India’s 3rd national festival, Gandhi Jayanti, is celebrated by the entire nation to commemorate the birth anniversary of the father of our nation-Mahatama Gandhi. Stafordians celebrated bapu’s birthday in school, a day prior, on 1st October, 2013, with great zeal, enthusiasm and patriotism.
The assembly for the primary section began with a special tribute to Gandhi ji. Children shared anecdotes from Gandhiji’s life, Arnav Joshi of class I sang a song, Dhairya of class II spoke on Gandhi ji, and Nausheen and Maliha of class V quizzed the school on various contributions made by Bapu to India’s freedom struggle. The highlight of the assembly was a song glorifying Gandhi ji and how he heralded a new era for our country. This song penned and composed by the school’s music teacher, Mr. Anuj Yadav was sung by the teachers’ choir of Ms. Towheed Fatma, Ms. Sumbul Zaidi and Ms. Aaisha Siddiqui. The assembly wound up with a medley of Bapu’s favourite songs such as Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram.
Going a step forward in helping the children understand all about the freedom struggle and the role of Mahatama Gandhi in helping us win our independence non-violently, the children were shown the movie Gandhi. Thus the children of Staford were given a deep insight into the life and times of Mahatama Gandhi and encouraged to think about the sacrifice of our freedom fighters, analyze the importance and understand the value of freedom, through the day’s activities.
While the primary section learnt about Gandhi ji through, the feature film and class presentations, the pre-primary section commemorated the day by introducing the tiny tots to Gandhi ji. The pre-primary section highlighted the symbols associated with Gandhi ji. The prep assembly began with a rendition of bapu’s favourite devotional song Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram. This was followed by a PPT presentation to highlight the values and the ethics he strived to inculcate in the society. Children were given an account of how he led our nation in the fight for freedom and sacrificed his life for social equality. The teachers told the children about the dandi march and about the swadeshi movement, about wearing homespun cotton clothes, and about how he stressed on leading a simple but noble life.
Not only this, the children were shown Gandhi ji’s photographs, his spectacles, his walking stick and the spinning wheel or the charkha. The tiny tots came dressed in khadi and cotton kurta pyjamas as a mark of bapu and the nation. The children were given a taste of cooperation and a sense of involvement when they enacted the Dandi March conducted within the school campus.
Back in class the children were acquainted with Gandhi ji’s images again and they even drew and colored symbols associated with him. Class I made the spinning wheel/ charkha in their activity sheets and the day closed with the Gandhi ji’s last words “HEY RAM” resonating in the air.