Birth of an institution

Once upon a time, there was a very young school in the land of long, cold winters and brief, short spring. Like any run-of-the-mill school, it was ambitious but clueless. It had capable but complacent teachers, innocent and innovative students and conservative but cooperative parents. The owner-principal of the school was a humane and hardworking lady, who ran the school with the support of her fantastic family.

One day, she dreamt that she needed to make things better in her school for everyone, and within a very short time. She believed in it but only because she didn’t want not to believe in it, camouflaging the self-doubt with bravado in order to lead others. She sought guidance from the powers-that-be to make this into a reality. It dawned on her, from enlightened but worldly quarters, that to make the slightest of positive change, there needs to be tremendous effort, most of which goes into fire-fighting and dealing with resistance to the change. She armed herself with this belief and initiated the movement.

But, there was something amiss.

There were devilish forces plotting against her in the form of greed and jealousy. Caught up within the vortex of her goodness and working towards the change, She was blissfully unaware of these undermining forces. She had mixed counsel and was unable to differentiate the genuine from the superficial, or chose not to. At this point, what she lacked was courage and wisdom. Good intentions alone are never enough.

Then she met another person, with whom she shared her dream and sought help. Both teamed up and this was now to become a veritable army of two with few well-wishers and many opponents. She now had the power of vision and an ally who had the power of wisdom to achieve that vision.

But, time was running out. While this new alliance worked tenaciously, the opponents gathered strength and struck a body-blow to the dream. It was battle time – time to separate chaff from the grain. Their army was strengthened by the loss of rotten apples and by gaining and nurturing capable team players.

There were other problems threatening to thwart the dream but this fast growing, and now an army of many, overcame every challenge with wisdom and solidarity. It was time for everyone to take ownership and responsibility of the dream and make it into a reality. What was once a place with one leader and no followers, now became a powerhouse of individuals, each a team player and a leader in her own right.

The dream is today a reality and this very young, small school is an inspiration, a beacon of hope acknowledged by the Goliaths in the land.