Arundhati's Education - Krishna's mercy

To be very honest, we’ve been rather lucky with Arundhati’s schools. She started her schooling in Dubai. Schools in Dubai are run by private firms, which was an advantage, since a very close associate from the ISKCON group there, was working for that company. He managed to get Arundhati in one of the best CBSE schools in his quota!!! Nonetheless, to lend some level of credibility to the ‘Parents-worried-sick-about-child’s-schooling’ routine Kumar and I did have some very animated discussions about CBSE, ICSE, IB and the likes, all the while assured in serene comfort of knowing that Arundhati’s admission was more or less secured.

Our worries began when we had decided to shift back to India. We did not have any idea of the schools here and we had to move fast with the decision because schools had already started their admission process of the next academic year. But then we had someone else in India, who was even better than the Dubai contact – Kumar’s mother. She did all the running around, while Kumar was busy instructing her on the phone regarding his requirements for a school. He would go “Amma illai…..Ghatkopar la anda school la paaru apram Andheri la enodu friend chonan….” (Well, you get the drift). It was during one such conversation that Kumar got to know of SSRVM (The Art of Living’s educational wing). It was the same school that Amma’s(Hemi chitti) best friend’s son was going to and she always had heard good things about that school from her. It was following the ICSE syllabus, but more importantly it was expanding just that year and was in Mulund. The school focused on Vedic education with sloka classes, yoga and art of living kriyas as part of the course. The school therefore insisted on giving parents an orientation before handing out the forms, lest parents put their wards into the school expecting them to learn horse-riding and Para trooping. The orientation was again conveniently attended by Kumar’s mother and Neethi who chanced to be there at that time. Both of them liked the school and so did we.

Both Kumar and I have been inclined towards a more spiritual upbringing of our kids, without any clue of how to go about it. This school seemed to have the right mix of good education and spiritual grounding that we would have liked the kids to get. Well, a few more calls to Kumar’s mother about “this cheque from here for the fees before this date”….and Voila!! Arundhati was into a good school once moreJ

P.S. In case you are wondering about the significance of that obscure title, well, it is generally Kumar’s pronouncement after every mentally challenging brain-storming session. I had to listen to a lot of that when we were discussing Arundhati’s schools….but I have to admit, that it was indeed Krishna’s mercy after all.