Alma Maters & Prides

Alma Maters & Prides By: RS Jassal Like first love in life, may be described the attraction of a student to his/her institution in true sense. Curiosity driven, for assess – appraisal of surviving rate of saplings planted by our club i.e., Rotary club of Imphal during Jul 08, I landed in Sainik School Imphal at Pangei uninformed to school authorities on 13th May co-incidentally for me at the same time preinformedally, emotion driven Maj. RK Shyam landed with helicopter at his command at the sprawling sports ground of the Sainiks. Pre-planned in the sense, to do so with arranged permission from his control HQs and emotion driven because Pangei Sainik School being his Alma Mater and pride of his own origin from Imphal itself. I was overwhelmed to see the bubbling enthusiasm with which he came down, to see awfully enthused students who all turned out in Khaki drill uniform & school badges giving impression as if all were going to fly in to acceleration with the aisles to soar high in the sky. This enthusiasm apart on students, the visiting guests in the wings, Principal GP Capt Surinder Singh, Headmaster, Lt.Col CJ Singh, Registrar Wg CdrT.Sanil, his staff and neighbouring community over the roofs of high rise buildings across the road overlooking the hepter decked school sports ground was another scene worth gaze including me , who forgot purpose of his visit. It turned just romantic & poetic without a poem in words though. The environment had gone paraxysmally rhythmic. I was told this was so because it was an event first of its nature since the inception of the school 37 years hence. Shyam came out of cockpit by ensuring anestisia to the motion of rotors but without switching off the engine leaving his co-pilot inside, rushed to the mike to say “With all the nostalgia & adolescent memories of school days over here I wish you all the best & I am rushing back since fuel was short & VIP duty connected with the flight was not yet over.” & he was off as fast as camera clicked. It was so in so. Right on the table was half yearly News Bulletin copy of the school with caption ‘THE SANGHAI. The first issue of 2009 which caught my eye. It mentioned that Ho’ble Chief Minister of Manipur Shri. O. Ibobi Singh on schools 37th Raising Day during his visit (7th Oct 08) had announced various projects like water supply, dedicated power line, renovation of dormitories, black topping of campus roads and so on would be sanctioned to improve the quality of living and training infrastructure in the school as a model to bring its standard to the grandeur which the school deserves being a regional and a national institute. It impelled me to move to see certain changes bought about after CM’s visit. It was encouraging to see that the campus roads measuring 3.5 km which were virtually reduced to rubble-rabble rubblings were black topped in Jan- 09 itself with surprise start in Dec 08. at a cost of Rs. 33 lac. The dormitories & Cadet Mess which needed renovation cost Rs.67 lac for replacing of CGI sheeting (roofing) providing false ceiling and cement flooring. All nearing completion except some percentage left on which works were in progress. Under water supply scheme, the Govt. is providing water through PHE Deptt initiative by energizing bore well at Heigang hill to connect it with school through pipeline laying at cost of Rs. 47 lacs. To provide dedicated power line from VIP grid, the Govt. of Manipur has prepared a project costing Rs.30 lac for II KVA power line. Once this comes up the school will get uninterrupted power supply. Extension of one more dormitory to the existing ones with a huge water reservoir coming up at cost of another Rs. One crore, the face lift of the school complex will undergo a major change. Another attractive spot is ‘Sarva Dharam sthal’ where teachings on moral & ethical values from all the leading religious leaders are read to the cadets to inculcate balanced respect for all religions. Next to that a big stand has come up waiting for MIG-21 aeroplane to fetch from Air Force station Tezpur & get installed shortly. Rotary Club tree saplings with full participation of school cadets are showing up in good health. Sixty % survival rate is a good sign. Electronic language lab with automated interaction system costing almost Rs. 5 lac is another attraction. Many organisations including Life Science Departments at various institutes talk about theory on water harvesting including my own club, but fully functional tanks & roof pipes for water channelling are seen in this school campus as auctioned & demonstrated . It always happens , any institute however well intended it may, be will face differing scales in performance at different times due various inhibited factors, Say, for quite some time the State Govt. did not evince that much interest in the affairs of this school may be expecting absolute equal spending by other beneficiary states like Tripura, Arunachal & Nagaland. But since Nagaland now got a separate school & with the revived concern shown by the host state i.e., Manipur , the funds have started flowing in. School authorities also through the initiative & the efforts of Maj. Gen. Shakti Gurung, GOC 57 Mtn Div who happens to be chairman of Local Admin Board, the astonishing upbeat in the condition of the school is seen in exultance . It is not less encouraging to learn that school has produced in the past also many cadets like Major RK Shyam, Prof. Sashikanta is a well known economist in London, Prithivi Raj Singh, a Petroleum explorer with a European company in Switzerland, late Dr. Natung ex-Minister with Govt. of Arunachal, presently Khuzaoulo Minister in Govt. of Nagaland, Col LI Singh YSM as Col(GS) with 21 Division of the Army & so on are some to mention. With huge ground water tank with cement & stones walling measuring 180 x 70 meter coming up, and if smaller ponds are dug within the eastern & northern perimeter too, trees planted over years showing up, green cover the school campus is in for, well laid roads location sufficiently far from the maddening crowds of township cum – capital city sound medicare for cadets, unaffected by local bandhs & strikes with teachers student parental relationship, the area gives look of a blend between a Gurukul & modern equipped laboratories & library. Institute doing well all-round, Group Captain Surinder Singh, the Principal, has all the reasons to say with pride and humility that like all other 23 Sainik Schools in India, RIMC Dehradun, Army, Air Force & Assam Rifles Public Schools , “Our endeavour is to take in young boys gauge their talents, tend them, educate them, train them and transform them into inspiring leaders of men & societies in the real Armed Forces context as to come up as defence warriors and scholar warriors in various fields”.