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From the Editor's pen DearDosco, I joined the Executive Committee when Vipin was the Vice President. In all our interactions he was always polite, attentive and warm. But my most touching memory of him is an indirect one, something recounted to me by my father. A few years ago, as he slowly walked around on campus at Founder's, leaning on his cane, my father met Vipin. Apparently Vipin came up to him and said, "Sir! You are not to use a walking stick. You mustn't." Vipin's pain at seeing his teacher looking any less capacitated than he remembered gave my father a renewed burst of will to stay fitter. My exhorting him to use a walking stick could never have made him feel as touched as Vipin's remark did. How could I then tell my father of Vipin's untimely passing away? I still haven't. He doesn't read much now though he always flips through The Rose Bowl. I am bracing myself for when he picks up this issue. It was with mixed feelings that I read Mr Raj Kanwar's write- up on Samrendra Nath Talukdar. I was deeply grateful to him for sending it, so that I knew more about this wonderful person than just his school number and year of passing. Had Mr Kanwar not sent this article, I - and a whole lot of Dosco readers- would have missed out on knowing about his contribution to the field of Indian geology. I had had a similar feeling when reading about Mahendra Pant [383 T '62] written by his batch mate Darshan Singh. What an interesting person he had been and I had missed the chance of meeting him even though he was living in Dehra Dun. But I also felt a twinge of sadness at the fact that though there must be at least a few Rose Bowl readers who had known Samrendra Taluqdar, none of them had thought of penning their impressions and memories of him and I was publishing an article written by a non- Dosco. My thoughts found an echo in Vijit's letter. Facebook has made words meaningless. I see RIP written over and over again on fb when someone passes away. We just punch in these three letters and are done with expressing our grief on a person's passing away. What happens to the bag of memories?? How about writing a note- however brief- of a personal memory, an anecdote, an impression from school years, on someone you knew in school who has now passed on. Does it require too much time and effort? Are we content with his name being just that - a name - in the obituary section for all those who didn't know him personally? Don't we owe it to our friend's memory to let his endearing qualities be known among those who did not have the good fortune of being personally acquainted with him? As a story teller I enjoy watching children's eager faces, their shining eyes perfectly mirroring the emotion being expressed in the story when it is being told to them. I was brought face to face yet again with the power of storytelling and the impact of listening to a story, while conducting a story telling workshop for a group of primary school teachers. I chose to tell them a story which they were familiar with, had read out aloud to children but never listened to. They were amazed that listening to a story well told could block out all else and engage them completely. During the course of the workshop a teacher wanted to know how they could prevent children from idly plucking leaves of plants while walking around campus. I proceeded to tell them a story which they were to tell the children in their class. It was a story about the friendship between a tree and a boy and how the tree delighted in fulfilling every demand of the boy. This was a story I read out and I could feel the hush as I read. When I finished the story and looked up, I saw a lot of teary eyes and a few red noses. A teacher silently came up and hugged me. This bit of experiential learning -both for them and me- brought home the fact that powerful messages in simple stories could reach out and touch the core of adults too, even though they had years of conditioning covering it. Not merely cerebral, it could prove an effective vehicle of learning at a completely different level for children. The wedding season has been extra bountiful in Jan 2014 and to commemorate that, I decided to wear the look for the accompanying picture. Happy springtime! Valentina Valen 708@yahoo.co.in Editor-in-Chief: Valentina Trivedi, 708-K '81 Editorial Board: Rahul Kohli, 81-J '75, Nalin Khanna, 563-H '80, Mohit Jayal, 527-T '87, Kunal Sharma, 473-J '93, Govind Dhar, 192-T '97 Overseas Correspondent: Rajiv Sarin, 44-H '74' Publisher: The Doon School Old Boys' Society, Place: New Delhi 441 Rose Bowl January 2014

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