100th Anniversary

Students celebrated the 100th Birth Anniversary of Mrs. Banoo Dotiwalla on 18th February '25.

A special meal was organised for the students lunch.

"Life Skills" session

 A "life skills" session which has a unique advantages for the younger generation has been organised by Gurukulam in coordination with BAALM (BANYAN Academy of Leadership in Mental Health) on 4th February '25.  

Programme was inaugurated by Mrs. Lakshmi Dy.Director, MS. Kaiser and Mr. Ramesh along with the other office bearers of BANYAN.  

Mr. Abishek Chanda from MCKS visits us

Mr. Abishek Chanda from MCKS, one of our  sponsors, visited us on 21st February 2025.

He expressed his happiness about our school maintenance, creative classes and the grooming of our young and talented students.  

 

"Go Green" at Gurukulam by Rotary Club Madras East

The Rotary club of Madras East organised a "go green" activity in the school campus by planting more than 250 species of trees and shrubs.

The inauguration was held on the 25th March 2025 presided by Rtn. 

Saravanan, Director, Environment, RCME.  The team explained about the "Go Green" project to the students and emphasised that we need to take care of our environment and that it was now up to the students to ensure that the  "Go Green" project  became a success at Gurukulam.

The other attendees were:

Mr. Firdaus Kapadia, Effenkay corporation. 

Dr. Ravi, Director, District Health Services, RI 3234

Rajesh Sundrani, District, Environment team

This project is sponsored by M/S. Shimadzu Analytical (I) Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai

 

Dragon Boat racing with Mr Gokulraj

20th Nov 2024

Mr. Gokulraj, Head of Integrated Operations Control, graciously joined us as our guest speaker and shared his inspiring journey, from his early days as a waiter at "Taj Fisherman's Cove" to his current role as an Air Operations expert leading the Integrated Operations Control Centre at Solitair.

He encouraged the students to always give their best and emphasized the importance of hard work. His key message was to embrace a mindset of continuous learning, take ownership of one’s life, and remember that "smart hard work is always rewarded. 

He spoke about his passion for "Dragon Boat Racing" and his recent participation in a Championship event in UAE. 

The children were amazed at the physique he had achieved when he told them that he was puny a the age of 16 and he had built his physique with regular sessions at the gym. 

In his own words:

I'm incredibly grateful to Captain Nandkumar for inviting me to his school, which provides free education and meal to 200+ financially challenged children. It was truly inspiring to witness the immense talent and potential of these young minds. I wish them all the very best in their future endeavors.

This event brought back a flood of childhood memories. Sharing my journey from a humble waiter to a Head of Department in Aviation with these bright young souls was a truly nostalgic experience. Let's continue to support initiatives that empower the next generation.

Gokulraj's Linkldn post

As written by our teacher:

Session has been organised to the students from Grade VIII & IX, to create awareness about the Dragon Boat racing and to motivate the children with his life story.  Mr. Gokul the well wisher and friend of our Managing Trustee Capt. Nandkumar,  explained the facts and the origin of the sport.  It was highly interesting and motivating see videos on dragon boat racing and to see that the carved dragon heads on the front of boats was a way to appease the river dragons and prevent droughts while promising good rainfall for the rice harvest.  

 He also shared that the racing enhances work dynamics, increases paddler motivation, improves communication, boosts self-confidence and breaks down barriers among team members. The sport fosters team spirit and co-operation among its members, which are transferable skills.

The shared information was well taken by the kids and they expressed their happiness in meeting him and hearing his life journey.

Mrs & Mr Dalal visit Gurukulam

 Mrs & Mr Dalal visited the school campus on 24th July 2024.

It was wonderful having them over. 

They expressed their sincere happiness towards the maintenance of the school premises as well as the discipline maintained right from the kindergarten children to grade 12. 

Principal Mrs Uma, Admin Manager Mr Naushad and Trustee Mrs Sabita had a good discussion with Mrs & Mr Dalal about the school and its scope.

