[ 08-05-2010]
3rd Annual General Meeting of the Alumni
Attendance-20
Chief Guest-Ms.Alokananda Ray
The morning started by paying our tribute to Rabindra Nath Tagore on the occasion his birth anniverasary in the form of a Rabindra Sangeet by Ms. Maya Roychoudhry.
The President Ms.Kavita Poddar gave the opening speech.
Secretary Ms.Shailaja Mundra gave a report of all the events of 2009-2010.She informed us that the membership strength has now become 150.
Treasurer Ms.Preeti Daga gave an insight of all the financial activities of the Alumni for the year 2009-2010.
Our guest of honour Ms.Alokananda Roy was then invited upon.
She is an ex-student of Modern HIgh School.She is a cultural icon in Bengal and also made a name globally.She is a highly acclaimed dancer with diplomas,certificates and recognition from a variety of institutions in India and Abroad.
She is presently working with convicts of Presidency Correctional Home,Kolkata and other correctional homes in aWest Bengal through a programme-"DANCE THERAPY"The inmates learn and then perform outside in front of large audiences.This helps them to gain back their self respect,bring out their best and gives them a chance for a better life.
Ms.Roy started by saying that she felt odd to be called a Guest as she is one of the girls of the school who still feels nervous about being pointed out that her socks need to be pulled up.She remembered that one of her teachers had once scolded that "Will you Dance through you life" and there she is actually doing that.
She showed us a film on the work that she does in the correctional homes.
The film was called SALVATION THRU DANCE.
Along with other inmates this particularly follows the story of Vicky-a hard core criminal who is now totally transformed with the help of the correctional programme.As of today he is working with Ms.Roy and is one of the most trusted persons in her organizations.It is literally the transformation of a Ratnakar to a Valmiki.
The film touched all our hearts and also opened up our mind towards these inmates.We now pray for all of them to get transformed and find a place back in the society.
The meeting came to a close with refreshments and a good bye before the summer vacations.
[ 30-01-2010]
Annual Day Programme
The programme today was divided into 2 parts. The 1st part was a fun Quiz whereas the 2nd part was The Annual Award Ceremony.
FUN QUIZ
Everyone who came today was a participant.All were divided into 5 teams namely chilli chips-red, cadbury-purple,green mint-green,and candy floss-pink.Members were not supposed to choose their teams but had to pick out a ribbon from a packet which contained all the colours and then be a part of whichever colour was picked.
The Quiz was conducted by two of our ex-students-Shampa Mukherjee and Varsha.The quiz was mostly about school and teachers.It consisted of 7 rounds- pictionary, rapid fire,audio,puzzle,advertisement, sense, and one liners..Pictionary-one team member had to come up on stage and draw/illustrate the nick name of a teacher on the blackboard and the team had to guess the real name in full.Rapid fire-in 1 minute the team had to answer as many questions.All these questions were based on the School.Audio-Songs mostly picturised in schools or colleges were played and the team had to answer some questions based on them.Puzzle-A jig saw puzzle of the school building was given to all the teams to solve.Advertisement-This was a paper quiz where all teams had to guess the name of the product based on the the catch line.there were 20 products.Sense- each team was given a tray of 8 powder like substance like sugar,baking soda, flour etc and they were supposed to identify and write the names of the same on a sheet of paper corresponding to the number given to that product.One liners-Favourite one liners of certain teachers were given and the team had to guess the teacher.
The quiz took us back to our good old school days where there was a lot of excitement and loud chatter in the shed.The winning team was CHILLI CHIPS.
A must mention is that the entire quiz was a creation of the committee of the Alumni.
THE ANNUAL AWARD CEREMONY
Mrs Devi Kar came up on stage to conduct the Annual Award Cermony.Respected Mrs. G.P.Birla and Alumni President Mrs.Kavita Poddar also came up on stage.This year the awards were given away for Service.These awards are given away on behalf of Modern High School after a lot of screening.
Mrs.Nisha Agarwal introduced the 1st recipient- Mrs.Vijaya Mukherjee nee Chatterjee.Besides being associated with All lovers of animal Society, Society for the preservation of Monuments and Woodlands Hospital and Research Institute,her main work in which she is involved today is HITAISHINI-the only Breast Cancer Support Network in Eastern India.It is a voluntary,non profit organization run by breast cancer survivors and socially committed women.The Organization conducts awareness camps,seminars and workshops to propagate awareness among the masses. Ms.Mukherjee has been dedicated to this good work since 1995.
Mrs.Amita Prasad introduced the 2nd recipient-Mrs Vinita Saraf nee Nevatia.Mrs. Saraf is a successful business woman in the Travel Business but this is only one of the many activities she is involved in.She is the co- founder of the organization-Apne Aap Worldwide.This organization works with families of sex workers and has centres all over the country.She has been felicitated with awards like the Bharat Sewa Award and the Jyotirmai Sewa Award.
Mrs. Amita Prasad then introduced the 3rd recipient-Ms.Ruchira Gupta.She started her career as a journalist with the english daily-The Telegraph.During such time she also received the Emmy Award for "Selling of Innocents" in 1997.She then along with 2 of her friends founded the Apne Aap Worldwide Organization.This organization today supports families of 10000 sex workers.Ms. Gupta has even spoken before the United Nations.Her latest feather in the cap was the Clinton Global Initiative Award.
All three speakers along with other things they spoke had one thing in common.They all thanked their alma mater modern high school for girls for all their achievements.
We ended with the School Song.
It was 5 pm and time for some sumptous snacks,hot tea and old friends.
