xaab-bulletin-final output 18-06-2020...2020/06/18 · areas in burdwan town. rev . father joseph,...
TRANSCRIPT
ALMAXinfinitium
Bulletin of St. Xavier's Alumni/ae Association of Burdwan (XAAB)
From the President's Desk
Editorial board
1. Rev. Fr. Dr Maria Joseph, S.J.,Chief Patron
2. Mr. Koushik Chakraborty
3. Dr. Partha Sarkar
4. Dr Amit S. Tiwary
Dear All,We live in a time when there is so much of uncertainty and chaos across the globe. COVID–19, Amphan, the invasion of locusts in the Northern part of India, the killing of George Floyd in the US which has led to a huge divide between the Whites and the Black in the US, etc. have all turned things topsy-turvy. The astrologers are predicting that more devastating things are going to befall on human kind as if the present havoc isn’t enough. It is alarming to notice that our normal children are turning violent and unexpected psychological disorders which were rare before are now becoming common in our children and our families.On a positive note, thanks to the advanced technology which is playing a key role at this time to keep us united while we are geographically scattered. Thanks to the online platforms which have become handy to continue to impart quality education. Kudos to the teachers who have been toiling day in day out to continue to provide quality study materials to the students through different online platforms. They have been adept in handling this new way of teaching through technology though not formally trained. They quickly adapted themselves and plunged into teaching our students in an innovative manner. In response to this new way of teaching, students have been extremely receptive and trying their best to cope with this unprecedented situation. Many are working hard to pull through this tough time by channelizing the energy of our children for productive purposes. One of the examples is this Alma X Infinitum. Our students and the children of the Alumni/ae took part in drawing, cartoon, slogan writing, paragraph writing competitions. I would like to congratulate all the participants and a special word of appreciation to those whose creations have been published in this magazine. Special thanks to Dr. Partha Sakar and his team who were the main instruments for conceiving such a novel idea and bringing it to fruition. My prayers and blessings to all of you to continue to do such innovative activities.
President, St. Xavier’s Alumni/ae Association of Burdwan (XAAB) and Principal, St.Xavier’s School, Burdwan
Dr. Maria Joseph Savariappan, S.J.
From the Desk of the Editorial Board
AlmaXinfinitum is an initiative to connect the
past with the present of St. Xavier’s School,
Burdwan. It is a two-way platform, where the
past students, with a greater experience of life
as a whole, share their understandings of the
journey, which the present has just begun. On
the other hand, the present students share
their talents through drawings, cartoons,
slogan writing and paragraph writing in
response to the call for contest organised by
XAAB. The basic objective of organising the
contest for the school students and the
children of alumni/ae is to keep them engaged
with some creative activities amidst the
prevailing situation in the wake of COVID-19
pandemic. XAAB will, in this bulletin, list down
the activities organised during this time and
the school administration will express their
expectations and goals through this bulletin. The pandemic that we are going through calls
for stronger mental bonding, inspite of the
mandatory physical distancing. This bulletin,
in its maiden adventure looks forward to
strengthen this relationship between the past
and present. Surely, with your suggestions, it
will continue to do so even at times when
distancing will be there no more. Maybe, the
present scenario has provided us with a new
opportunity to strengthen our bonding with our
Alma Mater. As Dickens had put it, “ It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times............it
was the spring of hope it was the winter of
despair.”
Under the able leadership of our Reverend Fathers, we have undertaken relief works on behalf of XAAB in association with our
School and Asansol Burdwan Seva Kendra (ABSK). On 20.04.2020, 100 food packets have been distributed among the needy
at Burdwan on the basis of the guidance and involvement of ABSK. On the second day, we distributed food packets among 200
families of daily labourers and rickshaw pullers in a slum near Sukanta Pally, ward no. 6 near Kalna gate and its surrounding
areas in Burdwan town. Rev. Father Joseph, Rev. Father Mourlin and Rev. Father Arvind from ABSK with his team were present.
