ABOUT 12 years ago, the day Debshankar Santra turned four years, four months and four days old, his school, Saraswati Shishu Mandir at Sepoy Bazar area in Midnapore town of West Bengal, organised a hatey khowri or aksharavyasam—a Hindu ceremony marking a child’s formal entry to education—with a yajna at the school premises. His parents, Durgaprasad and Banashree were present. After the yajna, the priest initiated him to learn the alphabet, starting with OM.
Banashree and Durgaprasad were impressed and relieved. A school that makes such elaborate arrangements for a Hindu household ceremony like hatey khowri could be trusted with taking care of the child, they thought.
Now that Debshankar has been jointly ranked seventh in the state in the Madhyamik Pariksha— the secondary exam of the state board— Banashree is happy that their first impressions of the school were not wrong.
They had enrolled Debshankar in the school in the pre-primary section called Arun for children above three years of age. The school taught him basic skills like running, jumping and pouring water from a bottle. After the pre-primary Arun and Uday sections, he studied there till class IV. Then they enrolled him in class V at the Saraswati Vidya Mandir, the secondary section run by the same management in the Jamunabali area a few km away. Now, despite the fact that his results give him a chance to enroll in a more reputed school for class XI, Debshankar says he is going to continue here for his higher secondary education.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der 21 July 2023-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der 21 July 2023-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Layers Of Lear
Director Rajat Kapoor and actor Vinay Pathak's ode to Shakespeare is an experience to behold
Loss and Longing
Memories can be painful, but they also make life more meaningful
Suprabhatham Sub Judice
M.S. Subbulakshmi decided the fate of her memorials a long time ago
Fortress of Desire
A performance titled 'A Streetcart Named Desire', featuring Indian and international artists and performers, explored different desires through an unusual act on a full moon night at the Gwalior Fort
Of Hope and Hopelessness
The body appears as light in Payal Kapadia's film
Ruptured Lives
A visit to Bangladesh in 2010 shaped the author's novel, a sensitively sketched tale of migrants' struggles
The Big Book
The Big Book of Odia Literature is a groundbreaking work that provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to the rich and varied literary traditions of Odisha
How to Refuse the Generous Thief
The poet uses all the available arsenal in English to write the most anti-colonial poetry
The Freedom Compartment
#traindiaries is a photo journal shot in the ladies coaches of Mumbai locals. It explores how women engage and familiarise themselves with spaces by building relationships with complete strangers
Love, Up in the Clouds
Manikbabur Megh is an unusual love story about a man falling for a cloud. Amborish Roychoudhury discusses the process of Manikbabu's creation with actor Chandan Sen and director Abhinandan Banerjee