When the book Gandhi enna Pathasala (Gandhi the school) releases on Thursday, it will be the culmination of a three-year-long effort made by a school to familiarise today’s generation with the ideas and ideology of the father of the nation.
The book being released by poet and orator P.N. Gopikrishnan at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Meppayur, Kozhikode, is an anthology of orations by several eminent people on various aspects of Gandhi, made as part of a 106-day-long ‘Gandhi reading’ organised at the school in 2021. All the students of the school read The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, from National Reading Day on June 19 to October 2, the birth anniversary of Gandhi, in 2021. The programme titled ‘Oru Pusthakathinte Manthrika Swaadheenam’ organised by the Vidyarangam Kalasahitya Vedi of the school and the Kolaya Vayanavedi also comprised orations by eminent personalities that have been put together in the book.
Various topics
The book, with an introduction by T.T. Sreekumar and edited by Padman Karayad, A. Subashkumar and Dinesh Pancheri, includes talks by poet K. Satchidanandan, activist M.N. Karassery, P.P. Prakashan, K. Aravindakshan, S. Gopu, Anandan Pokkudan, C.P. Aboobakker, media person Arun Kumar, P. Hareendranath, writer Kalpetta Narayanan, P. Premachandran, M.C. Abdul Nassar, V.K. Babu, P. Suresh, and P. Pavithran on a variety of topics such as Gandhi and poetry, Gandhi the teacher, Gandhi the human, Gandhi’s truth, his values, his connection with Ayyankali, Gandhi as an editor, his concept of Hindu Swaraj, his connection with Sree Narayana Guru, and Gandhi in Malayalam poetry.
“As a follow up for the Gandhi reading we have a Gandhi relief mural at school. A Gandhi statue was unveiled this year and now this book,” said A. Subash Kumar, one of the editors of the book and a teacher of the school.
Other leaders
The school also continued its efforts to familiarise the students with national leaders through readings of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Letters from a Father to his Daughter and several works of B.R. Ambedkar, after which an installation of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution was made at the school.
