Two of the stars of Kodalia school (in white) in action at CC&FC. Picture by Rashbehari Das

The untiring efforts of PE teacher Biswajit Haldar of Kodalia Prasanna Banga High School to take his school to sporting heights paid off when the school team bagged the top honours at the at the second edition of the TTIS-CC&FC five-a-side football meet last weekend.

Led by Sudip Naskar, the team included Bapi Saha and Raja Shah, both aspiring to play club football in the near future, the latter having already got a contract with CC&FC.

“We are yet to get a Higher Secondary affiliation. We hope to get it this year after a long wait,” says Haldar.

Kodalia HS is in fact the only school in Kodalia village, in North 24-Parganas, beyond Subhasgram. As the coach, a die-hard football fan himself, points out, “Football has motivated children in our village to join school.”

Although academics sometimes takes a backseat, progress is made, admits the football coach. “If I ask my boys to get glued to their books, they won’t. But even at midnight if I call them to play football, they will be on the field before I am,” he adds.

Though Kodalia HS does not have a field in the school, the boys practise on the Kodaliagram grounds, the only one in the village, or at times a bigger ground near Haldar’s home in Sonarpur. The taste of victory is not new to this side. Semi-finalists in the Subroto Cup, BC Roy champs, ABP trophy winners, Bhaskar trophy runners-up… the team’s achievements are enviable by any standards.

“When we started to play football, our team did not even have proper gear; we managed somehow. Later as we started winning, the stuff came our way,” says one of the team members. The spirit of never giving up is evident from the fact that Kodalia is the ancestral village of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose!

Among the 44 schools participating in the TTIS inter-school five-a-side football tournament, Md Jan School came first runners-up, while Frank Anthony Public School and Don Bosco Park Circus got third and fourth places, respectively.

Winning the most valuable player award with his considerable skill was Aamir Iksiat from Frank Anthony, while the Future Hope students grabbed the best cheering team award, after having shouted themselves hoarse. The highest scorer was Sameer, with an amazing 23 goals, while Mahavir Institute bagged the fair play award.

The day also opened new horizons for two budding footballers, as CC&FC chose Raja Shah of Kodalia and Soumit Samanta of North Point to play as official members of the club. Way to go champs!

— Sangeet Shirodkar & Neha Almal

 

Nobel hunt

If I were in charge of finding Tagore’s stolen medal, I would... was the question posed by Time to Talk. Here are the last set of answers.

I would interrogate local residents with a criminal record. Also, I would delicately handle the smallest piece of evidence. High security should be posted at checkpoints on roads and goods vehicles should be checked carefully. The museum employees should be questioned.

Sayantan Sarkar,
K.V.O.F Dum Dum

I would interrogate the security personnel of Uttarayan, who were on duty at the time, since the burglars could not have got in without help from insiders. Jewellers have to be told to contact police if anyone tries to sell Tagore’s medal.

Shashwati Bandyopadhyay

As most Indians are still illiterate, they are not aware of the prestige of the Noble Prize. So, I think the crime was committed by an international group, with help from local criminals. But, Visva Bharati authorities must tighten security to avoid such incidents in future. However, this can’t rob us of Tagore’s legacy.

Pritha Sen

I would first stop all the fuss about requesting the Nobel committee to replace Tagore’s medal. Then, I would bring the investigation down a few notches in the priority list, below crimes that make society insecure.

Ankan Ghosh

l would have proceeded on the same lines as the investigating officers. Such a theft cannot take place without the assistance of local residents or security personnel. The fingerprints of the suspects should be analysed, and raids conducted in border districts and in the hideouts of thieves who commit such crimes. But, finding the medal is almost impossible.

