The North Point Senior Secondary Boarding Schools as they stand today one in Arjunpur, another in Rajarhat and the third one are conceptualized and born out of my Ideation of Ideal heaven of study and learning and hence the schools have been nurtured, nourished and cared as my own children.

In my early youth, whilst working as a teacher in a school in Kolkata, I felt strongly that certain existing practices and norms of School education needed overhauling and I dreamt of my ideal school the dream would not let me sleep. At my age then, I perhaps could have aimed at a secured and settled life, however, I entertained my dream of starting a school of my own at a time when I had neither financial nor logistic support.

The assets that I had were my courage, self-confidence and whole hearted support of my parents Late Sri. Satpal Sethi and Late Smt. Bimla Sethi. My chief aim was to provide quality education at a very affordable rate to students across the categories irrespective of their social and economic background.

Finally my dream came true as in 1991, my school North Point Senior Secondary Boarding School under North Point Education Trust was established at Gorakshabasi Mandir Complex, Arjunpur. Subsequently, North Point Senior Secondary Boarding School, Rajarhat Branch was established on 42 bighas of land amidst beautiful landscape of Rajarhat in the year 2004. Arjunpur Branch is Day scholar whereas Rajarhat Branch is a Day – Boarding School having all the amenities that a modern boarding school should have. In the boarding school, a loving and caring environment is provided to make the boarders feel a home away from home.

My ideation for perfection created an inspiration to start another dream project in the heartland of where one of the best educationist ever setup The Viswabharati i.e. Bolpur. We have our third branch growing exponentially at Shantiniketan. The much loved abode of the Kabi Guru Rabindranath Tagore.

In my journey I was fortunate to get support and co-operation of my dynamic Staff members, Students, Guardians and my family members. I always believed in a curriculum that would ensure all aspects of a child’s development – emotional, intellectual, moral, physical and social. This activity - oriented teaching approach should be imparted to the students in a spacious, open atmosphere quite close to nature.

In conclusion, I repeat the words of the Poet Robert Frost ".....and miles to go before I sleep." I always have the interest of the child in mind as my biggest priority and I would keep on pursuing my dreams towards the realization of my goals to make this world a beautiful place for the children to grow up in and live a life of dignity. My greatest reward and satisfaction is when I see my beloved students grown up to be successful and responsible citizens and prepared to make right choices in life.

“Education is not the amount of information that we put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life building, man making, character making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library...” Swami Vivekananda.

Alice stumbles down the rabbit hole to discover a surreal world of magic and bafflement. Narnia walks down the wardrobe passage to find an enchanted world of bewilderment. We love to visit the mysterious and inexplicable unknown again and again by creating such metaphorical holes or passages in our minds. However, the question remains that whether we are seeing new things every time we roll down or are we slipping into the same ‘event’ again and again but with diverse shaded lenses on our eyes. It is said that truth is but one and the human mind is capable of constructing a particular event in so many ways that every time we encounter it, we assume it to be new and different. According to Steven Pinker, each construal is built around a few basic ideas, like ‘cause,’ ‘effect,’ ‘intension’ and ‘variation.’ All our human efforts are to find out these basic ideas and solve the puzzle of our mind-full constructions. These human efforts are often termed as Education; the metaphorical window that allows us to resolve the confusions; the system that generates a clarity of thought and makes peace with existence.

As educators, we believe that our mind begins to recognize the uniqueness of our ordinary activities, like seeing, hearing, moving, remembering, planning, reasoning and speaking through various systems of learning. Every time the young learners slip down the rabbit holes of their ordinary activities they land up in the various magical world of numbers and words and space and time. And sooner or later, they bump upon the Madhatters who speak the truth, but in such paradoxical language that the bewilderment is doubled and the curiosity multiplied. And finally, I suppose, the entire experience, provide them opportunities to nurture an inner understanding of the ways of the world and get their riddles resolved. As teachers and parents, we are mere facilitators of the experiences that they rightfully seek in their schools and homes. It is a serious commitment that we all solemnly promise.

I am happy to be a part of the ‘North Point’ family and wish to introduce myself with a few thoughts pertaining to the preliminary idea of education that I have mentioned above. For a child this world is full of mysteries and magic and as educators we need to sustain that delightful enchantment. And gradually, by providing various tools and skills we just need to help them discover their own meanings and objectives of this enigmatic life. However, we often tread the wrong path and unfortunately crush the incredible lenses and force them to look through one single frame, bereft of colours and magic. We kill their imagination, we defeat their dreams and we turn them into little boxes, insipidly squared. I wish that we will, all together, pledge to nurture their creativity and open multiple windows into their minds to encourage drifting into the miraculous world of human existence. I believe that our teachers will be the Madhatters. And there will be a method to their madness. Let us remember that the child trusts us, therefore, let us keep our promises.

Along with the above request, I also wish to share another grave concern that haunts me as a member of the greater ‘Education’ fraternity. The traditional Indian system of scholarship, preferably called as the Gurukul system, is an interesting example of learning that encourages the art of critical thinking while preserving the wonder of life and the world. The mentor ushers the seeker into the world of surprise and revelation with only few basic tools. The seeker toils the path all by himself or herself, discovering, stumbling, waking, slipping, falling and again standing. The teacher and the learner share same food, same water, same house, and finally inhabit the same truth but through individual and independent reckoning. The teacher offers just the lenses and the student independently sees through it. They induce the young learners to stand on their own feet. I essentially consider that the Gurukuls are true abodes of learning. They are the rabbit holes that I dream of.

However, the system has almost disappeared from our country replaced by modern institutions through the interventions of the Britishers based on Lord Macaulay’s research and findings. They wanted educated clerks and not inventors, entrepreneurs, administrators or explorers. So, they methodically wiped out the Gurukul system from our land and built institutions to produce unthinking machines. Even after independence, we changed very little of our schools and gradually converted them into moneymaking centres. The students too grew into mere money making machines. Institutions became commercial centres. The focus got shifted. It is true that in the Gurukul system, as well, the Gurus were well protected and served by the kings and the society as a whole, but that was more incidental. The focus was the opening of the windows. Now, it is rather the opposite… the windows are being closed metaphorically and literally too (centralised AC schools with no windows). We as harbingers of education should be concerned about the commercialization of education and shift our focus to nurture the magic that our children are born with. I agree that money is an indispensable element of our modern existence, but as educators it should always remain supplementary and not the primary objective, or else, we lose focus.

So colleagues, I wish that all of you must believe that you are the front line warriors in the field of education, your benevolence (the sharing of knowledge), your sacrifice (the time spent beyond school hours), your valor (the challenge taken to nurture virgin young minds) are our priceless treasures. You must rejoice your work. Do not slog, celebrate teaching. Parents, you too are but teachers in a different space and time. Do not meddle with our children’s mind and imagination, rather help them manifest the perfection that is already there with them. Let us all revive the traditional system in a more modern way in our schools and colleges. Swami Vivekananda shared a similar dream of recreating the best of the past to suit the modern. I hope you trust Swami Vivekananda!

Wish you all a happy and a true new year!!!