15 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in School News
In rememberence of Malaya Mukherjee who is not with us anymore.
Children enjoying their food on this occasion
Children enjoying their food on this occasion
Children enjoying their food on this occasion
Children enjoying their food on this occasion
01 Sunday May 2011
Posted in School News
Thanks to our donors, at last we’ve recd some cute pics of the kids playing in their new playground equipment & enjoying themselves.
Our new Playground equipment brings Cheer!
Posing on our new Sea-saw!
Discipline at play - Waiting for my turn!
Swinging their dreams to the skies!
Feeling happy and safe at school!
24 Sunday Apr 2011
Posted in School News
On April 24, 2011, Satya Saibaba left this mortal world for the immortal abode, his eternal home. We are a little lost without Swami’s physical presence, but the miracle of divine presence, his very presence is being experienced every where…every leaf, flower and fruit, our school of course.
Na me mrityu shanka, na me jaati bhedah
Pita naiva me naiva mata na janma;
Na bandhu na mitram gurur naiva shishyah
Chidananda rupah shivoham shivoham…
Om Sairam. May his grace protect & bless the world forever more.
In this context, a comment posted by our trustee Jigyasa Giri on facebook is very relevant: “I remember our founder Padmini aunty narrating this incident – many years ago, when Satya Saibaba was in Kodaikanal, she went to have a glimpse of him. Obviously she was amidst a throng of people, each person calling out to him, reaching out just to have a brush with the Holy man. As he neared her Padmini aunty feebly said: Baba, Bless my husband & my children. But he did not turn to her. Then she said the next most important thing to her: Baba, Bless my school. And amidst the din, he turned towards her & raised his hand in blessing.”
My school Satya Surabhi is a culmination of his blessings. Friends & well wishers support our endeavours in the true spirit of faith & philanthropy. We have a long way to go, but we are not afraid. The children have been meditating deeply to feel one with Baba. Yesterday we received 2 donations from Sridhar & Vrinda Maroo…thank you. Your cheques came at a time when we needed the affirmation that his soul will continue to bless the school. Om Sai Ram.
05 Tuesday Apr 2011
Posted in School News
Students add their voice to anti-corruption!
The recent movement against corruption by Anna Hazare inspired all of us and filled us with hope. We addressed this with our young students and asked them to meditate for a few moments for a corruption free India. After the meditation the students were asked what they visualised! Came a child’s voice – “let there be million more Anna Hazare’s!” Jai Hind.
Anna Hazare - our inspiration for a better India
We are proud that our young ones are adding their inner voice to the movement against corruption by Anna Hazare. These are the ways in which we inculcate value education as part of our early childhood education. Among social issues, corruption is the largest social problem we face and we hope we are moving towards a solution…
23 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted in School News, School Programmes
My School Satya Surabhi celebrated it’s twelfth annual school day on 23rd March 2011. The students put up an excellent display of Yoga, Kathak Dance and Eurhythmics. All the parents were present to cheer their children.
The sports events were full of fun, laughter and cheering for each other. Nadiya of class VI was declared the best girl student. Aburudeen and Harish won a special prize for Over-all achievement.
Now the fun is over for this year. In April we have our examinations and then the holidays begin 
.
Ballet dance by students of SatyaSurabhi
Pink angels performing ballet at My School SatyaSurabhi
Sirshasana Yoga Posture at Annual Day of My School SatyaSurabhi
A play enacting Bharatiar's vision for children
Geography lessons come alive at school day
Himalaya meditation enacted by students of SatyaSurabhi
Dancing with Kathak nuances at My School SatyaSurabhi
02 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted in Events, School News, Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW), Visitors
Our trustee Jigyasa Giri writes about her recent visit to our school…her presence in the school is being missed by all of us. Come back soon.
I have just returned from Kodaikanal…not from a holiday at the lake or a get-away resort, but from a fairyland. From ‘My school Satya Surabhi’, a most awe inspiring school for underprivileged children tucked away in Attuvampatti, a village in the outs…kirts of Kodaikanal. The students of this school are first generation learners, little children of rural farm labourers. Although I have been connected with the school as a trustee for over 8 yrs and have been working towards its steady growth in my small & humble ways, yet it was during this visit that the school, the teachers, the kids AND the founder of the school touched my very soul.
My main mission this time was to teach some of the senior children a dance in kathak style for their annual day scheduled for March 16th this year! It was difficult to choose a piece which I could teach in just 3 days keeping in mind that the children have absolutely no knowledge of what kathak is, let alone knowing the basic steps & nuances of the dance form except for a smattering of my previous lessons to them. Having chosen a piece, I had to break it down to very simple movements and impart it in a way that they would grasp with joy rather than with a feeling of being overwhelmed. So I told them & their teacher a little about kathak & got down to teaching.
