Jalgaon: February 14 is celebrated all over the world as Valentine's Day (Love Day). In India, too, the Western culture of celebrating this day has now taken root. The elderly in the family are now being shown the place of old age homes. Grandchildren are moving away from their grandparents. In such a situation, if the grandchildren tell their grandparents, 'We will not send you to an old age home; we will take care of you. This is not an idea but a fact.
For the last 23 years, Ujjwal Sprouter International School here has instilled in the minds of its students that Valentine's Day is not in our Indian culture; this school has been celebrating this day as Grandparents' Day for the last 23 years. Even today, the grandparents of the students of this school are waiting for this day. Today, this day was celebrated in the presence of 300 grandparents. This year, the grandparents enjoyed a different kind of joy by participating in the fashion show ramp walk.
The school's principal, Manasi Gagadani, says that grandchildren want grandparents who are not seen in a divided family. Keeping in mind their love and importance in the home and keeping in mind the intention of getting them a place of honour in the home again, this school has been celebrating this day as "Grandparents' Day" in various ways and at various places for the last 23 years. This is the only school to celebrate this. Realising that celebrating Valentine's Day is not our culture, the founding president of this school, Anagha Gagadani, started celebrating this day as Grandparents Day 23 years ago.
The parents liked this concept, and for the last 23 years, the school has been celebrating this day in various temples, old age homes, parks and schools with the grandparents present. For this, many grandparents come from outlying villages. This year, this Grandparents Day was not celebrated at school, but the children celebrated it with their grandparents at their homes and sent a video of it to the school. Grandparents' Day is inaugurated in the school by lighting the lamp by the grandparents themselves. After that, the students present dances, songs and poems for their grandparents. Various games are organised for the grandparents. All the grandparents present participate enthusiastically in all these games. Also, fashion shows and ramp walks were organised for the grandparents. The grandparents also participate enthusiastically in it.
Grandparents are specially given boram, amla, and tamarind, as well as lime tablets, to refresh their memories of their school days. On this occasion, grandparents are overwhelmed while expressing their feelings, appreciating this unique initiative being implemented by the school and thanking the school for refreshing their own memories of their own school days, at least for a while. Many grandparents are deeply moved when they share their experiences.
At the end of the programme, all the students take their grandparents by the hand and take a heartfelt pledge that they will always love, respect and take care of their grandparents and that in the future their grandparents will never have to go to an old age home. At this time, many grandparents cannot hold back their tears. The programme ends with all the grandparents filling the boxes brought by their grandchildren with the food in them. Then the tears in their eyes silence everyone. The president of the organisation, Mrs Anagha Gagadani, and trustee Mr Praveen Gagadani are present to see the sapling of this programme that they have planted grow into a huge tree.
Speaking about the programme, Manasi Gagadani said that this initiative is having a good impact on the children. The children who have left school have now started such an initiative in the villages outside the village. It is getting a good response. We are impressing on the minds of the students that the place of grandparents is in the home, not in the old-age home. The success of our initiative is what we are impressing on the minds of the students.
