Shishubharati, School of Indian Languages and Culture, celebrated the Annual Day on Sunday, June 20, 2004, at Lexington High School, MA. The students and parents participated with great enthusiasm to make this event very successful. The highlights of the program were the Graduation Ceremony and the Diorama project presentations by the graduating students. Students eloquently displayed their Diorama projects in the assembly hall of Lexington High School, and the highest quality of research that inaugurated these projects was well appreciated by the audience. The diverse Diorama topics ranged from ornamentation, housing and town planning in Indus valley civilization to the development of mathematics, architecture, and contemporary education in India.

This year saw the largest batch of students (17) graduating from Shishubharati so far, since Shishubharati’s inception almost 25 years ago. This was truly a proud moment for Shishubharati School, the students, and the parents alike. Dr. Rao presented the diplomas, with individualized introductions to each student by their Culture Level 8 Teacher, Krishna Gazula, and their respective Language teachers, Meena Ramamurti, Rekha Patel, Heena Ruparel, Madhu Midha, Manjunath, Uma Nelliappan and Mukund Chorghade. Our Principal, Sipra Shah presented a special Language Graduation Certificate to Sonam Gupta for completing all eight levels of Language curriculum.

This year’s graduating students were: Sriram Jaykumar, Arjun Venkatachalam, Rohan Nagarkar, Abritee Dhal, Rahul Desai, Abhishek Sontakke, Jay Vora, Priyanka Nawathe, Anuj Patel, Nisha Acharya, Sheetal Mirchandani, Megana Mahesh, Amol Mepani, Monisha Rajanikanth, Trupti Ingle, Arvind Ramakrishnan, and Anishi Shah. Susan Bean, the Curator at Peabody Essex Museum and past student of Shishubharati visited on our Annual Day. Her appreciation and praise of the Diorama projects were a special treat for our Graduates.

The Graduation ceremony was followed by the awards presentations for Essay Writing Competition. This contest is always held annually, where the students participate very eagerly in writing essays on numerous selected topics in the Languages and Culture Departments. Sandhya Nadkarni, Vice Principal for Culture - MA, Meena Ramamurti, Vice Principal for Languages - MA, and Vani Thilagar, Principal – NH announced the names of all creditable winners. The essay topics were carefully chosen to be the most appropriate and interesting for each grade level. The broad goal of this unique competition has remained consistent with Shishubharati’s noble objectives and noteworthy endeavors: to motivate young generation of Indians growing in America to realize and appreciate the values Indian culture has contributed to modern world, and to build interest in the “unity in diversity” of Indian languages and history.

Some of the fascinating essay topics included a day in the life of a 10-year old child growing in British Raj, experience of growing as an American with true Indian values at heart, and India as viewed through the eyes of a child whose parents have recently migrated back to India. This phenomenal and fun-filled day ended with a delicious potluck luncheon and Indian games enjoyed by all children, parents, teachers and numerous volunteers who had worked hard to make this event absolutely awesome and zestful.

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