Sishya 50

Day 2 of the Sishya Literary and Art Festival.
14th Dec 2022.

Bright and early, at 8.30am, the senior school had a treat, with an interactive workshop in the auditorium, by Jonathan Gil Harris , on 'Listening to Shakespeare'.

Till 11am there were several workshops organised in every nook and cranny of the school, in art, craft, illustration, painting, writing, story telling, publishing, design, etc., organised for all the classes; elementary, primary, middle school, as well as senior school.

Over 40 resource people and workshops, were coordinated smoothly and efficiently by and her team.

There were bookstalls and art material stalls set up by (with a focus on some of the Sishya authors), and of course Rajesh's canteen was also doing swift business!

Then from 11.45am, there was a very important presentation by the Sishya Mental Health, Gender, and Sexuality Alliance, a student run initiative. The two young students who gave the presentation, handled even most combative comments and questions, most admirably.

The entire Festival came to an end with impressive renditions and energetic performances of songs and dances by students from the 4 houses, as a fitting finale.

Day 1 of the Sishya Literary & Art Festival.
13th Dec 2022.

After a week of cyclone and rains, the weather cleared up on the morning of the 13th, and with the Minister for School Education as chief guest, and Prof. Jonathan Gil Harris as a fabulous keynote speaker, the Fest was off to a great start!

The Minister reiterated the importance of art, literature, and collaborations and invited Sishya students to consider visiting the Government schools and work at doing collaborative projects with their students.

Prof.Gil Harris regaled the audience with insights into Shakespeare and why he resonates so much with the diversity and "masala" of India, with a slide presentation as well as some live singing and dancing of "Jhallawallah"! By the end of the talk, most of us were convinced that Will was surely a Bollywood script writer born 400 years too early!

This was followed by a wonderful panel on travel and travel writing. Dr.Thomas spoke of his experience of being the surgeon on the first Indian expedition to Antarctica. Mrs.Sarala Unni spoke about discovering the joys and a love for travel, later in life, and described some of the places abroad as well as within India that she has been to. Sishya alumnus, Samit Sawhney spoke about how his love for backpacking and travels started, and about the incredible journey he undertook from London to Delhi, through Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, and Nepal, without boarding a single flight.

The evening's fabulous finale was a wonderful range of dances by Shobana, (Sishya alumnus, and Padma Shri awardee) and her troupe of amazing dancers.

We invite you to Sishya's Literary and Art Festival, on Tuesday, 13th Dec 2022, from 4pm to 7pm.

All Sishya students, parents, faculty, staff, past faculty, alumni, and families are welcome to enjoy the program on the 13th.

Hon.Minister for School Education, Thiru. Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi will light the lamp and inaugurate the festival with a few words, followed by the keynote address by Prof.Jonathan Gil Harris, of Ashoka University, Sonepat. (.gil.harris
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Soon after this there will be a panel discussion on travel and travelogues, with panelists Dr.Salim Thomas, Trustee ( ), Mrs.Sarala Unni, former Sishya teacher, and Samit Sawhney, Sishya alumus, sharing their very different kinds of travel experiences. The evening will end with a dance performance and lec-dem by Sishya alumnus and Padma Shri awardee, Shobana, and her students.

The following day, on the 14th of Dec, during school hours, the festival continues with various workshops, bookstalls, food stalls, presentations, and entertainment, for only the current school students.

Saturday, 30th of July, 2022, from 3pm onwards.

Sishya's famous fête is back this Golden Jubilee year, after a break of 2 years.

There will be exclusive Sishya50 merchandise available, other than all the yummiest food stalls, and funnest games stalls, of course!

Drop in, relive your school memories and enjoy yourselves!

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Perfect Prefects of 2022-23!

The new school prefects for the Golden Jubilee Year, have just been sworn in, at a most uplifting and well organised ceremony at school!

With a list of amazing achievements read out by the teachers, while introducing each of the captains, vice captains, sports captains, cultural secretaries, Newsish editors, and of course the head boy and head girl, it was an uplifting occasion and left every student, teacher, staff, parent, and grandparent present, feeling a surge of pride and positivity!

It truly seemed to signal a very hopeful return to all the school activities that everyone looks forward to, after two years of the pandemic and its restrictions!

We wish the new prefects all the very best for a fabulous year ahead!

