Wednesday 31 October 2012

THE GARDEN


THE GARDEN
THE INVITATION
On 12th and 13th October, 2012, St. Anthony’s High School and St. Joseph Nursery and Kindergarten, in association with TTIS, presented their School Concert. The concert was held at Vidya Mandir Auditorium. The first day was for the parents and guardians of the primary section students. The chief guest on that day was His Grace Archbishop Thomas D’Souza. The second day was for the parents and guardians of the secondary section students. On that day the chief guest was Mrs. Molly Bhowmick (Gomes), the Assistant DI of Secondary Schools. Other guests of honour present on the second day were Bishop Ashoke Biswas, Rev. Fr. Moloy D’Costa and DJ Akash. The programme also featured the launch of the school magazine The Anthonian 2012. 

ARCHBISHOP FELICITATED
HONOURABLE GUESTS


MRS MOLLY BHOWMICK
WELCOME SONG








                       


THE MAGAZINE
DJ AKASH
On both the days the programme started with a welcome song and the felicitation of the guests. On the second day the Headmaster, Fr. Devraj Fernandez, presented the school report. Boys from St. Joseph Nursery and Kindergarten enacted their parts in garish costumes to the accompaniment of Nursery Rhymes sung by the Children’s Choir. It was followed by Koli Dance performed by the boys of Classes One and Two. The major attraction of the concert, though, was the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s ageless tale “The Selfish Giant” into a musical called “The Garden”. There are several reasons why this story, known to almost everyone, was chosen to be adapted to the stage for the School Concert this year. Primarily, the story is rich in personification. In today’s world people purport to do so much to conserve Nature. Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose had hypothesized years ago that plants can "feel pain, understand affection etc.” In the play adapted from the story, Nature is a character. When the giant is selfish, Nature has a role of its own to play. The different aspects of Nature are given the ability to perform feats like feeling, sleeping and dancing, almost like acting on their own free will. When the giant is selfish, and closes up his garden winter and cold move into his life. North Wind dances and says that they should invite Hail. This is something the forces of Nature wouldn't do outside the human imagination, but it creates a picture of nature having a life of its own. The flowers refuse to come out of the ground because they feel sad for the children. The trees bend as low as they can for the little boy who is too tiny to climb the tree. The threat of global warming looms large owing to the selfishness of people. In these actions Nature demonstrates a will of its own and becomes a judge of what is good and what is not. Keeping this in mind the play was renamed “The Garden”.

NURSERY RHYMES
KOLI DANCE










CHILDREN IN THE GARDEN
HUMPHREY AND ADAM











There are two larger than life characters in Wilde’s "The Selfish Giant," the giant himself and the Cornish Ogre, who is converted into a speaking character with a wife and children in the play. Far removed from stereotypical perception, the ogre in the play is morally and filially oriented. In folklore, the ogre is a bad creature who eats children. But this ogre, Mr. Gustave Swamplouse is a softie at heart and is matched with a wife who is driven by normal human motivations. The giant in the play symbolizes post-modern man, who is self centered and greedy to the point of being self destructive. In performing acts of will he often performs acts of negation. But he is vulnerable at the core of his heart and his conversion in his state of extreme loneliness and isolation is pretty dramatic. That is the reason the giant in the play is given the name Humphrey, which means “peaceful warrior”. The Giant battles his own narrowness and selfishness to realize the potential that was always latent within him. 

