The Art and Craft Exhibition drew crowds
of visitors as always and for good
reasons. The quality of work, especially
in the department of craft merited a
visit to the Art Room. Batik, the most
popular craft, dominated the Art Room
with the most outstanding piece being the
life-size batik of 'The Good Shepherd' (acopy
of the stained-glass window in the
chapel). Gods and goddessess in striking
head-dress was another popular theme.
Leatherwork showed further progress, the
work ranging from shoe-kits and
shaving-kits air bags of varying sizes.
This year, interest in 'thermacol' seemed
to have fizzled out and with the
exception of A.K. Pall's 'Silhouette'
there was nothing to show. Candlemaking
and paper flowers added a touch of
prettiness; the paper flowers with their
'sooji' and 'haldi' centres, looked very
natural.
Of the sketches, M. Parashar's pencil
sketch of Amitabh Bachchan and some other
on tribals were excellent. Rajiv
Agarwal's still life. J. Negi and S.
Bisht's water-colour landscapes, A.K.
Tyagi's woodland scene and the mural of
the Naini lake (joint effort of T.S.
Chail and A.K. Singh, were much
appreciated.
S Tiwari
The Fete
It was one of those brilliantly blue-and
-gold cloudless days which we are favoured
with in the first week of June. The boys
had gone down even before beakfast to help
set up stalls. At 10 o'clock, their faces
flushed with anticipation, the boys
cheered and clapped heartily at the
opening of fete by Mrs. Fuste.
A bee-line was made for Mrs. Lall's
mango-shake stall and soon the air was
rent with theblaring sound of pop-music
interspersed with an occasional bang as
sharpshooters tried their luck at the
shooting-stall. Mr. Pande and Mr. Bisht
were also doing brisk business at the
hoopla stall cashing in on the eagerness
of small boys with big ideas.
The record stall was doing well, too, with
big sums being knocked up in the
auctioning of records, especially
'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease'. The
food stalls selling kababs, bun-omelettes
and 'cholabatura' filled a substantial
part of a starving child (no lunch that
day) and this was topped up by a cold
drink, supplies of which were soon
exhausted.
There was not a very large crowd what with
none of the local schools attending and
very few parents to help towards a
deserving cause. (Mention must be made
here of the Nanda/Anand families who
turned up en bloc and in the bargain
walked off with half the prizes:) Thus,
the profits for the fete were largely the
result of generous spending by the boys.
Our thanks go to Mother Dominica of Sr.
Mary's Convent who contributed Rs. 200/
towards the Fund for the servant's welfare
which was what the fete was all about.
Despite drawbacks, the fete should be held
every year, if for no other reason, apart
from its very laudable purpose, than to
give pleasure to the boys.
