Independence Day 2007

August 15th is Independence Day in India, the day when British Rule ended in 1945. It is celebrated in all schools throughout the country and ours is no exception. Always there is a march past, raising of the flag and speeches remembering the sacrifice of the freedom fighters. Our celebrations also include a yoga display, traditional dances and a volleyball match between the staff of the school and a team made up of our foreign volunteers (we count it as an "International Match"). It was a lot of fun and a great atmosphere all day.

Diksha

On the day of Gurupurnima some of the boys took the initiation of Gurukul Pravesh - entrance into the years of education. It is an ancient tradition going back thousands of years that when the boy reaches the age of seven they are sent to the Gurukul to study. The ceremony involves shaving of the head, fire ceremony and the giving of unsewn cloth to the new initiate. It is a beautiful ceremony that goes for the whole morning. At the end of it the freshly initiated student comes to their Guru and is given a mantra which they should use throughout their studies.
When the head is shaved a tuft of hair is left on the crown of the head which is tied in a knot. This is to stimulate the brain, help maintain concentration and improve memory.
It is not compulsory for the students to take the initiation and is given only with the wish of the parents and the student.
In the photo you can see the boys sitting at the fire during the ceremony.

School Function in Jadan 04th August

Function with Swamiji 04th August

Today Swamiji gave a lecture and the students were singing bhajans in Jadan.

Increasing enrollments

At the start of the new school year (which by some bizarre twist is in late April in Rajasthan - and they have end of year holidays one month after that) we had 280 students in the school. Something must be going right because as you can see below our present enrollments are quite a bit beyond that.

As we have a policy of not keeping more than 40 students in the class in 3rd class onwards and not more than 25 in KG - 2nd it means that we now have a lot of classes! ( In most schools here they will keep up to 70 students in the class before making two sections).

It's nice to see so many fresh faces and so much enthusiasm.

Heres the list

Class	Boys	Girls	Total
KG	37	24	61
1st	25	16	41
2nd	20	19	39
3rd	21	17	38
4th	19	18	37
5th	34	19	53
6th	34	15	49
7th	16	11	27
8th	18	09	27
9th	30	23	53
10th	28	06	34
11th	24	11	35
12th	04	07	11
Total	306	195	501

The new bus - fully loaded

This is the new school bus just as the students have arrived in the morning.

Who knows how but there are more than 100 students coming on the bus. We have started to refuse to take any more students from this route because any bigger load will get unsafe.

Thanks to all who have helped and are planning to help with buying this bus. You really don't know what difference it makes to the students from the villages.

At last count the collection of donations for the bus was reaching the 9000 dollar mark. If you count 1 thank you from each child in the photos then there are at least 300 thank yous coming your way.

Scenes after the big wet

Some scenes during and after the rains of 04th July 2007. We had 350mm of rain in 24 hours which is the most rain to fall in 37 years. It left the whole area flooded, roads broken, many houses destroyed. The main problems came from dams that hadn't had water for 15 years suddenly filling and then breaking sending torrents of water to the villages below. Our JCB excavator spent a nervous night plugging the hole in one dam 10km from the Ashram which, if it had broken, would have taken out three complete villages. However despite all the hassle everyone is happy to have the rain. It has been 5 years of drought and now mother earth is drinking her full.

The Arth

Tradition old and new

In the background is one of the residential buildings of the Ashram. In the foreground a traditional method of drawing water, the cups pulling up water by a system that is pulled by two bulls. The "Arth" as it is called, was built this year by some old craftsmen who still remember the rapidly dying method. Nowadays there are very few of these machines left in Pali District as they have been replaced by tube wells and electric pumps which have rapidly decreased the water level. The sound of this machine as it turns is so relaxing and peaceful it brings you to another era.

the dam full is a beautiful sight

Some scenes from wet Jadan

today we didn't get many of the children to school as we had 12 hours continuous rain. In the afternoon the water was coming in to our dam with quite some speed. When you live in the desert the sound of all this water rushing over a 10 metre drop is loud and beautiful.