HUMPHREY AND BOB THE BUILDER
SNOW QUEEN ADMINISTERS









THE SWAMPLOUSES


Whereas the spirit of the original story is preserved, the end is changed. Eschewing the death scene of the Giant years after he reconciles himself to the children and breaks down his wall, the play ends with a reunion of sorts. The Giant is reunited by the children’s efforts with another character who has been introduced to enhance the drama. Adam is the Giant’s faithful servant who has served him for several years and who had looked after the castle and the garden in his absence. The character is reminiscent of the servant in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”. The Giant dismisses him from service on the charge of disobedience when he discovers that the garden was open to children when he was away. The first stage of estrangement from close ones is followed by the next when the Giant has an altercation with the Swamplouses who decide to pay him a surprise visit and inadvertently accuse him of having boasted about his garden which looks nothing like what he had described it.  But when he realizes that the beauty of the garden is on account of the children he comes to terms with his own narrow mindedness. The children, who are the driving spirit of the play, perform a catalytic role in converting the Giant. Not only do they exemplify the goodness, cheerfulness and joy of children all around the world but they also demonstrate a strong conscience, an element that is sadly getting eroded in children in today’s materialistic existence. The child the Giant had helped into the tree performs the same role as he does in the original story with the difference that instead of years later the action takes place days later. Also, the child, who symbolizes Jesus, appears not only to the Giant but to everyone on the stage to make the message he extols universal in its reach. 

THE TIME IS GREY
THE GIANT AT THE WINDOW











Of course, none of this would have ever been written had there not been such a wonderful source material to work with. Oscar Wilde’s timeless tale is pure magic. Equally, the two-hour long musical was made possible to stage in a lavish scale because of the efforts of the students from class three onwards, who acted in the play, and the teams of teachers of the school, who took up various responsibilities to bring the project into fruition. The grand project also required the help of a team of technical associates led by Ms. Sangeeta Bapuli, Ms. Reeta Rohira, Mr. Baidyanath Chakraborty, dress designer Hitesh and choreographers Raj and Vicky. The programme was a roaring success and was greatly applauded. It also heralded the approach of the 150th year of St. Anthony’s High School. 
THE END
TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES

Saturday 18 August 2012


INDEPENDENCE DAY

As posts on the blog go this will quite certainly take the prize for the longest ever. Yet it is a post we, at the editorial board of the blog, felt needed to be made not only for its literary merits but also for the fact that it seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for an ailing community, that has lost confidence and is in dire need of resuscitation. The Chief Guest, Fr. F. Sunil Rosario, on the occasion of the Independence Day celebrations at the school made a speech that struck a chord in every patriotic heart. We reproduce the speech and the material that inspired it, verbatim. 
Speech on Independence Day at St. Anthony’s School
By Fr. F. Sunil Rosario

Dear Principal, Rev. Fr. Devraj Fernandes, Rector, Rev. Fr. Siluvai Pitchai, respected teachers, sisters, other staff members and students.

I am privileged to be here to address this august gathering.  Today we are celebrating the 66th Independence Day of India. Completing 65 years of freedom is a big stride in the pages of history after gaining independence from the British Raj. It is a day to take pride in our sovereign nation. 

At the heart of the “City of Joy”, Kolkata, and a busy thoroughfare leading to New Market, a legacy of British rule and the New New Market, the symbol of city’s growing economy, lies St. Anthony’s School to impart values and principles of life that form the future leaders of this country of ours. This school has a long history. This school has walked over a century and more through many movements and the most important one being the struggle for our Independence. That’s our reason to be proud of being a member of this great institution.   It started way back in 1864 to educate the marginalized children of our society. It was affiliated for Matriculation Exam in 1891 and since 1919 for Madhyamik Exam. It has produced many sports personalities, in business, in commerce and industry and in market.

The school has played an important role in forming the young students to take up challenging roles later on in life. It was the era when the international poet, Rabindranath Tagore was born (1861). Bankim Chandra had already made many inroads in the political consciousness of our citizens through his novels. ‘Bande Matram’ the mantra used even today is his contribution.

Down memory lane, Kolkata has played an important role in Bengal Renaissance, in the awakening the minds and hearts of people throughout India, in the political struggles and the freedom movement. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, born on 23rd January 1897, became the front runner in Bengal. He was the first elected Congress President in 1938 and was re-elected 1939. He formed a new party All India Forward Block and organized the Azad Hind Fauj to overthrow the British Empire from India. He became a household name and an inspiration to many youths of his day.