In Mr Dalal's own words:

Kaety & I decided to go visit the place for a first hand feel of the project – not just photos and stories but actually see it in operation. We landed up on Wednesday 24/07/2024 w’out any prior notice & were very pleasantly surprised, overawed by what they are doing....

The school now has expanded to 3 buildings, housing 20 class rooms + 6 vocational training rooms, office space and other amenities. The school has (today) 230 children from class LKG to Xll, with 18 faculty + 5admin + 5 support staff. 

There is a desperate need to spruce up and upgrade the 3 school buildings with some extent of addition infrastructure. Also enhance the no and quality of staff and facilities. The project is respectfully laudable but certainly requires a lot more

*Consistent & Committed Support*

One-time / Random donations are most welcome but for a project of this nature to sustain and grow, where year on year, continuity is vital – it is absolutely essential for philanthropic donors to make some long / mid term enduring generous commitments of – 

say 5 years with any fixed amount of their choosing. 

Just as we all plan our family lives and finances – personal business – so does this noble educational enterprise need and deserve a continuous basic minimum blood line.

 

If you can personally visit – or depute your trusted representative to make a round of the school, I am sure you would be convinced and enthused that any commitment you make to this cause is worth every penny and more.

If you cannot visit in person or send someone – pls trust me, for the promoters have put their life’s earnings into this noble venture and without any recognition, reward, or position in the establishment – our family is heavily committing our limited affordable resources to the cause of this laudable educational enterprise. 

 

What the establishment needs is some committed inflow – nothing is binding on anyone in this world, but some hopeful pledge is necessary to plan & provide. 

There will always be the overriding caveat, the understanding that ~

So long as we can afford we will honour our commitment OR increase / decrease it as circumstance dictates.

School visit by Mrs & Mr Ravishankar

 8th March 2023

Mrs Mythili Ravishankar, our Committee Member, along with Mr Ravishankar, Mrs Vanitha (retd Commissioner IT) and Mr Vaidyalingam (retd Railways) visited school and spent time with our children.

Guests from Sweden

11th Jan 2023

 Guests from Sweden visited Gurukulam on 11th January 2023. The main object of the visit was to visit the "No fee schools" and understand its functioning. 

Mr. Arvind Vasu & Mrs. Aditi Vasu initiated this visit to Gurukulam.  Visitors appreciated the maintenance of the infrastructure, the cleanliness and the service provided by the school for the students like the quality education, food, books & notebooks and all the basic needs.  They have extended their special appreciation for maintaining the laboratories and the Library.

Mr Nitin Agarwal visits Gurukulam

 25th Sept 2021

Mr Nitin, our Committee Member based in Hyderabad, visited school to welcome our children back to school and motivate them.

He conducted a workshop with our teachers and children. 

The children got tips on exam handling and how to handle themselves post covid 

In Nitin's own words:

As school re-opens after pandemic, it was great feeling to visit school and interact with students. I have been associated with Gurulam school since inception days from 2004. This time I visited with a friend, Pravin Bavankule, who was equally excited. I was told that what students now need is motivation to get back to the rigor of physical education and prepare for the upcoming exams. So I posed the question to the batch of students from grade 9 - 12 "What meal did you have same time last week?". With some giggles and embarrassment, students and teachers both realized that human memory is designed to retain for short term, and only way to beat that was "constant revision". Now the logical question to follow was how can revise all subjects everyday with such a demanding course-content? On that note, we agreed that most important questions were the ones that were asked in question papers from the last 5 years, and there is a high probability that these would be most likely questions for the upcoming exams. With such reduced but focussed sylabus to begin with, we can possibly focus on one subject each day of the week, and complete the entire revision within the week! I could see the excitement in their eyes as we discussed such possibilities to help them with their exams. Finally I reminded them again that given how human brain works, they will forget everything that we discussed today in a week's time! So one homework for them is to make a note of takeaways from today on a piece of paper, and paste it on their desk for "constant reminder"! 