It was really a pleasant experience for us to contribute a little in healing the wounds of the needy who are facing an
unprecedented crisis and are deprived of the basic necessities of decent and fair living.
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XAAB during the Corona crisisRelief activities undertaken by
thOn 13 May 2020, some members of XAAB
alongwith the Reverend Fathers travelled to
Godanmari (Katwa line), PurbaBardhaman, a
village adopted by the Jesuits. We distributed
food items among the poor villagers. 200 people
were given support. In one of the pictures, a
student from Xavier's School, Gurap is greeting
Rev Father Maria Joseph on his birthday with a
flower bouquet prepared by him.
DOWN MEMORY LANEDr. Kushanava Pabi
Alumni Speak
ALMAXinfinitium
It all started in 1962. A visionary District
Magistrate in name Mr. K P A Menon
himself participated in a road rally with
many other eminent personalities of
Burdwan in an appeal to open an
English Medium school in the town. To
set the ball rolling a pre-primary school
in the name of “Modern School” was
started. There was no building for the
initial classes to start. So for the first
one year the classes were held in
Burdwan Town School between 6 am
to 9 am. After one year the school
building which was meanwhile
constructed in Kanainatshal was still
not complete but we had to leave Town
School premises due to technical
reason. So the courageous mentor Mr.
Menon shifted the school in the
balcony of his District Magistrate’s
residence. It was an exemplary act for
which people of Burdwan should ever
remain grateful to him.
Then came the day when in 1964
Modern School was taken up by St.
Xavier’s School and the school moved
into its permanent place, where it now
stands. I was initially in the second
batch of the school but since the first
batch was discontinued due to lack of
facilities so automatically we became
the first batch which ultimately passed
out from our school after successfully
Alumnus ICSE 1972-73 (First batch)
clearing ISC exam under Senior
Cambridge.
Our fond memories of the school
ushers many names like Rev. Father
E. Gales, Rev. Father L Hinque, Rev.
Father Das, Ms. Saxena, Mr. A Sarkar
are few to name with. Amongst these
Father Hinque was outstanding. If Mr.
Menon can be thought of as the
founder of the school then definitely
Father Hinque was the architect of
putting a strong foot print of the school
in this town. He was very strict but he
also refereed in our football matches.
Initially there was a single building
with only two floors. Gradually new
floors cropped up. New buildings
were built. My favourite play ground
was also very small, not as big as you
see it now. But we thoroughly enjoyed
our games. We used to visit Durgapur
St. Xavier’s School for playing football
matches there.
It all summed up to such a wonderful
experience that will forever leave a
sweet trail in our minds.
Thank You,
My school.
ALMA MATER
Radiologist and Director, Chittaranjan Advanced Medical Referral Institute (CAMRI), Burdwan
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COVID-19: A PHYSICIAN'S PERSPECTIVEDr Monjori Mitra
Research Director, Medclin ResearchProfessor of Institute of Child Health, Kolkata
As the Coronavirus 19 pandemic sweeps across
the world, it is causing great concern to all
aspects of health, mental health, economy, education, sports and any sphere of life.This Covid has changed our life style- we learned to live differently, restraint on our wishes
for everyone, even the cranky children has
stopped demanding as they too understand it doesn’t work though they are perceptive to changes.Children are facing enormous disruption in their regular activity. They do feel the fear which is prevailing in their family. As schools are closed
on part of necessary measure, they are having less opportunity to be with their friends and get that social support which definitely is good for mental well-being. Parents at home should be
supporting to both young and old children as
they are not apprehended by the situation and
may be unnecessarily irritable which may be a
vicious cycle. So lot of meditation and yoga
should be done at all end, it will enhance physical
health and even mental health.The developing country may see a change in
overall hygiene, no spitting in public, mask
wearing and hand washing. The most simple but
impactful method of preventing infection from
spreading is ‘hand washing’ with simple soap,
the simpler the soap the better will be the result.
