Our poet in residence

INTRODUCING: MEGALA, OUR VERY OWN HOME-GROWN CELEBRITY

Megala is a gifted ninth-grader who is quite the lyricist. Her Tamil teacher thought that some of her poems were worthy of publication, and he helped her submit them to a local newspaper. One of these was selected and appeared in print last week.


A very rough translation, which she gave me on the spur of the moment:

Moon, brightly
shining 
in the sky. One day
a full moon!
When our thoughts with our actions
shine,
there will always be a full moon. 

The English translation is suspiciously shorter than the Tamil original, but you get the gist. 

And the agony continues

Actually, we have successfully cleared the first hurdles, Tamil and English exams. Everyone has been confident that they did well. "Maths" is looming next, and the teacher has been staying at school until 10 pm every night.

Wordless Wednesday

Watch this!

Around two months ago, I wrote about three dentists who volunteered their services at Rising Star. Here's a recent video presenting their work.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1146&sid=19607581

Wordless Wednesday

Bonne chance, mes enfants!

One of the most defining experiences in a young Indian's life is undergoing the rigors of the 10th standard board exams. Not passing the exams means that one's schooling is finished, without the option of continuing on to 11th and 12th grade. Passing with a low score means that attending university is out of the question. Passing with a medium score limits a student from studying certain subjects in college.

We are new at this, as it's the first time we've had 10th graders at Rising Star. Our students have been studying for six months, and recently have been getting up as early as 4 am. One of our teachers is actually sleeping at the school in order to aid them in this predawn craziness. Other teachers show up on weekends for all-day cramming sessions.

Tomorrow's the Big Day. Exams start, and then run through April 23rd.

From this evening, just as the moon rose. There are just six students in our highest grade.

Shankar and Buelah

Sujatha

Mahalakshmi, Gracy, and Sujatha with Tamil teacher