Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Rajsamand, My feelings and emotions for JNVR

I dwell upon a feeling of buoyant proud acclaiming to anyone that I am a student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Rajsamand. Interestingly, this is the only Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in the Country the name of which coincides with the name of the district it is situated in. I beg your pardon and seek correction if I am wrong.

The day on which I was selected for J.N.V has a due place in my memories. For me it was dream come true. While I was in primary school, I was awed and amazed by the display of discipline of J.N.V students on the Independence Day and Republic Day Parades.

Photo: Jiten Bhandari, Orkut

My father did all he could do to get me in the J.N.V. he bought for me The Amar Navodaya Guide and thus began my preparations for the entrance exams. We even went to meet Mishraji, the principal of the school, a humble and down to earth man.

Photo: Basant Jain, Orkut

My entrance exam was something about which I felt so happy as I remember that there was no question beyond the limits of my reasoning. I was among those few students who were selected in the urban category.
It was 5th July 1990 and I was 10 years old when I became a part of the J.N.V family. Unlike many others, I didn’t cry even on the first day of the school. I was filled with a feeling of joy. We were issued all the necessary stuffs on the first day itself. An under such strict discipline I looked forward to utilize the next seven years of my life productively, without my parents. Those seven years that I spent in the school were the most volatile years, a period of transition and development, physical, mental and emotional, namely adolescence.

Mine was one the important Navodaya of Jaipur region. It had got the best biology, mathematics, music and Hindi teacher of the state (and I hope that the school has still maintained that standard, the music band of JNVR was very famous and proves to be superior to the police band.

Photo: Jiten Bhandari, Orkut

I completed my seven important in 1997; I was one of the average students. Now I am doing my Ph.D. Today whatever I am, I think that there is a great contribution from the things I learned from the school

What I learned at Navodaya is something that I couldn’t I had been in some other school.
This question is really difficult, because we do not know our future. I can only say that the best thing I learned from the Navodaya is to survive in any situation and condition, which made me down to earth, which is extremely different. The brand name of Navodaya was enough but if I compare our self and other friends from other schools, we find our self having some special qualities which make us an important member of our group. I am still proud to say that I was a student of Navodaya school, almost everybody in India know about Navodaya, whether it is in Bihar or in Rajasthan.
I was involved in almost all activities. I was an above average student and was a member of science, computer, art, and music clubs. This is one of the important advantages of the Navodaya which allow us to participate in all the fields. Apart from this, I learned a third language, Gujarati, which was not possible in the local school. But at the same time, I could not learn Sanskrit.

Photo: Jiten Bhandari, Orkut

In my opinion, I have not faced so many problems during my days in Navodaya. Food at our school was good, not like home, but overall it was good. Most of the teaching staffs ware best teachers selected from all over the India. The main problems ware related to logistics like open toilets, bathroom.

The concept of Navodaya is very nice, to raise the poor intelligent students and teach them to a certain level so that they can have a good life and contribute to the development of a nation. I personally feel that Navodaya is doing a great job but the purpose is not solved completely. It puts a poor student in the middle of the river, if you have the boat, you can reach the end, if you don’t then …, and this is the problem faced by most of my friends. Some of my friends could afford to take the IIT, PET, PMT coaching classes and got admission in engineering. Some of my friends did not had enough money that time and compromised themselves to take the admission in the local college and some did not had money at all for the further studies. Just think, one poor student selected for Navodaya gets the education till 12th and after that has no money to continue his further studies and he will also not get the job after 12th. School should either arrange further studies for such poor students or arrange some special recruitment in defense services. It would be best choice for defense to get a student who is already used to independent life from his childhood.


The number of Navodaya students selected for engineering or medical are comparatively less, its not because students are poor in studies, it’s only because absence guided preparation. School should arrange some two months courses, after 12th exam, for the preparation of such examinations. Special Career oriented short courses should be offered.

In my school, boys and girls were discriminated; they were not allowed to do many things. I strongly suggest removing this difference. They should be discriminated up to a certain extent. After joining my university, I really had troubles speaking with other girls, at the same time other boys were talking very frankly. It took almost 3 years for me to come out of this problem.

Navodaya is not a good place for very poor students or for very rich students; it’s a best place for the intelligent student, who belongs to middles class family who can continue their further studies. I belonged to lower middle class family, it would be impossible for my father to afford me the class of education that I received from Navodaya.

I still dream sometimes that we had been called again to study in Navodaya and we are studying. When I go in my childhood days, I miss my life of Navodaya, where I had more freedom within the campus. I would like to acknowledge all of the teachers and friends for whom I have lot of respect and love.

I can conclude that I learnt many things from my school which makes me different among others in the way I approach the life but still I do not know what I could have learnt without it.