If this habit is inducted even to 40% of the
population of our country it has a very effective
impact.Today be it telemedicine, physical visit and
hospitalization the number of respiratory infections
and gastroenteritis has significantly come down,
no outside food and mask wearing and hand
washing has prevented the infection. The next
most important change which we all are enjoying is
the pollution free environment. The river Ganges
has for the first time after so many decades have
been ‘so pure’, the government havespent crores
and crores of rupees to clean it earlier but now it
become really clean.The only worry in this situation is the ‘mortality’
which cannot be recovered but all the rest would be
recovered sooner or later in a new platform. The
mortality in our country is featuring low in the list,
the reason being the immunity, our population is
exposed to so many infections subclinically that
they do develop a better inherent immunity when it
comes to viral infections. A simple example of such
will be ‘nut allergy’ which is so severe in the
developed world due to ‘hygiene hypothesis’ but
which is not prevalent in our country.We wish whatever we learnt or were forced to learn
because of this ‘Covid’ we should not forget-
‘maintaining cleanliness which is next to
godliness”, we should remember and follow in our
next phase of life “Covid and post Covid era’.
Alumna ICSE 1978
Alumni Speak
ONLINE PEDAGOGY AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
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In the recent period following the spread of COVID
19, life is not as usual in India as well the world
over. All activities in the country were brought to a
halt through a country wide lockdown since the last
week of March 2020. All educational institutions
were closed down a little before that, to be specific
on the Ides of March 2020 - the day on which Julius
Caesar was assassinated. As I say this, I am
immediately reminded of my English pedagogy in
the final years of secondary school, where we
were taught the Shakespearian play Julius
Caesar, along with the significance of the day in
the Roman calendar, by Father A. Crasta S.J. in
his inimitable style.
With the lockdown in force, all stakeholders in
education - students, teachers, administrators and
other stakeholders in education alike - suddenly
found themselves without any engagement. Even
as the lockdown continued into the months of April
and May, no perceptible decline in the spread of
the virus was noticed. The country entered into
UL1.0 in early June, but the resumption of
normalcy in education, irrespective of elementary,
primary, secondary or tertiary, is nowhere in sight.
Educational institutions started evolving and
finding out ways to go back to learning since then,
albeit in a different mode. Needless to mention,
institutions are on an online knowledge
impartation spree regardless of accessibility by all
concerned.
Let me take you back a little in history. With
education becoming a marketable service and we,
the teachers, trying to emerge as service providers
in a market-driven economy since the early 1990s,
the mid 1990s to be specific, there is a clamour to
make the sector more accountable and the output
of the sector more efficient. With the definition of
output for this service remaining grey till now,
attempts are made till date to arrive at a multi-
dimensional index taking into cognizance the
various dimensions of output in education.
Changes in education policy during the period
since mid 1990s have tried reforming the sector
not only by making the curriculum up-to-date in
tandem with the global knowledge frontier, which
is indeed required, there is an increasing attempt
at improving the quality of education and elevate
the efficiency of “undefined” output with the use of
state-of-the-art technology. With spread of the
digital technology, education has emerged as an
IT enabled service globally. Distance learning is
ideally based on the new technology the world
over. Online education is definitely beneficial for
those who cannot make it to a formal system.
Adoption of new technology has even transformed
classroom lectures, and also brought about a sea
change with respect to access to information
bringing otherwise inaccessible resources on the
work table. Keeping in tune with the changing
times, we the agents in this services sector very
often use digital methods to teach in the class. We
often do not make our way to the library shelves, soil
our hands digging out archival information, or even
write in long hand a short note. Now we prefer to do
all these essential actions digitally over the earlier
modes. Online education thus guarantees flexibility
to a student, provides better documentation facility,
allows students for accessing expertise and
networking opportunities with peer groups
elsewhere apart from reducing monetary and time
costs. These are all for a quick turnover of the
“undefined” sectoral output!
