Dear young heartians,

Greetings to you from your second home, your college! I hope all of you are keeping well and pray you all remain protected and safe. Pl greet your parents and siblings on my behalf.

I had made a posting some three weeks ago meant for your eyes. Hope you have seen it. I request whoever comes across this to share this with your friends:

1. The world is facing an unprecedented crisis, as we are all aware, and are experiencing. I have experienced riots which had forced us to remain within homes for a very long time, but this is unique in its being universal, with no one being spared, and we all still going clueless as to how to tackle it. Hence it is time for us to gear up for newer modes of learning and living. LET US FULLY COOPERATE WITH THE STEPS INITIATED BY THE STATE – by staying home and also by enlisting ourselves for volunteering by registering on SANNADHAM portal.

2. First of all, I remind you all once again, to be ready for the remaining tests – whatever mode it may take and whenever it may take. It could happen any day from May 11th (after assessing the various factors involved).

3. Pl be in touch with your class teachers/mentors or your HoDs. Feel free to contact them, feel also free to contact your counsellor Ms Rakhee if you feel stressed. You are also welcome to contact me – in case, you require any support. You could call me at 0484 2870501.

4. This is also an ideal time for altering our life-styles as also being rightly advocated by the leaders of our nation and the state.

(i) Keeping fit – FIT INDIA– start with stay fit efforts within your homes – I can vouch for Yogic practices in this regard as excellent. You could get online instructions, if you are not already familiarised. A certification in this regard will be really a value addition for you.

(ii) Have some useful courses done on-line – related to your basic programmes, related to your interest areas, or related to your future career. It could be anything – yoga, art, improving hand-writing, making a vegetable garden, organic farming, cooking lessons… You could get advise from Dr. Roby Cherian of Physics department in this regard. I request all those who complete an online course to report to the Principal with the proof, and a committee which would assess the worth of it will be there to provide some partial scholarship as incentive for your self-learning (swadhyay) efforts.

(iii) I earnestly request all of you to engage yourself in the education of hands (3 Hs advocated by Bapuji – Head, Heart and Hand) – that we are able to engage ourselves with our planet by means of our hands (manual labour). This is also a call by the nations of the world as Sustainable Development Goals – especially, Goal No. 12 – sustainable consumption and PRODUCTION. Vegetables, microgreens etc. can be grown by you. And I promise you, you will definitely enjoy that.

(iv) In this regard, also taking into account the scenario depicted by our CM, I request all of you to plant tubers – kappa, chempu, chena, kaachil, kizhangu (cheru kizhangu, nana kizhangu, adathaap), koorka (tapioca, colocasia, elephant yam, yam, other tubers, African potato or plecranthus). These will come handy, in case the lockdown continues. These can be planted now (though it is a little late) either directly on earth or in some sort of grow bags (you could make use of paint containers/cartons etc.). It is better to avoid plastic grow bags as they generate further waste.

(v) A progress report in this regard will be much appreciated.

5. I keep you all in my humble prayers. And I hope that we all take recourse to the source of strength, joy and healing beyond our limits!

In heartian solidarity,

Fr. Prasant CMI, Principal