Sunday, July 6, 2008

New school year, new buses, new students

Hari Om and welcome to the new school year!!!

It has been a most intense fortnight here in Jadan. We have been taking admissions for school and college which both started on 01st July. There has also been a huge increase in the number of students in our hostel for this session.

The number of students has crossed 900. On top of that there have been more than 500 families come with hope and expectation to which we have had to say sorry, the school is full. Till date they are still coming.

This year with Swamiji Maharaj’s blessing we also started College courses in Bachelor of Arts and the response was beyond expectation. 30 students have enrolled in the course. The students are from the villages and are mainly those that wouldn’t have gone to a regular college but would have studied by correspondence. There has been a special interest from parents who wouldn’t send their girls to a government college because of security issues. It is gratifying to see them happily send their children to the college in the Ashram.

We ended up purchasing the third bus in early June. After much deliberation the decision was taken to get a new bus rather than second hand. Although it proved much more expensive the decisive issue was fuel consumption, which is nearly half in the new bus. Considering the environment and the cost of diesel it seemed a prudent option. Of course, as is the norm in Indian culture, there were many issues with getting the bus here on time etc and in the end the bus was delivered in the Ashram at 3am on the 1st of July. After a quick sleep the driver set off at 0630am to pick the students up for school!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have set off into the new school year with 900 students, 26
classes, 5 buses and 109 boys staying here in the ashram in our hostel. Full house!!

Thanks to everyone who joined us in reaching this point and enjoy being with us for the year ahead.