An Independence of spirits....

               15th August, 2010 saw VNCiites venturing out for the first time together, as a team, to celebrate a day each of us is proud of as an Indian- our 63rd Independence day...The day began as early as 5 a.m. with Prasad Sir giving each of us a wake up call [me twice]....By 7, we had commenced our journey to Tuniki village, the place where team VNC has adopted the secondary government school...While the guys thrilled themselves with the delights of the countryside on bikes, the girls had incredible fun and chanced upon instances of naughtiness in Joseph sir's car....We even stopped by for a brief exploration of a serene place with a lake and a temple....and then moved to have hot and yummy breakfast a few miles before we entered Tuniki....
               As we entered the village, the lush green fields, the simple huts, the refreshing breath of unpolluted air caught our senses....It was like a huge sigh of relief from the rat race of our daily lives....We went into the school....the huge premises welcoming us to a proud sight of a large gathering of students and teachers around our national flag....around the flagpole was a magnificent rangoli of India...and they also managed to get a pretty little Bharat Mata to enhance the grandeur of the show! As the smart group of drum masters set all to a uniform, respectable posture, we sang the national anthem in unison...
              Post school hoisting, we also attended four other occasions of flag hoisting in the village....They said that the village conducted about 13 flag hoisting ceremonies for different communities for which the school kids had to go around the village to grace them with their song and cheers....Although it seemed like a respectful custom, I for one had objections to two aspects of this ritual...firstly, the spirit of enjoyment was won over by exhaustion by the time the kids returned to school which was very unfair...after all they are children and should not be forced to move around in the sun for so long.....and secondly, if thirteen hoisting ceremonies need to be done for different communities,what is the use of a flag hoisting which cannot unite the people at least on one day through patriotism, forgetting all their caste based and racist differences? But to raise such questions, we need to take baby steps to be able to be taken into trust by the villagers to have a say in their doings and undoings...
               Nevertheless the programme took us back to our enthusiastic schooldays when we shouted spirited slogans and sang beautiful songs to arouse the tinges of national belonging within us...The Principal of the school gave a slightly long but [hopefully] motivating speech to the kids....And for our part, we gave away cash rewards and books to kids who performed outstandingly in their exams along with science kits and blackboards, which were gifted to the school on behalf of team VNC....And the unique part of this ceremony was that each kid was given the award by a VNCiite....Speaking on behalf of all, I feel that though the ceremony was a humble affair, to laud a child for his or her performance and felicitate them places a huge responsibility on each of our shoulders....It pushes us to really make ourselves worthy of being able to encourage these children, who perhaps look at atleast some of us as their idols, their mentors and supporters....Towards the end, Purushottam Sir spoke to the new generation of his alma mater about what dreams they are capable of building with the chances we are willing to give them....
               And oh how can I forget, we also had some wonderful authentic Andhra lunch at Puru sir's house...With that, the lovely day came to a high spirited end....
All in all, it was a splendid boost to the energy of VNC's work.....I hope we are all able to work more intensively on our adopted school so that one day, when these little kids with their beautiful dreams succeed in various fields of life, each of us can proudly say," Yes, these are my children....and I? I'm a VNCiite!"