Index

October 1. Farewell to Mrs.Kasthuri Bai

2. Saraswathi Pooja

November

1. Diwali Celebration

2. Visitors from England

3. Annual Day Celebration

4. Kaarthigai Deepam

5. Cultural Competition

December

1. Christmas

OCTOBER

FAREWELL TO MRS. KASTHURI BAI

In October, Mrs. Kasthuri Bai, one of the pioneer teachers of Rangammal School retired from her service. The School arranged a Farewell Party for her. She was a most responsible teacher for many years and a good teacher with full commitment. With a good profile and academic excellence, she joined the school when it was started in the year 1992. For 15 years she served as a teacher, in 2004, she was promoted as the Headmistress of the school. Many well wishers also were invited to the party. Madam appreciated her service and her dedication

and honored her with a shawl (it is an Indian tradition to honor a person in this way). The present Headmaster and other senior teachers also shared their happy moments with her. The teachers and the students presented a memento to her as a token of love. She was very much overwhelmed with the words of appreciation, and then she also presented a gift to everyone in remembrance of her and she gave a delicious lunch to all. The party ended with tears of joy. Her years of service will live in the memory of both teachers and students. The school will never forget her immense contribution in making a unique educational environment for the students. She has left many memories. The school is always grateful for her service.

SARASWATHI POOJA

The Saraswathi Pooja is one of the important festivals celebrated all over India. It is also called Ayudha Pooja. It is a festival of blessing whatever implements one may use in one's livelihood. In order to celebrate the festival, on the preceding evening, they will clean and wash all the tools which they use in their profession and will place these implements on an altar to the Divine and they will ask God to bless them. In India, it is customary for one to prostrate before the tools one will use before starting one's work each day; this is an expression of

gratitude to God for helping one to fulfill one's duties and it will helps one to maintain constant remembrance of the Divine. The Rangammal School celebrated the festival in a meaningful way. The children cleaned their class rooms and decorated it with balloons and colour paper and put their text books in front of the Goddess Saraswathi, who is the goddess of wisdom and knowledge and they offered special prayer for their studies. On that day, no work or study was done, so one might spend the day thinking about of the Divine. At the end of the festival, special dishes such as fried rice, sundal (green peas) were served to all the children, which they enjoyed a lot.

NOVEMBER

DIWALI CELEBRATION

India has probably the highest number of festivals in a year of any country. Here, the people of all religions celebrate their different festivals according to their own culture and tradition. The Rangammal School misses none of the festivals. Diwali is the most important and significant festival for the Hindu people of India. It has many rituals, traditional and cultural

ways of celebrating it. It is celebrated all over the country as well as outside the country with great enthusiasm. It is also known as festival of lights.

Diwali is the symbol of the victory of the forces of good over evil. One of the great reasons behind celebrating the Diwali festival is the returning of Lord Rama to his Kingdom, Ayodhya, after getting a big victory over the demon king Ravana of the Lanka. The children at Rangammal always love to celebrate this great festival. On that day, the school campus was decorated with lights and the celebration started with lighting the bonfire. All the children stood around the bonfire and enjoyed bursting colourful crackers which was sponsored by Madam. A cultural programme was organized and our students expressed their talents in it. At the end, delicious dishes were served and the children enjoyed a lot.

VISITORS FROM ENGLAND

In November, Mr. Tony, his son Antony and other members of S.W.T. visited the Rangammal School. The children welcomed them in a traditional way. They had an opportunity to spend two weeks with the children. They visited each class and observed the students’ performance in the classes. The visitors had a wonderful time talking with their sponsored children and giving them Christmas gifts, which they had brought from England. They were so happy

to see the children and their progress. The children had great pleasure sharing their life at Rangammal. They also paid a visit to the Hospital and the Day Care Centres, which were started by Madam Sylvia. During their visit, there was heavy rainfall in all over Tamil Nadu, so, the visitors could not play their usual cricket match in the playground. However, they had an indoor cricket game in the auditorium. The next week after the visitors’ departure from Chennai, the airport was closed for a week due to the heavy floods in Chennai. However, they reached safely back to England.

