Life inside China Walls
Published May 19, 2010 | A slice of my School life..
You might be wondering… have I been to China to live inside the China walls. Sorry friends.. I am planning to describe my life inside the campus of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kasargod, and spread across 30 acres protected by a wall like in China. For your information, this school is located almost close to the Mangalore borders. If you haven’t heard of Navodaya Schools, I’ll make a brief explanation about it. 
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are Indian schools for talented children and form a part of the system of gifted education. In Kerala, we have Navodaya Schools in all the 14 districts. The objectives of the scheme are to provide good quality modern education to the children predominantly from rural areas, without regard to their family’s socio-economic condition. For more details refer to wikipedia.
If any of you have studied in Navodaya vidyalaya you will know how life goes inside (Now, things must have changed a lot for sure). “It was a prison and we were prisoners,” so I say and some other students (may be or may not).The imprisonment is for 7 years (from 6th to 12th). The main reason why we say this is that at our time, we couldn’t go out except to go home and that too was like once in a blue moon, as we say – for Onam, Christmas and for the summer holidays. Except this we had no contact with the outside world.
Once we return from the holidays, the far away sight of the School’s water tank would make us distressed and gloomy and, a day is needed to free ourselves from homesickness. Once a month our parents are allowed a visit and we used to await their coming like the hornbill which yearns for the rains. All the communication between us and parents were done through letters, like the things to be brought when they visited. Though, not everything was communicated through this method. It was the time we, especially the Navodaya Students utilized the Indian Postal Service.
Now, this is only one side of our Navodaya life…
To describe the other side of life inside the Navodaya Campus is a joy! We were a big family of over five hundred members. Inside the campus we are all one. If it’s Christmas, it’s Christmas for all… So are Shivaratri, Vishu, Onam, Pooja, Holi, Easter and all other Indian as well as Kerala festivals. Every celebrations and festivals had a spirit of oneness.
But this spirit of oneness is divided only when our Annual Days, Sports Days or a competitive spirit bonds the houses (each student is given and is divided according to a house like Ganga, Kaveri, Yamuna & Krishna). I excelled in many sporting events so did every student in the School.( I think my secret behind in achieving many prizes for running competitions…Shh…. is nothing but the 500 metre distance from our study hall to Dining hall 
). The united spirit during sports days, picking flowers to make ” Pookkalam” (flower carpet) for Onam, and various other inter-house competitions… all were real great fun and something that makes me smile when I think of it even today. I think, the life I described here is too little to know about Navodaya. Because it is something that I am unable to fully express out here.
But I’ll tell you, it is in here I learned about many things of life, music, art, traditions, festivals, languages and people. The schools are what that makes us out as a person. If the student is able to realise his/her potentials, the school system is a success. And, it is this realisation what makes one child the citizen of tomorrow.
To bring out good citizens for tomorrow, we need to do only one thing – give our children good and proper education while standing united in the spirit of being Indians first.
Photo Taken from the Official Website of JNV Kasargod.
Musical recital by visually challenged
Published May 9, 2008 | Kochi, May 9
They might have lost their vision but they are blessed with the melody which can take many to a musical journey. About 100 visually challenged musicians are all set to add some melody to the city with their musical performance here today. This unique musical extravaganza will be staged by the Guruyavoor Melppathur auditorium which hosts Chembai Music Festival.
The participants of this musical event include several visually challenged musicians, degree and postgraduate degree holders in music, music teachers, students and many others. The show will start with the traditional rendering of the Panchartna Keerthana. Many music lovers and music literates will also be there to grace the occasion.
Akhilbharatheeya Dhrusthtiheen Kalyan Sangh is organising this unique show for the people of Kochi.
A mass drill to the beats of the ‘chenda’
Published April 11, 2008 | 
Payyannur: The mass drill of the students of Pattiyamma Aided U.P. School at Karivellur has an ethnic flavour because here the mass drill is performed to the beats of the ‘chenda’, instead of the conventional band.
The school ground reverberates with the electrifying beats of chenda under the watchful eyes of their talented physical training teacher K.S. Harimohanan, who has introduced this innovative and bold initiative.
The students do their mass drill to the beats of traditional percussion instruments like ‘maddalam’ and ‘chenda.’ Introduced by the physical training teacher, who himself is a famous mridangam artist hailing from here; this innovation has already created quite a lot of interest in the academic circles. Normally mass drills in schools are based on the full beat band, however here the students are trained to do the drill to the half beat to the local percussion instruments like ‘maddalam’ and ‘chenda.’
