‘Bhavishya-Yaan’ students spring a surprise with their poise and erudition

There was laughter, joy and mirth all around as girls from the G.K. Marg School in traditional Marathi attire welcomed the guests. Another set of children regaled the gathering by singing and dancing to popular songs. The occasion was the annual felicitation for municipal school students who had been mentored by the Bhavishya- Yaan programme and who had just passed their SSC exam. Ms Pallavi Darade, Additional Municipal Commissioner (City), was the guest of honour, while the celebrity guest was the popular television, film and theatre artiste, Mr. Rohit Roy.

Rotary Club of Bombay President Dr. Sonya Mehta and several Rotarians, Rotaryanns, guests, parents and children also attended. Rajesh Shah, Bhavishya- Yaan Chairman, welcomed all the guests and acknowledged all the project coordinators, viz., Rotaryanns Jaya Prasad, Avaan Vakharia, Nandita Patodia, Bijal Kara, Rinku Suchanti, Poonam Surana and Ekta Shah, and called them “the pillars of the programme.” A number of interesting presentations followed. Students from the Worli school paid tribute to the former President, the late Dr. Abdul Kalam, through a beautiful speech and a PowerPoint presentation of pictures of his life and his quotes. An interesting audio-visual synopsis of the Bhavishya- Yaan programme was presented by students of the Colaba school; the presentation highlighted the main events held across the five schools last year.

This was followed by a clip from Times Now that covered last year’s felicitation. G.K. Marg students presented a song and dance performance “I have a Dream,” which was very well received. Special mention was made of the contribution of Mr. Zubair who sang and played the guitar with the children. Next, N.M. Joshi Marg students presented a skit with a modern take on the story of Cinderella, weaving in a mention of the important role played by Bhavishya-Yaan in a student’s life. Two former successful students of the programme expressed their gratitude by giving moving speeches in fluent English. One of them, who is pursuing engineering in the prestigious V.J.T.I., proudly mentioned that she continues to get 90% there as well.

Bijal Kara revealed that the Bhavishya-Yaan Committee has drawn up a plan to assist students who have graduated and to keep a “connect” with them. She and Rashna Cooper will oversee the Bhavishya-Yaan Alumni Programme to track and help the students. President Dr. Sonya Mehta congratulated the students and noted that municipal school children are reaching greater heights with the help of Bhavishya-Yaan. Ms Pallavi Darade was both pleased and pleasantly surprised by the students’ performance. Overwhelmed by their confidence in English, she was full of praise for the Bhavishya-Yaan and the transformation that it had brought about in the children. Mr. Rohit Roy was so moved he offered to be present at all such events in future. He said it was incumbent upon people from the entertainment industry to give back to society and he would be happy to do so. He praised all the performances.

Both Ms Darade and Mr. Roy were felicitated with bouquets and paintings made by Bhavishya-Yaan students. They were joined by Dr. Sonya Mehta and Rajesh Shah in distributing prizes to all 98 students. The students who scored more than 90% in the SSC exam are Sidhi Sawant (91.8%) and Pratiksha Raju Parade (91.2%). Thirty other students secured more than 75% and passed with flying colours. The teachers and staff of Vidya and Infotroopers were felicitated and complimented for the hard work that had been put in by all. Ekta Shah, the coordinator for G.K. Marg School, lauded PPs Arun Sanghi, Nowroze Vazifdar and Nirav Shah for their role in designing the Bhavishya-Yaan programme. She also appreciated the assistance provided by Mr. Anant Goenka of the Indian Express; Mr. Ashok Venkatramani, CEO of ABP news channel; and Mr. Gautam Rakshit, Director, Advertising Avenues.

Special mention was given to Ms Pratibha Pai, G.K. Marg School Principal Ms Vandana, N.M.J. Marg School Principal Ms Amita Barahate, Mr. Ambar Singh of the Colaba School, Mr. Waghmare of Worli, Ms Prema Yadav, Ms Neeta Pradhan of Vidya, Ms Manisha Ahuja, Vidya programme manager, Mr. Niranjan Rao, CEO of Infotroopers, and Mr. Girish Rao, partner of Infotroopers. Among the Rotarians present were Committee members President-Nominee Ramesh Narayan, Anand Dalal, Manoj Patodia and Preeti Mehta. Also seen were Sitaram Shah, Arin Master, Jamshed Vakharia, Framroze Mehta, S.K. Mitra, Ravi Fotedar, Freyaz Shroff, Vandan Shah, Mudit Jain, S.V. Prasad, Bipin Kapadia, Suresh Kotak and Moy Biswas. The Rotaryanns present were Malti Jain and Asha Shah who is a volunteer at the G.K. Marg School. The Bhavishya-Yaan Committee would like to thank Alok Sekhsaria for the generous donation of the school bags gifted to the students.