Photographs of 50th Year Celebrations

50th Year Celebrations

A warm welcome to the golden jubilee celebrations of The Blue Mountains School, to be held from Fri 25th to Sun 27th November, 2011.

From the letters that we have been receiving and seeing, each of you has been touched by the ambience, the culture, the environment and the people of the school, whether you have been here for a short while or for a longer period.

It would be wonderful to meet all of you, while you are here for the one, two or three days. If some of you, with your busy schedules cannot make it this time, please plan and come by during any working day of the school term. A part of each of you is still here and you may need to get in touch with it!

Having being in school education for many years, I have noticed that how a school starts matters and it influences the institution for all the years ahead, even as people come and go. The way BMS began made it a very special place not only for its children, teachers and support staff but also in the alternative education movement in India. It has been a place where educators have come to be nourished, to reflect and understand what could be done and what need not be done in a school.

Some of the alumni, along with the Trust have got together in the past couple of years to renovate, refurbish and repair the school infrastructure and you will see the work in progress when you come. Over the vacation the complete roof has been redone and we had tiles with 1936 etched on them and some as late as (!) the 1970s.

As things go in one's lives and in institutions, many aspects of it change and rightly so. Your dorm, your bed, may not be exactly as it was when you were here! The Blue Dorm may be elsewhere and instead of boys, there may be girls staying in it; the Red Dorm may have new cupboards; the dining area would look different and may have a new name and so on...you can discover these changes when you come. As old students come by every now and then, we realize that the school was a bit different for different batches of students too. However, we hope that the spirit with which it was started, of being a cheerful place; of not preaching to children however strong our views may be; of respecting one another as human beings whatever one's function is; continue to guide us.

Usually our childhood memories, laced with the strong emotions of that age give us the strength to continue in the midst of our personal ups and downs that life offers us. Coming back to a place where we have lived in a community of young people, peers and adults and learnt not just academics but how to relate to people and to the wider world, would perhaps regenerate those feelings of joy and camaraderie. Learning is a continuous path and coming back to your very own alma mater (in Latin, 'nourishing mother') may put you on the path again...