These changes have no doubt transformed
education, the pedagogy in particular, but are not
without downside risks. Teachers, who use new
technology as a teaching aid, often circulate the
same notes in every academic year without even
bothering to update or ugrade with the latest in the
subject. Further, they often come to the class
unprepared as they are confident that the talking
points in the slides will help them to sail through. I
think, the old pattern of teachers entering the
classroom with soiled lecture notes in their hands
has not changed much in the new system. The
clients - the students - have adopted to these
changes faster than anyone else. In fact, most
students have very quickly learnt to sift the exact
information required for the examination rather than
reading an entire text to have an idea of what is
there in the reading material. This is irrespective of
whether the resource material is digital or not. Very
often, the presentation that a teacher uses in the
class is distributed to the students for quick
reference. Even if the teacher does not use the
presentation slides in classroom teaching, the use
of an exercise book and pen by a student is being
relegated to history. Thus, in the system that has
emerged, the gadgets required are a lot different
from what were in requirement before. There is an
increasing requirement of an information saving
and reading device. With increasing use of mobile
telephony, especially in tertiary education, learning
has become lot easier. I have often observed
students effortlessly recording lectures in the class
or taking a photo of what is being written on the
board rather than taking the effort of writing down
lecture notes. I have seen my own children
retrieving lecture note files from the mobile phone
on the eve of the examination! Let me not mention
that access to encapsulated lecture notes have
become a lot easier to students who miss classes
on one pre-text or the other!Online pedagogy gives a completely new
dimension to this emerging system of system
of education. Even during lockdown, online
impartation is supposedly the best bet provided all
interested students have access to the latest
system. However, this “new” new system is fine
as long as there is no digital divide across space,
and income and social groups. Often the service
provider and the client are handicapped using the
new technology related interfaces. An online
system without the basic condition of equal
access and level playing skills makes the system
even more unfair and the divisions in the society
gets perpetuated. For instance, during this
lockdown, students in a remotely-located school
are completely left out of this ambit of online
education or knowledge impartation at large when
compared to his peer group from a school situated
in an urban/semi-urban locale. Even though
mobile telephony, social networking and gaming
requires connectivity, it is usually insufficient for
online classes. Poor and unstable internet
connectivity has often shadowed online classes,
which led to undesired consequences during
lockdown. Apart from the case of the Kerala girl
ending her life, students are found to move to and
flock to distant public places for better
connectivity defeating the purpose for which
lockdown was clamped down. Above all, an
online class often becomes impersonal in nature,
the personal care and attention in classroom
teaching, especially for weaker students, gets
missing. In this scenario, a teacher ’s
responsibility is to devise new methods to keep
remote students engaged in the virtual class.
However, as a teacher, I don’t get enough
stimulus to teach when I speak to an inanimate
camera. I would rather like a class full of students
with eye-to-eye contact, even if some of them are
naughty and distracting at times. For a teacher, an
instant feedback from students in a class is very
important to proceed.The question that is looming large on the horizon
is the way out for teaching under the new normal. I
am not the one who would predict the doomsday
for education on the Ides of March, but I am
hesitant to blindly take the route of online teaching
even in a crisis situation like this. Policy makers
and institutions are trying to come to grips with the
situation. The “new” new system can only become
a success when the “necessary condition” of
equal access to opportunity is ensured for all
stakeholders, lest it would make the economy and
society more unequal.
Professor Saikat Sinha RoyProfessor, Department of Economics
Jadavpur University
Alumnus ICSE 1981
Alumni Speak
MY SCHOOL, MY LIFE Dr Syed Tanveer Nasreen
Alumna ICSE 1989
First Secretary, Culture
Director, Indian Cultural Centre
High Commission of India, Maldives
ALMAXinfinitium
The beginning of my relation with the
school goes back to a little more than four
decades, when I entered the school as a
dishevelled dreamy little kindergarten kid in
1978. In the customary ‘first day at school’
photograph taken at Priti Studio, I can still
see myself looking away from the camera.
My shirt is not neatly tucked. Interestingly,
both these features are discernible in the
class photograph of St. Xavier’s KG -1978.
