Noida Educational Academy

Monday morning, it’s time for school. But for a change it’s Indian school! With the help of Bernard and his contacts at Initiative for Change, we all have the opportunity to visit an Indian school. (Probably later in Nagaland we will visit more). We head off to the school, which is a suburb called Noida. 10 years ago it was a village, soon it will have a population of 250,000. They have built 25 high rises with apartments, and more are sprouting up. There are large commercial centres. The school was started 20 years ago, Noida Educational Academy, or NEA for short. This is an English school. It’s in the old village, and so it's surrounded by chaos. Loud streets with a huge amount of activity. In Europe, we have loud streets, but we don’t have the Indian smells and hazards. I step in a cow-shit and spend the next few minutes trying to scrape it off before we get to the school. (Seems to be successful, as there is no trace on the school doormat).

The welcome at the school is simply off the scale of anything I have experienced before. I have had the CEO’s driver pick me up in Milan, a flag put up in my honour, invites to the private dining room of the company President, etc, but all of that is courtesy, not a genuine warm welcome. The school leader (not sure of his title) is Guruprem. He is an incredible character. He lives his philosophy of seeing and bringing out the best in people. He has developed a school culture that takes the best practices abroad, e.g., Finland, and adapts them to Indian culture. Back to the welcome, we start in the Chairman’s office with tea, water, coconuts, and cakes. The chairman, a supreme court judge, pops in to say hello. Then we move to the school hall , where we are all given a bindi (red mark on the forehead) and flower garlands. The hall is full with 2? 4? Classes of 5 and 6 year olds. We are invited to sit down on a couch, and we listen to a story told by the teachers with the aid of puppets. They tell the story 1st in Hindi, and the in English. This in itself is amazing, but it's followed by lots of dancing, where we and the children are invited to join in. The teachers show the children how to do the quirky Indian moves.
Next, we visit a maths class, where they are learning how to use an abacus. I'm not sure about the age, but they are able to add and subtract up to 5 figures. They talk about concepts, so I guess they are possibly aged 9 or 10. 2nd lesson from a different teacher is an introduction to fractions. The two teachers really are exemplary in bringing maths to life and engaging the students.
Finally at the school we have a show from the 15 and 16 year olds telling the story of the god Rama. It’s a strange mix of verbal storytelling, miming to playback music, acting, and dancing. It's certainly local culture and not pseudo American or English. I am most impressed by a young girl/woman dancer who really dances well and makes anyone see just how much skill is involved in certain dances.
We take photos as do the school kids, and they are all shared on WhatsApp. Florence has posted lots of these on her blog.
The hospitality is not finished. The children are given books and other things as gifts, and Florence and I receive a book and two mandalas. All very nice. All not needed, so to speak, what did we do to deserve this? But still it fits with the wonderful atmosphere and it's very nice.
It's still not finished, next up, lunch, and what a lunch. A large mix of Indian starters, mostly cooked on an in-table grill, and then a buffet of main courses and a buffet of desserts. Delicious.
No words can really describe the experience of this visit.
Florence had managed to smile throughout and be engaging, whilst hiding the fact that she was not feeling that good. Amazing job! So when we get back to the hotel, she and Nora take a long nap, and as has been the case on previous days we eat at the hotel, though Flo, thinks better than eat the Raita she ordered, after she sees it and thinks, hmm that yogurt could be dodgy.
All to bed early, even me at 2200 for an early start. We have the train to Amritsar at 07:20.Lue lisää