Dear Friends,
It is indeed a source of comfort and encouragement to know that there are old students of the college in different parts of the world, who keep following up the developments in the college, and are happy to give feedback and support for our continued work in the same place that they were years or decades ago. It is indeed gladdening to read the comments, and reports from different parts of the world and to get to know what you – the alumni – are doing now.
In fact, in some sense, the place and the ambience remains the same, though materially some additions and subtractions have happened and the nature of activities have undergone a change, despite the persons – both faculty and students keep changing. What everyone, Salesians, or former Salesians, who have been through the earlier years of the student in house training recall fondly is the intensity of the life lived, experiences garnered and skills acquired in the process of technically achieving a Bachelor’s degree and/or Philosophy Certificate.
As life rolls on for each one, in different countries, contexts, and circumstances, it is indeed an ennobling factor to note the recurrence of that part of ‘life together as batch mates or classmates’ at Salesian College Sonada or Siliguri as having had an indelible impact, especially when it comes to the search for meaning and purpose in what we do. Those years, whether recent or past, act as a touchstone to the values you valued and the ‘rectitude’ you sought after.
I guess this continued search for the norm of valuation of the ideal, the perfect, the better, the good, the wholesome act in each and every stage of life and when it comes especially to passing on to children or students of a new generation, it matters much to say there is something of an ‘ideal attempt at living fully’ that one can look back and cherish. Our concern and constant struggle is, of course, is to retain and remodel the possibility of such a wholesome experience being offered again in its total sense to new generations of students, brothers
and sisters who come into the college year after year.
With Best Wishes,
Fr George Thadathil sdb
Principal, Salesian College