I had spent the first four and a half years of
my life at home. It took the idea of nurseries
and prep schools another decade to reach
our sleepy little town. I had entered school
with the knowledge of a few English words
(desperately made into sentences without
any regard for grammar). But there was an
insatiable eagerness to learn; and the
school encouraged it enormously. I have,
thus, remained a keen student, learning
newer lessons at the crossroads, all my life!
I am grateful to my school for the liberal
academic ambience it provided. I had the
privilege of being shaped at the hands of
some of the best teachers one can possibly
imagine! I was so deeply influenced by one
of them that I had already made up my mind
to study History when I was in Class IV.
Despite the best efforts of another teacher,
my inability to comprehend the act of
balancing chemical equations may be
accounted to the orientation of my brain.
In the junior classes, we were often
required to write an essay on ‘My Best
Friend’ (not Bestie!). Thirty one years after I
left school, today I am blessed with a bunch
of best friends who have remained the
strongest pillar of support in the most
tumultuous days of life.
We were blessed to grow up in a world in
which ‘competition’ had not yet assumed
extrahuman proportions. We had the liberty
to explore the world of aesthetics according
to our inclinations. The school encouraged
creativity throughout the year and my
parents, at times, did seem concerned that
I devoted more time to dance, drama and
debates than ‘studies’. I remember with
gratitude the pain Rev Father Fohshow,
our Headmaster (that is what the Principal
was then called) had taken in preparing me
for a State level elocution competition. The
rigorous training and the successful
metropolitan exposure prepared me for the
many public debates, later in life.
I am amused when I see my Class VI
annual report card, where, despite a
modest academic score, the disgusted
class teacher had written ‘very talkative!’ in
the column of remarks.
I was indeed a little embarrassed for some
time, but today when I see myself untiringly
arguing for gender rights, talking
incessantly about my country and its
culture before an international audience,
his comments seem to have been
prophetic!
We were not technologically empowered
during our school days. But what I learnt at
school helped me to thrive in the academic
world, first in Kolkata at Presidency
College and later in Delhi, at Jawaharlal
Nehru University.
Whatever I am today, I owe to my school.
The school has ‘made’ me in every sense
of the term. I remain grateful to my
teachers (some of whom have also taught
my daughter), my friends and the staff of
the school who contributed in the making of
whatever little I am today.
To each brick in the walls of the school, to
each blade of grass in its field, to each rusty
name scribbled on the desks, I owe my
gratitude. No joy in life has ever matched
the fun of playing football in the
waterlogged sportsground in an August
afternoon! We were encouraged by Father
himself who, too, used to come down and
play with us.
The spirit of adventure and the zeal to
explore newer domains, which I imbibed so
well in school, have led me to take up this
job at the Ministry of External Affairs after
20 years of teaching and research at the
University.
The Students’ Pledge to the Nation was
administered on every important
occasion in school. It was much later in
life I realized that some phrases, like,
being ‘proud of its rich and varied
heritage’ had been so deeply etched in
my mind.
As a student of the Silver Jubilee class of
1989, I had the rare honour to be
selected for designing the school
emblem. My sister graduated from the
school in 2001 and my daughter
graduated in 2016. 38 long years of my
active engagement with the school, first
as a student and later as an alumna and
guardian, seem to have passed at the
blink of an eye. Is life really this short?
Today, as I am in another country, I feel
proud to see the great social work the
Alumni Association is doing. I regret my
inability to join in these services and
miss every moment of it.
Much of what we were used to until
March 2020, will be reformulated in the
wake of the Covid 19 pandemic. With
the onset of the online programmes
already, the paradigm of education will
be vastly revamped. Teacher-student
connections may not any longer be as
direct as they used to be. However, both
teachers and students have to be a little
more alert in imbibing the basic values
and principles of education. Distancing
will only be physical (for some time,
hopefully!), the world should mentally
come closer as one big society.
I have never been a particularly well-
dressed person; neither have I learnt to
pay much heed to it in life. But today,
when I speak at a TV show, I look straight
towards the camera. Usually, the shirt is
also in place!
