Reflection on flood in Jammu & Kashmir through an assembly

In all natural disasters through time, man needs to attach meaning to tragedy, no matter how random and inexplicable the event is.-Nathaniel Philbrick

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir due to the devastating floods worsened as more areas became submerged in flood waters, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

The death toll in the floods, the worst to have hit the state in the last 60 years, reached 215, while over 82,000 people were being rescued. Thousands of families were stranded and awaited help in their homes across the valley. The districts in South Kashmir districts were the worst hit by the catastrophe, with many areas still cut off. Over 30% of the capital city, Srinagar was under flood waters.

On Thursday, 18th September, Middle School Student Council hosted an assembly to give a brief on this natural crisis and their point of view on it. This was accompanied by a heartbreaking video which included glimpses of what the floods had done to the people and their homes.

After that, there was a small instruct on how we could help by sending resources like medicines, packaged food, water purifying tablets, etc. and the little but meaningful difference we could make as citizens of India.

The assembly ended with a short quiz for the students on their under-standing and a summary of the situation.

We would encourage you all to contribute to NGOs to help the people of Jammu and Kashmir to the best of your efforts.

Mehak Malhotra

Grade 8x

Follow up reflection on the visit to Nirmal Chayya

The students of Grade 6 had lots to share and reflect on their visit to the old age home and its residents. They planned an assembly to share their experience with the middle school.

They started the assembly with a short, humorous, yet meaningful skit about bringing back an old, retired English teacher to school. This was the skit that they had performed in front of the senior citizens at the old age home.

Next, two students recited a wonderful poem on love and respect for the older generation.

This was followed by a beautiful, touching story told by two other sixth grade students, and I quote a part from it, ‘“I have always wanted freckles like yours- they are beautiful. Can you name anything more beautiful than freckles?” said the grandma. “Wrinkles,” replied the girl, smiling".

That wasn’t all. Two students also played a musical of ‘A 100 miles’, a song originally sung by Paul, Peter and Mary.

However, the best was yet to come, the form tutor of 6Y showed a movie with pictures of the students with their various interactions with the elderly people of the home and how happy and lively they seemed, delighted to have children to spend time with. It seemed to be a close knit group of people and the pictures in the movie brought everyone to tears.

This heart-warming assembly was concluded with a speech by Mrs. Sharma, Middle School Principal, where she spoke about her view on this.

Congratulations, Grade 6Y, for putting up such a delightful assembly on a kind of lifestyle that is often overlooked by us, but moves us when we actually experience it.

As we all know now, growing old definitely doesn’t mean losing the small pleasures of life.

Mehak Malhotra, 8Y

Visit to Nirmal Chhaya: An old age home on 11th August

Our first trip from Middle School was to Nirmal Chhaya, an old age home. On reaching there by bus, we were led into the reception area where we waited a few minutes so that the senior citizens could get ready for us.

When they were ready we were called to a common room where we all sat down and were asked questions. At first, we were quite shy but soon enough we were busy chatting with them freely. We had taken canvas and acrylic paint with us, so we asked the senior citizens to paint a picture or write their names. They wrote and drew on the top and all of us, turn by turn, drew a border and painted what we thought of the old age home. We felt peaceful there so we painted the symbol of peace. We also thought that the old age home was a quiet and happy place, full of greenery.

Everybody there was eagerly waiting to see our play, which we had scripted. It was about a new Hindi teacher who is really strict and the class is so bored that they all decide to sneak out one day. All except one, who is busy sleeping and does not notice what is happening around her. The teacher turns around and sees the only student in the class, asleep. He quickly wakes her up and scares her out too. The children go and complain to the Principal who says that he will try to get their old teacher, who was now getting weak with age. The children promise to take care of her and so she is called back, much to everyone’s delight. We sang our school song after which our Korean friends from the Exchange Program, sang and danced to Korean songs. Everyone present there thoroughly enjoyed our performance.

We could see a lot of smiling faces; in fact their laughter was so heartening. We were glad that we could be there to make a difference in their lives, even if for only a few hours. Heartfelt thanks to our teachers and Pathways School for giving us this experience, memories of which will last for years to come!

Enjoy a few memorable glimpses by clicking here.


Shraddha, 6 Y