Swatantra Vidhyalaya
Swatantra Vidyalaya
Harish Patel felt an avalanche of emotions rise inside him when h e walked around the five acre campus of Swatantra Vidyalaya1 on a Sunday morning in the winter of 2006 along with his friend Devang Desai. Both, Harish and Devang, had studied together in this school up to seventh standard some thirty odd years back. This was the first time they met each other and this was the first time they were coming to the school after the long gap. The school was established by Harish Patel’s great grand-father, a freedom-fighter in the thick of the freedom movement in 1927. Harish’s father had studied in this school, all his uncles and all his brothers too had studied in this school. After seventh standard Harish went to Mumbai to stay with his uncle and study there. His finished his schooling there and later graduated in civil engineering with university honours. Soon he went to the United States for higher studies. He took up a job with a civil engineering firm and eventually became a green-card holding citizen of USA. In the meantime his family, through their own network, found an American educated Gujarati girl and got Harish married to her. His brothers remained in and around Ahmedabad, some in farming others in the business of cotton trading. Harish and his family used to visit Harish’s parents and other relatives, on an average, almost every two years. In 2005 Harish spent almost six months at Ahmedabad attending to his father on his death-bed. Next year the brothers assembled together and decided on the father’s property. Since Harish was far removed from any of the businesses that the family was engaged in and since he was least interested in getting involved in those businesses, he was given the rights to handle the school that was being handled by Harish’s father. Through letters and phone calls Harish located one of his old friends, Devang Desai, who has become a leading Chartered Accountant of Ahmedabad. Harish asked him to help manage the
Harish Patel felt an avalanche of emotions rise inside him when h e walked around the five acre campus of Swatantra Vidyalaya1 on a Sunday morning in the winter of 2006 along with his friend Devang Desai. Both, Harish and Devang, had studied together in this school up to seventh standard some thirty odd years back. This was the first time they met each other and this was the first time they were coming to the school after the long gap. The school was established by Harish Patel’s great grand-father, a freedom-fighter in the thick of the freedom movement in 1927. Harish’s father had studied in this school, all his uncles and all his brothers too had studied in this school. After seventh standard Harish went to Mumbai to stay with his uncle and study there. His finished his schooling there and later graduated in civil engineering with university honours. Soon he went to the United States for higher studies. He took up a job with a civil engineering firm and eventually became a green-card holding citizen of USA. In the meantime his family, through their own network, found an American educated Gujarati girl and got Harish married to her. His brothers remained in and around Ahmedabad, some in farming others in the business of cotton trading. Harish and his family used to visit Harish’s parents and other relatives, on an average, almost every two years. In 2005 Harish spent almost six months at Ahmedabad attending to his father on his death-bed. Next year the brothers assembled together and decided on the father’s property. Since Harish was far removed from any of the businesses that the family was engaged in and since he was least interested in getting involved in those businesses, he was given the rights to handle the school that was being handled by Harish’s father. Through letters and phone calls Harish located one of his old friends, Devang Desai, who has become a leading Chartered Accountant of Ahmedabad. Harish asked him to help manage the