To felicitate, celebrate and perform a concert in the presence of the composer himself is one of the rarest pleasures that a musician can experience and that came true for Dr. Sunder and his ensemble when they performed Thanjavur Sankara Iyer’s compositions in his presence on the 1^st of September in the Priory Conference Centre.  .

Dr. Sunder as the Convener of Music Forum took the initiative in organizing this unique program at Sri Jayendra to honour the living legend. Top ranking musicians, Dr. Sunder, Sri. Sriram Parasuram, Sri. Chitravina Ravikiran, Sri.V.V.Srinivasa Rao and  Umayalpuram Sri. Mali, who are closely associated with Sri.Sankara Iyer came to Tirunelveli, where the nonagenarian stalwart is convalescing at his nephew’s house, and offered their pranams in the form of music compositions they had learnt from him.

Sri. Sankara Iyer, though so fragile, greeted them all with much energy, his face wreathed in smiles: his happiness knew no bounds. He was carried on to the stage where he stayed throughout the concert, over five hours, despite his ill health.

His musical memory was perfect: with the utmost ease he went sixty years down memory lane recollecting and sharing many of his precious moments with the doyens of the past. He laughed, he cried, and enjoyed everything that was happening on stage. It was as if he became part the music as it was performed.

The program concluded with one of his disciple Valivalam Venkatraman rendering three of his songs.

 He was moved to tears at the end and kept blessing the players.

The hall was packed with admirers of the composer, some of whom had even come from abroad:  all enjoyed the occasion immensely and appreciated the efforts of the Sri Jayendra team which included Mrs. Usha Raman and Mrs. Nirmal who created the perfect ambience and provided wonderful hospitality.

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PURANAVA is an inter-district Indian Heritage Quiz Competition, an initiative which was started three years ago and is now held annually.

This year the event was organized in 9 zones from 5 districts; Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Virudhunagar and Madurai.

Our school was represented by Ramswarna Priyan and Sri Siva Murugan.

They won the preliminary rounds with confidence, thus becoming one of the 18 teams qualifying for the semi-finals held in Tuticorin on 7th September.

Our team excelled themselves in the semi-finals by attaining the maximum score to qualify as one of the eight teams in the final round. The finals were hotly contested and we eventually finished just five points behind the winners taking second place for the second consecutive year. Our two team members deserve the highest praise: they put in a magnificent performance and can take pride in their achievement.

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Raksha Bandhan is a festival which strengthens the bond of love and protection that exists between brothers and sisters and other close relatives. A girl ties a sacred Rakhi thread round her brother’s wrist to ensure a life of prosperity for him and he promises to protect her from all life’s problems. This year the day was celebrated in Sri Jayendra School on 21st August.

The captains of various groups of XI standard organized the celebration.

The programme started with the projection of famous quotes relating to Raksha Bandhan. This was followed by a skit performed by XI standard students. Then captains of the boys groups stood on the stage and the girls group captains tied ‘Rakhi’ to their wrists in the traditional manner. In this way we hope to encourage the boys and girls in the School to regard each other like brothers and sisters and to show affection and helpfulness as siblings would.

The School bulletin boards had displays explaining the origin and historical significance of Raksha Bandhan.

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“Arise, Awake and stop not till your goal is reached”.

 The Ratha Yathra or Festival of Chariots involves chariots carrying deities moving through the streets from temple to temple.

This year we were honoured that our school was included in the route of the Ratha’s visit as it carried the statue of Swami Vivekananda.

Kauala Nanda Chief of the Ramakrishna Mutt of Kolkatta and many other members of the Mutt accompanied the Ratha.  Swamy Kauala Nanda spoke on the greatness of Swami Vivekananda quoting incidents from his life.

Our Principal Mrs. Usha Raman presented shawls for the Swamijis before the Ratha left for Nellai.

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Puranava is an interschool Indian Heritage Quiz based on the famous Hindu epic Ramayana. Started by the Global Organisation of Divinity (GOD) it is open to children aged from 10 to 16.

The zonal level round was conducted  for the second time for schools from Tirunelveli on August 8th and around 12 schools participated.

The quiz has ten rounds: an exciting and entertaining mix of direct rounds, rapid fire questions, recitation etc.  often with easy & tough options to multiply points.

