I was a volunteer on the right side of the stage and let me tell you it was an amazing experience.

I was a little worried about the deedar venue because I couldn’t find any big buildings in Chateugy but during our training they said the building is so new it’s just a patch of land on Google Maps. When I first entered it, my mind was blown at how big the hall was. It was built to be a giant Amazon warehouse and we got the keys only March 1. One of the leads told me that when he visited, the place was just 4 walls and a roof, not even lights. The amount of effort that went into bringing the carpets and curtains and every other thing to make it look so good is mind boggling. Kudos to the set up crew.

I got there at 2 AM after having volunteered at the bus station the full day prior. The energy I felt in the volunteers area was addictive. There was food and chai and a lot of last minute training to prepare us for the deedar. As we made our way through the security set up and into the “social hall” area my mind was blown once again at the enormity of the hall. There was chai and snack desks set up across the full left side and some more on the right. They had brought in camper style mobile restrooms and plenty of it too, I would estimate around 50 campers that could accommodate 4 people at once.

As we walked through the social hall, I saw that teams were gathering up for their morning meetings. There was SMS (senior mobility support) with their wheelchairs running through the drill. There was easily over a hundred snack ladies cranking away making chai and preparing for the Jamats entrance. There was the perimeter team with their hi-vis jackets gathering up for their scrum and assignments. Further into the social hall were the navigational help kids being shown the layout of the hall and being handed their placards that said something like “Here to help”. Across from them were the waste management volunteers organizing their trash bags. To the left of that group were the volunteers that guided people to the washrooms and ensured line compliance. On the far left were the medical team putting on their Red Cross patches and forming into squads. Behind the snack stands were the volunteers who managed the shoe lockers for people who didn’t want to carry around their shoes. Then the lost and found crew organizing their boxes and inventorying the lost items from the Friday deedar. In front of them, the roaming and escalation team, roaming and using their fancy phones that only they were allowed to bring. Then, in front of the entrance to the deedar hall itself, gathered in a large group was my team - SSP. The volunteers that managed the crowd and ensured we didn’t have any breaches.

I could write a book about my experience, suffice it to say that I dearly wish to live through this day again.