ANNUAL DAY CELEBRATION

The Rangammal School celebrated its 23rd Annual Day with grandeur. The preparations for the annual day began much ahead of the day itself. The Auditorium was decorated with Writings, balloons, banners and lights. Mr. Tony and his friends were invited as special guests for the function. One

of our foreign guests Mrs. Biddy sung a song to us called ‘Getting to know you’. Everybody enjoyed it. Fr. Saul who has helped us a great deal with the development of the IT Centre was also a welcome guest.

First of all the national anthem was sung by all. Our school Head Teacher delivered a speech, in which he first welcomed the Chief Guests and then detailed the highlights of the school-results in the Board’s Examinations and other activities. Many dignitaries and well wishers were invited to the celebration. The Deputy Director Mr.Vijayan, gave a short speech on the history of Rangammal School and how Our Madam started the school in spite of many obstacles.

The Chief Guests spoke about the educational development of the children and appreciated the teachers. Madam encouraged both the students and teachers to press on to achieve the goal. There was a great applause in the auditorium. At the end, the function ended with giving a vote of thanks to the Chief Guests and the parents for sparing their valuable time to be in the school.

KAARTHIGAI DEEPAM

The children at Rangammal celebrated Kaarthigai Deepam in November. It is a local festival celebrated every year. Our school is situated near by a town called Thiruvannamalai, where a very old and famous Hindu temple is built. Many festivals are celebrated at Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai throughout the year. Among them, Karthigai Deepam is the most

significant festival that is celebrated with great gaiety. Karthigai Deepam is celebrated as a ten-day festival.

The last day of the festival is the most important day of all. On the last day, in the evening a huge lamp (Deepam) is lit on the top of the hill. The students at Rangammal also made a replica of the hill out of clay, painted, decorated, and erected it on the top of the school building. They invited Madam to light the lamp on the top of the hill, and then hundreds of small lamps were lit and placed around the top of the school buildings. All the children were gathered together and they worshipped and offered special prayers. After that, they enjoyed having special dishes.

CULTURAL COMPETITION

In November, Rangammal students participated in the National level cultural Fest, conducted by the Tamil Nadu Deaf Association. The competition was held in Hosur, which is 4 hrs drive from our school. The participants were from different states of India. It was the biggest and the most challenging competition for our students. With a lot of practice and rehearsal, our students staged a dance and drama. Our students won the third prize in the Dance Competition.

Our students dancing on stage brought immeasurable joy to the audience. With Madam’s prayer and teachers’ encouragement, our students did well. This competition was healthy and constructive for our students and it taught our students valuable things that hard work and constant practice really do pay off. They were given cash award Rs. 2000/-. This competition turned out to be the most memorable competition so far for our children.

DECEMBER CHRISTMAS AT RANGAMMAL

December is an important month in our school Calendar. The children look forward to it eagerly - Not least because they go home for Christmas Holidays at the end of the month! Christmas in India is not like Christmas in the West. Only about 2-3% of the populations are Christians, so although they celebrate Christmas with enthusiasm, for the rest of the population it is just another day.

However, Rangammals culture is to respect all religions and we celebrate all their major feasts as a group, Hindu, Moslem and Christian. Our children wholly approve of this attitude and enter enthusiastically into our Christmas celebrations. As usual, we start the day with a Mass in our auditorium, which is beautifully decorated by children and staff. Our choir consists of both Hindus and Christians; all sing Christmas hymns and carols with great enthusiasm.

Fr. Saul was the celebrant this year. He is a Salesian priest and has been a great help to us in both setting up and developing our IT Section and Website. The Children think of the Mass as a great blessing for them and join in as much as they are able. After Mass, we have the usual Christmas Feast (Chicken curry) with all the trimmings.

In the afternoon all sections of our ‘Family’ take part – children, teachers, nursing students, teacher trainees and physically and mentally challenged, and present an enjoyable and talented performance of both dance and mime. The programme finishes with a Nativity Play, which is always very popular. Finally, we have a visit from Fr. Christmas or as the children call him ‘Tata’ (grandfather) Christmas. I think because of the white beard! He brings presents to all the children, so as he dances down the aisle he is greeted with great enthusiasm. After all the excitement, we have a quiet evening meal with the children, having thoroughly enjoyed the day and the prospect of home for the Christmas starting the next day.