Our students Ram Swarnapriyan (VIII Std) and Sri Siva Murugan (VII Std) participated enthusiastically, answered all the questions and won first place with an unbeaten score of 195 points. An outstanding performance.

The Puranava 2013 Finals will be in first week of September.

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The Golden All Round Talent Exposition (GATE) started in 1997. It is an intra school competition for our pupils and includes various competitions for classes L.K.G to 12. The students are categorized into 5 levels. This competition explores and develops the potential of our pupils and helps develop a range of personal skills. It is also an opportunity for them to compete with their school friends and develop team spirit.

This year GATE runs for three weeks from 27^thJuly with various competitions each Saturday. The first day began with the Quiz prelims for classes 4 to 12 and the PowerPoint Presentation competition.

The pupils took part with great enthusiasm and spirit.

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The three week stay of the Millhillians flew by and all too soon the time came to bid them farewell. We arranged a Thanksgiving function and annual prize distribution ceremony on July 19th.  As usual it was a  happy occasion but tinged with sadness as we were saying goodbye to so many friends, The eighteen Millhillians and five teachers had made a great impact on our daily lives.

The Millhillians wore Indian dress for the ceremony: the girls in saris and the boys in kurtas, and very impressive they looked.

After a heart touching Thanksgiving song by the school choir the Millihillians were invited onto the stage where our Principal gave a brief speech about each of their contributions during their stay and thanked them sincerely, remarking on  the value of the meaningful partnership between Sri Jayendra and Mill Hill.

Mr.R.Chiinaswamy I.P.S Commandant, Tamilnadu Special Police, Manimutharu Battallion graced the occasion by presiding over the function and we were honoured to have Mr.A.Perumal, District Revenue Officer, Tirunelveli  as the chief guest.

An enchanting performance by our school choir captivated the audience. During his presidential address Mr. Chinnaswamy  appreciated the Arabic and Nepali songs for the native and original tunes. Some Millhillians also gave a musical performance that entertained the audience.

A prize distribution ceremony followed – the distinguished guests presented the general proficiency prizes for the previous academic year and prizes for the school toppers in the Board examinations . The prestigious Lalitha Kailasam Memorial Awards were also conferred to the toppers of class X, XI and XII.

The Bharatanatyam performance by our alumni enraptured everybody and our pupils then performed a remarkable dance, to music written by Jesu Rajan, depicting the lifestyle of the people of the ‘Five types of Land’ of ancient Tamilnadu The dacoits were probably the audience’s favourite.  The dance left the audience spellbound and they were pleased to see some of the Millhillians as members of the dance group.

Many personal farewells were said at the dinner afterwards which was held on the basketball court: tears were shed on both sides.

The next day, a Saturday, the Millhillians left for Kovalam and the Hostel where they stayed was frantically prepared for the Emanuels who were to arrive at breakfast time the next morning.

The group from Emanuel School, also in London, arrived after their long journey in a bemused state and started to adjust to life in India.

The fourteen pupils and four staff will be with us for three weeks and we look forward to their stay. They will be spending a great deal of time with children from the Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya,  our free primary school with which the Emanuels have a special link.

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On 10^th July we were blessed to receive His holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal, the 69^th pontiff of the 2,500 year-old Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham at Kanchipuram.

Pupils, staff and members of the public lined the path to welcome the spiritual leader with the traditional Bhakthi, respect and love. It was beautifully done and the Swami Ji was clearly touched.

The school was filled with the chants “Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara”.

It was an honour for us to have Jagathguru with us on the day of our school Karpaga Vinayagar temple Varushabishegam which is the celebration of the birthday of the god Karpaga Vinayagar to whom our temple is dedicated. The school choir sang bhajans which Acharya very obviously enjoyed.

After giving his merciful blessings to the all those present the Swami Ji was taken to the site of our new free primary school the Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya where he blessed the foundation stones of the new building.

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On 1st July our pupils and staff were delighted to warmly welcome a group of 18 pupils and 5 teachers from Mill Hill School in London, one of  our overseas partners.  For the next three weeks they will be involved with various learning activities and meaningful interactions with our pupils. We know from experience that both sides will find this a rewarding  and enjoyable experience..

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