I consider myself so fortunate to be able to experience travel and all the luxuries that attend being in warmer weather and experiencing other cultures, great food and the occasional glass of wine or beer. I often wish my parents could have been present to enjoy all this. I can’t remember us ever going away for a holiday in my first 23 years in India. We lived in Muzaffarpur for a part of my time at GMS and my father took me up to Kurseong for the first year, but that was no holiday for him. I remember, we stayed at ‘Plains View’ for a few days … on the left, just before you get into Kurseong. Mum visited once. It was all so expensive. My Uncle George (Jeff (GMS’64) Knight’s father, sisters in St Helen’s, Patsy and Susan) worked in the Railways and was able to visit Kurseong on a somewhat regular basis and I remember great holidays in Kurseong with the Knight family and also with the Alphonso family. That short break from school was soooooo memorable.
In my last post I mentioned I was going to Phuket and joked about a meeting a Goethalite there and guess what, I got an email from one of our bloggers to say that he was also in Phuket at the same time. Now, would you believe that! I didn’t get to meet him though because I only read my email when I got back. One of my definitions of a holiday is – NO emails and NO computer.
Phuket was fantastic – great people, friendly, soft and accommodating – 33 degrees C and humid which called for plenty of swimming – perfect beer weather – great food – I just love Thai curries … with all that coconut milk … hot though … it all seemed so reasonably priced – I understand all that is relative and I am talking through the pocket of the Australian Dollar. Friends of ours have rented a house there for three months and they invited us to spend two weeks with them. It was great to have time to ‘just holiday’ and do things like talk to monkeys and enjoy the scenery. By the way, that's me on the right...
I also had the opportunity to do some ‘holiday reading’ and I have a great book to recommend to all Goethalites – you may even want to discuss it in this blog ‘Life of Pi’ – a fantastic read – the recollection of ex-teachers … there is quite a bit there that it reminiscent … please read it and let’s know what you think.
The Sunshine Coast, Queensland was also a good escape from the Grey and miserably cold Melbourne winter. The vastness of the Australian coastline, especially in sunny Queensland is breathtaking …
So, I have quite a bit of ‘Blog catching-up’ to do, but I couldn’t help being struck by Radheshyam’s email (4/07/08). I think it is clearly an ideal and worthwhile project for a group of ex-Goethalites like us to be involved in. I support Radheshyam’s recommended approach and I can commit to making a contribution. However, I do believe that we need to keep the discussion going … as Radheshyam suggests and see if we can come up with other ideas and approaches.
As I said, I can commit to making a contribution but I think that in the long term, that is not a sustainable approach. As a collection of active minds focused on a worthwhile project such as this, we should have a sustainable set of projects in place by say January of 2009, that could see the necessary funds being generated on a regular basis that would involve us and possibly the student population. I am about to put forward two ideas, but I do think that we need to set a ‘time limit’ on the ‘ideas stage’ – we could spend a whole year collecting ideas and doing little or nothing. So, let’s say we notionally set September 30 as a ‘brain-storm period’. Then in the first two weeks of October we, as a group, decide on the project(s) that we will drive. We put that to Brother James and his school committee and then start ‘the drive’.
An approach such as this would need a coordinator and possibly a coordinating team. I would nominate Radheshyam as the coordinator and I would offer my services in any capacity, if required.
You may think I am getting a bit ‘carried away’ or a bit ‘ahead of myself’ in making these suggestions, but that’s all they are – just suggestions. This could be a worthwhile initiative, let’s support it – fully. I see it as an opportunity to ‘put something back’. While giving money is a good way to start, there are many examples to prove that it is not sustainable. We also need several ways for contributions to be made, not just by monetary contributions. I also believe that a level of interactivity or engagement would be good – I am not meaning or suggesting interference – the focus has to be on support. Maybe the question could be asked within our group: How can you (each one of us) support? What support can you offer? Maybe at some stage we could have more information on the school. I saw it when I was there in ’07. How is it known – does it have a separate name – does it have the same curriculum? Is the school represented on the GMS website? Is Bro. James an autonomous principal managing ‘his own school’? Does Brother James’s school manage their own budget or is it part of the GMS budget?
I would love to see Matt Lobo involved in the ‘project approach’ that I am suggesting. Matt has been following a theme in his recent blog entries (I hope I am not misrepresenting him!) – he has lamented the loss of formal music and ‘physical education’ (sport) instruction at GMS and also the lack of opportunity for students to go onto year 11 and 12. I fully agree with his position. Maybe, as our support initiative develops we could also target areas for which we wish to offer additional support.
So, here are my two suggestions:
Passing the Baton: messages from ‘old boys’ was the title of the book I suggested we write. I propose that ALL monies raised from the sale of this book go to this project. I received a lot of positive support for the idea, but only three contributions. We need 100 to 150 contributions for a book. I have been doing quite a bit of thinking on the book idea and in my next blog entry I will be proposing other, more accessible ideas for contributions and I will also propose a few variations for stories that Goethalites may write. This could be a good focused project that a large number could contribute to and even from now, I would anticipate a Nepali edition.
The second idea aims to involve students. This could take several forms. The idea would be for a group of students doing ‘Art’ or ‘Art and Craft’ of ‘Digital Literacies’ for example to make a photographic presentation for individual ‘old boys’. So, they would start by taking ‘orders’ – If you would like a photograph of your name (and the few names around yours) enlarged, from the Goethals Honour Board on display in the main GMS corridor (It was an Alumni initiative of Rajah Banerjee and the Alumni Committee organising the 2007 Reunion) then send your details … a fixed price for orders within India and a fixed price for all overseas orders – ALL money coming in would go to this project. You would receive an enlarged photograph of your name on the ‘Honour Board’ identified by the year you joined GMS with maybe an enhanced image of the school. There could be the option of it being framed (by the students).
There was a picture of the Goethals Honour Board published on this blog a while ago with some ex-Goethalites who attended the reunion in the foreground, I would like to have shown it here but I just couldn’t locate it.
There are many examples of Alumni groups around the world that give significant assistance to their school. The examples that I know of are in Australia, US and England. We should/could look at (research) what is being done and what is possible for us to do. Of course all this needs to be done is consultation with the school principal and community – Radheshyam communication with Brother James is promising and through him this project could go ahead.
Best wishes to all and I look forward to sharing ideas with you on this great space.
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