Alumni, do you remember the prefects from your time in school?
What was the swearing in ceremony like, then? Share your memories in the comments below!

In March 2021, we received exactly 50 logo ideas, as entries for the Sishya 50th anniversary logo competition, from 20 different students and alumni.

These were numbered in the order that they were received, (with all clues about who submitted which idea, removed), and sent to three judges. The judges, between them, represented the Sishya admin, the teachers, the trustees, the art department, and the alumni, (this alumnus is also a highly respected professional graphic designer, and educator.)

The judges had a very tough time selecting, and were finally able to select a shortlist of 8 logo ideas, which we have posted here. (There were many excellent ones, but these 8 stood out for various reasons.)

All 8 of these will be used in some form/combination throughout the year, on various printouts, media communications, merchandise, and social media.

These 8 shortlisted entries were from 6 students: S.Sai Shreya (class 6), W.R.Rishi (8C), Aradhana Suzanne Alex (9B), Eesha M. Sambasivan (6B), Sandhya S. (6C), and Adithya Chabria (10C)
(These are the classes that they were in, at the time of submission of the entries)

Our congratulations to the young designers whose entries have been selected, and to all the others who submitted entries. You made it very hard for our judges!

An impartial external judge, was given the harder task of selecting a single design out of these, as a winner!

We are thrilled to announce that a logo idea submitted by Adithya Chabria, has been picked as the winner. Congratulations, Adithya!

This was what that judge had to say;

"Sometimes small and simple changes to an existing logo make all the difference. It gives us familiarity and it's clean enough that if reduced or expanded in different formats, it will work across the board because of its minimal detailing. Above all, it highlights exactly what is most important."

This idea will now be worked into a final version to use.

After 20 months of uncertainty, and putting all plans on hold, the Sishya Golden Jubilee Committee finally managed to meet, and get things back on track, today!

Covid, in some form, is here to stay and taking all the précautions we can, we are re-working our programs around it!

9 out of the 12 members of the committee were able to meet and discuss and take decisions on programs and timelines for the upcoming year. Starting with the inauguration on Sishya's 50th Birthday, next month!

Watch this space for more info on the programs, events, and other ways that we can celebrate our Alma Mater!

After 18 long months of uncertainty, fear, ennui, and online classes, finally, since the 16th of September, 2021, the Highschool students of Sishya returned to hybrid online-offline classes, where twice a week, half the class would be online and the other half in person, in the classroom, on campus! On another 2 days of the week, the two halves of the class would switch and there other half hour to attend in person classes. So cameras, screens, and smartboards have been set up, strict Covid protocols in place, mask mandates, sanitizers, etc etc.

Despite all these restrictions and apprehensions, the joy of being on campus again, learning and teaching without always being separated by little boxes on a screen, and to be able to answer without unmuting, and bring able to shout across to their peers, talk, laugh, and interact with another human being without the internet and screens in the way, (maintaining a safe distance and with masks on), has been so thrilling! The campus has life again!

Here is an account from the point of view of one of the Sishya teachers, featured in today's The Hindu, Metroplus.

Link to the full online article:
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/schools-reopen-chennai-sishya-teacher-reunites-with-students/article36624337.ece

Sishya Art Teachers!

Those who studied in Sishya in the 70s and 80s will surely remember Mr.Pathy, the artist from Cholamandal, who was the art teacher at Sishya. All students in middle school had compulsory art in the afternoons with him, in the hut that was the UKG A classroom. He was often at his wits' end, trying to keep unruly bunches of pre-teens occupied for 40 minutes at a time. Everyone, I am sure, remembers his mercurial temper!
He left Sishya to concentrate on his own art work, around 1989.

Five students, from the batch that was starting 9th std in January 1990, decided that they did not want to choose between Economics, Commerce, and Computer Science, which were the options being offered then, as the '6th Subject', (Optional Subject), for ICSE. Instead they insisted on choosing Art, at a time when the school was still hunting for an art teacher.

Impressed by their dedication in teaching themselves how to sketch for the most part of the 1st term, the principal, Mr.Hensman, found Ms.Lauren Mukundan, an extraordinary art teacher, who helped guide this batch, and establish the requirements for an art department at Sishya quickly, so that the std 11 that was starting in June that year, could also be offered Art as an option for their ISC. She saw the first couple of batches of ICSE and ISC art students through their board exams, and established an "art room" at Sishya, before she left, to join the art department at the AISC.

