14 July, 2006

Dear [AFCS and CENTAFS] ' Friends' :

Thank you for   the inspiring evening with you at the AFCS-CENTAFS  Old Students Golden Jubilee ‘dinner'.    { “Inspiring”,  because, like a good mountaineer and teacher, at the age of 71, unlike most of  my  'generation' of  clever 'know-alls', I have kept growing younger in the mind, and I am now,  and still, learning, or trying to learn,  from you-all  younger people,   how to keep an 'open mind'  and a clean-heart and magnanimity, and that was inspiring to see how you had grown the way Renu and I would have wanted to see you grow !}.   I find you live and work,  and are evolving (and cheerfully drinking and singing and dancing like in the good old days when I tried to curb you, as I needed to !)  with all the  competitive global stresses, even though in an increasingly 'not-so-Idealistic-political-democratic'  and yet egalitarian  [and hopefully equitable] India and World, now more beautiful to my mind than ever before and yet so much more difficult !   And yet to be cheerful,  even in this changing and challenging New World……….It was an invigorating lesson to learn, a revival of  'occasionally stressed-out'  Hope and   F aith and Optimism and young-at-heart Magnanimity,   to meet so many of you beautiful people,  last night, even though I could not hear myself think because of the high-decibels of the Sound of Music at   ‘Elevate'…almost like a Saturday Night or House Night at The Aravali Lodge !

    Schools, like nations, like India, have long Institutional Memories. It does not matter too much what was your Vintage at School,  or the Centuries of the Sub-Continent,  or who was the Headmaster or Principal or the Housemaster or the Teacher or others who were with us in our schooldays, of Mathematics or Hindi or English or Physics or rock-climbing…….. the Vintage is a 'special' good feeling for our Egos, and the warmth of sentiment and nostalgia.    More important is the Institutional continuity….. it is the fragrant whiff of something that each of them and each of the students and the domestic and all Heads and Teachers and Staff and Management, too, leave behind for all our lives as Institutional Memories……..THAT is what the AFCS/TAFS Subroto Park recollection and strength is all about, and why we all love it and our days and associations !   I dont think any other school-institution at that time had these qualities.....though many have tried to emulate what you and I pioneered !

I am writing to invite and welcome all of you, in ones and twos, and couples and families, and batches and Vintage-Years if you prefer,  to visit me or join me over early-morning walks [5.00 a.m. these days of July !] or games of golf [ Delhi Golf Club, also in the mornings these days]   or over breakfast, tea, coffee, Lunch, tea or dinner, or whatever, whenever you have a mind to do so. TELEPHONE or email IN ADVANCE would, of course, help.

         I live [and work from !] alone in this house in Gurgaon, ever since and after the death of my ‘friend' and wife Renuka Dang(since Himraj Dang [his wife Anisha died 3 years ago!]  lives in their house in Safdarjang Enclave, with his daughters Ahilya and Aranya; and Rupin with his wife Vibha and daughters Bagini and Dharanshi, lives in the ‘ancestral' Dang-Family Home   “Wilderness House/Dabur House” near Safdarjang Hospital,

          I live at “WILDERNESS EQUITY SCHOOL EDUCATION & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HOUSE” ,

House no. 924, Sector 17-B [adjacent-IFFCO-township], Link Road, off Jaipur Highway, Gurgaon-122001,

Haryana.

            I look forward to your news and views and your family and career stories. Please acknowledge by e-mail or telephone & keep in touch.

With good wishes, and affectionate personal regards to all of you and your families,

Yours sincerely,

Wilderness-Equity® School – south of Gurgaon

The International Journal of Sustainable Development ®

Quarterly Global Forum for Environmental Conservation and Equitable Development

Published by : Technology & Action for Sustainable Development

( Registered S-20355 under the Societies Registration Act. 1860 )   Exemptions FCRA and 80[G]  

India Wilderness-Tribal-Equity ® International School(s)

The Indian School(s) of Excellence and Equity Sponsored by :

The (Third*) World Education Centre Society (TWECS) ®

( Registered S-18293 under the Societies Registration Act. 1860) Exemptions FCRA and 80[G]

Regd. Office: TASD at WILDERNESS HOUSE / DABUR HOUSE

# 1 Factory Road, adjacent western boundary of Safdarjung Hospital

New Delhi – 110029, India. Mobile: 9810743433

Telefax: 2619 8255; 2619 8954; 2616 3766; Direct: 26713879

From : Hari Dang Padma Shri [ pro-tem Chairman, Board of Governors / Chief Editor ]

THIS LETTER FROM : Residence and Chambers :

WILDERNESS EQUITY SCHOOL EDUCATION & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HOUSE

924, Sector 17-B, Gurgaon-122001, Haryana (NCR), India;

Telephones : 2342290, 2341014, Telefax : 4015433 ; Mobile:9810743433

From Delhi prefix 95124, from India prefix 0124, from outside India prefix 91-11 

Email: wildernessequityschool@airtelbroadband.net ; haridang@vsnl.com

Website : www.wildernessequityschool.org