ABSTRACT
“Miss, please don’t leave. Promise that you will come back soon,” a little girl, barely 6 or 7 years of age, whom I will call Meena (to protect her identity), said as she clung to me. Her frail hands cradling my neck, she refused to let go of me. It was the last day of my stay in India, and I had come to say good-bye to the girls of the Rainbow program at Loreto Day School, Sealdah, my alma mater. Established in the same year as the Sepoy Mutiny, since 1857, this Irish missionary school and the Loreto order has pioneered an education for girls that served as an epitome of India’s secular appeal, bridging cultures. This was the school where our close friends were of many faiths – Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, Parsi, and Hindu. This was the school where we celebrated each other’s festivals, foods, and heritage.