Pravin rounded up the session beautifully by motivating students to Think Big! His anecdotes from history were spot on and resonated well with students.

Finally, we had a separate session with teachers to brainstorm how best we can help students follow through with the above plan of action. 

I believe we can exponentially learn from each others experience. Was humbling to see the students aspiring to be IAS and doctors, specially after coming from economically underprivileged background and being first generation English learners. As I left, I secretly wished that I get more such opportunities to interact with Gurukulam students! ;-)

Sathya Nair and Sqn Ldr Unni Nair visit school

 23rd March 2021

Sathya Nair and Sqn Ldr Unni Nair joined us for lunch with our teachers.

Sqn Ldr Unni Nair, Head Honcho of Excel HR Facilitations and Planet Adventure www.excelpro.org gave our teachers a uplifting talk. Motivated them, stirred them up and entertained them with a lovely song!

Thank you Sathya and Unni!

“The Great Build” session with Team Verizon Media

Team Verizon Media partnered with Trust Children for “The Great Build”, which is their company-wide, global day of volunteering when employees serve the society by giving back to their communities. This year we had the honor of having Guru Gowrappan, Verizon Media CEO speak with the staff and children of Gurukulam school on Wed, Sep 16th 2020.

The event started with Capt.Nandkumar sharing the vision of Trust Children and how the school started. In his own words, “Ideally we would love to start a school to reach out to every child in the world!”

Guru shared his inspiring personal story about how he started as a small-town kid, the challenges he faced while growing-up, and his entrepreneurial journey to becoming CEO of Verizon Media. His experience on how he landed up with his first ‘informal internship’ with a Tech Education Institute was a great lesson in passion, determination and perseverance. He reiterated that most things in life are simple and costs nothing. It’s all about our attitude and hard-work.

Guru also fielded questions from teachers ranging from managing stress and work-life balance to mental health awareness. He shared wonderful tips to manage stress and anxiety levels by focusing on activities that they can impact/control, by daily practice of meditation and personal journaling, and following “Three E’s” - Exposure to Sun, Exercise and Emotional wellbeing, which he learned after exchanging tips and tricks with a trusted acquaintance and friend.  When asked if he always dreamt of being a CEO, Guru said that all he wanted was to make an impact globally. He always maintained a one-page vision of what he wanted to learn and followed it diligently that led him to where he is today.  One of the questions was – “What should a teacher focus on in today’s day and age?” Guru had a very insightful message – Focus area should be to inculcate societal values and problem solving with perseverance, which is so relevant not only for students but also for anyone who wants to succeed. Finally, he gave all of us a framework on time management (The Eisenhower Framework) which helps him focus on urgent and important things and maintain balance between work and family life.

Time Management	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	Do it Now	Schedule
Not Important	Delegate	Drop

On behalf of the entire Trust Children and Gurukulam staff, children and committee members, we thanked Guru for his valuable time and insights. Guru signed off by saying that he hopes to visit Gurukulam school students during his next visit to Chennai -- we deeply look forward to making that hope a reality, and we are excited to host additional inspiring events with Team Verizon Media.

With the legendary Sandy Robson

With Ms. Sandy Robson on 9^th January 2020

Children’s from Grade V to Grade VIII had a wonderful time meeting the legendary Sandy Robson!

She shared her kayaking travel experience, which took her five years to complete from Germany to Australia and the first women to do so!

Watch Sandy Robinson on YouTube on her kayaking from Germany to Australia

Vishal - a very young volunteer - teaches German for our children

1st July, 2019

Today saw the start of German classes from a very young volunteer from USA!

Vishal is starting his 10th grade in USA and decided that he needs to share something with other children who are not so privileged. And what better than to share the German language which is one of his passions! 

Adit, along with his brother Vishal and mom Shefali visited school on the 1st July and started teaching children who were keen to learn. The classes are now held via Skype!

We are proud of Adit for volunteering at this age and our loving thanks to him for making this effort while having to work hard for his own studies!