Oh, what a divine experience it was! Hands may have flayed & rhythm gone awry, pirouettes gone haywire and tatkar turned to sweet stomps….but the wonder in their gleaming eyes & the pristine canvas of their innocent zeal has captured a slice of my heart forever. On day 3, just as I was wrapping up to leave, I asked my simple, adorable aunt (who started the school & who runs it with her unique skills) if I could watch the other dance taught by her & the teachers – the flower dance. How can I describe the willingness with which the teachers assembled the kids and the enthusiasm with which they performed for me? Where will I find the words to tell you about the happy, silent discipline with which they take their shoes off and await their teacher’s command? There was no electricity, & therefore no music. Just on counts by the teacher they unraveled their talent & learning, a beautiful dance based on the Russian ballet style depicting the flowers & bees and the sunshine in their world. How did you do this I asked my aunt Padmini again & again. The children ran to the library, got out the encyclopaedia and showed me pages about the Russian ballet that they were learning about! From geography, to culture, to dancing, their knowledge was being widened in such a beautiful manner. Next came the yoga demonstration! I still cannot believe what my eyes witnessed. Their joyous precision, their focused concentration, their flawless co-ordination, the steady pyramids that they formed & unformed…through eyes brimming with tears & a heart swelling with pride, for the first time I said aloud – this is MY SCHOOL SATYA SURABHI.
Rehearsing Kathak for the Annual Day!
Budding Kathak Artists!
Learning Kathak from Jigyasa Giri!
I am at once proud and completely humbled. The children are happy & well grounded despite their not so enviable socio-economic backgrounds. They speak a little English, but what they speak, they speak with the confidence of having learnt well. They love their school like I’ve never seen my own kids love theirs. The elder children look after the little ones. My crazy, wonderful aunt welcomes them into school with a bounce & a song every single morning. She sees them off in orderly lines every evening and throughout the day she teaches the rural teachers to teach them and also takes classes herself. The school building itself is one that could well be the envy of many. Simple to the bare essentials, airy, welcoming, eco friendly and ever so aesthetic.
This is a fairyland in the midst of wondrous, yet harsh territory, a dream unfolding into reality….Rabindranath Tagore’s dream for an India where knowledge is free in more ways than one. How blessed is the school that friends & donors pitch in whenever there is a crunch. When Padmini & Ram started this school with 20 children in a little shed 11 years ago (before they donated their own piece of land to the school on which it now proudly stands), they didn’t know how they would raise funds to actualize their dreams & vision for fair & free education, for the wholesome childhood & growth of these little ones. But they believed in their dreams and overcame every pot hole with dogged determination. Can one even imagine what it is like to live the second innings of one’s life in a remote hilly terrain, chasing dreams for someone else? We still don’t know where the teacher’s salaries will come from a year from now. But we have the faith and the dream to pursue & uphold.
Am I nervous about the dance I taught them? Am I concerned if they will do it to the best of their ability? Not at all. For I have seen the glow in their eyes, the skip in their steps, the excitement in their hearts…they will dance with joy, with discipline, with wonder. And such a dance can only be beautiful. To enjoy it one only needs a pair of eyes that sees from the heart. I am truly humbled with the lesson I have learnt. The next time you are vacationing in Kodaikanal, do take a few hours off to visit this place of distinction. It will add a glow to your heart and may also bring a dream to your eyes. And yes, of course we welcome donations of all denominations…for every little drop goes to make a mighty ocean. Tathastu.
(A post by Jigyasa Giri)
29 Monday Nov 2010
Posted in Events, School News, Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW)
Our school is now among the top 100 schools in the world for the Design for Change contest. We also received a cash prize of Rs 5000.
Project Topic: Cleaning, Sanitisation, and Beautification of Vilpatti Village Bus Stand and adjoining cluster, Kota Theru.
Students on a mission to beautify their neighbourhood!
This programme was initiated by upper grade students of My School Satya Surabhi. A band of enthusiastic students went about cleaning and spreading awareness amongst the residents of Kota Theru. This turned out to be an educative exercise for the students of My School as well as for the target recipients of Vilpatti Village.
Vilpatti Village, seven kilometres from the upscale tourist destination of Kodaikanal in the Palani Hills, is an ancient settlement dating back to 1000 BCE. Although much of modern Indian lifestyle has permeated this cloistered remote community the advantages of modernity have sadly passed them by. At My School Satya Surabhi, we were enthused by The Design for Change competition and decided to reach out to this neglected village and bring about some little transformation which we considered possible. We at My School Satya Surabhi are aware of the great need for taking pride in one’s country. This according to our school manifesto must begin with spreading civic awareness, from keeping one’s place clean to public hygiene and appreciating beautiful surroundings. It is ironic that the people of Vilpatti Village reside in one the loveliest places in the world but continue to be victims of unhygienic squalor and filth.
We could only tackle a small segment of the rural settlement whose problems are legion and we decided to concentrate on (1) Creating and raising public awareness about healthy living conditions. This was implemented through teaching and a hands-on (2) Beautification which included (a) cleaning and sanitisation of the target area (b) placing cement garbage bins at strategic locations (c) repainting the walls and environs of the bus-stand with attractive scenes of nature. (d)Displaying attractive signs discouraging children and others from defecating along the village walls, or even at the bus-stand. Urging residents to use dustbins.
