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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Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dr Kalam addresses students at Narendrapur
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
A little moment of fame??
In a classic (scary too) example of how web power can put you into the public limelight, five classmates (L-R: Aapel, KaLee, Dadoo, Kutsab and GooLee) of 1993 madhyamik batch were featured on ‘The Statesman’ last weekend; completely unaware of the event. Pritam’s (aapel) relative spotted him on the article and sent a congratulatory note!!! Whoo whoo. A little more digging found out the real story. It was our puja get-together of 2004; after a hectic long day filled with fun (laced with khisti, old school events and many other things which cant be explicitly told but should be understood by all the readers :D ), we decided to unwind a bit at the peaceful ambiance of Dhakuria lake in Southern Calcutta, before we headed for a short puja vromon. Later, we put up the photos at our site narendrapur.com like we always do for any trip, get-together or similar events. Little did we know that a naive photo from that travel journal will pop out on a print media after three years, that too on the page of a popular newspaper?
A simple image-search for the term 'adda' on Google, and this photo comes right at the 2nd page, front row. They (the author and the content developers?) picked it up without bothering to obtain permission or informing to the owner, and went on to use it for the article “The Adda Funda”! Do we sue??
This makes me wonder how vulnerable we are at this internet-age to the extent that anything and everything you put up on this public domain might be used/abused/misused somewhere else w/o you even being aware! Scary, naa?
Note: i couldn't find the web version of this article from the newspaper's online archive. if anyone can find it (titled "The Adda Funda"), please forward the link. you candownload the scanned copies of the article here. Finally, thanks to the Google God for attributing this momentary lapse of printed fame!!!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Praktani: Update II (as on 21st June 2007)
Atri Mitra of 1993 batch forwarded this mail which he received from Debdut-da (1975), an active member of the Praktani. kindly go through the mail and fwd this to your batchmates...
We will be meeting at Narendrapur on 24th June at
Narendrapur for a general meeting at 10am. Lunch will
be provided.
Golden Jubilee Activities:
##--A Proposal--##
Inside Narendrapur
1. Golden Jubilee Gate.
2. Goden Jubilee Open Air Theatre.
3. Golden Jubilee Bio Technology Laboratory.
4. Golden Jubilee Computer Centre.
5. Improvement of the Arogya Bhaban.
6. Improvement of the Prayer Halls of all the
Hostels.
7. Golden Jubilee Gym.
8. Guest House for the Ex-students with a office of
Praktani.
9. Funding the orphan houses run by Swami
Debendrananda (Shashanka Maharaj) around Narendrapur.
10. Golden Jubilee Ecopark at Narendrapur.
11. Special fund for the welfare of the employees of
Narendrapur.
12. Upgradation of the Museum.
13. Videography of Golden Jubilee Celebration.
Outside Narendrapur
1. Adoption of a village at Ajodhya Pahar, Purulia
2. Funding the different Social Activities Carried
out by different batches.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Progress of Golden Jubilee Celebration of RK Mission Narendrapur School
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The chronology of events; as it happened...
19.02.2007
Pradyut (1986) and Kamalda (1974) contacted me for arranging a Press Conference at Press Club to announce the Golden Jubilee Celebration of our School.
15.03.2007
A meeting was held at Press Club, Kolkata. Debiprasad Bandyopadhyay (1969), Tapanda, Secretary of VidyalayaPraktani (1972), Kamalda (1974), Udayda (1974), Pradyut (1986), Anirban (1994) and myself were present. The Press Club were booked finally for 3 rd
May (the date was deferred due to the sudden illness of Bishnuda). Food packets were ordered. Payments made by Tapanda.
25.04.2007
A meeting was held at Press Club, Kolkata, to review the progress of the agenda of the Press Conference, Scheduled at 3rd May. Tapanda, Kamalda, Udayda, Pradyut, Anirban and myself were present.
03.05.2007
Press Conference held at Press Club, Kolkata. Bishnuda (Secretary of RKM, narendrapur) and Ashokeda (Head master of the School) addressed the press. Tapan
Maharaj (Swami Jogeswarananda) Sharad Mirani and Shaktida were present from Narendrapur. Many ex-students of various batches were also present.
After the Press Conference some of the members of Praktani had a long discussion to pinpoint the role of the praktani in the Golden Jubilee Celebration of our School.
