Study Hall marked the 74th Independence Day by a virtual meet. The principal, vice principal and CEO of Study Hall, along with a small group of teachers visited the school, maintaining social distancing, to hoist the Indian flag which the students and remaining faculty witnessed on their screens, followed by the national anthem and the pledge. The CEO, Urvashi aunty utilised the occasion to speak about the real freedom from fear, being loving countrymen, recent education policy and scope for democratic citizenship education. Principal, Meenakshi aunty devotedly spoke about the fight for freedom back in 1940s and today, freedom from the pandemic, COVID-19. The junior school too celebrated the occasion in the same fashion along with teachers, students and their parents as well. Thereafter, everyone geared up for the panel discussion. The panel had 2 students each from all the units of SHEF and everyone witnessed an enriching discussion on the entrenched inequalities in our society that were pushed into the light due to the pandemic. Various perspectives poured in as the panelists explored caste, gender and class discrimination. The discussion was opened to the audience and beautiful statements were given like, “if you want to make a change in the world look at the man in the mirror” amongst several others. Urvashi Aunty gave the closing speech as she urged the students to adopt a solution oriented approach and set an example by sharing the foundation’s recent achievement of providing hundreds of phones and laptops to the underprivileged students. The proceedings ended on a patriotic high leaving everyone with thoughts on how to create the India our forefathers envisioned. The event brought back a lot of memories and it was indeed a wonderful idea to hold the Independence Day function despite the physical limitations. Happy Independence Day!!
