Christmas at NEEV Vidyalaya and Happy New Year

[Anurag Jain]

Left Picture : Mohit, Raja and (His name escapes my memory) with Christmas Trees made by them. They intend to wish you all a Merry Christmas. But for some reason they are not appearing very merry. I guess the camera had a "stunning" effect on them :-)

Right Picture : Kishan, Om, Bhavani and Pooja with their Christmas Tree. Well they don't seem to be saying Merry Christmas to you. You can see how the style quotient increases by age

Dear Friends,

I guess I am trying to salvage a bit of NEEV's presence in your minds and hearts by sending this post on the last day of the year 2017. This easily would have been the year when you might have received the least number of posts from NEEV. It's presumptuous to think that you missed posts from me but I had at least one friend writing to me today that he did miss my updates.

Even this update would not have seen the light of the day because I have no interest in festivals. However, I wanted to encourage our teacher Priyanka, who joined us a few months back to write  and nurture her talent, and I promised her that I would share it in NEEV Google Groups. I had written another report for Global Giving earlier which I did not care to share.

Even though there was a relative silence from my side on the reporting front - a lot of important things were done this year. Our new school was built and is nearing completion of construction. We launched a new e-commerce website for Neev Soaps. People can now directly purchase NEEV products from our store online at www.neevsoaps.com

Personally, I became heavily involved in woodworking and currently spend a large chunk of my time powdered with saw dust. 

However, even more significant things transpired within me, the results of which would determine the course of mine and  NEEV's trajectory for the remaining years of existence. I do foresee a tectonic change in what you shall hear from my side next year.

So wish you a Happy New Year ! Having said this,to me it is a tired and cliched thing to say and surely I would no longer be saying such things in future. They seem childish or adolescent. Till there is no transformation in man's consciousness, there is only the old modified which parades as the new : nothing radically new emerges. We remain a lost race partying ourselves to extinction. So I don's see any point in saying Happy New Year. My apologies if this dampens your New Year celebrations : though I am reasonably sure it wont. 

I am sharing the report written by Priyanka. Apart from a few minor edits of  grammar and syntax, the report is as Priyanka wrote in her own words, style and spirit. It is interspersed with photos of NEEV Vidyalaya. 

Warm wishes,

Anurag

Christmas celebration at NEEV Vidyalaya - Report by Priyanka teacher

A school is never adjudged a school by its teachers or principal; it's best considered by its students.  Given the less quantity of students at Neev Vidyalaya, the quality is commendable. I have never come across students with such a different mentality, different will power, different thought process and different capabilities under one roof, yet enjoying the joy of UNITY. 

So its the occasion of Christmas, yes the very well known day " The birth date of Jesus, 25th of December ". In spite of being such an irresponsible being, I have been assigned a task to make these Neev students do a craft work of making Christmas trees. Honestly, learning driving would have been more easier then this for me. Yes you got it, I don't know driving. But that's not a matter, the matter is to make these chirpy kids sit peacefully for hours and do things according to my instruction. And the task to test my patience begins.

In spite of being annoyed I tired to make them understand why Christmas is celebrated?? They were hardly interested in knowing, still I tried to convey that, "God created human beings filled with Kindness, Love and intelligence. The intelligence part turned into a curse and corrupted kindness and love,  resulting in hate, lie, jealousy, cheat and war. Then God wanted to destroy the Humankind and then his son asked him to give some time as he still believed that human were good at hearts and they can again be as they were born. And then Jesus came on this earth via Mother Marry's womb and rest you all know what happened (Phewwwww). So the day is celebrated as Jesus birthday. " I have no idea if they understood even a single line of mine.

 

Shikha ma'am along with the help of Sunita teacher and Jasomati Di, tried to make nursery/kindergarten kids to sit making a circle and she drew a Christmas tree on KG paper and let the students put their finger tip impressions using different colours. The result was amazing. 

Left Picture : The Christmas tree by the students. Unlike Priyanka I don't find it "amazing". I can just see some green blobs :-) However, as they say : beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Right Picture : Shikha along with teachers Sunita and Jasomati getting messy with colours 

Kids with Shikha : Their eagerness to paint all palpable in the pic

I was assigned UKG, LKG, STD. 2, 3, 7 AND 8. Whoaaa, great, isnt it!!!!  We used thermocol sheets, marble papers, glitters, colours, wood stick etc... and somehow managed to make some good trees. 

Marble paper and stickers, wood sticks and colours......a few children and beautiful sunshine. That's what it took to make the Christmas tree

If there can be a frame where almost none in it is picture ready - I guess this would be the one :-) As you can see that the subjects in the picture are not an easy lot to handle ! And by the way Shikha ki god kabhi bhi suni nahi rahati.

I am very happy, when I see these innocent souls who are untouched by the corruption of this world and do only that which they feel willingly. They don't care what caste and customs they belong to, they don't know to differentiate between Diwali and Christmas. The only thing they know is to steal some moments from this rough world to enjoy and smile. The purpose of this day for me was more about making them involve in craft work apart from calculations and literature. I witnessed their confidence,  crafty hands, joyful smiles and the enthusiasm to do the work. I hope my senses didn't lie to me and they were actually happy doing all this and celebrating Christmas.  Thank you Shikha Jain and Anurag Jain for giving this opportunity and learn life from these kids.

And that is Priyanka teacher playing with the kids