Panchkula: India’s seventy glorious years of Independence are being celebrated with gaiety, pride and fervor at The British School, Panchkula. The celebrations were launched with a tree plantation drive on August 6, 2016 and an exhibition by students to depict the 70 years of growth and development in various field and spheres in India ranging from Education, Agriculture, Information and technology, to medicine, Infrastructure, and Space research. Dr.R.C.Mishra, IPS, ADGP cum Commissioner Police, Ambala-Panchkula, presided over the function and motivated the students with quotes from our traditional Hindu scriptures.
This was followed by the creative expression of freedom in our heart by painting the windows in our national colours. The students enjoyed dipping their hands in saffron, white, green and blue and left impressions on glass windows to create an impression of “Mera Pyara Tiranga”, a garden in tricolour and tricolor birds flying free in the sky. A ‘Know our National Symbols’ activity was carried out to ignite patriotic fervor in young hearts. The children coloured the National symbols and shared related knowledge with their peer group. This activity not only gave them practice of public speaking but also was successful in letting even the play way toddlers inculcate national pride!
On Wednesday, August 10, patriotic songs glorifying our country were sung by the children in their clear sweet voices. They paid homage to our martyrs and a tribute to our freedom fighters as their voices soared high while singing Sare Jahan se Achaa, , Nanha munna rahi, Vande Mataram, Kadam kadam badaye jaa ……..
Food is always a happy part of any celebration and when it comes in tri colour it becomes super Yummy! The children pooled and brought together saffron, white and green food ingredients which were sandwiched within bread slices to create a lovely spectacle of delicious sandwich treat which all kids relished.
Friday, August 13 saw the children smartly dressed in their white churidar – kurtas with sashes in national colours. Some sported tri colour caps while others waved mini- national flags! The school grounds and the neighbourhood reverberated with Jai Hind! and Vande Mataram! as they walked in a parade while carrying placards of national symbols. The week long festivities concluded by taking an oath of allegiance to our country- India, in the form of national pledge and singing of our national anthem!
The School Director Ms Geetika Sethi congratulated the students, staff and parents on this ongoing glorious celebration and said that the weeklong celebration helps children to really understand the importance of this glorious day and the pride is etched into their hearts and mind with the sustained effort. Independence Day is indeed a day of joy, pride and respect for our country and we must make India a better place for Indians to live and experience the freedom, peace and unity in diversity.