An excited gathering of students assembled to listen to former President A P J Abdul Kalam when he took the stage at the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur on Saturday.
Replying to a question on which role of life he has enjoyed the most, Kalam said being a teacher had been his dream and he became President to market his dream of developing India by 2020.
Given the occasion was the golden jubilee of the school and the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the former President quoted Vivekananda several times during the interaction.
Kalam asked the students to acquire knowledge, inculcate creativity, be righteous and courageous and have an indomitable spirit.
Kalam also faced difficult questions from the students, whom he described as responsive and intelligent. “What does ‘Buddha smiles’ mean and how can nuclear arms bring peace?” asked a student. Kalam replied: “Peace smiles and when all countries around us have nuclear weapons it is better to acquire them, as strength respects strength.”
The former President smiled when none of the students present raised their hands when asked how many of them wanted to be a politician. Later, replying to a question on why Presidents and Prime Ministers are old, Kalam said if the youth is not involved in developmental politics, how could they expect young people to lead the country? Kalam had answers for every question — from campus violence to his happiest and saddest moments in life. The former President asked the students to “navigate their time properly”. He chanted the four-fold mantra of success, saying it involved goal setting, acquiring knowledge, hard work and perseverance.
He also felicitated the heads of 10 schools, which are celebrating their centenaries, and released a special cover to mark the golden jubilee celebrations.
[Source: Express India]
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Monday, January 14, 2008
Dr Kalam addresses students at Narendrapur
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Book Bank at Narendrapur
The objective behind the project is to help the needy students of the area encompassing 100 km radius of this unit covering both urban and rural areas. Besides giving text books of different classes up to Higher Secondary level, other educational aids in the form of note book, school dresses, instrument boxes, bag etc. are also given to cater their educational needs. This aid is given every year to students of different classes, the total number of which exceeds well over 600 every year.
The Book Bank under the Rural Development unit of the Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur is not having any school under it but it is providing educational aid to 83 schools covering 695 students (323 boys, 372 girls) and a total 4047 books have been distributed during 2006-07(upto September 2006).
Original source of this article is Here
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Ex-students initiative to support poor students
Rubina Khatun is in Class III. She works as a domestic help in the morning, comes to school and gets back to work again in the evening. Though she wants to pursue higher studies, she may not be able to take her Madhyamik examinations. “Amader khamata nei (we cannot afford it),” says the 12-year-old girl. The story is similar for many students in the schools of Vivekananda Education Society, in Jagaddal and Sonarpur, South 24-Parganas. In 1996, the Society had started a non-formal school in a clubhouse in Jagaddal without any infrastructure. The aim was to give underprivileged children in the areas a chance to receive an education. “There was no provision for mid-day meals for them, we only looked after the education part,” explained Saikat Basu, secretary of the Society, who is also a teacher at Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission. That is when a handful of ex-students of Ramakrishna Mission took the initiative to scale up the project.
Read more. [Source: Telegraph]
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Realisation of a Dream
Tapan Samanta comes from a village in East Midnapore, where his father earns Rs 30 a day. After topping school in Madhyamik, he had no means to proceed further and started pulling rickshaw-vans to contribute to the family’s meagre income. “I never thought I could become a doctor, even after passing the joint entrance exams (JEE),”said Tapan, doing internship at NRS Medical College and Hospital. He had to “let go of the opportunity to study at Ramakrishna Mission College, Narendrapur,” and started giving tuition and pulling rickshaw-vans before deciding to sit for the JEE. He is now studying MBBS in Calcutta, thanks to scholarships given by the Mani Bhaumik Foundation.
Read more. [Source: Telegraph]
