Soul Music: Sarod exponent Amaan Ali Bangash shares a quiet moment with a child amidst a group of mentally-challenged students of Nivedita, at the Institute of Child Health, in Park Circus. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

It is said of the previous generation that they inherited a land of beauty and made it into a land of beauty spots. But the younger lot is set to change all that. And how. The trend of innovative initiatives to save nature has taken a life of its own, with more yet to come.

Students of nature clubs of eight city schools ? Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Ashok Hall, La Martiniere (boys and girls), Don Bosco, GD Birla, Mahadevi Birla and Birla High School (girls) ? came together to form a Nature Club Council in Calcutta.

With the motto of ?Nurture Care Conserve?, these green crusaders have just one motive: to serve Mother Nature. The council was launched on December 28 at Victoria Memorial, with actress June lending her support and planting a sapling to signify the start of the new venture.

Meenakshi Bamalva, president of the council, introduced the other members. Then, about 150 students from various schools joined in for a nature walk on Queensway, led by June and the council. It was an anti-pollution drive, with students holding aloft posters voicing their own messages as well as those of the pollution control board.

The walk, supported by Calcutta Police, was a new beginning, which promises to deliver on the promises made.

Nihar Jain,
Nature Club Council

Success spell

Butterflies in our stomachs, our heads whirling, we walked into Rabindra Sadan on December 20 for the finals of the SpelLinc Word Cracking Competition, hosted by Linc Pens. The competition was very tough, with over 90 schools from all over West Bengal competing. My teammates (Priyanka Kumar and Annesha Sil) thought we didn?t stand a chance. In fact, Annesha, the eternal pessimist, remarked: ?I don?t think we?ll be able to even clear the preliminaries.?

But as Lady Luck would have it, Ashok Hall was among the eight schools selected to go up on stage, under the glaring spotlights. We managed to do pretty well in the spellings, word-making and crossword rounds, but not too well in anagrams. The tension on stage was palpable.

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for ? the ranking. We thought we would come sixth, or at the most fifth or maybe fourth. But Lady Luck was certainly in a very good mood! We came first, followed by Calcutta Boys? School and Jewish Girls? School.

We were ecstatic. My teammates and I got a golden trophy, gift cheques of Rs 5,000 each and Linc Pen hampers, besides a collective cheque of Rs 15,000 in the shape of... a pencil!

Mir?s anchoring was hilarious ? he played the doodhwallah to perfection. It was exciting meeting P.C. Sorcar Jr in person, too. But thank heavens he didn?t make our trophies disappear!

Brinda Dasgupta,
Ashok Hall

Actress June leads the anti-pollution walk for the students? Nature Club Council, formed last week

Fest and festivity

?Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la la, la la la la?

And yes, the Dramatics Society and the Western Cultural Society of Loreto College ensured that we had a jolly good time on December 20, when a Christmas pageant was organised to usher in the festivities. The programme had Christmas carols within the play, which itself had a number of elocution pieces very innovatively put together and enacted.

In the play, a child asks innocent but pertinent questions like: ?Can Santa be black?? or ?Can Santa be thin?? or ?Does Santa always have to be a him??, which thoroughly bewilders teachers and guardians, leaving them perplexed.

So, amidst the joy and celebration, a very important message of universal brotherhood was conveyed. The carol singers ended the evening with the all-time favourites ? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Jingle bells and We wish you a Merry Christmas, while Rudolph and Santa distributed gifts and sweets to all.

Radhika Basu Thakur,
2nd yr, English (hons), Loreto College

Winter Spirit, an evening dedicated to Jesus Christ, was organised by the primary section students of Kalyani Central Model School, on December 21. There was performing arts from the freshers and a short programme to welcome the guests, which included the principals of Mother International School (Salt lake), Barrackpore Central Model School and Kalyani Model School (Barasat).

After the speeches was the welcome song by a few boys, with guitar for company. Then, there were Christmas carols. The western dance by the freshers and the short play spread seasonal cheer. Finally, to everyone?s amusement, Santa Claus went on stage with a bagful of gifts.

Lalit Ghosh,
Kalyani Central Model School

The Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Hirendra Leela Patranavis School reached its peak on December 18 at Nazrul Mancha, with a scintillating performance by the students. The first magazine-cum-souvenir of the school, Udvas, was also inagurated.

Be it the breathtaking inaugural diya dance, the dreamlike Alphabet Club performed by the tiny tots or the foot-tapping fusion dance, the 3,000-plus audience, comprising eminent personalities from different spheres, heads of various educational institutions, guardians and ex-students, was enthralled for more than four hours.

The comedy The Sequence of a Mind Game was a good laugh, while the final item, Provincial Dances, was a riot of colours and rhythms.

