“Oh! Is that a seed?” exclaimed a student, craning his neck to get close to the idol. It was Saturday and Saraswati puja was being held in Hariyana Vidya Mandir. 

The students were barely recognisable, out of uniform and clad in bright colours. But at the centre of attention was the goddess. Ma Saraswati was decorated with different kinds of pulses!

It was the handiwork of our teachers, especially two of them  — Sangeeta Biswas and Dipali Roy Chowdhury from the day shift.

Asked about the root of the novel idea, Biswas replied: “It is the International Year of Pulses (as declared by the United Nations) and our principal Nandini Sen came up with the suggestion.”

It took the teachers three days to complete the decoration. “It was definitely tiring but the workload was divided among the other teachers too. And this is what I am best at,” she smiled. Biswas is an art teacher at the school.

All morning, students milled around the idol, clicking selfies with the goddess keeping the decor in focus.

A cultural programme was also scheduled to be held soon after and many parents had come to see their children in action on stage. 

One of them was Shreya Banik of Class VII, who sang her heart out to the Tagore song Kobe ami bahir holem. “I love to sing. It’s my passion but mostly it’s the appreciation and the motivation provided by my family, friends and teachers that keep me going,” she said after her performance, before promising to be back on stage next year.
As the morning progressed, some boys and girls could be seen leaving school as couples. On Valentine’s Day-eve, love was in the air.

A boy cut a solitary figure, standing outside in the sun for over 15 minutes, even as all his classmates left in a group. Asked point black whether he was waiting for his girlfriend, he went all crimson and stammered: “Oh no! I’m waiting for a friend. She is on her way.” Friend, indeed!

But more intense than that the love-lorn was the emotion of the students who would be appearing for their exams. “Save us this time, Ma. I promise to be more sincere next time,” one such Class XII boy was heard murmuring in front of the goddess, eyes shut and fingers firmly interlocked.

— Shrija Bose,
Class XI, Hariyana Vidya Mandir