During the half term several members of the Chigwell School community; students, staff, and parents, went to the Saccidananda Ashram (Shantivanam) in Tamil Nadu, South India, supported by the Bede Griffiths Charitable Trust. The unique experience of this trip is open to students in all ages and their parents, and they partake in activities organized by the Ashram, offering philanthropic support to the local community. The group also visited the Timothy Pruss Memorial School, also supported by the Bede Griffiths Charitable Trust, and helped teach underprivileged children in Tamil Nadu.

I sat down with Thomas, year 12, one of the students who visited the Ashram and the Timothy Pruss Memorial School. The school was founded after the death of Old Chigwellian Timothy Pruss, whose parents donated money upon his passing, in the hopes of building this school in Tamil Nadu. Timothy’s death was a dreadful accident; when he was 18, on his way home from work experience in London, he was hit by a train at Shenfield station and was instantly killed, the events that lead to this are still unexplained. His parents, grieving, remembered that Timothy had always wanted to go on the annual school trip to India where students visited the Ashram, and it was this memory that led them to donate the money to build the Timothy Pruss Memorial School.

Tom and the rest of the group stayed at the Ashram where “the style of living was very basic… a desk, a bed, and a bathroom with a shower head and flushing toilet”. The ashram they stayed at “supports the old people’s home, has founded a local crèche and provides medical assistance and basic accommodation for the poor.” The group were able to take part in the Ashram’s “way of life”, attending services in the church/temple where “their style of worship is partly Christian partly Hindu”. Tom said that after the (anticipated) initial cultural shock “the Ashram was a beautiful place to stay” and their nights there had made an impact on them all. 

In Trichy, the group attended a celebration and presentation evening where they presented the locals, a group of widows who sew, and students with awards for their resilience and achievements. During their stay the group did a lot of charity work, visiting an old people’s home to help out: “it was a bittersweet experience to see how happy the elderly people were just to receive a nice meal because it made clear how this was a rare privilege for them, even though a good quality meal is something we take for granted.” 

The group were not just in India to provide aid to those in need, but also to see the country, they visited the “beautiful local temples” in the area of Tamil Nadu. These temples are steeped in history, one of which is believed to have been constructed using the oldest rock in the world, the temples are devoted to different deities, and the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is one of the largest functional temples in the world. This temple covers a total of 156 acres and is full of tradition, the colourful architecture is an amalgamation of renovations throughout time starting from the 16th century, the most recent on having been in 1987. It is aligned with the axis of the compass and sits on an island surrounded by the holy Daksina Ganga river (the ‘Ganges of the South’). The designs of the temple follow planometric geometry as per the Tamil traditions, and the walls and inner rooms are filled with shrines dedicated to Hindu gods and commemorating the Tamil poet-saints and philosophers, known as Alvars. 

Overall the trip was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended, Tom described the experience as “both eye opening and surreal”, and that it was a trip he will remember for the rest of his life. “not many people get this experience and it made us realise how lucky we are compared to some.”