Well – we had the Diwali Carnival date fixed and we had also decided that the students should have a blast of a time. So, all we had to do was plan the details. Now how could we decide what to do so the students would really enjoy it? We decided to just let the students do it! Needless to say, our students agreed to take it up! And they sat down with the teachers, made committees and planned and made schedules. Then, what? They all decided to throw open the display to the public – let all Punekars come and take a look at the killas, the rangolis and the lanterns, and the beautiful campus at night with all the decorations.
So that decided, it had to be announced to the public, which called for a press conference. We thought, why should we conduct the press conference when  the students are organizing everything? Let them conduct it on their own! This was one chance where we could actually do something to give exposure to our children to the world of the press. Instead of just talking about why the press no longer holds the glamour it once used to hold, we thought, heck, let’s start at the grassroots, and let students get a feel of the real thing!
Now, a press conference would require the students to be well prepared, and they knew it. So, the interested students came together, formed a team and first quizzed the teachers. Then they had a discussion and asked the teachers to ask them questions – thus they had a mock press conference in school on the earlier day.
At the same time, they wrote out the press invitations and sent them to Patrakar Bhavan. Mrs Ghare, our parent helped them book the slot there. They were allotted the 11 am slot on the 30th of October.
And then on D-day the team was very excited and eager. They boarded the bus along with a few teachers and were off to Patrakar Bhavan in Navi Peth.
The group reached Patrakar Bhavan a little early, so there was time to walk around and visit the main office and figure out a bit of their functioning.
They double checked the supplies – our team had carried some refreshments for the reporters and also a set of the newsletter, information about the Diwali Carnival and a short press release for each reporter. Very professionally done!
They also checked the schedule board and confirmed that they did indeed have a slot at 11 am that day. So, all was ready.
Then, at 10.55 am, the team was allowed to enter. So they did. One group – the one that was going to talk – sat behind the desk.
The other group – the one that was going to take notes – sat on the last set of chairs in the reporter area.
And then the reporters came in and the press conference began. The ‘talking’ team introduced themselves and the Diwali Carnival idea. They explained how they had organized the event and mentioned that it was open for display from 6 pm to 8 pm on 2nd November and that they encouraged all Punekars to come visit. They wholeheartedly invited the journalists as well. When they were done talking, they invited questions from the journalists.
The journalists were initially so taken aback by the fluency and confidence and loquaciousness of the students that they didnÂ’t quite know what to say. Our student team then made them feel comfortable and added that they were quite ready for any line of questioning.
And then slowly, the questions trickled in.
The students spoke eloquently about how well planned the whole affair was. They also mentioned that everything in school is done very systematically and therefore there was never any rush to do anything. Everything happened the way it was planned and in a proper manner. There were even some 10th standard students in that team, who drove the point home about planning by explaining how they were studying regularly and even in the 10th standard, such activities were all possible for them.
The reporters were a little taken aback by this fact, because popularly the 10th standard year is only for ‘bookish studying’. The students then explained the day boarding program of the school. That brought up a few more questions, which the students were more than happy to answer.
As the time slot came to an end, the group left the hall. They had a lot more to say about their school, but there was a time restriction and the hall had to be made available for the next group. So, the content and exhilarated team boarded the bus again to head to school.
Some leading newspapers covered the event the following day. The announcement did get published, but for the papers the striking thing was that studentshad conducted the entire press conference! It was really something that all marveled at. It was very amusing for the students.
They did not feel as though it was a big deal – they were used to communicating and getting their point across. But, to the rest of the city, it was.
The purpose of this activity was simple – hands on exposure. In a fast changing world, the more hands-on exposure our children get, the better they will be prepared to take it on! We just canÂ’t wait for all our students to step into adulthood and conquer the world – with great ease!
