Stranger ran past school screaming 'Run, Water'

 

Stranger ran past school screaming 'Run, Water' 

It saved 370 kids, teachers

Vishant Agarwala reports from Nuwakot, Nepal  in The Times of India of 31st August 2026

"The big flood is coming, run...' 

An unidentified man sprinting past Uttargaya Public School in Betrawati, across the river and a few km from Trishuli Bazaar, shouting those words gave more than 370 pupils and their teachers the warning they desperately needed. 

Within minutes, children were scrambling towards the forested hill behind the campus as the surge cut across roads and normal escape routes. The school routine had barely begun on Wednesday. Hostel students were at breakfast when the cry rang through the compound. There had been no siren, automated message or official alert before the children began running.

The warning that reached Uttargaya came from a stranger outside the compound - shouting loudly enough for teachers to act. Older pupils from Grades 7 to 10 themselves, and the staff helped younger children through mud, carrying some in arms when they could not keep up. 

English teacher Somlal Dangol said,"No one could have imagined a flood this massive was coming. That's why they didn't run far at first - and by the time they saw it, they could no longer escape along the main paths."

Grade 10 student Sujal Lama had finished his morning tuition and was heading towards the school's breakfast when the warning spread. He initially thought the river would not rise very high. Sujal said on Sunday, "If I had gone to eat, the flood would have caught me," . He ran towards the forest, spent the night there and was given food by the teachers once he had gathered enough courage - his teachers said 'bravado' - to return towards the building.

Class 8 student Rashmi Tamang recalled the struggle uphill. "We managed to climb up even though we were covered in mud, but many children couldn't even run," she said. 

For one family a parent's attempt to reach the school ended in tragedy. Nawaraj Tamang rushed towards Uttargaya after learning about the flood to find his Grade 10 son Ayush.

Before leaving, he told his mother, Mungsi Tamang, tha he was stepping out to bring Ayush home. Nawaraj was swept away before he could reach the school. Ayush escaped into the forest and survived.

Vice Principal Pawan Sharma and teachers were scattered with groups of children on higher ground, with communication channels disrupted. Sharma said,"Relatives of students are calling continuously, but I don't even have the records of those children with me any more." 

LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THE HIBISCUS FLOWER

                                     LOOK AT THE COLOUR OF THE HIBISCUS FLOWER

                                                 THE SB PRESS FAMILY AT TUTORS LANE

                                                                   TRIVANDRUM

                                                                GIFTED US A STEM

                                                   SEE HOW IT HAS SURPRISED US

THE CREEPER FLOWERS

 

                                                            THE CREEPER FLOWERS

POOKALAM AT TRAVANCORE FRESH SUPERMARKET VANDITHADAM THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 2026

                                                                 HAPPY ONAM

                POOKALAM AT TRAVANCORE FRESH SUPERMARKET VANDITHADAM                                                                             THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

                                                                         BY

                                                                  THE STAFF

THE MAKING OF A POOKALAM BY ENTHUSIASTIC LITTLE CHILDREN

                                                              HAPPY ONAM

                THE MAKING OF A POOKALAM BY ENTHUSIASTIC LITTLE CHILDREN 

Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, New York - Becka Jill Konnayil - welcomes the incoming class of 2026

 

Good afternoon, everyone - esteemed faculty members, families, friends, and most of all, to the incoming Class of 2026: congratulations and welcome.

I am Becka Jill Konnayil, a fourth-year medical student here at the Renaissance School of Medicine, and it is my honor to share this special and deeply personal day with all of you.

I still remember the first time the meaning of the white coat was explained to me. I was just starting college as a pre-med, and a close relative stopped by to explain the weight of the career I had decided to pursue. I listened, but truthfully, standard pre-med optimism blinded me to the sheer scale of the journey ahead.

But when I sat in your seats back in 2023, that conversation came back to me. The coat hanging off my arm felt heavy with the future - yet I still clung to the quiet security of being just a medical student, not yet the one holding the scalpel or writing the orders.

They say the further you get in this career, the coat gets both heavier and lighter at once. A few years from now, you will all be doctors, and your words and actions will carry more weight than ever.

I wish I could tell you medical school is a walk in the park. It isnt. There will be dark moments - nights when you question whether you are meant to be here. Take it from someone who has been in your shoes: you are. You've already earned your place. You have already made it through things you thought would break you.