Avijit Roy

We were an excited lot of students, on our way to Maria?s Day School, Howrah, for an inter-school debate and music competition on December 14 and 16. And we ended up winning the top prize, so we were an ecstatic group on the way back.

The participating schools were St Denis, Little Star, Pearls of God, Don Bosco, St Paul?s, Agrasin, Blessed Alfenso and the hosts. Our school gave a stellar performance in the musical category. On the first day was the semi-final, followed by the final. The competition was grouped under several categories, namely Rabindrasangeet, bhajan and patriotic music.

There was an instrumental round open to all. The auditorium also rocked with band performances. Despite a close call between Maria?s and Little Star, we won.

The winners were Ashraful Ishaqe, Anirban Chatterjee, Manisha Sarkar, Om Shankar Sharma, Sujata Ghosal, Shilpi Bhattacharya and Gouri Majumdar, who won two prizes in separate categories. Little Star also bagged the first prizes in band and western music.

Orpita Ghosh & Manjari Banerjee,
Little Star School, Howrah

Sabrina Basu, 17, a student of Kennett in New Hampshire, USA, had organised a Fight Against Poverty Walk-a-Thon in July in her hometown of North Conway. On Sunday, Sabrina handed over a cheque for Rs 55,000 to the Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta. Picture by Pabitra Das

College capers

If Park Street boasts St Xavier?s College, Presidency enlightens College street and standing tall on Elgin Road is Bhawanipur College, then Salt Lake has Bidhan Nagar Government College to take pride in. Dhun 2004, the annual fest of the college, is gradually trying to climb to the same heights as Xavotsav, Umang and Kaleidoscope.

From December 23 to 26, the campus revelled in an intoxicating atmosphere of fun, frolic and excitement. Santa, too, seemed happy, showering gifts. It was a Christmas of plenty for the students.

On Day One were events like debate and eastern and western solo singing competitions, and a special drama, 17th July, by Ganakrishti. Quiz, Khatta-Meetha Phuchka contest for girls and Rosogolla competition for boys, spot dancing and a college rock band show were on December 24.

More excitement was in store on Christmas Day, with a skit competition, Antakshari, choreography competition and also a rock band show. The last day had Tabla Tale and Bangla rock band Fossils.

The participating colleges included City College, IIT Kanpur, Presidency, St Xavier?s, Bethune, Lady Brabourne, Rani Birla, Sarada Ram Krishna Mission, Vivekananda Vidhyabhavan, Motijheel, Loreto, Gurudas, Asutosh, NUJS, NIFT, Jaipuria, BIT, IEM, Techno India, Gokhale, Victoria, Scottish Church, JU and many more. The hosts bagged most of the prizes.

Asif Salam,
2nd Year, Asutosh College

High drama

The seventh Ganga Jamuna Natya Utsab, held by the organisation Aneek, was on from December 24 to 31 at six different auditoriums spread over Calcutta. December 25 and 26 were reserved for the inter-school, inter-college and inter-university Bengali short drama competitions, held at Sisir Mancha.

The overwhelming student response prompted Aneek to extend the competition to the inter-school and inter-college levels this year. In 2003, it was only an inter-university event.

Fifteen productions were staged over two days. At the school level, Nimtala High School walked away with the best production prize for Babu Chashar Karcha, based on Tagore?s Dui Bigha Jami. In second place was Belghoria High School, with Chhuti, portraying the rat race among today?s youth.

Narendrapur Residential College topped the inter-college group with its production Ekti Abastab Golpo. Kaliaganj College came in second. Asutosh College?s Shesh Samapti got an individual award for highlighting the issue of the legalisation of euthanasia in India.

The most competitive category was the inter-university one. Vidyasagar University?s Bartan, Burdwan University?s Dadash Bhaktya Chadun and North Bengal University?s productions were worth mentioning. Rabindra Bharati University stole the show with two successive productions ? first was Atithi Narayan, with the theme that people, not God, help each other in times of need, and in second place was a play dealing with Breto, a cruel dictator of Brazil.

There were also individual awards like the best script, best director and two best actors and actresses at each level.

Prize distribution over, it was time for the best of the day to be unveiled. Prastuti, a group of 35 young boys and girls who had come from Delhi, staged Chotu, which has made a name in north India.

The group?s train had been cancelled due to bad weather, but on special request to the PMO, a coach was arranged for them. The train reached Calcutta hours late. Within just an hour of arriving, the children staged their production.

It is about a young boy who fled from one city to another, but was made a fool of wherever he went. Nobody stood by him. But the play ended on a high note ? ?jeene ke liye larna hain, larne ke liye jeena?.

Subhajoy Roy,
1st year, English (hons), Asutosh College