The Colonial Ghost -3

‘We will go inside, Sir,’ said the teacher, her face radiating with pride.
We climbed the neatly built staircase that was built exterior to the building to reach the first floor. Keeping our footwear outside, we entered the hall. What we saw inside was really breath taking.
A tiled floor, not a speck of dust anywhere

Fig : The Interior of the Library-cum with Multimedia Conference Room
A row of shelves at the rear side, carrying library books
The central space occupied by newly ought red plastic chairs
Wooden tables with their polished planks on the three sides of the room
A platform at the front side with a beautiful table and three chairs on it, the table carrying a metallic name plate of the school
A well-polished wooden rostrum
Multimedia facilities with computer, LCD projector, silver screen and home theatre
Red curtains for all windows
We sat in the hall enjoying the dream-like experience that the sight was giving us.
‘How did you get this building? Is it from the MLA fund or something like that?’ We enquired.
‘In fact I don’t know anything about the MLA fund,’ said the head teacher. ‘We, the staff and PTA of the school conducted a ganamela and raised the funds – that is about 5 lakhs - required for the construction of the building.’
The Choice of the Local Community
PTA - Staff Collaboration

Fig : Another View of the Interior of the Conference Hall
‘Our school has been selected for the reality show,’ said the teacher once again her face in full bloom. We realized that our admiration for the school was steadily increasing.
‘We have a tough competition with the adjacent English medium school. The teacher pointed to the school that was there just on the other side of the compound wall. But we have succeeded in retaining our roll strength. We have about 500 children here; the English medium school has strength of about 200 children.’
‘That is really interesting. How did you manage it?’
‘One important thing is that the children of teachers of this school are studying in this school itself. Therefore the local community here trusts us and enrolls.’
‘That’s great! This is something that must be shared across the State.’
‘Are you in good terms with the neighbor school?’
‘Of course we are. We co-operate in many areas. They are very co-operative. When Kalamela comes they are willing to take our children also in their school bus. We share what we get in HMs conference and other meetings with the HM and staff of that school. We are in good terms.’
Meanwhile the school bell rang.