After returning from South Africa, Gandhi established Satyagraha Ashram in Ahmedabad to serve the country with universal welfare from his own place. The message is ‘Serving your own people is serving the whole Universe’. Gandhi spent almost 21 years in South Africa struggling on behalf of the people of Indian origin completing identifying with them and their problems. But Gandhi finally decided to return to India in 1915. The message of his return is ‘never forget your roots’. Despite his live contact with India and its problems Gandhi took the advice of Gokhale seriously after return from South Africa. He went around the country to understand and identify its problems.

19th of January: A special assembly was conducted in the Multi- Purpose Hall after the children returned from their winter vacation to salute Gandhi’s homecoming.

As a precursor to this event commemorating the 100th year of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa, a message had been addressed to the parents, sharing the thought and its expression which the children portrayed after the school commenced on 19th January.

All the students from Classes I to VII, along with Ms. Nandita Dasgupta, Principal GIIS Noida and Ms Rachna Jain, Pre Primary Co-ordinator and the Primary school teachers attended the assembly. After the prayer, the students of class V sang Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan, ‘Vaishnav Jana, toh’. Ms. Jyoti Bisht, teacher of GIIS Noida spoke about the journey of Gandhi from a lawyer in South Africa to the leader of the masses and eventually named by Rabindranath Tagore as the ‘Mahatma’, who inspired movements for civil rights and freedom and independence. He lead India to become free from the rule of the British. Ms. Geetanjali Rawat, another teacher of GIIS Noida read out Gandhi’s talisman and explained its importance to the students. She conducted a discussions session with the students and probed them to think and share their response on various situations.

The Principal shared her thoughts and interacted with the children on the importance of Gandhi’s Talisman and the need of today’s generation to understand and accept the same with an open mind. The special assembly drew to a close with the National Anthem.