Picture this: Flooded Assam school’s teachers, students salute tricolour

Large parts of Assam have been inundated for weeks from heavy monsoon rains that also swelled rivers

Surrounded in waist-deep waters but with an unwavering gaze at the national flag, four teachers and two students of a school in flood-hit Dhubri district of Assam made sure the Tricolour was hoisted and the Jana Gana Mana sung to celebrate India’s 71st Independence Day.

Four teachers and two students assemble to mark Independence Day in Naskara Lower Primary School in Dhuburi, Assam on August 15. (Joydev Roy)

Large parts of Assam have been inundated for weeks from heavy monsoon rains that also swelled rivers. The Naskara Lower Primary School, where the six gathered to celebrate India’s freedom, has been in submerged since August 13.

Photo by: Joydev Roy

The six were the school’s head teacher Tazem Sikder, his colleagues Nripen Rabha, Joydev Roy, and Mizanur Rahman, and Class 3 students Jiarul Ali Khan and Haidor Ali Khan.

Photo by: Joydev Roy

“Yesterday in a meeting, we four teachers decided to organise the programme,” said Rahman, an assistant teacher at the school.

“We couldn’t do much due to the flooding. We sang the national anthem and Vande Mataram. Since, small children can’t be in water for long, we dispersed the assembly early,” Rahman said.