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Independence Day Surprise!

Today was Independence Day! We were doing the usual flag raising ceremony, minding our own business. The teachers and students decorated the temporary school with mango leaves and crepe paper streamers (pasted on with hand-made glue). We had treats for all and prizes for the winners of the latest art competition. We were entertaining a great set of visitors: A local private school, the Chirec Public School (how cute are these girls), handed out goodies and the ever-wonderful Lion's Club members came with more goodies.

Then two large thugs appeared.

They were quite sweet, and they wore smart polyester safari suits. But they insisted I go with them, along with a group of the students. Ismail translated...the big man of this Mastan Nagar area, a state minister (for mining and natural resources) named RAO, wanted the students to come and raise the flag at his place. They gave us five minutes to show up...so we packed the kids and went conga-line style down the road. Rao's house is a three-minute walk. When we got there, there was another surprise. A local movie star named Srihari was there! He was quite handsome. He had the required bushy moustache. It seems Minister Rao is also a movie director, so he keeps movie stars around quite a bit. (Here is a picture of Usha Madam talking with Minister Rao.)

All the teachers were speechless in front of the movie star. The ceremony was quite touching. The big man was a good public speaker and led the crowd well. The traditional offering of a coconut (bashed open) was offered at the base of the flagpole, then they lit incense in front of a picture of Gandhi-ji. Patriotic songs were sung, and all the children got biscuits and sweets. Then we all started to saunter out. Just as we were leaving, Minister Rao's wife called the teachers over. She asked all kinds of questions and fussed over the girls like a mother, it was so sweet! We really, really hope to see more of her. (Below is Srihari the movie star).

On a sad note, we are mourning the transfer of our engineer friend, Hari (last blog entry), to a new job. Hari was replaced by Gopal. Gopal is in for a load of sweet talking from me so as to get our plans approved for the new building (without a bribe).

Comments

  1. Glen Shewchuck11:57 PM

    Very nice work ! I saw as piece on the school in the Hindu Times. I'm new to India (I'm from America)

    Glen Shewchuck

    ReplyDelete

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