School Alumni Meet - Aided schools and the emotions!

Aided school is more than a school. Having closely seen the one I studied in, which is an aided girls high school, I can proudly say that it's FAMILY.

Aided schools are management-run schools, with salaries funded by the government. Unless the government fills the positions, the retired teacher posts are filled by the management-funded amount. The rest of the infrastructure is largely either through management's cost or donations. The school itself was founded by donors and not government.

Teachers have no transfers, so they grow together. Any old student visiting the school can meet their teachers every time until they retire. All the retired staff are invited to any main event.

I'm a regular visitor to school, more so because my mom works there. The love and affection I feel every time, is unexplainable. Teachers are like forever family friends. And students are their only legacy. Management is the backbone.

Our school especially has a special reputation in our area with a phenomenal staff and their ever encouraging commitment, so much that despite dealing with low staff post retirements and aging main teaching staff, they have recently started to teach in english medium to comepte with the growing demand.

Hence, the upcoming Alumni Meet is nothing less than a highly-celebrated family event for the teachers, students and myself especially

School Alumni Meet - Childhood memories

Childhood memories are extremely special. Some prizes we win remain in our hearts forever.

Below plates were the prizes I received after winning few competitions, during the annual day event in our school.

Now, I serve food to my kids, sometimes, in these plates and it feels just awesome. Glad that I won two plates back then...

School Alumni Meet - A sweet memory from 1999!!

We won in the district level quiz competition conducted by our school. However, we were denied the rolling trophy, since there had been a vow taken by our school management to not accept the trophy if our school itself won it.

There was a rule that the rolling trophy would permanently go to the school that would win three consecutive years. The school team that was runners up this time, had won two consecutive years earlier and we were quite happy that the trophy would remain in our school, since we won. But the fact that the trophy wouldn't be given to us hit me hard, though I had been made aware about the management's vow before the competition itself.

The noble reason behind that vow was not understandable at that tender age and I started crying. My team mates followed. It all felt quite disappointing.

The teacher who came along with the school team that was runners up, who would eventually take away the trophy permanently, came forward with a great gesture towards us. He presented us some amount as a gift. It felt like a consolation that day, but as I think about it now, it's a great memory and a beautiful gesture by that teacher.

It was one of the first lessons for me to stick to the vows, no matter what the consequences would be. These little pieces of wisdom are something that school life teaches us, teachers teach us. We owe a lot to them.

The real treasure that parents can give - ParenthoodDiaries #98

The real treasure parents can give to their children are HABITS.

Making my children habitual of doing things is the most challenging part of my parenthood journey so far.

I realise that making kids habitual needed me to have been habitual of doing things in the first place. This manifests in the way I could make them habitual in doing things that I'm habitual at. The places where i'm not habitual, I struggle to make kids habitual of those. Fortunately, my husband is habitual at few complimenting things, hence we are able to cope up..

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Wife and husband coming from different families and upbringings help, provided they understand the importance of giving diverse experiences and exposure to children. And then, give freedom to children to decide what they want to pursue.

Life is all about making choices. The ability to decide is the greatest strength we can give to our children. We may like to be the most influential voices in their lives, but not to forget that we are only enabling their journey and we don't own their journey. They own their lives. They own their journey.