Back to School: Alumni Association celebrates Holy Cross foundation day

January 19: Morning prayer, assembly, reading news, sharing the thought for the day, singing the school song-‘A happy band’, playing together in the back field and many more such activities were performed by the ‘grown up’ students of Holy Cross Higher Secondary School, Silchar during its 54th Foundation Day. It was as if a pleasant journey down the memory lane for all the members of the Holy Cross Alumni Association. The nostalgic sojourn was relished and cherished by the past students of one of the prestigious educational institution of Assam.

Holy Cross School, Silchar, a convent school run by the Sisters of Bethany was established on 17 January, 1966. In the year 2015, Holy Cross celebrated its golden jubilee in a befitting way. The Holy Cross H.S. School Alumni Association came forward to celebrate its 54th Foundation Day on 17 January, 2019 with pomp and splendor. The Alumni Association organised a day-long celebration in connection with its foundation day. In this connection, an organising committee was formed to make the event a grand one. Sudarshan Gupta of 1990 batch was entrusted the responsibility as the Convenor of the gala event entitled ‘Holy-Dayz’.

The programme began at 11 in the morning with hoisting of the school flag by Sr. Caron, Principal cum Chairperson of Holy Cross Alumni Association. Nilotpal Sengupta, President of the Alumni Association hoisted the flag of the Association. This was followed by with a parade in the front field of the school. The male and female teams marched forward under the command of Anupriya Deb and Bishaldeep. Gaurav Pal, General Secretary of the Alumni Association was the proud flag-bearer during the parade.

This was followed by morning assembly which took place inside the auditorium. The assembly began by lighting of the lamp by the principal of the School Sr. Caron, President of Alumni Association Nilotpol Sengupta, General Secretary Gaurab Pal, Convenor of the Foundation Day Celebration Committee Sudarshan Gupta and senior most alumnas Sudip Dutta of the 1973 batch. Speeches by the distinguished members of the Alumni Association and also a rousing speech by Sr. Caron made the assembly more meaningful. After the morning assembly, it was time for the performance by the alumni. The cultural programme started with a mesmerising violin rendition by Srestha Paul. There was a string of awesome performances by the alumni.

Songs and dance were performed by Subhashree Bhuiya, Dipasmita Das Srijata Dey, Bijit Das, Nirveek Dutta, Dr. Paromita Chakraborty, Band kalkoot led by Nabarun Chakraborty and others. The performances were so enthralling that even many of the senior alumni were seen to shake their legs with the performers on the stage.

This was followed by games and sports which took place in the back field of the school. The various sports event which took place were sack race, running race, spoon race, tug of war etc. Alumni from 1973 batch till 2018 batch participated in the sports.

This was followed by prize distribution ceremony. Vivek Poddar, a former student sponsored the awards on behalf of Poddar Toyota. The prize distribution ceremony was preceded by cake-cutting ceremony. In attendance was Sushmita Dev, MP Silchar, an alumnas of Holy Cross. Sudip Dutta, the senior most alumnas was also felicitated.

The campus was quite abuzz with activities and the active presence of Dr. Sidhhartha Bhattacharjee, Dr. Monika Deb, Sunil Mohta, Promod Sipani, Tamal Kanti Banik, Gautam Goswami, Ratnadip Das, Nabarun Chakraborty, Anupriya Deb, Ketan Singodia, Imdad Hussain and many others. The programme was compered by Dr. Himabrata Das. He mesmerised all with the gift of his gab.

The post-lunch session witnessed a wonderful performance by a Bangla band ‘Sargam’ from Karimganj. The musical bonanza entitled ‘Jumbabba’ was enjoyed by all. The celebration came to an end in the evening with the singing of the National Anthem. The ‘grown-up’ students left school rejuvenated to meet again with a pledge: “Holy Cross-Our love for thee, shall never fail.”

(With inputs from Dr. Himabrata Das)