You may wonder if I would attribute these
to my Alma Mater as well.
Yes, and the evidence is the class
photograph of the ICSE batch of 1989!
Alumni Speak
ALMAXinfinitium
Name : ARIGHNEE SENClass : KGA, Roll No. 47
Name : SOUMYA BANERJEEClass : 2B, Roll No. 05
Name : OIKANTIKA DUTTA Class : KGC, Roll No.11
Drawing Competition
THEME: “BLISSFUL EARTH”Class : KG-IISelected Drawings
Name: SATYAKI BISWASClass : 2B, Roll No.13
Name : BISMAYADEEP BALLClass : 2D, Roll No.1
Name : ADRIJA BHOWMIK Class : 2B, Roll No.11
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Drawing Competition
THEME: “BLISSFUL EARTH”Class : KG-IISelected Drawings
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Name : JYOTISMAN KABIRAJClass : 4C, Roll No. 25
Name : SINJINI PAULClass : 5A, Roll No.
Name : SHOAIB ALAMClass : 5A, Roll No. 51
Cartoon CompetitionTHEME:
“Corona Bhago!”
Class : III-V
Selected Cartoons
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Name : Manjistha KunduClass : 3B, Roll No. 28
Name : Saptarchi DeyClass 4C, Roll No. 17
Name : ADWITYA JASHClass : 5B, Roll No. 29
Cartoon CompetitionTHEME:
“Corona Bhago!”
Class : III-V
Selected Cartoons
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Avik Guha4A, 12
St James School, KolkataS/O Indrani Guha, Alumna (I.C.S.E 2002 and I.S.C. 2004)
Johann Neo BhowmickMont.III (equivalent of KG-2)Chiguru Montessori, BangaloreS/O Boddhayan Bhowmick, Alumnus (ICSE 1996)
Riyaan Bhaumik GhoshKG A1, 20La Martiniere for BoysS/O Dipayan Ghosh, Alumnus (ICSE 2002)
SELECTED DRAWINGS AND CARTOON OF CHILDREN OF ALUMNI/AE
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EXPEL DARKNESS BY STANDING WITH OUR ANGELS IN WHITE
Sounak Samanta 8B, 52
YOU AND I TOGETHER CAN BANISH CORONA FOREVER
Sophia Alam 7C, 55
LET’S STAY LOCKED AT OUR HOMES TOGETHER
TO BRING CORONA DOWN FOREVER
Sunith Halder 7A, 23
ROUND THE CLOCK MAKING EARTH COVID-FREE
SALUTE YOUR COURAGE AND HUMANITY
Syamantak Das 7A, 18
BEWARE COVID WE ARE MERE HUMAN BEINGS,
BUT YOU DON’T KNOW WHENEVER WE SUFFER,
WE SURVIVE, TEMPER US WITH MISERIES, WE GO STRONGER
Abhidha Kundu 7C, 29
SPREAD FACTS NOT FEAR AS CORONA BRINGS TEAR
MAINTAIN PHYSICAL DISTANCING BEING MENTALLY NEAR
Darshit Tiwary 7A, 54
SAY NO TO CORONA AND TO FEEL GOOD
WEAR A MASK AND TAKE HEALTHY FOOD
Nawhid Nawar 7A, 38
SLOGAN WRITING COMPETITION, CLASS VI-VIII
“Fight Against Corona”
Or
“Salute the Corona Fighters”
SELECTED SLOGANS
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Paragraph Writing Competition
THEME: “The Joy of Staying Together and Praying together”Class : IX & X
Selected Paragraphs
Srejita Ghosh, 9C, 19 We are now locked in our homes trying to combat the dreadful COVID-19, and eventually it has begun to loosen our external relationships with the work physically. But if we think logically, this physical distancing cannot really create any barrier between us or easily split the world, if we stand strong and united mentally; of course, At Home!. A distinguished proverb says, “a family that stays together, prays together”.Generally, by the word ‘family’, we mean a small habitation comprising members sharing the same blood relation. But again, thinking logically, is blood relation really necessary if we consider the entire world, struggling now, as a ‘Unified and Total Family’? The healthcare workers are striving hard from morning till night, taking care of COVID patients, and on the other side, scientists are going on experimenting about the vaccine of COVID-19, which will be an upcoming blessing to be showered upon the suffering and sick world. And the whole world is praying together by staying at home, communicating with their near and dear ones over virtual platform, maintaining social distancing and yet helping the poor with necessities and standing by them, just and just to bring a successful end to this monstrous epidemic and restore back normal and happy life again.Hence, apart from the biologically related families living together under the same roof, can we not call this grand and worldly family, staying under the great blue sky, which is ‘staying together and praying together’ fighting for each other as well as for Mother Earth?
