In the 'deep south' region of our beautiful country, about 50 km from Kanyakumari and another 50 km from the eighth-most populous city in Tamil Nadu, Nellai, is an area called Dohnavur.
The area was originally established in 1901 by the Irish missionary Amy Carmichael as Vanacharbu (woodlands). Decades later, in 1982, the sincere and committed efforts of Prof. Ivan Balasingh (fondly known to SV alumni as Ivan Uncle) together with then leadership of the Dohnavur Fellowship, gave birth to the school we now know as Santhosha Vidhyalaya.
5.50 am on a Thursday morning found me standing on a barren platform, with the station sign, "VALLIYUR" welcoming me with zero acknowledgement.
"Don't care who you are - just get on with your day, and be on your way" the sign seemed to silently say.
A short car drive later, I found myself in that famed institution - Santhosha Vidhyalaya.
Santhosha Vidhyalaya is a school I've known for as long as I can remember. I've read Amy Carmichael's biography in God's Madcap as a kutty boy, and my father has been visiting the school for ministry work for decades. I've also met some alumni from the school here and there.
To be actually there, though, felt too surreal. I was mildly overwhelmed.
The Principal, Ms LS, greeted me and welcomed me, and got me settled into their guest accommodation pretty quickly. My old high school teacher from Anita Methodist for Library, Scripture and sometimes for Physics and Maths, I hadn't seen her in ages - and was good to meet her again.
So what was I doing here in Dohnavur, and what brought me so far away from known civilisation?
Enlisted as the temporary teacher - over zoom - for some classes from October, I'd decided then that I'd visit the place sometime. And here I was finally.
I do not wish to bore you, dear reader, with all the nitty gritty details of my visit - like what I had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or what the class timings were, or what the layout of the place was. But certain things struck me, and I ought to make a note of them - for posterity's sake, if for nothing else.
Food Being a residential school, their kitchen serves food for about 700 people for every meal. And happily. And tasty stuff too.
Some things were pure simple genius. Serving last night's beef kuzhambu to go with the morning's upma is exactly the kinda thing that would make me eat upma - and I ate it happily.
Yet other things were mind-blowing. Like, when they make idlis. Or chappathis. The sheer numbers make it a daunting task.
To serve breakfast at 7.30 am, the cooks must've been up by 4 am or earlier.
I cannot process that.
To get up so early and work so hard.
And yet, they were generally pleasant and smiling and full of cheer.
There's a lesson to be learnt here somewhere, but I must get on with this writing...
Hustle Bustle The place is home to none of the vagaries of a city's daily motions. Forget the apps like Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, etc.- you'd be happy to get cellular network here.
With no devices in the hands of the children, they are far more attentive, and present in-the-moment than many other kids in a city might be.
Sometimes it is so quiet in the nights, you can barely hear anything. As someone who thirsts for places of intense quietness, it was like a medicine for a disease I didn't know I had.
Yet, amidst all of the quiet, there is an unspoken gentle-yet-firm rush with the children moving through their daily schedules like clockwork.
School, then hostel, then play time, then study time, then dinner, then study time, then bed.
Nobody tells them what to do - they just seem to know where they ought to be, and when they ought to be, and they just are.
As someone who likes very clear, detailed and specific instructions, I found this baffling as well.
I tried asking a few children - even the ones who joined as new admissions in this academic year - how they knew what to do and when to do it; they really didn't have much of an answer. They just knew.
Modernization Although bits of the school and its day-to-day seem to be strongly anchored in their foundational '80s, the current board - being quite active and missional - seems to be pushing the envelope for the school, in terms of bringing the school to the 21st century, somewhat.
From WiFi in key locations, smartboards in classrooms, and even large machines in the kitchen - the push to modernise the school is not limited to digital technology alone.
With their Principal who is constantly looking for ways to evolve the student learning experience with any and all technology that's available, the school will surely continue its growth along the current path to modernisation.
Through all of this, though, the older buildings remain - built during Amy Carmichael's time, and named with unique and interesting Thamizh names by herself.
My inner drive to bring everything into the modern age, and my love for nostalgia were both greatly satisfied.
Values At least once a day - maybe even more - I heard, "We say that at SV" or "We do that at SV".
There is a way of doing things - and even saying things - at SV, and you will notice it.
Whether it is in football being so ingrained in their daily lives that the children can't keep their love for football out of our classroom sessions, or it is in how much Jesus is entrenched in their daily lives that they can't imagine a world without the daily mention of Jesus.
I have been involved with several Christian organisations - schools and otherwise - and I've heard the word 'family' tossed around the workplace a lot. At SV, though, the word isn't tossed around much, but the entire ecosystem of ~700 people are an extra-large family (of sorts).
When you're stuck in a hostel away from home and family, and you move daily with your classmates for study, food, and play, you end up cleaving to each other in your own, unique, SV way.
Admittedly, the school culture is also so soaked in Jesus and Jesus' ways, that at times, I felt I was at home.
Children "Children are a heritage from the Lord" is an oft-repeated verse in Christian circles.
If ever there were children that were examples of this verse, you will find them surely on the SV campus.
From welcoming me with their questions after class on the first day over zoom, to wishing me and listening to me in-person on their campus, the children have been an absolute delight.
Me, being the forgetful person that I am, still can't remember most of their names.
But I do remember the things that they do - and say - and they are marvellous.
Everything that you would want to see as a quality in a child going to school, you will see in these children.
Hanging back to chat after Sunday service. Just outright chatting on the football field. Getting me to field questions from atheism to GTA VI.
The children put me through all possible questions.
Yet, as some of them voiced out on my last day there, "Sir, when are you coming again?" or "Sir, can't you go tomorrow instead of today?", my heart quivered.
Final Thoughts My heart was full - and heavy - as I left after my brief stay at Santhosha Vidhyalaya, Dohnavur. The visit to the remnants of the actual Dohnavur Fellowship - the organisation begun by Amy Carmichael in 1901 - is a totally different story, and I don't know if I'll ever have the wherewithal to tell that (but my Miss Blue Eyes song is a great connection to her story through my eyes).
I am so grateful to God - and to the Principal of SV and all of the others who made this visit, and this engagement with SV, Dohnavur, possible.
Before my visit, I thought SV, a residential school, was just a normal school plus a hostel. I was so wrong. It's like a house - a large house of many acres, with around 700 people in it.
The Jesus I know in Madras, is very present and active in Dohnavur in the SV campus.
As I was visiting a hostel one time, a child volunteered to pray, and he - all of possibly ten years - prayed without prompting, earnestly.
When he prayed for pastors and missionaries being persecuted, and for the police to be just and righteous towards them, my heart stopped.
To me, in Madras, such incidents are just an Insta-share.
To many children in SV, Dohnavur, with missionary parents, such incidents are life-and-death.
May God be glorified through all the happiness, sadness, goodness and seemingly bad-ness that visits us, and may God continue to uplift the work of the Dohnavur Fellowship, and continue to hold each child at Santhosha Vidhayalaya near and dear.
Note: Post was updated on 23rd Nov to add a line about the founding of the school by Prof Ivan Balasingh, based on the feedback and wishes of the SV Alumni community.
About Dan
Tech has been my fascination for a long time. Education has been an area I had strong convictions about, also for a long time. God opened doors to combine my fascination and convictions.
I work at bringing Technology and Education together to make excellent learning. Have been working with multiple educational institutions at various capacities for the last 12 years and I thoroughly enjoy watching God bless the works on my screen.