Then for a couple of years, Ms.Kalpana Ramaswamy, a graduate from the Madras College of Arts and Crafts, and a former parent of Sishya, took up the reins and further shaped the department.

In 1995, Ms.Madhu Rajeev, a graduate from Stella Maris, joined Sishya and took it upon herself to shape and guide the art department at Sishya. Twenty six years later, she is still at the helm, and the Sishya Art department has only gone from strength to strength. It's reputation is widely known! It isn't uncommon for students to enroll in Sishya, just to be able to take up art as a subject.

The wonderful art works on display every year at the school exhibition, speak volumes! We will need to do a separate post on that!

Logos — instantly recognisable, and such a key part of the identity of any institution or event.

Sishya's "Aspire and Excel" tag line and logo are known to everyone connected with the school.

The Sishya Alumni logo, designed by Rathna Ramanathan of the ISC batch of 1989, easily shows the sense of community and support alumni, young and old feel.

We are now happy to announce a call for entries to design the Sishya 50 logo.

This is open to all current students, alumni, teachers, (old and new),as well as staff, both old and new, of Sishya.

Just a few simple rules:

∙ All design entries must be sent via email, as an attachment, in the form of a jpeg, of not more than 2MB, each.

∙ The designs must be original, and not taken from any other existing design, nor out sourced.

∙ The email subject must be “ Sishya 50 Logo Competition”

∙ The jpeg attachment must be accompanied by the following information in the body of the email:

1. Full Name:

2. Connection to Sishya: (alumni, please specify year that your batch graduated from the school, and current students, please specify current class and section)

∙ Each person can submit more than one entry, up to a maximum of 3 entries.

Each entry must be sent in a separate email.

∙ Entries to be sent to

∙ Last date for entries is 15th March, 2021

The entries will be judged by a panel of impartial judges, and the best 3 designs will be chosen, to be used by Sishya, as per their discretion, in connection with the 50th year celebrations.

The chosen designs, and designer, will be announced on Sishya 50 social media platforms, as well as Sishya Alumni and Sishya official platforms, and will then be displayed on the school notice board.

The Judges decision will be final.

Pointers to keep in mind when designing:

∙ The design must be clear even when printed very small.

∙ It should look good in colour as well as in black & white

∙ Keep it simple and neat.

∙ It must have relevance to Sishya's 50th anniversary / Sishya Golden Jubilee.

So what are you waiting for? Start creating!

This day, thirty three years ago!

January 29th., 1988 marked the first day of an unforgettable, unique, 5 day long mela, "Exposish '88", that was organised by the then just 4 year old Sishya PTA, to raise funds for the construction of the auditorium block.


The only way to describe the event would be to call it a coming together of a school fête, annual day, exhibition, inter-school culturals, and the annual alumni get-together, with a lot of bonhomie, fun, and connections between teachers, parents, and students, past and present.


There were food stalls, music, themed pavilions, events, concerts, competitions, invitees, students, friends, visitors, and alumni, with a five day long program, that some of us are still talking about, 33 years later!


Were you one of the lucky ones who was there? What was your favourite memory from Exposish '88? Tag your friends in the comments, if they were there too!

A school is not merely the sum total of its campus, infrastructure, and syllabus. What really makes a school is the people -- The teachers, the other staff, the students, the alumni, and the PTA. Each and every person who gets involved in a school, influences it.

There are some people's though, who have a far more long lasting influence on the school. People like Chitra Subramanian, who have seen changes upon changes come and go in the school, but have remained a constant; an anchor, throughout the ups and downs.

Chitra ma'am, (Pic 1), has been the senior maths teacher for the 11th and 12th, since Sishya first started its first batch of 11th std in 1986.

Many of the batches also know her as the teacher who curates and directs the Sanskrit Invocation for almost the last 3 decades, sung each year, for School Day, by the class10 students. (Pic 2)

However this used to be done in the 80s by the Sanskrit teacher, Mrs. Madhavan, (Charu Madhavan), who was Sishya's first Sanskrit teacher. (Pic 3)

The last photo is of the Std.10 students singing the Sanskrit Invocation in August 1986 (Pic 4)