Adrija Gayen, 9C,17There’s a famous saying, “The family which prays together stays together.” My parents had this quote on a plaque hanging on the wall in our game room. The author is Fr. Patrick Peyton, a priest who later became famous for promoting the rosary all over the world. When he was a kid in Ireland, his mother would call him and his eight siblings to pray. Then their dad would teach them rosary. Well, sort of. He didn’t have to teach it. He would just kneel down and read it. By and by, the kids learned it. It was the same for me. Nobody ever sat me down to teach me my prayers. Nobody ever handed me a card with our Father on it and said, “Memorise this”.I remember kneeling with my family in the living room and struggling to keep up until one day, I just knew the words. Praying together bonded us a family. There were arguments but true to a point all those are natural activities. Praying goes beyond. It is super natural.Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” If we inherit the habit of praying together, then, no matter where we are in this world, each one of us will stop at a certain time of day to say our family prayer “together”. Only prayer keeps us united, even across the miles. One, who wants a happy family, makes prayer a daily event. We must ask God to bless us and our family, bring us more closely together and make us a blessing to everyone we meet.
Jayotri Chakroborty, 9A, 10A single stick can easily be broken, but a bunch of sticks is impossible to break. In the same way a single person is too weak in a society but a group of people is always stronger. Not only physically, but also mentally. Because of critical lifestyles and other activities, today situation has forced us to get detached from our near and dear ones.But the joy of staying together with our family, friends and close relatives is just incomparable. It is good that today, due to COVID-19 pandemic we have again reunited our society, in which the whole environment is a part of. This has unknowingly given us certain mental strength and happiness which can easily defeat all difficulties. More we are together, the more we pray to the almighty for the well-being of our admired person and the more a positive energy works within us which can certainly help to overcome all bad situations, along with keeping us “fit and happy”. Hence, at least I would always say, that staying together and praying together would keep us joyous, happy and fit throughout our life.
Debayan Pramanik, 9B, 42“The art of love, care and share,In times of need, being always there,The bond so special boosts mind and soul,A family shapes life and plays a vital role.”These lines showcase the importance of togetherness. Modern century is blessed with advancement of technology and simultaneously has made the human life machine dependent. Humans now live in a virtual world, made of android, app, 4G, artificial intelligence and so on. But, in recent days, COVID - 19 Pandemic has jumbled up the scenario and brought back people’s togetherness. The lockdown has helped us to receive the old tradition – to live with family, motivation from grandparents’ love for siblings etc. Life has a new dimension with everyone helping each other in daily life, playing indoor games, praying together for emotional well-being, watching mythological shows, cooking and eating meals together. Let us all pledge that we will stay united and surely our prayers and togetherness will aid everyone in winning over all battles. This is called peoples’ power which can illuminate the whole world and can make every impossible – possible – also stated by the theory of Quantum Mechanics.
