Brothers in learning

Thanks

To all those in Europe, Australia and throughout the world who help to support the school and the children's education many, many thanks. Yesterday we received a donation from the Verein zum Aufbau und zur Unterstuetzung von Erziehungs- und Forschungsprojekte in Indien e.V. (don't ask me to translate that!!) in Hamburg, Germany to help with sponsoring the Gyan Putra students this year. Once again thanks to all for the continued support.

Jai Hanuman

A 72 feet high statue of Hanuman Ji was just completed in Pali. The hostel boys and I went for the opening. Hanuman Ji, the embodiment of devotion and loyalty looked particularly imposing against the night sky.

Weaving artworks

Learning about colours, getting creative and having fun.

Sticking to it

Last week was sticker week. I had a lot of stickers that smell like bananas and strawberries when you scratch them  and spent three days seeing all of the Primary school student's books. Everyone got a sticker and were
extremely happy. Lots of fun and lots of smiling faces

Happy Dewali and New Year

From everyone in school and college we wish a happy Dewali and New Year to all throughout the world. May your new year be full of love, joy, compassion and success.

Enjoy!!

Practical Science

 

Our school students have just entered their models into the district Science competition and come back with first prize. The winning entry was an idea for stopping train accidents. Each train has a north pole attached to the front of the train so that if they come head to head they will not actually clash. The second idea was a flood warning system for the village. As you can see in the photos Swamiji is asking a lot of questions about the way that the models work.

Parikrama

Our horses have developed the habit of spending an hour or two per day walking continuously around the Bhakti Sagar, the hall where we have our spiritual programs, yoga,, meditation and prayers. They are free to walk around the ashram, which thanks to the monsoon rains is full of green grass, but they choose to spend their time .............................circling round and round the meditation hall. Special.

Nature

On the day of Gurupurnima one of our mares foaled a beautiful filly called Divya. Her mother was also born here in the Ashram so somehow she is "home grown". At present there are 700 cows, 9 horses and inumerable wildlife living within the Ashram campus. If you look further down the blog you will find Divya's father, he is the horse that carries the milk man.

The helper

This photo is a little old, it is from April this year. After the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar all of the things which we had there for our camp came back in three very big and very full trucks. It was an unloading marathon and Shiv Prem (Callum) was an unstoppable force, pulling far more than his weight. We call it karma yoga in India, in Australia it is getting in and giving a hand. Thanks Cal.

Yoga Asana

On 15th August our students celebrated independence day with dancing, drama, parades, singing and speeches. The yoga display was a highlight this year, especially Kundan, the boy in the top photo who has incredible flexibility. Kundan's story is interesting. He was previously studying in Haryana which is the state north of Rajasthan. I don't know how but he heard of our school but he and his brother Pradeep decided they wanted to study school and yoga here so they enrolled and took a "room" on rent in the local village. The room isn't so good and they don't have electricity, the two brothers cook for themselves and spend the early morning and evening getting water, firewood etc. Yesterday he came quite innocently asking if we can help him to get electricity so he can study. One can't help but be inspired when young boys will go through so much just to get a proper education.

They are back!

The hostel is open, the boys are full of energy, evening satsang is full. The boys are back in town.

Nice one

Sometimes a story comes along that is really touching and makes one feel that something is going right in the school. There is a group of students from a village about 90km from our Ashram. They just passed 10th class and want to continue to study. They have all got together with their parents and arranged to rent and stay in a house in the nearby town of Sojat so that they can have the chance to study 11th class in our school. I guess they could have chosen many places to do their study but the fact that they chose Jadan speaks volumes for the hard work which the teachers are doing.

Today was the first day of the new school year. It is great to have the school come alive again with so many bright young faces.

Books, books, books

Those in Australia probably already know we are having "book week" this week. In our centers throughout Australia people are donating a coin for a book. (Here a library book for the primary school costs on average 80 rupees which is $2). Next week we will see how much is collected and then send the staff shopping.

Enjoy

Even better news than the last blog!!!

The 12th Board Science results have been announced. Our students all passed easily. Three students came in the top 100 in Rajasthan and 16 in the top 100 in Pali district. Enough said, many many congratulations to all of them. It is great to see their hard work and the dedication of the Principal and staff get rewarded. It seems that our 12th class students are leaving with a bright future.

Good news

Great news from school. The results of the 8^th Class Government Board examinations have come. From our batch of 81 students 79 obtained First Division marks, 1 in Second Division and one failed. Even better was that 13 students came in the top 100 merit in the district – not bad for a “village school”. The top student was Pushpa Boyal who scored 90.1% and came 18^th in the District merit. Congratulations to all!!!!

Hari Om,

sorry it has been a while between blogs. The last few months have been busy with events at Maha Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. There somehow my life had an ....................incredible change of direction, but that is another story.

Anyway right now I have the chance to spend 3 days here in Jadan and again enjoy seeing the smiling faces of our students. All are nervously in exam mode. Tenth class started their Board examinations yesterday, 12th are already half way through their exams and the primary students also started yesterday. There is an air of confidence about them, it seems that they have prepared well.

The new school building is getting the final touches of flooring and plastering and will be ready for the new session in July. It has become a fantastic facillity for education.

If anyone has some inspiration to help us continue the development of the school please be in touch. There are still plenty of opportunities to be a part of the project for the development of the sports and play grounds, computers and for the continued support of our girl students who are all attending the school under the Gyan Putra scheme which allows them to study for free. We are also in the process of planning rainwater harvesting tanks to provide sweet rainwater for drinking to the students. It is frustrating to see what salty and over flourided water does to children's development.

Enjoy and thanks to everyone for their support.

Swami Jasraj Puri

The new hockey team

The boys have started to learn how to play hockey. The field is pretty rough but they love it.

Milkman

What a way to transport milk from our animal shelter to the kitchen!!