Bengal has produced eminent personalities in the field of Academics, Science & Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Economics. Bengal has given many politicians, artists, musicians, actors. Be it the film industry, sports or any walk of life that one can name, Bengal has shown the way. “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks to-morrow”, that was the slogan all the people chanted during the freedom struggle. We have great stalwarts, in the persons of Swami Vivekananda, Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Satyendranath Bose, Amartya Sen and hundreds of others in various walks of life.
The recent discovery in science, the “God particle”, is due to the contributions of a scientist from Bengal, Satyendranath Bose. There are many reasons to be proud of today as we celebrate our Independence.

On the eve of 15th August 1947, the Indian tricolor (saffron, green and white) flag was first hoisted by Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, at the Red Fort of Delhi. It’s worth while recalling those precious words of Nehru on the eve of Independence: "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.... It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." … Jawaharlal Nehru (Speech on Indian Independence Day, 15th August 1947)         

”Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.”    

”And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.”

This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others.

”A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.”

“The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.”     
           
St. Anthony’s School has played a significant role in the formation of young hearts and minds. This school has seen the history of India, its struggle for India’s Independence, the great Bengal famine and some of the violent communal riots prior to Independence. Many martyrs shed their blood, probably in this very Market Street. We are proud to walk on the pathway every day. Let’s recall our past and be proud of our citizenship today.

At this moment our country is passing through a crisis. There are dark forces trying to impede and darken our vision for New India, and hamper our progress and growth. India is gradually becoming an economic power. Our Constitution has given our country the status of being a secular country. Therefore, in no way, the fundamentalist and communalistic trends will be allowed to grow.   On the one had we need to be aware of our problems around and at the same time, we need to take up some positive steps towards building our Nation.

After winning the Nobel Prize, Mother Teresa was asked, how to bring peace in the world? She said in response, “Go back to your family and love. Peace will be the result.”

Our dear President, the first ever President from Bengal, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in his address to the nation highlighted some of the burning issues confronting our country at the moment. He made his challenging speech to draw the attention of all concerned that the country should look ahead positively. When you look at a glass of water, one can say it is half empty, but we should be able to go beyond and say, it’s half full. Taking small steps, we can build our country and have progress and growth. His speech was an echo of Nehru’s speech at the stroke of the midnight 65 years ago, when India breathed Independence.

I would like to conclude my speech by quoting our honorable President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee:

Let us leave behind the way of hatred, violence and anger;
Let us put aside our petty quarrels and factions.      
Let us work together for our nation with the devotion of a child towards a mother.          
Let us repose our faith in this invocation from Upanishads:           
May God Protect us.  
May God Nourish us.
May we Work Together with Vigour and Energy.   
May our Studies be Brilliant.
May there be no Hostility amongst us.          
May there be Peace, Peace, Peace.

Peace must be our ideology, progress our horizon. 


JAI HIND!



President Pranab Mukherjee's speech
on Independence Day eve

My fellow citizens:      

It is a great privilege to address, for the first time, my fellow Indians living within our country and in a hundred corners across the globe, on the 65th anniversary of our independence. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude to the people and their representatives for the honour of this high office, even as I am deeply conscious of the fact that the highest honour in our democracy does not lie in any office, but in being a citizen of India, our motherland. We are all equal children before our mother; and India asks each one of us, in whatsoever role we play in the complex drama of nation-building, to do our duty with integrity, commitment and unflinching loyalty to the values enshrined in our Constitution.            

2.    It is important to remember, on Independence Day, that in the age of empires freedom was never given; it was taken. It was won by a generation of giants, led by a mighty man of destiny, Mahatma Gandhi, who fought with selfless, unflinching conviction against the mightiest power in history, with a moral force that transformed political thought and whose reverberations echo in great events all around us today. If the rise of European colonisation began in 18th century India, then the rallying cry of "Jai Hind!" also signalled its end in 1947. The final call to victory, "Jai Hind!" was given by Subhas Chandra Bose, fondly known to every Indian as "Netaji". Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu and many others charted the roadmap of independent India. These extraordinary men and women sacrificed their todays for our tomorrows. That tomorrow has come, and there is a question we must ask ourselves: have we honoured the great vision of these stalwarts, as a nation and as a society?          
 