15.05.2007
Again a meeting was held at Press Club, Kolkata and we discussed a serious problem about the differences between the President and the Convenor of the Golden Jubilee Committee. We decided to sit together to solve the issue to make the Golden Jubilee celebration a success. It was decided that we would sit at the office of Kamal Banerjee on 27th May, 2007.
27.05. 2007
The meeting was held as scheduled at the Office of Kamal Banerjee (1974) at Behala. Members present were Tapan Mukherjee (1972), Arijitda (1974), Udayda (1974), Debashish Chandra (1979), Aruni (1979), Pradyut (1986) and myself.
We decided to organise a meeting of representative of most of the batches on 10th June outside Narendrapur.
Tapanda took the responsibility to book the hall. We took the responsibility to mobilise the ex-students to attend the meeting. Tapanda was requested to inform Ashokeda about the meeting to avoid the further complication. It was decided that Tapanda and Pradyut would request Sharad da to attend the meeting.
06.06.2007
Some of us met in the Press Club, Kolkata on immediate basis to discuss the agenda of the meeting of 10th June. Tapanda informed that he has already booked a hall at Bhowanipore for the said conference. Alida (1965) and Samarlalda (1969) were present among the others. We were told that Sharadda will attend the meeting of 10 th June on behalf of the President Praktani.
10.06.2007
In a very short time we could assemble 35 ex-students representatives of 26 batches starting from 1966 to 2006. Sharadda was also present. Many important things were discussed. Many proposals were taken.
It was suggested that (1) An Alumni Register will be made so that we could contact each and every members of Praktani when needed, and (2) A representative of the Praktani will meet Ashokeda and Tapan Maharaj at Narendrapur on 16th June to explain them the sentiments of the ex-students regarding the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the School.
A team comprising of Samarlalda (1969), Tapanda (1972), Dipankarda (1974), myself (1975), Debashish Chandra (1979), Pradyut (1986), Anirban (1994) and Debamalya (2003) was formed who will visit Narendrapur on 16th June.
16.06. 2007
The team led by Samarlalda met Ashokeda, the President of the Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee as well as the Prasktani and explained the present situation to
him. Tapan Maharaj was not there as he was ill (as reported by Ashokeda). We could not bring the two leaders across the table.
After meeting Ashokeda we decided to meet Tapan Maharaj as he was ill. But surprisingly we got to know that he was fit and working in his office in the 1st
floor of the Central Office. We went there and took Tushar Maharaj with us.
We had some heated arguments with Tapan Maharaj, where Tushar Maharaj intervened and fought in support of our cause. In one stage he wanted to resign from the post of the Convenor if two Joint Convenors were added as proposed by the Praktani. However Ashokeda did not oppose the proposal.
Although we was confused, however some important things came into light and two important decisions were taken:
(1) Tapan Maharaj disclosed that he is facing some problems to work with Ashokeda and there is a big communication gap between the two. Tapan Maharaj agreed to have an one-to-one discussion with me and the date was fixed. Tapan Maharaj told me to come at 9 am on 20th June, 2007.
(2) We will have an ex-student meet at Narendrapur on 24th June, 2007. Ashokeda not only approved it, he was even kind enough to announce that the School will provide lunch to all participants.
(3) We decided to meet Shyamalda (Swami Jitatmananda) for his guidance for the preparation of the Golden Jubilee Celebration.
(4) Praktani promised to take active role to make the Golden Jubilee Celebration a success, provided that our sentiment is looked after with due respect.
19.06.2007
(1) Tapan Maharaj cancelled his appointment with me. So there was no scope to hear from him about the problems faced by him.
(2) But Shyamalda agreed to sit with us in the evening. A team comprising of Samarlalda, Arijitda, Dipankarda, Kamalda, Udayda, Nirupamda (1974) and myself went to Swamiji-r bari to meet Shyamalda.
On behalf of the representation, I explained the situation to Shyamalda and requested him to guide us to formulate a concrete proposal which would be permanent in nature.
Shyamalda was very kind to give us two hours and promised to help us in near future. He has also given us some concrete proposals. He also promised to be present at the meeting of 24th June, provided Ashokeda requests him to attend the said meeting.
Compiled by Debdut Ghoshthakur (1975)
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Story: a 100 million donation
A University of Illinois alumnus announced he will make a $100 million donation to his alma mater, the largest gift in the university's history.
Thomas M. Siebel, the founder and former chairman of Siebel Systems Inc., pledged to give the gift to the Urbana-Champaign campus upon his death.
Read the full story...
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