First day of school

Today, our daughter, Charis had her first day of school. Snaps of her getting out of home . . . 

Too shy to pose for a snap

Shalom comes out to say bye . . . Chesed leads the way . . .

Chesed continues to lead the way

Finally, Charis poses for a snap . . .

Please pray for Charis and Eva who started school today. They go to the Sacred Heart School, Chianki, Daltonganj which is affiliated to the ICSE board. The quality of education is quite good. The only hitch is the 25 kilometer drive. 

Dream Dinner

For the last 2 days, we've had a surprise for dinner. 

Thanks to our friends in the Sacred Heart School. And of course, the culinary skills of my better half . . .

Cassava with crushed onion and chillies put in curd . . . Very yummy . . .

Cassava and mackerel

There is some more fish curry left . . . Anybody wants . . .

Proud School

Today morning, I met the Principal of Sacred Heart School, Daltonganj where quite a many of the children of our staff study. She was quite elated over the success that her wards achieved in the tenth standard exams.

Situated in Chianki which is approximately 30 kilometers from NJH, the school has been a blessing to the Palamu region in spite of very trying situations. 

And a big relief to me as one major concern for families like us is about schooling our kids end up doing when parents such as us respond to a challenge to serve in a rural area.

I get quite a few queries from potential colleagues about schooling in NJH. I hope this would encourage them.

Of the 100 students who enrolled in the 10^th standard during the last academic year, the following are the marks that they received. Of course, all of them passed.

Total percentile	Number of students
90% and above	15
80% to 89%	29
70% to 79%	35
60% to 69%	17
50% to 59%	4

The highest percentage was 95.4%. And of the subjects, the following are the highest marks obtained by students of the school.

Subject	Highest mark
Mathematics	100%
History	94%
Economics& Commerce	99%
English	92%
Hindi	95%

I’m sure that the above two tables give a good description of the blessing we have in the form of the Sacred Heart School for our kids. Please spread the word. 

Schooling at NJH

Whenever one has to serve at remote locations like ours, one of the first questions that people like me with young children usually ask is about a good school in the nearby vicinity. The popular notion was that there was no good school near NJH. And was many a time quoted by people who had worked there as a major challenge to get qualified people there. 

I knew that there was a good Catholic school in Daltonganj during my previous stint at NJH. However, being a bachelor and having had not made much of any plans of coming back, I did not give much thought to this matter. 

However, on reaching back and having a young boy who was almost ready to go to school, I had to take a call. We had to send Shalom a year earlier to school as he was quite insistent that he goes to school. And we also thought that we will get a feel of how good schooling is at Daltonganj. 

The school has been the alma mater of quite a few of our staff kids who have gone to well placed positions in life. I hope that many of them would respond to this post.

Managed by the sisters of the Sacred Heart congregation, the school completed 43 years of it's service to at least 2 budding generations of Daltonganj and it's surroundings. As has been the major contribution of the church in education throughout the country, the school has lived up to the standards and is a prestigious institution to get admitted into. 

We are thankful that the school has been a blessing to many of our staff over the years. 

The reason I thought about putting this post was the quite impressive performance the teachers and students under the able leadership of Sr. Jossy Mathew, put up in their recent Annual Function. 

The theme of the program was 'Sangam' - a portrayal of religions in India . . . Below are the snaps . . . 

Sr. Jossy Mathew, Principal accompanying the Chief Guest, Bishop Gabriel Kujur to the dias

Lighting of the lamp

The first dance . . .  Quite a spectacle

Creation story by the tiny tots . . . Note Adam and Eve standing on the right  side

Jharkhand tribal dance . . .

Dandiya dance .. .. ..

Jain dance . . . 

Showcasing the Budha

Sr. Jossy addressing the gathering . . . 

The English choir . . . 

Bioscope . . . which I thought was the best program

Another dance . . .

Quwwali . . . 

The Hindi choir . . . 

English drama . . . Merchant of Venice. 

The Christmas story . . . 

Western dance . . .

Another one . . . 

The Bhangra dance . . . 

Closing program . . . the sangam

Overall, it was a very a nice and well arranged program. 

One more anecdote about schooling for staff at NJH. I was quite concerned about Shalom travelling about 50 kilometers every day to attend school. About a year back, I was narrating this to one of my friends. He told me that I was lucky. Why? His son was travelling about 10 kilometers one-way by bus everyday through the dusty roads of Delhi every day . . . but the journey took more than a hour due to traffic. And that was almost two and a half hours of travel everyday through a very polluted environment. 

Kids at NJH do the journey in about 40 minutes . . . and the journey through a very pristine environment. 

So, that's for people who are resisting from joining us on account of poor educational opportunities . . . 

Unfortunate . . . and disturbing . . .

I received a letter from the school where my son studies. Below is a scanned copy of the letter. 

And later, we had newspaper reports of the unfortunate incident. 

The concerned person has already made a statement about his not having made any statement or put up a performance as alleged. 

Now, this is a matter of grave concern. It is not quite uncommon that politicians and public servants turn their ire at private and mission institutions especially in the areas of healthcare and education.

I've also had similar situations when small time government functionaries have come and threatened me with dire consequences if I do not heed to their demands. Most of the time, nothing much has happened. 

Once, I remember asking a village elected representative on why they did not attempt to do the same with government facilities. You go to a government healthcare facility and do not find a doctor - they hardly make a wimp and accept it as normal. When there are umpteen number of government schools, almost all these fellows would rather send their children to a convent school or a high end private school rather than demand better facilities in the government run facilities. . . 

Is it because, private institutions such as these are soft targets . . .  Well, so much can be written about this incident, which I do not intend to do since the matter is now subjudice. 

I shall be much obliged if you could facilitate spreading of news of such sad events in well run institutions like the Sacred Heart School, Daltonganj . . . I had searched the national media for this news item - but I did not find anything . . .  I'm sure that this sort of incident is not appropriate to have happened at behest of a member of the legislative assembly . . .