3.    I was a toddler when Netaji, as Rashtrapati of the 51st Session of Indian National Congress in Haripura, on the banks of the river Tapti, reminded us that "our chief national problems are eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease". His speech echoed through my home, as it did through millions of others. My father was a freedom fighter and through those long years when freedom seemed an illusion, we were sustained by faith in ourselves, in our leaders, in the strength of non-violence, in the courage of Indians liberated from fear. But we knew then, as we do now, that freedom must mean both bread and dreams.        

4.    Netaji and Nehruji believed that India could seize the future by an application of synthesis, samyavada, of what might seem on surface to be implacable opposites. They believed that free India would become, by example, an alternative model for a post-colonial world through economic equity and a social revolution inspired by harmony between communities that had been misled into hostility. Propelled by freedom of faith, gender equality and economic justice for all, India will become a modern nation. Minor blemishes cannot cloak the fact that India is becoming such a modern nation: no faith is in danger in our country, and the continuing commitment to gender equality is one of the great narratives of our times.   

My fellow citizens:      

5.    I am not a pessimist; for me, the glass is always half full, rather than half empty. I would go to the extent of saying that the glass of modern India is more than half full. Our productive working class; our inspiring farmers, who have lifted a famine-wrecked land to food-surplus status, our imaginative industrialist entrepreneurs, whether in the private or public sector; our intellectuals, our academics and our political class have knit together a modern nation that has leapt, within mere decades, across many centuries in economic growth and progressive social legislation.           

6.    We cannot appreciate how far we have travelled, until we understand from where we started in 1947. As Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out so often, in his speeches and prose, India was not a poor country when our independence was snatched away. No one, I may add, travels thousands of miles to conquer a poor country. Statistics published by contemporary international scholars are proof for sceptics. In 1750, seven years before the fateful battle of Plassey, India had 24.5% of World Manufacturing Output while United Kingdom had only 1.9%. In other words, one in every four goods on the world market was manufactured in India. By 1900, India had been left with only 1.7% of World Manufacturing Output and Britain had risen to 18.5%. The western industrial revolution was in its incipient stages in the 18th century, but even in this regard India slipped from 7 to 1 in per capita industrialisation in that period, while Britain vaulted from 10 to 100. Between 1900 and 1947 India's economic growth was an annual average of 1%.  From such depths we climbed, first, to 3% growth, and then took a quantum leap forward: today, despite two great international crises that rocked the world and some domestic dips, we have posted an average growth rate of more than 8% over the last seven years.            
   
7.    If our economy has achieved critical mass, then it must become a launching pad for the next leap. We need a second freedom struggle; this time to ensure that India is free for ever from hunger, disease and poverty. As my pre-eminent predecessor Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, speaking from this platform on the 18th anniversary of freedom, said, "Economic progress is one of the tests of democracy."            

8.    If progress falls behind rising aspirations, particularly of the young, rage will manifest itself. We are a nation that is becoming younger both in age and spirit; this is an opportunity as well as a challenge. The young thirst for knowledge that will lift their skills; and for opportunity that will put India on the fast track to the first world. They have the character; they need the chance. Education is the seed; and economy is the fruit. Provide good education; disease, hunger and poverty will recede. As I said in my acceptance speech, our motto must be: All for knowledge and knowledge for all. Vision cannot be an open-ended vista; it must be focused on our youth.    
   
My fellow citizens:      
9.    Notwithstanding the tremendous pressure of an adverse external environment, our economy today is more resilient and confident. Two decades of steady economic reforms have contributed to improvement in average income and consumption levels in both rural and urban areas. There is new found dynamism in some of the most backward areas bringing them into national economic mainstream. Yet there are several gaps that need to be bridged. Green revolution has to be extended to the eastern region of our country. Creation of high quality infrastructure has to be fast tracked. Education and health services have to reach the last man at the earliest. Much has been done, a lot more remains to be done.       

10.    The monsoon has played truant this year. Large areas of our country are in the grip of drought, some others are devastated by floods. Inflation, particularly food inflation, remains a cause of worry, While our food availability remains healthy, we cannot forget the plight of those who made this possible even in a lean year; our farmers. They have stood by the nation in its need; the nation must stand by them in their distress.

