The theme for this winter’s Salt Lake School fest Rhapsody was “Katha o Kahini — the story of women” and so a number of events and exhibitions were centered around this theme. 

The exhibitions were held in classrooms on all the three floors of the school. The English room had write-ups on leading women personalities such as Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, and Indian freedom-fighter Sarojini Naidu. “The students did everything without any help from teachers and that too within the school hours. I’m happy that they did not compromise on academic activities alongside churning out such good content,” said English teacher Shivaji Bose. 

The Bengali room had a thermocol model of the school and charts and posters on female Bengali writers such as Mahasweta Devi. There were charts on film personalities like Aparna Sen and Mira Nair and sportswomen like Mary Kom and Sania Mirza. 

The biology room had charts on different life forms and a model of the Jim Corbett National Park. Students gave out social messages on wildlife conservation. There was also a sports room with charts and cut-outs on footballers who played in the Fifa World Cup last year. 

The experiments in the chemistry room attracted a large crowd. All were curious to see how, for instance, a drop of vinegar on sodium bicarbonate let off carbon dioxide. Students had even made gunpowder out of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal and a chemical volcano out of ammonium dichromate. “The students fared really well. They gathered material from the internet and made all the charts,” said chemistry teacher Shreya Sarkar. 

There were events like face-painting, rangoli-making and collage-making. “I’ve painted two halves of the earth on my partner’s face. One half is yellow and white showing merriment and the other is red, showing the ugly side of the earth involving destruction and violence,” showed Alivia Das from Class XI.

The band competition had the first few participating schools performing only songs composed by R.D. Burman, till National English School came up on stage and played a metal number, much to discomfort of those used to softer music. While the band was doing the sound check, parents could be overheard talking amongst themselves in the audience. “Era schooley porey?” asked one mother while another wondered: “Schooley ei shob hairstyle allow korey?”

The first prize for music went to the host school and the band’s drummer Writobhash Mukherjee got the Best Instrumentalist award. They had performed R.D. Burman’s Jaane jaa dhundta phir raha. “We were given a total of seven minutes and while many teams played two songs in that time, we chose to focus on one. We only had four days of practice but what set us apart was our on-stage improvisations and co-ordination,” said guitarist Pratim Majumder. 

The plays in the drama contest had to dwell on the theme of the fest and Salt Lake School was the winner. 

The debate, on the topic “Frailty, thy name is woman” had two-member teams split and speak on opposing sides. “Both Sourya (Bhattacharya) and I wanted to speak against the topic but since I am a girl, our teachers decided that I should defend my sex,” said Arundhati Biswas of the winning team from Hariyana Vidya Mandir. Suchintan Das of the host school was declared the best speaker. 

Arundhati would take home the creative writing medal too. “I wrote an account of a village girl, raised to believe she is inferior, denied education and married early into a life of torture. Finally she gives up. While there are empowered women like Kiran Bedi and Damayanti Sen, girls lead such lives too in our society,” she said.