The first week involved planning and research into the problems and the second week was devoted to implementation. To our pleasant surprise the local people of the Village came forth to help and participate in the cleaning and beautification. The two weeks of work on the Project left us with the feeling that we have only skimmed the surface of the problem the depth and the extent remain enormous and a great deal of work remains to be done in the future. We believe more schools should come together and tackle this civic quagmire which is symptomatic of so many villages in the Palani Hills. There is little sense of civic direction and the community is demoralised.
The feedback we continue to receive from the local people of Vilpatti is extremely positive and heartening to us. They say that our inputs have helped to boost their confidence and ameliorate some of the entrenched despair. This great first step in the right direction, far beyond any sort of tokenism has initiated a program that will continue for one year.
The Project has been implemented in Tamil and has been thus submitted to Design for Change. Since My School Satya Surabhi is a Tamil medium school, the children feel comfortable in their mother language.
Our interaction with the local Panchayat was a step in the positive direction as we were able to bring home to them some basic changes required for a better life for the citizens of Villpatti village.
10 Wednesday Nov 2010
REbags ‘nature in a bag’ is a joint effort of four young students from Chennai – Akshat, Badrinarayan, Anirudh and Vignesh. All of them are students of Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Adyar, Chennai and study in 9th std.
According to their website: “RE stands for Restore the Environment. We realized the need to protect the environment from the plastic-crazy world…and thus we started selling cloth bags, so that people would use them instead of plastic.”
The team introduced Mrs Padmini Mani, our Managing Trustee, for her pioneering work in making Kodaikanal a plastic-free zone. You can also see it on their website on this link:
As many of you may be aware, Kodaikanal is a beautiful little hill town in Southern India which has seen tremendous efforts of its residents to make it a plastic-free zone. The RE:bags team interviewed Mrs. Padmini Mani, who was one of the pioneers of this initiative. She is the founder of ‘My school Satya Surabhi’, a school for the underprivileged in the remote hills of Kodaikanal.
REbags: How did this idea about the ban of plastic in Kodaikanal occur to you? How many of you have been involved in this?
Mrs. Padmini: At the outset I would like to congratulate you for taking up the menacing issue of the use of plastic. Please spread the word and keep up the fight.
The idea occurred to me when I visited The U.S in 1990 I noticed that the roads and other places were not littered with plastic which looks ugly to say the least. I came back to India and wanted to clean up Kodaikanal. Since I was teaching my task became easier I motivated a group of students whom I made aware about the dangers of Plastic use and then we started hands on cleaning movement, we went about talking to shops, restaurants and homes showing them how plastic is harmful to the environment.
REbags: What was the response of the people? Were there any protests?
Mrs. Padmini: Initially the response of the people was very negative because they did not realize the dangers and hazards of Plastic use. There were no protests but the plastic continued to show its ugly face. We wrote to the Green Bench as also the Collector. All we received was lip sympathy. But with the help of like-minded friends, we were able to take this initiative forward.
REbags: Is there a penalty if this is violated?
Mrs. Padmini: At last plastic is officially banned in Kodaikanal and there is a fine of Rs. 500/ if you are caught using plastic.
REbags: Do you have any such plans for any other places?
Mrs. Padmini: Not as of now. However I continue to tell people, restaurants and other offenders wherever I go. The plastic menace in Kodaikanal is still not resolved. The tourists still use it because they are lazy. Another reason is that there is not enough publicity. In this regard the Government should take up the matter on a war footing and we now rely on young people like you with zeal.
REbags: How do you create awareness for this concept in the mind of your students and teachers?
Mrs. Padmini: We talk to our students every day, show by example, that if there are mounds of plastic nothing will grow in that place, as plastic is non-degradeable. Thus spoil the environment. It is a continual war and needs the cooperation of the Government, public, and workers. As long as there is a big and powerful lobby (the plastic bag industry) we may not be able to get rid of its rampant use. But we will keep trying and believing in what we are doing.
REbags: Can you give us some guidelines that we can all implement?
Mrs. Padmini:
02 Thursday Sep 2010
Tags
A species grown in the Palani Hills – Ligustrum Perrotettiai, a Shola – was planted in the homes of 15 students of Satya Surabhi. They are going to nurture it and observe its growth. This initiative of INTACH is to encourage school children to love, preserve and cultivate our environment.
Planting Ligustrtum Perrotattiai
My plant will grow in 5 years!
Planting trees all the way!
Understanding plants!
17 Tuesday Aug 2010
Posted in School News, Visitors
Temple of Fine Arts, Coimbatore is a charitable trust devoted to the teaching and spreading Indian music. They visited our school to teach our students the basics of Indian music. We learnt a lot about the different Indian musical instruments and also had a chance to experiment with them. It was an educative and interesting experience. This programme was organized by the Kodaikanal Chapter of INTACH.
An introduction to Indian classical music!
Tabla Recital!
We would love to sing like them!
Listening with rapt attention to the sounds of Veena!