So on the hardest days, remind yourself why you chose medicine in the first place - for the people. People facing physical illness, psychiatric conditions, the weight of injustice, or a system that failed them and needs someone to show up anyway.

That lesson became very real for me three months ago when my father suffered a massive heart attack.

He needed ECMO - mechanical life support for the heart - and spent seven weeks fighting for his life in Stony Brook's cardiothoracic ICU, cared for by the very team that trained us.

I started CPR on him immediately at home, before the ambulance arrived. I don't think I fully processed what I was doing at that moment - training just took over.

Later, once he was stable, his CT surgeon, Dr. Allison McLarty, walked my mother through everything that had happened at home that day. My mother just nodded - she knew. 

Dr. McLarty paused, looked at her, and simply said: 'That’s how we train our students.';

Those words have echoed in my head ever since. It captures the entire promise of the training you are about to receive right here at Stony Brook: to recognize a person in need, in any setting, at any hour, and to know what to do. Not because you are expected to be perfect. In medicine, there is no perfection. But because you will have been trained to show up.

That is what I hope you carry with you from this room. On the hard days—when imposter syndrome kicks in—remember that you are meant to be here. This school will help make you into the doctor you’re meant to be: one that patients, families, and your team can depend on - truly, a good doctor.

And RSOM's idea of a good doctor is more than clinical skills. 

In addition to robust training, you will also be provided with the resources to be curious past what is required. 

In medicine, we talk a lot about gaps: gaps in research, gaps in the system, and gaps within ourselves. 

Find the gaps that matter to you and work toward filling them. 

Never lose that spark of curiosity - it’s what keeps us striving for improvement.

And the best part is you never have to do it alone. The people sitting near you right now, the ones you have known for only a few weeks, will become the ones who understand your highs and lows - exactly what a hard week feels like without you having to explain it or the celebration after every test regardless of how it went. 

Keep them close, and root for them the same way you will want them rooting for you.

So, to the incoming Class of 2026: welcome. We - the students walking ahead of you, the faculty who trained us and will train you, your families and friends who are prouder today than you may ever fully understand - we are all genuinely glad you are here.

Medicine needs exactly the kind of person you already are. And somewhere down the road, in a moment you can't yet predict, this school will have quietly made sure you know exactly what to do.

Once again, congratulations on arriving at this destination, and welcome to the start of another beautiful journey.

Thank you.

RIGHT TO QUESTION NOT DEFIANCE - UJJAL BHUYAN, SUPREME COURT JUDGE

 

At the convocation ceremony of the National Law University, New Delhi, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, Hon'ble Judge of the Supreme Court of India, dissected defiance and dissent.

He said, "In a democracy, the right to question is not act of defiance. It is an essential expression of citizenship, liberty and constitutional responsibilty. If we want a democratic society that respects liberty and difference, that culture has to begin somewhere. It can only begin in our Universities. A university ..should be one of the first places where the habit of thinking freely begins."

"In a constitutional democracy like India, govt must listen to citizens, give space for dissent and have institutions that are accountable to society and do not treat every dissent as a threat."

"A university should be a space where an idea is not accepted merely because it is familiar and where students do not hesitate to ask difficult questions simply because the answer may be uncomfortable."

"India's constitution guarantees free speech, thinking and believing differently.'

"Intolerance begins to undermine that framework when disagreement or dissent is no longer treated as a legitimate difference of opinion but as something that must be silenced, rejected or punished. The ability to live with disagreement is, therefore, not merely a social virtue. It is the very essence of a liberal constitutional democracy."

"The maturity of a democracy is reflected not merely in how it treated opinions that are popular, having the majoritarian mandate, but also in how it responds to opinions that are difficult or incovenient."

"The freedom to express an opinion, to disagree with the prevailing view and to participate in public life would be meaningful  only when there is space for dissent."

"A democracy becomes meaningful not when everyone speaks the same language of thought, but when different voices can coexist, be heard  and be treated with dignity."

"Tolerance under our constitution does not ask us to surrender our individuality. It recognises that a free society  would contain different opinions, beliefs and ways of looking at the world."

He concluded quoting the 1986 judgement in Bijoe Emmanuel case by Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy, "Our tradition teaches tolerance. Our philosophy preaches tolerance. Our constitution practices tolerance. Let us not dilute it."

The Times of India 31 August 2026