All About Agartala: A Performance to Remember By Sir. Michael

There is nothing quite like a program at St. Andre…and I should know since I have been to a few in my day. Of course the major holidays are celebrated like Independence Day, Parent’s Day, Teacher’s Day, Children’s Day and Christmas but we also often get the opportunity to celebrate holidays that are special to our school. January 31st is one such day that we get to celebrate with students and staff alike showing off their talents to honor our principal Fr. Michael’s birthday!

At the beginning of this past week we were informed that the program for Fr. Michael would be on Saturday, which would include amongst other things a “special item” presented by the foreign teachers. More on that later.

Fr. Michael turned the ripe old age of, wait for it, 28. That’s right, our devoted principal is only four or five years older than all of us and the principal of a school, talk about ambitious. On top of his professional achievements, Fr. Michael is also an accomplished musician and athlete, often displaying his skills at school whether it is performing in programs himself or playing various sports with the students during breaks or in organized student vs. staff matches. He is also completely invested in the school and its students as well as staff. He is organized, prompt, kind and has high hopes for St. Andre. You pretty much couldn’t ask for a better role model and leader for our school.

To celebrate his birthday various items were presented during the program. The junior section presented both a Kokborok dance as well as a fashion show. From the senior section we had both Kokborok and Hindi dances, a prayer dance, and of course a dance choreographed to non other than Tony Orlando’s classic “Knock Three Times.” Class twelve sang birthday songs and Remi and Riya of class twelve and ten respectively acted as our masters of ceremonies for the event. Speeches from Fr. Jilson, Sudhamoy Debbarma (Class X), Sir Probhunando, Sr. Clare and of course Fr. Michael rounded out the events of the day.

Then came what was dubbed in the program script as the, “memorable moment” of the day, a glorious presentation by the foreign teachers. If you have seen our Instagram account you may have caught a clip of our performance (full video provided below). After a grueling decision-making process we arrived at the decision to perform the smash hit “Cups” along with the cup routine that goes along with it, made famous by Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect.

We secured the perfect cups, rehearsed and worked out the music and details during the week leading up to our big performance. After a disastrous morning run through for Mukta we had done all that we could to make the performance perfect. Ok, so perfect is a bit of a stretch but people seemed generally impressed and pleased with our performance, Fr. Michael even asked us to repeat our performance later in the year at the Parent’s Day program.

We that program behind us we have crossed the first big hurdle, though many more programs lie ahead so be on the lookout for more updates about our inevitable stardom!