The Birth of A New School -The First Day .7th April ,2003.

Any thing  that  you start from scratch has to be something special .Buying a flat, a house or inheriting property  is not the same as building one yourself  . I guess the same goes for schools .

I started two schools –one at Bhopal and another one at Jaipur .Yesterday DPS Jaipur completed 10 years .What is most important for me is the fact that I was present on the first day it started in the capacity of a Principal .What they commonly call “Founder Principal”.I remember it so vividly. . ………

I was the Principal at DPS Jagdishpur when I was offered to start and build DPS Jaipur .The then Chairman ,Mr Narendra Kumar called me to Delhi and in a no nonsense way said

“Kain ,we are sending you to start DPS Jaipur .Just coordinate with the relevant people and tell me when you will take over .” Period . No discussion .I tried to interrupt him by saying

“But Sir….”

He broke into chaste Punjabi

“Kaka ,gal sun layee hai nah ?Bus hun jaa Jaipur chhateey”. (Have you heard me ?Now go and takeover as the Principal of DPS Jaipur quickly!!). He was going through some papers and did not even look at me !!I had known him for about 10 years then –and I knew that arguing was not going to be of much use .

I formally took over in October 2002 .We were to start the school in April .When I went to the present site of the school in Bhankrota  –there was nothing .Not even a  boundary wall .Huge cranes were present and excavations were going on .I remember telling Poonam Kripal

“Poonam ,do you think they will be able to complete it by April”.Poonam just smiled .I knew that like me even she had apprehensions .

But start we did –on the 7^th of April .The credit for it goes to the brilliant Satija brothers and Dilip Sharma who worked in close tandem to make sure that  the dream go up in concrete .It was something which is difficult to describe .And very few will have the privilege to appreciate the efforts because efforts of that kind kind cant be described in words –they have to be seen and experienced .We operated from the big bungalow of Mr Soda in Rathore Nagar .It was a 24 hour open office !!There was no time for lunch ,tea or dinner .Our timings were detwrmined when our deadlines for the day would be met .I remember escorting  Raviji (Ravi Jaipuria ) through a inspection at 1.30 am in the morning .!!On a cold December night in 2002 .He was tireless . “Hamara to rooz ka kaam hai Mr Kain”,he replied when I quizzed him whether he was tired .He had just landed in Jaipur and had come straight to the site .Typical of the man .He never ever wanted to leave anything for the morrow .A amazing  and adorable man .

The first school bus rolled in at 7.42 am on 7^th April .The whole of the  previous  night  was spent in getting the classrooms as ready as possible .At about 12 midnight we realized that we were short on furniture when we counted desks and chairs in each room .

 “Sirjee ,it should be somewhere .It had been ordered”   said Dilip pulling away furiously at the India Kings cigarettes he used to smoke  .

But where was the missing furniture ?.Someone suggested that we check at Rathore Nagar.So off we (Dilip and me ),went to Rathore Nagar and woke up Sureshji (I think he is still there ) who was looking after the things there.And sure enough we found the 20 odd desks and chairs  in the garage .!!

 It was a huge project and we were interested in getting at least 10 classes operational .The rest of the 30 odd classrooms and bathrooms and other facilities would take another two months .We had decided to open the new session on the 7^th and then close the school down on the 27^th .We had decided to restart after the summer holidays on the 7^th of July .That way we would would get an additional  75 days to bring the school in the shape we wanted to .!!

  I remember how all of us were standing in attendance to receive the kids and the staff .There was Ishrat ,Bharat ,Dilip ,Satija ,Choudhry (Rakesh ,who was a engineer with the Jaipuria Group),Laxmi ,Chanda Lal ,Om ,Hariom ,Sangeeta and others .The teachers came –in the buses allotted to them .Poonam Kripal stepped out of the first bus and the others kept coming in one by one .Pragya ,Nidhi Kapoor,Ritu Jhunjhunwala,Rachna ,Shalini ,Gagan Dhaliwal,Surekha ,Neha Kapilla ,Dr Monica ,Megha Saxena  and few others  whom I cant recollect –were also the first day of DPS Teachers !!The children were escorted to the classrooms ,while we waited the arrival of Mrs Dhara Jaipuria –the Pro Vice Chairperson of the school .She arrived at 10 am and went around the school .She went into each and every classroom and interacted with the kids and teachers .We walked with her around the campus and after having tea and biscuits –she left .My office was the second room on the left of the corridor on the ground floor as we walked toward it from the “Snakes and Ladders”.In the first room sat Mr Bharat Kishore and the other staff .The room in front of my office served as the store and book house (under the able and capble hands of Mishra ji ).

Before we knew anything –the school bell had rung for the day.We saw each and every child off and came back to our room to take stock of the day .The attendance for the day was 197 children present ,6 absent ,total 203 .!!

The important thing was –DPS Jaipur had been born .But not before giving the final labour pang .As we sat ,having a cup of tea ,we got a call from a parent that his child had not reached home !!And that the bus driver (who was available on a cell phone ),had said that he the child  had not got on to the bus in the first place .!!Our hearts sank –God where is the kid who was supposed to be in route number 3 and was missing from it ?!!I stuck to the basics –take deep breaths, ask  your mind to cool down ,don’t make any statements to parents that are not factual ,and pray to God to work through the problem .And most importantly –be optimistic ,because our worst fears never come true .

Within 15 minutes we had tracked down the child –who had got onto another bus !!-,he was delivered to the parents house (near Triveni Nagar),we opened up a big bottle of Pepsi ,poured it into 6 glasses ,raised the glasses and clinked them and said “Cheers”

Happy Birthday DPS Jaipur .!!