11.    I do not believe that there is any inherent contradiction in protecting our environment and economic development. As long as we heed Gandhiji's great lesson: there is sufficient in the world for man's need but not for man's greed, we are safe. We must learn to live in harmony with nature. Nature cannot be consistent; we must be able to conserve her bounty during the many seasons of plenty so that we are not bereft during the occasional bout of scarcity.     

12.    Anger against the bitter pandemic of corruption is legitimate, as is the protest against this plague that is eroding the capability and potential of our nation. There are times when people lose their patience but it cannot become an excuse for an assault on our democratic institutions.

13.    Institutions are the visible pillars of our Constitution, and if they crack then the idealism of our Constitution cannot hold. They are the interface between principles and the people. Our institutions may have suffered from the weariness of time; the answer is not to destroy what has been built, but to re-engineer them so that they become stronger than before. Institutions are the guardians of our liberty.   

14.    The vigilance on our frontiers has to be matched with vigilance within; we must restore the credibility of those areas of our polity, judiciary, executive and legislature where complacency, exhaustion or malfeasance may have clogged delivery. The people have a right to express their discontent. But we must also understand that legislation cannot be wrenched away from the legislature or justice from the judiciary.           

15.    When authority becomes authoritarian, democracy suffers; but when protest becomes endemic, we are flirting with chaos. Democracy is a shared process. We all win or lose together. Democratic temper calls for dignity of behaviour and tolerance of contrary views. Parliament will live by its own calendar and rhythm. Sometimes that rhythm sounds a bit atonal; but in a democracy there is always judgement day, an election. Parliament is the soul of the people, the "Atman" of India. We challenge its rights and duties at our peril.   

16.    I say this not in a spirit of admonition, but as a plea for greater understanding of the existential issues that lurk behind the mask of the mundane. Democracy is blessed with a unique opportunity for redress of grievances through the great institution of accountability - free elections.          

17.    Old fires that threaten the stability of our nation have not been fully doused; the ash continues to smoulder. It is particularly painful for me to witness the violence in Assam. Our minorities need solace, understanding and protection from aggression. Violence is not an option; violence is an invitation to greater violence. Concrete attempts have been made to heal the wounds of Assam, including the Assam accord conceived by our young and beloved former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. We should revisit them, and adapt them to present conditions in the spirit of justice and national interest. We need peace for a new economic surge that eliminates the competitive causes of violence.         

18.    It is a fact of our geopolitical environment that some problems transcend borders. SAARC was created 27 years ago to find solutions through dialogue, and by mutual cooperation create the rapid economic growth that is the only long-term answer to problems like migration and uneven development. SAARC must acquire vigour to fulfil its mandate.        

19.    The SAARC should be a major instrument in the common war against terrorists. Great success is possible by international cooperation. All SAARC nations must cooperate to bring to justice those who believe in mayhem against innocents. There is no other way towards peace on the subcontinent.          
   
20.    I am proud of our brave armed forces and our valiant police forces, who have done so much, at such great personal risk, to curb this menace of terrorism. It is their vigilance which has prevented more havoc. If we sleep in peace it is because they are awake and vigilant in the desolation of desert and mountain and forest; and in the vast loneliness of the seas. I salute their commitment and their patriotism. It is heartening that the armed forces not only guarantee our peace, but also produce medal winners at Olympics. I congratulate all who have done their nation proud at the recently concluded Games, by winning as well as by participating. The number of trophies may not be too large but it is a remarkable improvement upon the last count, Four years later, when I hope to address you again, I am sure, we will celebrate a medals spring.

My fellow citizens:    

21.    If there is one man in history whose name is synonymous with peace, then it is Gandhiji, the architect of our independence. India is a land of plenty inhibited by poverty; India has an enthralling, uplifting civilization that sparkles not only in our magnificent art, but also in the enormous creativity and humanity of our daily life in city and village. When Indira Gandhi reached for the stars, she believed that this would be within the grasp of India in just another generation. But there is neither a present nor a future, except in a climate and culture of national unity and brotherhood.  
My fellow citizens:    
Let us leave behind the way of hatred, violence and anger; 
Let us put aside our petty quarrels and factions.       
Let us work together for our nation with the devotion of a child towards a mother.           
Let us repose our faith in this invocation from Upanishads: 
May God Protect us.  
May God Nourish us.
May we Work Together with Vigour and Energy.    
May our Studies be Brilliant. 
May there be no Hostility amongst us.          
May there be Peace Peace Peace        .

