It was the glorious morning of the 19th of August, 2010. The Global Indian International School was yet again in a fervid grip of excitement, enthusiasm and exhilaration. It was the same nervous energy that surged through one and all when Barack Obama took over the reins of the United States of America on 4th January 2009. The very same outburst of emotion when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took over the papacy on 7th of May 2005 and precisely that swelling of happiness and pride in your heart when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru took over from Lord Mountbatten as the Prime Minister of Independent India! The elation of having found a leader, the reassurance that we had someone experienced to look up to and seek advice in times of crisis, the promise of more prosperous times, and of course the hope that together we would all climb greater heights. Euphoria unlimited!Today, we felt it all. The period of Sede Vacente, the days of the empty throne, was finally over. The man who stole a thousand hearts, he who was a living symbol of responsibility, intelligence and discipline, his whose voice could inspire the masses and his whose leadership would take us to an era where the flag of Global Indian International School would keep soaring high, the Crown Prince and his courtiers were going to be coronated today! It was the Senior School Investiture Ceremony and hundreds of students turned up to watch the newly elected Student Council being sworn in.
Very soon, the auditorium was a throng of yellow, blue, red and saffron, the colors of the different houses of the Global Indian International School. However, the true heroes of the day were elsewhere. They were the over fifty girls and boys, smartly dressed in blazers, lined up and awaiting their moment of glory. Our heroes, our role models, our mentors! Our very own Student Council comprising of young leaders amongst us!
For the teachers, today marked the culmination of a long drawn process of interviewing students, hearing their passionate dreams for the school, separating the wheat from the chaff and of course, completing the onerous responsibility of deciding those students who would carry the responsibility of leading the school for the next academic year. And they had done their job with cent per cent perfection! Here were the fruits of over a month’s time of hard work. Fifty-three dedicated, sincere, responsible students, each an excellent blend of talent and leadership qualities, all set to shoulder the enormous responsibilities that occurred in the functioning of the institution!
Leading them all was IB Year II student and one of the finest debaters of our time, Head Boy Sudip Roy. On a scholarship in GIIS, Sudip Roy is an excellent student, fine orator, skilled writer and exudes an aura of humility, diplomacy and passion, precisely the qualities demanded of a true leader. Complementing him at the top job was Head Girl Radhika Kannan, also from IB Year II. If there was ever anyone who could sing, dance, debate and of course, beat the IB on a day to day basis, it is Radhika! The Student Cabinet also comprised of Head Boy-look alike Subir Roy and Nishi Anand who took over as Cultural Secretaries. Shyam Sundar Subramaniam and Prerna Gupta took charge as Sports Secretaries while Shruti and Abhishek Aiyer assumed the posts of Student Council Secretaries. The House Captains and House Prefects of the four houses Orchid, Sunflower, Chrysanthemum and Hibiscus, the Editorial Board and the various Committees were also sworn in.
In his speech, the Principal Mr.GSS Rao expressed his congratulations to the newly elected Student Cabinet and administered the Oath. The Oath, which was taken by the Student Council, is a declaration of its resolve and commitment to work resolutely and selflessly towards the smooth functioning of the school. Mr.Rao also thanked the various Coordinators and the other teachers in the Selection Panel for having carefully chosen such a reliable, efficient and skilled set of students to lead the school and ended his address by wishing the Council the very best of luck in all its future endeavors.
P.S: This is the article I penned for the GIIS August newsletter, my first since I joined the ranks of the school Editorial Board :)