The dam was excavated 5 years ago and is 120 metres long, 110 metres wide and 10.5 metres deep. It stores water that we can then use throughout the year. Today so much water has fallen that it should be pretty full by the morning.

The water level in this photo is 4 metres

Hari om,

today the total reached 8500 dollars. Thanks to everyone and please keep giving your support. Although we have possession of the bus in order to pay for it we have to get to 15000 dollars.

Yours
Swami Jasraj puri

Today is the first day of school. We didn’t get our new school building ready on time but it will be ready by the end of the month. Meanwhile we are cramming into the old building. Last count we had 95 new students, which brought the total up to 380 in the school. However this morning I went to have a look and there were at least 40 more students there waiting to apply for admission. It looks that in the end we will have around 450 students this year!!! Considering that when we had 300 students the building was pretty full it is going to be packed for the next few weeks.

The new bus went out on it’s first run and came back full as ………….I think there were about 85 students inside. It is a great bus. We bought it second hand and it spent 3 weeks getting refurbished. Now it looks like new and the kids are sitting looking like royalty in the newest bus they have ever seen.

The atmosphere is great. The teaching staff are full of enthusiasm. It has been quite a struggle to go through in the last 5 years, so many problems with staff, students, parents, transport and it is gratifying to see it come to the stage we are at now. Thanks to everyone for all the help.

Now that the light of the school is back (the students) I hope to really get around to taking some good photos and getting them to everyone.

News about the raising of funds for the bus is that to date there has been raised more than 8000 dollars (aud). Thanks to everyone who has helped particularly Mukti, Adidas and everyone in Perth, Gay and David McKinley and their friends in Sydney and everyone else who has put in. Every drop counts. Last we heard they were making efforts to help with the project from Liverpool (UK) to Japan to Sydney to Perth! It is a great feeling for everyone here to be supported from so many different places.

Thanks to all

Yours

Swami Jasraj Puri

This boy calls himself OM. But it seems clear that in the future when he learns guitar he will be the next Lenny Kravitz.

This is a picture of our first school bus, purchased in 2002 with the help of Swamiji and a charitable organisation from Hamburg, Germany. Together our two buses bring a total of 250 students from 10 villages in the surrounding area. Villages are chosen according to the interest of the population, the status of education in the village and accessability. The response from the villages is so good that we now have trouble to fit the students in the buses. On one route the above bus, which has 27 seats, brings 80 students. We have tried to restrict the numbers but the locals won't take no for an answer. The driver goes slow and as usual in India - it functions!

Thanks to the continuous support of Swamiji, Paramhans Swami Maheshwaranand Ji Maharaj, the school computer lab is now equipped with 19 computers. The students have computer classes from KG onwards, with learning games for english, maths and logic having being sent from people all over the world. In the senior classes students learn the basics of programming and of the various operating systems.

Students are taught by a mix of the modern and traditional. Village games are used for memory development whilst having fun.

me

26th January is India Day. A day of celebrations in schools throughout the land. The colours on the ground welcome everyone to the festivities.
This was the first ever day in our school. It was the culmination of 4 intense days. On 26th June our Guruji said that we should open a school for the new school year. School starts on 01st July!!! We spent 4 days interviewing teachers, arranging transport and touring the local villages at night telling them about the school and taking enrollments. Who knows how but on 01st July there was more than 80 students lining up for the morning assembly which is pictured.

in the winter there is nothing better than sitting in the sun and warming up. With new uniforms and practice the morning prayers slowly started to sound and look beautiful.
This photo is what it is all about. Joy of students and staff.

Welcome to our school, Shree Vishwa Deep Gurukul Vidyalaya. Hope you enjoy the photos, information and anecdotes which are part and parcel of running a school in rural India.

Our school runs from Kindergarten till 12th class. It is a coeducational school aiming to give the local students access to a quality education. More than 50% of the students attending the school are coming free of charge. Many are coming from illiterate family backgrounds however their love of learning, joy and energy get them through to become great students.

Enjoy being part of our school!!