Peace must be our ideology, progress our horizon.    

JAI HIND!

Monday 13 August 2012

THE ANTHONIAN LITERARY CLUB ASSEMBLY


The Anthonian Literary Club held its assembly on the morning of 6th August, 2012. The topic of the assembly was “Literature”. The students belonging to the club spoke on the various facets of literature and its influence on the lives of people. Just as life influences art, art also influences life and it is nowhere more evident than in the literary field. Literature as a form of art was symbolically displayed in the banner depicting the human mind in the literary world. The civilizing influence of literature on society is great and that is what was explicated in the assembly. 
The Anthonian Literary Club was the first of the many clubs in the school to host a general assembly.


THE ANTHONIAN INTER HOUSE QUIZ CONTEST 2012


The Anthonian Literary Club organized the Annual Inter-House Quiz in the school hall on 20th July, 2012. The competition was held in two categories – the Junior Teams comprising  students of classes 5 to 7 and the Senior Teams comprising students of classes 8 to 10. The Junior Quiz was conducted by Mrs. Kanchan Gupta and the Senior Quiz was conducted by Mr. Steve Menezes. The Red House won the Junior category and the Green House won the Senior category. The event was a grand success.

WINNERS (SENIOR GROUP)
1.       GREEN HOUSE
2.       YELLOW HOUSE
3.       BLUE HOUSE
4.       RED HOUSE

WINNERS (JUNIOR GROUP)
1.       RED HOUSE
2.       GREEN HOUSE
3.       BLUE HOUSE
4.       YELLOW HOUSE

Wednesday 13 June 2012

"THE TELEGRAPH" (METRO) REPORT ON ORATIO 2012

Debate on media merits

Students of 13 city schools displayed their oratory skills at Oratio 2012, the 17th inter-school elocution competition organised by St. Anthony’s High School.
The topic of the contest was “Does the media inform or deform young minds?” “Media plays a crucial role in society and such discussions make students aware and provide them with the right knowledge about media,” said Father Devraj Fernandes, the headmaster of St. Anthony’s High School, Market Street.
Students spoke about how media could be a menace as well as a messiah. “Life is a fabricated story today, we are not just the target but active participants in mass media. It is because of media that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption drive garnered so many supporters,” said Samudra Basu, a student at Don Bosco.
“Reality shows plant false ideas in our mind,” said Sagnik Bhattacharya, a student at Apeejay School.
Students also spoke about the role of social media in the recent Arab Spring and the Keenan-Reuben murder case. “Media helps shape and mould our personality,” said Ankita Poddar, a student of Loreto Day School, Dharamtala.
The contest was judged by Salil Biswas, the editor-in-chief of academic journal Pegasus, Buroshiva Dasgupta, the programme director of development communication, Institute of Development Studies, Calcutta University, and Santanu Majumdar, associate professor of English at Calcutta University.
Sparsh Agarwal of Don Bosco, Park Circus, was adjudged best speaker and Oindrilla Shaw of Loreto Day School, Sealdah, and Aditya Prasanna Bhattacharya of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School came second and third respectively. Don Bosco, Park Circus, won the championship trophy.
Satish Kapoor, one of the founders of Punjabee Bradree, was the chief guest and Charlotte Simpson Veigas, senior lecturer in education at St. Xavier’s College, the guest of honour.

