The measure of a school is by its attitude towards sports, according to Sankar Banerjee, president of the governing body of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education (SAIE). By that yardstick set in his speech on the sports day, the school would fare well as the day saw ample athletics, an investiture ceremony, fun and games.
The prestigious torch run around CK-CL Park was by Meghamala Mukherjee of Class XII. “I was offered this honour last year too but couldn’t take it up as I had a national swimming event to attend. This year too, I represented Bengal in water polo and took part in swimming under the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) games,” said the girl who went on to take part in the relay and flat race that day. “My sporting feats would not have been possible unless the school considered sports at par with academics.”
Boys take part in the relay race
To the moon and back
There were creative and colourful races for the little ones. They performed drills to the theme of trees, animals and even Chandrayaan-3.
They held up models of rockets and placards with pictures of Soumajit Chatterjee, an alumnus who is now operations director of Chandrayaan-3 at Isro. The tots impressed the spectators with their knowledge on the subject. “We reached the south pole of the moon thanks to this uncle, who is from our school. I want to go to the moon too,” said Anuraj Halder of Class I.
“Children are getting smarter,” said their teacher Susmita Nandi. “Till some years ago, we wouldn’t consider including nursery kids in such events but this year they performed after just 20 days of practice.”
Marching ahead
After drills were pyramids. “We did many formations but the toughest were the ones with seven students at the base,” said Somrup Kundu, who was posted on the bottom tier. “Some of us had falls during practice but we pulled it off today.”
The marchpast was held in the presence of chief guest Mihir Bose, a former national soccer player. “We, the developing nations, have numerous challenges but it’s heartening to see schools emphasise sports despite the excuses,” he said, offering his help in any sports-related activity.
An often-underrated job during march past is that of the drummer. “I have to maintain rhythm and so in a way, am directing the field,” smiled Aditya Saha of Class XII, who has been beating the drum here for five or six years now. “I play the tabla and drums so I have the hang of it. The drum has to be hit hard, especially during practice when mics are not used.” The boy later took home a prize for tug-of-war for Aspiration house.
Young leaders
Principal Anthony Das had always been a sportsman, he said. “I would play even before my exams to relieve stress and improve blood circulation. Sports build character, teach life lessons and is a leveler. On the field noone stops to ask your background. A player is a player,” he said.
The day also saw a change of guard what with new prefects getting their badges.
“It’s a responsibility to be managing our peers but these are memories in the making,” said head boy Niladri Saha. Head girl Anchita Roy said they both had enough practice at the job as they were junior head boy and girl in Class X too.
Perhaps the most awaited races were the relays and Aspiration house won both in the girls’ and boys’ categories. “Our house is the best in football, cricket and we’re champions at this sports day too,” said Dishan Dey, who ran with his mates Pranshu Mali, Shoubhartha Sengupta and Subhodip Dhara.
Sports teacher Rakesh Ghosh couldn’t be prouder of his students. “This year our students excelled at the national level. We had four of them represent the Bengal-North east region in football at the national CISCE games where I was the coach-cum-mananger,” he said.
