The title of this week’s
blontry came to Rae while we were coming back to Delhi from Rajasthan on
Wednesday. Why this is an appropriate title will be clear (I hope) by the end
of our narrative.
You are no doubt
wondering, “I wonder what they were doing in Rajasthan?” I know that would be
my reaction to such a statement. I was asked to be the Chief Guest at the
graduation of Sagar School, a 4th through 12th private
residential boarding school. In my professional networking, I had made the
acquaintance of one of the school’s trustees. As we talked about the state of
education in India he invited me to come, bring Rae, and visit the school. That
quickly morphed to being invited to come visit during the graduation, which morphed
to being the Chief Guest. “What is a Chief Guest?” you ask? Well, it’s a lot
like being a guest but, you know, chiefier.
The Sagar School campus
is in the middle of nowhere, near the border of Haryana and Rajasthan The two states next to Delhi. There
are a few Muslim and Hindu villages around the outskirts of the campus but no
cities within easy commute. It was remarkably isolated – a world unto itself.
Student and staff are there 24/7 because there is nowhere else to go. Their
driver picked us up at 6:45. We were supposed to be there between 9:30 and
10:00. For reasons that will be made clear we didn’t get there until 10:30.
Then the fun began.
First they fed us
breakfast and then squired us around the main part of the campus (altogether
they have 164 acres, so we only walked a small part of it). Once we got to the
auditorium, Rae and I were asked to participate in the “lighting of the lamp”
an India welcoming ceremony that often initiates a public ceremony. A brass
bowl with eight cotton wicks is on the top of a stand. The brass bowl is filled
with either ghee (purified butter) or vegetable oil. The ceremony’s host leads
key people through using a candle to light the wicks. The lamp is to remain lit
throughout the ceremony.
This isn't actually our lamp lighting but it gives the flavor of the thing:
Our next official act was
during the “felicitation.” During this each graduating senior was called onto
the stage. For each person, a "brief" description was given of their accomplishments and
unique contributions to the class and the school. Then, the school Director
pinned them with a school pin, I gave them an engraved “trophy” which was a
school seal in glass on which their name and graduation date was engraved. Rae
gave them a copy of their yearbook, they shook hands with the Principle, and
then had their picture taken with us. This was repeated 54 times, once for each
graduate (it seemed like more, I must say).
After a tea break we
reconvened. The Director spoke; the Principal spoke. Then I was presented with
a gift from the school and then I spoke. I am sure the kids will remember it
forever: a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants. The
final part of the graduation was my favorite: groups of underclass students did
three dance numbers. This is clearly the influence of Bollywood, where all
movies, even tragedies, have some embedded dance numbers!
A couple of the things
that were most noteworthy was how all the graduating students were dressed. The
young men were all in various forms of suits or tuxedos. All of the young women
were wearing saris. They were a very bright, articulate, and attractive group.
There was a level of familiarity that I am sure can only happen through living
together in an isolated location for years. All you needed was capes, wands,
and magic spells and it could have been the Rajasthani Hogwarts.
That is probably more
information than you wanted but overall. It was a pretty amazing day. Here’s
Rae to expand even more on that theme. I’ll just say we were grateful to make
it home alive.
So, I’ll start by sharing
the amazing adventure of getting there.
It was hazy as we headed out of Delhi, which isn’t unusual as Delhi is
mostly hazy. Usually as we travel away
from Delhi the air and sky clear but this morning it got thicker and
thicker. The remainder of the drive was
fog to heavy fog until just outside the school.
Most of the road there was an undivided two lane road. We are in India so let’s keep in mind that one
lane each way equals at the very least 2 lanes each way, that doesn’t take into
account motorcycles, bicycles, animals, and people. Just another quick reminder that the lines
painted on roads in the US to designate lanes to be driven in have a different
meaning here. Here, they seem to mean
center your car on it. Now that you have
those reminders in your mind maybe you can begin to picture the situation. Oh, I almost forgot one other thing, so many
of the trucks that travel the roads here often don’t have working lights. Now add poor visibility from fog, no head
lights or maybe only one working head light, cars wanting to pass the slow car
in front of them and it equals scary. Amazing
scary.
The trip back was fog free but also had its amazing moments. Maybe they were amazing because we could actually see them. There were two different times that our driver had to hit the brakes and pull as far off the shoulder of the road as we could get, so that we weren’t hit head on by trucks that were passing but couldn’t get back to “their side” in time. There was watching the school buses in front of us, so loaded with students that they were sitting on the roof. Watching the kids climb off the roof as the bus is still speeding down and road, and then watching the kids jump off the bus as it pulls slightly to the side and slows down a bit. Amazing. There was trying to pass through an intersection with no stop signs, traffic lights or any other sort of way to regulate the flow of traffic. It must have been rush hour in that village as trucks, tractors, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, carts, people, and you name it, all try to criss-cross each other and clear the intersection. Amazing. There were the auto rickshaws that were so loaded with people, counting the ones on the roof, that I wondered how they managed to even move. We saw several that had 12 to 14 people packed into/onto them. Amazing. There were goat herds and cow herds being driven down the roads on the way to or from grazing. Amazing. There were the villages we passed through where people share their homes with their cattle, goats, pigs, or heaven only knows what else. There were the piles upon piles of dried cow pies waiting to be someone’s home, the monkeys, the bare-bottomed or naked little children, the women carrying giant loads on their heads, and the list goes on. All amazing to me. Even after two years (nearly) we can be totally amazed [Phil – “gob smacked” is an appropriate term].
One last amazing thing
that I will talk about is the school. It
was like this beautiful calm. island in the middle of nowhere. The school was lovely, well maintained,
organized, well equipped, and such a contrast to any schools I've seen here in
Delhi. Here is a list of things they
have there: a beautiful pool, gymnasium
with basketball, racquetball, squash, table tennis, rock climbing wall, tennis
courts, football fields, track, horse riding, art complex, music and dance
complex, hiking trails, play areas for the younger children, and an amazing observatory
for studying astronomy. I know I have
forgot several things, but you get the idea.
It was…wait for it...amazing. We
didn’t take a lot of pictures because they told us they would be taking
pictures. We will include what we have
but if we get some from them we’ll include those in a later blog.
It was a long, scary, beautiful, fun, special, and amazing day. I was ready for bed when we finally reached home.
Namaste
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