Friday 11 May 2012

Spelling Bee

St. Anthony's High School held its first Inter-House Spelling Bee contest on 9th May 2012. The event was an instant hit with the students. The event was organized by The Anthonian Literary Club.
 Glimpses from the event - 



The winners were

FIRST: FARAAZ ALI FAIZ (9B) - Yellow House
SECOND: HANIF AHMED (8A) - Blue House
THIRD: ASIF SALIM (8A) - Yellow House


Wednesday 9 May 2012

ORATIO 2012




As early as the first century B.C. P. Cornelius Tacitus who was both a historian and a politician argued that the skill of oratory was an essential part of education. He felt that great oratory is like a flame: it needs fuel to feed it, movement to fan it, and it brightens as it burns.
In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper use of gestures, stance, and dress. Elocution emerged as a formal discipline during the eighteenth century. While training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in Western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum.
The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should be able to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply ethos.


We at St. Anthony’s High School honour the age old discipline of oratory and by way of encouraging young talent to hone their skills in this field we have decided to institute the ORATIO trophy to the best speaker among young students of English medium schools in the city. This is by no means our maiden foray into the world of competitive elocution. The institution has had a long history of hosting elocution contests in which premier schools of the city participated. However, owing to certain constraints the contest had to be kept in a dormant mode for some time. This year, under the helmsmanship of our young and dynamic Headmaster, Fr. Devraj Fernandes, and the support of our sponsor Mr. Murli Punjabi, we have been able to resurrect the contest. After several brainstorming sessions we decided to institutionalize the contest and make it an annual affair that students from all over the city will look forward to. We also decided to christen the event ORATIO in the tradition of the classical masters of the past. The topic of this year's contest was "Does the Media Inform or Deform Young Minds?"


Mr. Murli Punjabi
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

DON BOSCO PARK CIRCUS
ST. XAVIERS COLLEGIATE SCHOOL
LORET DAY SCHOOL SEALDAH
LORETO DAY SCHOOL DHARAMTALLA
LORETO DAY SCHOOL BOWBAZAR
LORETO DAY SCHOOL ELIOT ROAD
BIRLA HIGH SCHOOL
APEEJAY SCHOOL
ST. AUGUSTINE’S DAY SCHOOL
ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE
MEGHMALA ROY EDUCATION CENTRE
ST. MARY’S SCHOOL
ST. ANTHONY’S HIGH SCHOOL



Sponsor: Mr. Murli Punjabi is an ex-Anthonian. He is a successful businessman and a benefactor for all good causes. He is also the secretary of the Sindhi Panchayat, Kolkata.

Fr. Devraj Fernandez
Guests
Chief Guest: Mr.Satish Kapoor is one of the founders of Punjabee Bradaree. He has been its secretary and president for three years respectively as also the president of the Punjab Club for the same number of years. He is presently engaged in a pet project, that is, setting up a school for underprivileged children at Topsia.

Guest of Honour: Mrs. Charlotte Simpson Veigas is a senior lecturer in the Department of Education, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. She is also an Academic counselor for the IGNOU B.Ed. study centre at St. Xavier’s College. She has also lectured at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and at Jadavpur University as guest lecturer.

 The Judges

Prof. Salil Biswas is a retired principal and former head of the Department of English of Heramba Chandra College. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the noted academic journal Pegasus. He has edited various books and monographs especially those published by the Pegasus Press.


Prof. Buroshiva Dasgupta is the Programme Director of Development Communication, Institute of Development Studies, Calcutta University. He is a former Director of Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal University. He is also the Editor of Global Media Journal. He has over twenty-five years of experience in the media as a practicing journalist.


Dr. Santanu Majumdar is an Associate Professor in the Department of English of Calcutta University. He has an MA in English from Cambridge University and a PhD from Leeds University. His first book, entitled Dazzled by a Thousand Suns, on interpretations of The Gita was published in 2008.



Md. Qammar Khan

Zeeshan Iqbal
The host school was represented by  Md. Qammar Khan, who had stood first in the Inter-House Elocution Contest, and Zeeshan Iqbal, who had stood second in the Inter-House Elocution contest.




Results
Stood first: SPARSH AGARWAL (Don Bosco School, Park Circus)
Stood Second: OEINDRILA SHAW (Loreto Day School, Sealdah)
Stood Third: ADITYA PRASANNA BHATTACHARYA (St. Xavier’s Collegiate School)
Championship Trophy: Don Bosco, Park Circus