Slam books and photo albums are passé. With technology overhauling every aspect of life, students are turning to videos to preserve cherished memories of their school and college life.
Now that there’s just a couple of months to go before the academic year ends, youngsters are capturing as many ‘candid moments’ as they can from the last few days of school and college. From creating ‘collage albums’ to shooting candid videos, youngsters have come a long way. They say that video shots are one of the best ways to keep the memories alive and a far better option than asking their friends to write what they like about them in a slam book.

Says Madhumitha K., a student of Class 10, “I will be changing my school next year. I will not have much contact with my friends, so we shot a video in our class on the last working day. I’ll be uploading it on YouTube for my friends to watch. Also, whenever we go out for a movie or coffee, we ensure we click loads of pictures, which includes both candid and posing stills. A friend, who is familiar with image editing software has combined all our candid pictures into one full photograph. Whenever I turn the pages of my album, these pictures make me feel happy about the good old school days.”
For Shreekar Kumar, the video testimonials are close to his heart. He elaborates, “Since it was our last year of college, we wanted to do something different that would remind us of our fun times together. So, a few of my close friends and I shot a 6-minute video of the places where we’d spent most of our time —  classroom, college ground, mess hall, canteen, our corridor. We added background music: I’ll be there for you’ from Friends and KK’s song Pal. We touched it up with some sepia tones for a bit of nostalgia.”
Shreekar posted the final product on their common college forum so that it would get circulated among all the batch students. He also got handwritten comments from his friends on his lab coat, which he says will be his prized possession. 
Niharika P., a first-year college student, shot a video asking all her friends to say a word about her. She grins, “Slam books are passé.  It is the videos and the photographs that are making the rounds. During our farewell, my juniors presented all of us with a collage of photographs, which we had taken during our school tours and sports. It was very exciting to see all those pictures in just one photograph.”
Arun says of the ‘slam’ testimonial from his friends, “I recorded a video of my friends saying something about me. I feel nostalgic whenever I watch the video. It is still in my mailbox and it is great to have such  memories.”

Shreesha S. Reddy
The Asian Age