Latest News: May 2009

April saw the Moravian Institute senior boys field hockey team win the final of the DDCSA Senior Boys Hockey Tournament. The team has now won the championship four years in a row. Our coaches deserve congratulations; Mr Namsinrai Kamei and Mr S B Pun have done well indeed. The tournament was hosted by the Doon School again, on behalf of DDCSA (Dehra Dun Council Schools Association). The final once again featured Doon School versus Moravian Institute, during which Doon scored first. But soon Moravian equalized and by half time went one up, to take the score to 2-1. The second half saw a lot of attacks by both sides during which Doon missed a number of chances. However, Moravian scored again and managed to hold on to the lead to take the score to 3-1 at the final whistle. Mr Burrett, Acting Headmaster of the Doon School, gave away the prizes. Below is a picture (taken by Mr Russell Winfield) of the happy team holding the trophy. Also in the picture are (left to right) myself, Mr Burrett, Mr Sheel Vora (former Senior Maths Teacher, also at Doon), Mr Namsinrai Kamei and Mr S B Pun.


April 30 in Dehra Dun was the hottest day in April in recorded history! But May threatens to be hotter still. The water shortage is more acute than in previous years, because there was hardly any snow or rain last winter in the upper reaches of Garhwal. The Institute children (and staff) will be relieved when the summer vacation starts on 15th May.

Before that, however, the children have some exciting activities lined up, not least a stage production of C. S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", written, produced and directed by our two volunteers from Canada: Nicki Rae Parker and Lindsay Hogarth. Most of the lead characters in the play are getting credit for their Duke of Edinburgh Award as well.

The children are also looking forward to a student led "Talent Show" on the 14th. They have had a number of special activities already: a story telling contest, a collage making competition and a Hindi debate.

Many staff were happy to attend not only the wedding of staff, Miss Annie Thapliyal, but also that of Bheem Bahadur, former institute student. He and his wife, Jyoti, will make their home in Jakhan, Rajpur Road, Dehra Dun.

On 13th May Uttarkhand goes to the polls in the general elections. The election commission in Dehra Dun has commandeered the institute's bus from 11th May onwards, for election duty, another novel experience for us.

Quite a few new children have joined us to take the place of the seniormost ones in Class 12 who have left. These Class 12-ISC (and Class 10-ICSE) examination candidates are waiting for their results, which we expect some time in the middle of May.

A number of teaching staff left us: Mr Powjuaklung Gengmei, Mr D K Mahapatra, Miss Annie Thapliyal, Miss Rebecca Simon. Our volunteers from Canada: Miss Nicki Rae Parker and Miss Lindsay Hogarth will also leave us in May. We will miss all of them, and wish God's care and safe-keeping as they go further in their careers and lives.

We welcome new staff among us: Mr Birender Singh, Mr Beverley Niblett, Miss Tripti Mahajan, Miss Neetu Ale, Miss Purnima Uniyal and Mrs Ruby Bison. We look forward to a fruitful and long time with us.

We say goodbye to Mr Russell Winfield, a volunteer from England, who has been of great help to the institute in adminstration and office work. He has also been a great friend and inspiration to the institute's college level students and younger on-campus staff. We will miss him very much.