Dasara 2014

Tucked away in Yendada village less than a km from the bustling National Highway 16 is the Mandal Parishad Upper Primary School.

Unlike the typical government schools, a flush of greenery greets the visitor at the gate with a well-maintained garden that lines the compound wall.

Inside the school were the schoolchildren in their government-given school uniforms getting prepared for the Dasara celebrations. A few of them had turned out in their best dresses and were carrying placards celebrating the festival spirit.

Marking the beginning of Navaratri celebrations, they assembled in the ground and sang songs, recited Telugu poetry and some students wearing masks tried to act like the ‘puliveshagallu.’

The festival spirit was in abundance and the children were keen on sharing and spreading it.

Escorted by their teachers and headmaster they went house-to-house in the neighbourhood and recited poems and enacted the ‘puliveshagallu’ for the benefit of the residents, reviving nostalgia among some of the elderly neighbours who had all but forgotten what they did during Dasara in their childhood.

Hand-holding the children, who are in their endeavour to rekindle the festive spirit in society, was their Telugu teacher M. Adinarayana, who incidentally is district president of the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union (PRTU). Helping them in all this was school headmaster G. Ravi.

The headmaster roped in local philanthropists to provide free notebooks to the children.

For the last four years Jasti Vijayshankar of JVS Foundation Trust has been providing notebooks and school bags to the 300-odd children in the school. This year Naveen of Prince Shoe Mart bought the shoes for children, which would be distributed after the school reopens after Dasara, Mr. Ravi said. Rotary Club of Vizag Central has funded construction of toilets and provision of benches for the students.

The school has a computer system but there is no one to help repair it and revive it.