Thank you Frank Anthony ! You made us Proud!

Yesterday was a special day for Nithya and me.
We were invited to Akhil's school-The Frank Anthony Public School here at Bangalore for their 43rd Speech Day. What made this evening special, was the school's announcement, that they have instituted an award in Akhil's memory!

Here are details of the award that has been instituted:

The Akhil Uday Award for Inspiring Effort

Akhil did all his schooling from nursery to the 10th in one school-The Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore. Akhil was a student of Frank Anthony's from kindergarten (1990) to Std.10 (2002). After graduating in Bachelor’s in Business Management, he was working for an investment banking company in Bangalore and was looking at building a career in the financial industry .

As many of us know, there was a major fire on 23rd Feb. 2010 at Bangalore’s Carlton Towers. Akhil perished in it and his promising young life was sadly cut short.

It is understood from media reports and the Fire Service that the first call for help they received, was made by Akhil. Although the fire and smoke had been raging for a while, no one from the other floors, or even from the street, seemingly, had taken the initiative to call the fire service for help. Being on a high floor it took some time for Akhil and his colleagues to become aware of the crisis they were in, but Akhil’s first act was to call the fire brigade. This act, we understand, helped save many lives, but not his own.

The spirit
This initiative and spirit, to make an effort, for not just one self, epitomizes Akhil’s values and way of life. It is to respect this spirit and keep it alive among the students of The Frank Anthony Public School that his school has instituted an annual award at his school. Our hope is that this award would inspire young children, to develop the habit of taking the initiative to help others and make a difference to society. The hope is that what begins, as an award will become their lifetime habit.

The award
It is proposed that an annual award, be given to a student who takes one’s own initiative by performing a specific act that makes a difference to their class/school/community or society at large. The initiative could be in any area of their choice or circumstance.Some possible examples of actions by the child could be that of helping a poor child with tuitions, helping keep the neighborhood clean, educating people with respect to what they are to do during the occurrence of a natural/man-made calamity or incident. Action could be taken in various other relevant fields that would help inspire and motivate other students to take an initiative as well and bring about a change.The key element would be self initiated action taken by student and not at the behest of teacher/parent/school.

The award would be given out at the school annual day every year. It would be a rolling trophy and a citation given to the student to keep.

So just over a year later, we feel this is one more way, of keeping Akhil in our midst and bringing to life his values!The school is remarkable in respecting its old students who have done something outstanding, like Major Unnikrishnan who gave his life up in the Mumbai attacks!

Thank you Frank Anthony! You made us proud!