Sayan Banerjee,
City College

 

Youngsters on the stage at Science City. Picture by Aranya Sen

Stage-free

Campaigning for the polls had stopped on Saturday afternoon, as per the Election Commission’s diktat. But a candidate from Calcutta Northwest, mayor Subrata Mukherjee, received a bonus on Sunday afternoon — a monologue praising his Corporation at Madhusudan Mancha. “We did not realise that our play would be staged just before the polls,” Asmita Kastha, of Class XI, St John’s Diocesan Girl’s High School, later smiled apologetically in the green room.

The backstage then was the scene of frenetic action as teams were getting their act ready. Time, at the Inter-School One-Act Play Competition, was a crucial factor. So much so that Mahadevi Birla Girls’, exceeding the allotted half hour by “two-three minutes”, lost out on the top honours and had to stay content with the jury’s prize.

Keeping time was the easiest criterion to judge for the jury. Most of the productions were mature beyond the actors’ teen years. “We had a really tough time choosing,” said Rwita Datta Chakraborty, a familiar face on the small screen, speaking for her colleagues, theatre personalities Arun Mukherjee and Chitra Sen. Finally, the MP Birla Trophy went to the boys of Birla High School, as a salute to the futility of clerks’ dreams which they portrayed with pathos. South Point, the host, came second with its enactment of the true story of Iqbal Masih, an adolescent carpet-weaver, which the team members said they had found on the Net. The third place went to Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan. The evening was also marked by powerful individual performances, but ‘President Roosevelt’ Chirag Madan of La Martiniere for Boys and Sneha Krishnan of MB Girls’ stole the show.

 

Footwork finesse

Dancing Feet, a free dance workshop project of the Shiamak Davar Institute for Performing Arts (SDIPA), Mumbai, for under-privileged kids from slums, NGOs and children of women in prostitution, had organised a 15-day workshop at the Apeejay Anand Children’s Library.

The 35-odd students of the Apeejay Educational Trust project, with support from Apeejay School, had a gala time, tapping their feet to the tune of Hindustani, a popular song by Shankar Mahadevan, which was witnessed by over 2,000 people at Science City on Sunday.

Meghana Rao of Dil To Pagal Hai fame, an instructor at SDIPA, trained the youngsters, mainly from the slums of Mullick Bazar. Dancing Feet made its debut in Calcutta, with the children from the library sharing stage with children from other schools, trained under the Summer Funk banner of SDIPA.

Jazz, hip-hop, rock ’n’ roll — Meghana taught the kids a bit of everything, with the promise of more such projects in future. Youngsters like Rahul, Deepa, Srirupa and Guddu enthralled the audience with their footwork.

The production will take centrestage at Perception, the annual school inter-institutional festival of Apeejay, in June.

— Sangeet Shirodkar

 

Full calendar

It’s one of the newest schools in the city, but the year-old Delhi Public School (DPS) at Ruby Park, in Kasba Rathtala, has quite an active life. A continuous academic evaluation system means no regulation exams and more time for extracurriculars.

And the calendar is full for the numerous clubs — music, dance, science, quiz, dramatics, art and craft, no-fire cookery and computers. The school also celebrates all the festivals, from Id to Rabindra Jayanti.

Quiz, recitation, painting, writing, extempore, story-telling and other competitions, and excursions to places like museums and factories are part of the learning process. Visits are organised to orphanages like Missionaries of Charity and the Bosepukur and Rajdanga schools where the students work with under-privileged children. They are also involved in programmes like Road Safety Week, apart from the winter carnival and sports day.

Participation and laurels in inter-school events like quiz contests, chess and painting competitions and fests have firmly put DPS Ruby Park on the education map in Calcutta.

— Madhumita Das

 

Coming up…

• Padatik has organised a series of summer camps during May and June, including workshops on Indian and western dance styles, theatre and creative writing, health and wellness cooking, maths made easy and art excel.

• Rhinoceros, a Red Curtain play, will be staged on May 15 at Gyan Manch.

• Have Fun to Beat the Sun, a 10-day summer camp for students, from May 17 to 27 at The Heritage School. Workshops on drama, mime, clay-modelling, stained glass-painting, cookery and more.