TheBlueprint
Designing A Line Of Thinking
Sara Mathew- Family First Everything Else Second
(Shradhanjali Diwas Special)
Our school has reached many milestones over the years, and has developed quite the reputation due to being charitable, inclusive and fostering holistic development. As we continue to reach new heights, we must never forget our humble beginnings. This grand institution was started in a small building in Safdarjung Enclave by a very ambitious lady. Ms. Sara Mathew was a product of her choices rather than her circumstances. She lost her mother at a very young age and married at the age of sixteen.
These might seem like bleak circumstances, but that did not stop her from living life to the fullest. Her courage and indomitable determination were apparent from an early age. Her dreams of starting a school stemmed due to her father being a headmaster, though she realized early on that she would have to face multiple challenges. Armed with a month’s salary and colossal dreams, Ms. Mathew rented a building for Rs. 800, hired Ms. Sharma, and embarked on her journey to provide education. She faced many hurdles, such as commuting from Ghaziabad on a daily basis, being a mother, starting from absolute scratch and running her institution on meager funds. She was able to stand strong in the face of hardships, and the rest is history.
Those who have not met Mrs. Sara Mathew might think of her as a formidable and stern lady, when in reality she was a very sweet and charming person. Those who met her recalled that she was a very compassionate and hospitable woman, who never missed an opportunity to act as mother for her friends, colleagues and strangers. She looked out for everyone around here and firmly believed that everyone had something to contribute.
While every student of St.Mary’s has heard these stories before, The Blueprint wanted to know more of the motherly side of Sara ma'am so we sent out our reporters to affiliates and family members Sara ma’am in order to collect their experiences with her and these were their accounts.
First we contacted Ram bhaiya who worked with Sara ma’am and we asked how the experience of working with her was. He commented about how she a very calm person at school, with him being almost unable to remember any incident of her being angry. She prioritized learning above all else, he remarked that if students were talking behind the teachers back about her in a negative manner she never interrupted the class.
Instead she called the students outside after class and explained to them what they did wrong in again a very serene and loving manner. He also talked about how ma’am was very well respected in school, mind you not feared but an ambience of serenity tended to follow her as she walked, Ram bhaiya described it as how before a major assembly the entire audience awaits in silence and respect for the chief guest to arrive, a similar sense of respect was attributed to her by her students and her staff.
We also wanted to see how Sara ma’am was at her home as a mother so we asked her family about their experiences with ma’am.
In our interview with her daughter, Dr.Annie Koshi, when asked to recollect a few stories that she could recall from her childhood she replied that Sara ma’am practiced a very discipline centered way of raising her kids. She explained that these days if a student is caught cheating , the students’ parents would be very willing to protect their children from any sort of consequence for their actions, but back in her time if you made a mistake parents would encourage that their children be held responsible for their mistakes. She told us that this was a system that Sara ma’am definitely subscribed to.
At her home a similar ideology was practiced, Koshi ma’am told us that if ever her mother bought home a piece of chocolate, she would always divide it equally between her children. If she received a smaller piece of chocolate than her brother she would complain to her mother, and instead of trying to accommodate her request her mother would take her piece of chocolate and eat a piece of the chocolate herself!
On talking to her grandson, Mr.Nikhil about Sara ma’am, he informed us that in her household the policy always was “Family first and everything else second”. She did this by involving her children and grandchildren in her learning of many interesting skills like learning the Japanese language and also many artistic skills like origami. He told us that she was very good at keeping family and work separate, she never let any of the stresses of work leak into her family life. However the opposite was evidently not true since her values of ‘family first’ led to the making of a school based heavily on family values and taking care of students and faculty as if they were her own children.
It is still difficult to fathom that such a huge institution with two branches and outreach programmes started from a single brick building in a residential area, and our founder’s tale of perseverance will continue to inspire us to dream big and take bold steps.
While she is not here with us in person, she certainly remains with us in spirit, as we try our best to uphold her values of discipline, compassion and integrity. Her ideals will continue to live on through this school’s alumni, as they take a step forward to give back to society. By laying the foundation to this illustrious institution, Ms. Sara Mathew ma’am has and will continue to transform lives.