i've always thought of LUMS as the kind of place where you have all sorts of people. i've always been proud of that. you have those who will study for a 5% quiz a week before it takes place and those who will miss it because they were up all night hanging out at the khokha; there's those who are religious and those who define what "not religious" means and finally, there's your quiet, shy types who hang out with the same people for four years and those who happen to know the entire campus. i've also always divided people into another category, those who donate (no matter for what cause, no matter in what way) and those who say they have an exam, are tired, have a party to go to...

i've recently realised i was wrong about that last category. i stepped into the sports complex (a huge building where LUMS is currently collecting cloths, medicines, bedding for those in the northern areas) and saw people i never thought would manage to make it to one of these events. the same people who always told me before a blood donation drive, that they didn't think it was worth it, the same people who study for exams two weeks in advance (and we're in the middle of exams right now), the same people who didn't have time to do anything besides hang out at the khokha/hotspot!

i'm proud of LUMS, since sunday, 6 lacs has been collected - 600,000 Rs - just by students alone. 2 trucks full of relief materials have been sent to various cities in the north, and along with it some LUMS students (hats off to the LUMS adventure society!) people have been showing up before and after iftari to make sure everything's packed for when the trucks show up, some have even stayed back during iftari. the whole process has been co-ordinated to the point of looking like a military exercise. open the bags of clothes being donated, sort, place in cartons, seal, tag and load. the batches of 2008/2009 has been amazing in doing everything and anything thats asked of them, they must have assembled hundreds of cartons by now, sorted clothes enough for a whole village. so many people have volunteered to go collecting donations throughout lahore that bilal tanweer said he had so many he was going to have to turn some away...

it took something this huge to bring everyone together, but i'm proud of the way everyones working at it. they're all taking it one bag of donations at a time, one truck at a time, one lac at a time...but they're making steady progress into making sure LUMS does its bit for the people who're suffering...