This ingenious mass drill was crafted by bringing together the physical movements of the students with the thirteen-and-a-half beats. It is based on the exceptional ‘Shivapala thalam,’ based on thirteen-and-a-half beats, which was created by him in memory of his late father, Nadanam Shivapalam, an acclaimed Kathakali and Bharatanatyam artiste.
Mr. Harimohanan says that this innovative ‘thala’ he created has already received won laurels and endorsements from some of the leading names in the percussion field bothin within and outside the State.
Guruvayur Temple annual festival
Published February 28, 2008 | 
Guruvayur: The ten day long annual festival starting on the 8th Asterism during the Malayalam month of Kumbham will draw thousands of Lord Guruvayurappan devotees to this famous temple in the coming days.
The annual festival is a massive affair enriched with colorful processions and illumination that transcend the milieu into surreal planes. The interesting fact is that for the Guruvayur festival only moderate fireworks are used and no high decibel pyrotechnics are employed. This temple city decks up in its best with decorative arches and colorful festoons, streets get spruced up and the houses lining up the alleyways don a fresh coat of paint to gear up to the festive mood. Buildings and shops are decorated in the traditional style of plantain trunks and coconut. The Two temple ’gopurams’ and the outer-courtyard are elaborately decorated with lights and breathtaking displays.
Elephant race is probably the most interesting feature of the festival, where the temple elephants run round the temple eleven times and people cheer them and often run with them in frenzy. The winning elephant is offered prizes as well. This ritual is immediately followed by sowing of seeds, where nine different cereals are germinated in a number of pots made of silver. The hoisting of the temple flag signaling the commencement of the celebration is done on the same night of sowing the seeds.
Various cultural programmes such as Chakkyar Koothu are preformed daily at the Koothambalam. On the 9th day Pallivetta or the royal hunt starts with the Lord on elephant hunting a flock of wild boars (devotees donning boar masks), which symbolizes the defeat of the good over the evil. The temple opens only late by 6.00 am on the next day of ‘pallivetta’ as the Lord would be tired after the previous night royal hunt.
The Arattu marks the culmination of the festivities when the priest takes a dip with the silver idol in the sacred temple pond of Rudratheertham to be followed by thousands of people who take a holy dip in it. The temple town never sleeps for the next ten days when music, dance and celebrations would add flair and fervor to mark the beginning of one of the most important red letter days of Kerala festive calendar.
Attukal Pongala Festival- The exclusively women's festival
Published February 20, 2008 | 
Thiruvananthapuram: Attukal Pongala is a women’s only festival celebrated in the ancient Bhagavathy temple at Attukal in Thiruvananthapuram district. The ten-day-long temple festival is in the Malayalam month of Makaram-Kumbham (February-March). Ninth day is the most important day of the festival when the famous Attukal Pongala Mahotsavam takes place.
The culmination of Pongala is with the sacrificial offering at night known as Kuruthitharpanam. Countless women from all castes and creed from Kerala and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu throng the temple premises to make ‘Pongala’ offerings to the Goddess, believed to be incarnation of ‘Kannaki’, the heroine of ‘Silappathikaram’ written in 2nd century A.D.
Festivities start with rendering songs about the deity. On the ninth day thousands of women gather in the temple to prepare Pongala, which is porridge of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins. The ritual of cooking starts very early in the morning and by noon, Pongala would be ready. Then the chief priest blesses the devotees by sprinkling holy water and showering flowers and then the pongala is taken back to the houses by the women.
The Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation has employed over 2000 sanitation workers to ensure sanitation in the temple premises. 20 health inspectors and 36 junior health inspectors would oversee the activities. After the Pongala ritual the bricks used to make kilns to cook the Pongala will be removed by Kudumbasree workers. 35 garbage trucks are being pressed into service to clear the waste. Drinking water supply will be ensured by the Corporation and health squads are formed to carry out inspection in hotels and restaurants.
Pongala draws large number of devotees and tourists to this city. Colorful processions comprising Thalapoli, Kuthiyottom, caparisoned elephants etc and musical programmes by famous artistes add charm to the festivities. Enroute, the procession will be greeted by Nirapara offered by the devotees and the procession returns to the temple the next morning marking the grand finale of the festival.