Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results!

It all started with a seemingly innocent question from the Principal to us, the parent representatives of The Millennium School (TMS). 'Why don't you plan a Parent Day event so that we bring our families closer?' We shook our heads and agreed. Little did we know that we were signing up for the biggest ever initiative undertaken by the Parent Care Group (PCG), the grade-wise representatives, in the 25 year old history of the school!

Discussions started and plans were drafted. Date of the event was fixed as 01 Nov 2025. As we were about to shift things to top gear, there was a proposal from the GEMS group to have an event for the families across all schools as part of the Family First initiative by Mr Sunny Varkey, the chairman of GEMS group. The date proposed was a week before our planned event. The most logical thing followed. We merged these two events and decided to have the first edition of Family First event on 25 October 2025. It just so happened to coincide with the culmination of Silver Jubilee celebration of TMS.

Preparations were soon in full swing. PCG engaged Parent Focus Group (PFG), the class-wise representatives and connected with the entire parent community. Messages were passed about the event. All the while the school team was preparing at their end as well. Everything was set for the day.

After days and endless hours of collaboration, the event finally arrived and what a day it turned out to be! From amazing indoor and outdoor games, to story reading, puppet shows, mehndi art, zumba, yoga, mural painting and what not? The grand finale was a fashion show where families, teachers and to top it all, the senior leadership team themselves entertaining the whole school with a ramp walk that set the stage on fire!

The highlight of the day was a time capsule that was filled with artefacts from the silver jubilee year including heartfelt messages for future generations, placed in a lead box and sealed, to be opened only by the year 2050!

We walked out of the gate of the school with hearts filled with happiness and minds filled with a resolve to do even greater things together for the school.

Am sure, when a child in the year 2050 opens the time capsule and learns about us they will possibly be reminded of what Einstein said about Gandhiji, 'generations to come will scarce believe that such a man as this one, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth'. They will then add, such were our predecessors in TMS, who not just walked the earth in flesh and blood but also had a heart filled with care and love for the school and the wellbeing of their children.

Here is a toast to the next 25 years... 

When Gandhi & Jinnah smiled…

We were recently invited for the 70^th Republic Day celebration by Grade One students at The Millennium School (TMS) in Al Nahda, Dubai where our son studies. I must admit that my trip to school was with the least of expectation since I was anticipating only a routine school celebration. Little did I realize that I was in for a big surprise!

The whole celebration lasted just about an hour and was an absolute example of harmony between various departments in the school. These included IT, music, dance and various class teachers along with a whole bunch of kids aged 7 or so putting up a show that was truly a memorable one! The auditorium was filled with pride of a nation celebrating 70 years of owning its own constitution. Musical notes complemented every dance move by the tiny hands and feet. A well written skit depicting scenes from the life of Mahatma Gandhi was executed with utmost perfection as a precursor to every performance.

The faculty and the students deserve a round of standing ovation for the amount of hard work they’ve put in for such a fabulous show!

It didn’t end there. The icing on the cake was yet to come. I was quite amused to see the invited Guest of Honour for an Indian school for the Republic Day celebration. It was none other than Mr Imran Waheed, the Principal of His Highness Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum Pakistan School (SRAMPS) Dubai situated at a stone’s throw away from TMS. An eminent educationist hailing from Pakistan and joining as a Principal of the school a year ago, he delivered one of the shortest and most effective speech I’ve ever heard in my life.

He was quite candid in stating the fact about how SRAMPS was a failure when he took over as the Principal. The school looked upon TMS as a model of success and was humble enough to reach out for help. TMS to its credit, was quite a sport and agreed to hand hold SRAMPS by sharing the knowledge of the tried and tested methods of teaching. The result was magical!

A year later when reviewers from UK came down to evaluate SRAMPS, they were quite surprised to see the improvement made by the school. The surprise gave way to a state of absolute shock when they learned that it was an Indian school that helped this Pakistani school to achieve what it did! They even asked Mr Waheed how this was even a possibility since they couldn’t comprehend the fact that schools that belonged to ‘enemy nations’ were capable of such a feat.

Mr Waheed’s response to the contingent from UK will go down in the history of TMS and SRAMPS as the highlight of the 70^th year of Republic. He said, “We’re trying to overcome the burden that you folks left us with!”

Somewhere high above in heaven, both Gandhi and Jinnah heard this and smiled at each other!

The DNA Machine

“Oh my God! Shahjahan, you have changed a lot! I didn't even recognize you!” Jolly’s voice came screaming through a message in our WhatsApp group recently created after 23 years of passing out of school.

He was commenting on a photo posted by Shahjahan which showed a dad and son posing right next to Mohanlal, a famous actor in Indian cinema industry.

He continued, “I can see you in your son. He is exactly how you were back in school!”. The rambling went on for a while. He even tried to evoke the emotions that were long lost. The message probably was the lengthiest reliving the nostalgic moments from yester years.

He concluded the warm and loving welcome with an invitation to Ireland where he is currently working as a physio. Much love and affection was clearly written all over the voice note!

A few minutes of silence followed, in an otherwise super active group, vibrant with the energy of a school reunion after almost quarter of a century!

We then saw one of the group admins typing. Soon enough, a message appeared on the window, “That’s not Shahjahan”.

It was just another random forward of a father-son duo posing with the movie star along with some funny caption which was promptly mistaken by the jolly good fellow.

Jolly is now called, ‘The DNA Machine’!