiting for? Come join our family, and your experience will be nothing short of fun!