August 15 is triply important to students of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education (SAIE) as besides being India’s Independence Day, it is the birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo and hence, it is when they celebrate their annual day. 
This year, the CL BLock school’s programme took place over two days — August 14 and 15 — at EZCC. The first was for the junior school and the second was for the seniors. 

The second day began with secretary of the school Sankar Banerjee welcoming the guests. President of the governing body Jitendra Nath Banerjee and chief guest, writer Ramen Majumder, then addressed the gathering.
Girls then sang Swagatam Subha Swagatam, which had been composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar for the 1982 Asian Games, and a pictorial biography of Rishi Aurobindo followed. It focused on his childhood, his work for India’s freedom movement and his spiritual practices. It ended with Sayonti Mukherjee of Class XI singing Bharat humko sabse pyara hai, a song from the film Roja. 

Last year, students had presented a dance recital on a segment of Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri. This year they presented its second part. “The actors only had to mouth the lines while another set of students read out the script from backstage but still our vice-principal ensured that we learnt it by heart,” said Mrittika Chatterjee, who enacted the role of Savitri. 

Vice-principal Nandita Chandra said that the actors’ lip synchronisation would not be correct without learning the lines. “They did very well and I hope they present the next portion next year,” she said. 

The alumni association of the school then handed a trophy to the winning house of the inter-school soccer tournament. It was a rolling trophy that is given out every year by the association and thereafter a thanksgiving programme was conducted by Bappan Roy, a pass-out of the 1993 batch.

Next were the musicals. First on the cards was a tribute to Shakespeare through three scenes — the courtroom scene from The Merchant of Venice, the garden scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream and the witches’ scene from Macbeth. 

Next was a Hindi play titled Kranti, prepared by Hindi teacher Jay Prakash Tiwari. It was based on how general Tatya Tope was betrayed by his trusted friend Man Singh and captured by the British before being tried and hanged. 
A dance recital, titled Alor Disha, depicted the suffering of women and urged them to fight back. The Bengali drama Singhashan, which was an extract from Mohit Chatopadhyay’s Rajar Antarpur, had good overcoming evil. A Bengali dance drama Raghupati Raghav was also put up, based on The Ramayana.

There was a chorus in three languages — O children of Bharat Mata written by The Mother, Insaaf ke dagar pe and Pothe ebar namo sathi. 

“There was perfect co-ordination among the teachers and students today and that is what made the show a success,” said principal Debleena Bhattacharya.