Adrija Roy, 10A, 46“The family that prays together, stays together”, Patric Peyton a famous charismatic figure believed that a family which stays together and prays together can overcome any difficulty that comes towards them. We are going through some difficult times, in such times we must pray together with our family. It not only strengthens the bond between family members, but brings us closer to God, the Almighty. Due to COVID-19 we all are locked up in our homes, and at such times, we must stay together and pray together for everyone.Due to our busy schedules it is difficult to stay together, but now as we get this opportunity, we can experience the spiritual joy of staying together and praying together. When we stay together and pray together, we realize the importance of a family. By praying together, we re-discover others and ourselves, we feel stronger. When praying we become one and then only we feel the joy of praying together. When we pray together a feeling of oneness comes in us and that is the real joy, and no other joy is greater in front of this joy. We must know to be thankful for this joy, and appreciate it.
Hiranmayee Padmaja Tripathy, 10A,51The entire world is confronting an unprecedented situation because of COVID – 19 pandemic. School, colleges, offices and other establishments are closed because of lockdown. People are working from home and students are attending online classes from home. All of us are staying at home because of the ongoing lockdown and that has given us a chance to spend some quality time with our family – something which we had almost forgotten because of our busy schedules. By staying together, we are enjoying things together which we could not afford to do earlier. We all are realizing that the joy of staying together is invaluable. We would never have got so much time with our families and we should be glad that though we are going through a very tough time, we have our family as our support system. We all are praying together during this crisis for the well-being of our family and the universe at large as the entire universe is one family. It has been rightly said that –”The family that prays together, stays together.”
ALMAXinfinitium
God bless, Burdwan Xavier’s School
Where Love and care, joy and peace do rule,
Burdwan Xavier’s School.
Self-Discipline, integrity, and respect for one and all,
Gentleness, obedience, the hallmark of our life.
As a beacon of hope we stand among all,
Marching on ahead of all,
For the nation, for Bengal, Forming men and women for all.
May we march on, together,
And rise for what Xavier’s stands
Truth and justice, humility
Be our guiding light.
May we use our gifts and talents,
For building up a new nation,
As proud xaverians, we stand up
Keeping our flag flying high.
XAAB (St. Xavier’s Alumni/ae Association of Burdwan) is a registered organisation of the ex-students of St. Xavier’s
School, Burdwan. Over the last two decades XAAB has been striving for the betterment of the society in general and the
members of the socially excluded section in particular.
Some of the regular activities of XAAB involve running of a charitable dispensary, organising blood donation camps,
organising health and dental check-up camps, providing learning aids to less privileged children etc., and at critical times it
also undertakes special activities. In view of the wake of the novel Corona Pandemic, XAAB offered relief in the form of food
supply to slum dwellers and poor villagers of some nearby areas of Burdwan town and villages.
We, therefore appeal to all our ex-student brothers and sisters to strengthen XAAB, help it to stand beside the society and
to fulfil its motto “To give till it hurts”. Let us unite with a determination to light candles instead of cursing the darkness.
For other details, please contact us at , follow the alumni page on our School website or follow us
on our Facebook page.
An appeal from XAAB
By Dr. Fr. Maria Joseph, S,S.J. and Br. Rakesh Mondal, S.J..
All activities associated with the publication of this bulletin have been undertaken online without any physical presence of anyone involved in the team. Collection and evaluation of drawings, cartoons, slogans and paragraphs have been carried out online. Writings from the alumni/ae and Rev. Principal have been collected
and edited online. Typesetting, editing and designing works have been carried out exclusively through online mode.
Gratitude
We wish to thank all the students who have participated in large numbers in response to the call for participation in
the contest. According to the feedback that we received from the judges, some of the participants are immensely
talented and if nurtured properly they could really do well in future. We wish to convey our sincere thanks to the Rev.
Father Principal and other members of the school administration for providing wholehearted support in undertaking
alumni activities in the right perspective. The editorial board also wishes to thank the judges comprising the
members of Jesuit community and alumni/ae for spending their valuable time and meticulously evaluating all the
submission that we received as part of the contest. Thanks are also due to the alumni/ae who, despite their
immensely busy professional schedule, have taken their time out and contributed their writings which have
enhanced the quality of this bulletin.
School Anthem