Aparna Chaudhuri, a Class XI student, felicitates the President at the function. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam charmed with ease at the closing ceremony of the 150-year celebrations of Calcutta Girl’s High School held at the Science City auditorium on December 6. In the city for a host of events, he took out time to release a commemorative volume compiled by the school.

Attired in a grey bandhgala, trademark locks in place, President Kalam addressed the audience with characteristic verve, taking questions from students on politics, human cloning and women’s rights. Speaking about the need to educate the girl child, he remarked: “Forty eight per cent of our country’s population comprises women. I hope that the Women’s Reservation Bill will change the status of women in the country.”

He also stressed on the imperative need of the youth to participate in the political process. He referred to what the school’s student council president Ketaki Mukhopadhyay told him before he took the stage: “She said that she wanted to be a political leader to remove corruption in politics. The youth will have to play an active role in politics if there is to be progress. They are the ones who bring dynamic energy into any field.”

Distinguishing developmental politics, “which focuses on development of the nation”, from political politics, “which is all about winning seats in Parliament”, he said: “The nation is bigger than political parties. One should not spend more than 30 per cent of one’s time on the latter.”

Kalam responded to Class XII student Sana Abdul’s poser about the difficulty of working women in balancing home and workplace with customary panache: “The child will have to be the primary focus.” He recalled his own childhood in a joint family where a relative would take care of a child in the absence of the parent. “In a nuclear family, either of the parents must stay at home to take responsibility for the child.”

The clash between technology and environmental pollution was also brought up by a student. “We can prevent pollution by switching over to solar, bio and nuclear power to fulfil our energy requirements,” he replied.

As the teeming sea of students filed out of the auditorium towards the buses waiting to take them back to school, Reshmi Dutta, a student of Class IX, gushed: “Meeting President Kalam is a once-in a-lifetime thing. I loved interacting with him and hope that he comes to our school some day.”

Romila Saha

The Diary

Lost times

I had her in my arms one day,
Today in my grave I lie,
Sleepless and unworthy of the pleasure,
Of reminiscing the moments of games we played at leisure,
Of times when we had been together,
A daughter and her father

What had she said when she had, for the first time, learnt to speak?
Do I remember her first laugh, cry or squeak?
Do I know what she had felt, when for the first time, her hand I had held?
I remember nothing but the times we fought,
Of the times in anger I had been overwrought,
Imposing my wills on my little child,
Indifferent to her tears that had turned her so wild.

Oh, How I wish to snatch away moments from the pocket of time,
Some forgotten giggles of her childhood,
Some lost twinkles of her eyes and turn into blossoms all her pensive sighs.
I do not know if flowers to my grave she brings,
Those unspent moments of togetherness I so dearly crave,

As I lie silent and reminiscing in my cold and lonely grave.

Anindita Bhattacharya, Class XII, Carmel High School

Of the unknown

The dusky chill of the morrow,
Brings along tidings of sorrow,
The lint fails to weave —
The chasm of grief.
Asunder the cliffs lie,
Weary deaths the mournings die.
Will the thunder not strike
The miscreant hike?
Prongs of wilderness
Pierce the winds
And when attempted to solve;
These mystic scuffles dissolve.

Lubna Salim, 1st yr, MA journalism and mass comm, CU

Chit Chat

Fest finale

Curtains came down on Sona Chandi The Great TTIS Challenge with a flourish on December 9. Youngsters started pouring into the Swabhumi courtyard right from 6 pm to catch a show by Pakistani band Jal.

Ranadeep Das of St Paul’s Mission School had turned up despite his ICSE exams knocking at the door. The Enrique and Eminem enthusiast said: “I haven’t heard the band before, so just wanted to check them out.”

Soon the line-up of Farhan Saeed, Gohar Mumtaz and Shazi had the crowd on its feet and singing along. Budhaditya Acharya of Don Bosco Park Circus had only one word for them, “awesome”, before adding that his favourite was Farhan.

The band belted out one popular hit after another including favourites Aadat Si Ho Gayi Hai and their signature number Woh Lamhe. Nothing was too much to see for the youngsters who were standing on anything available, from tables to ledges of shop windows to catch a glimpse of it all.