We were recently invited for
the 70th 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 70th 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!
