St Philomena’s reopens with prayers

A garlanded photograph of L Abhilash greeted students of St Philomena’s High School on Attibele Road in Sarjapur on Monday, when it reopened after five days.

A week ago, 13-year-old Abhilash’s name had figured in the school’s roster. Today, he is a tearful memory to his classmates, school and family. The school reopened with a condolence meeting. Teachers, non-teaching staff and students paid homage to the standard VII student, who died in an accident involving one of the school buses on Wednesday last.

The condolence meeting commenced with a prayer at 9.30 am, under the watchful eyes of about 15 personnel of the district armed reserve and local police. A mob had tried to barge into the school soon after the accident.

Headmistress CS Mamatha led the prayer meeting. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she offered puja to the garlanded photograph of Abhilash. Other teachers and students followed in silence.

Among the students, one boy was extraordinarily silent. He was Aravind, Abhilash’s classmate and best friend in school. It took a little prodding to make him talk. “We used to play together,” he said with downcast eyes. Aravind was yet to come into terms with the tragedy that had befallen his best friend.

Kannada teacher Muniraju described the accident as the saddest incident in the history of the 16-year-old school. “I pray that such an incident would not repeat,” he said.

The school announced that it would observe December 15 every year as Dark Day, in memory of the fatal accident that killed Abhilash and injured 15 others.

Behind the students, stood about 20 khaki-clad men in a row, the drivers and helpers of the schools fleet of buses. Eleven buses were parked at one corner of the premises. The buses, barring one, which had met with the accident — plied as usual on Monday morning to bring students to the school.

Most of the students came by their own, either by school bus or other means of transport. None of the parents attended the  meeting.