Salutatorian address - Anchal Lochan

My first experience of Woodstock was when I was interviewed by Mr. Cooke as a prospective student. As I walked into his office and sat down, the second question he asked me was how many cigarettes I smoked in a day. Now, for an introduction to a school, this experience was very plainly weird. But Woodstock goes a long way beyond disciplinary action and correction. Once I got here I felt as if I had opened a packet of Harry Potter's "Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans". People came from a myriad of different cultures and backgrounds. And yet, there was something very distinctly "Woodstock" about them.

I think it's impossible to describe in words the feeling of being a Woodstocker. But I guess for starters I would say Woodstock has its own culture, partly hippy, partly cosmopolitan and partly just Mussoorie. A typical Sunday morning will be a hearty breakfast of pancakes and wai wai with cheese at Char Dukan with, if nothing else, the pretense of going to church. Often Woodstock students are called "cross-culture kids", but I think that, more than anything else, they are part of the Woodstock culture. But this is not to say that the community is homogeneous. Just as in a packet of the magical beans one comes across ear wax and pepper flavours, in the R '08 bag we have the likes of Neethan gonho. No two people are even closely similar, and yet they are all part of the bigger whole that is Woodstock. This unique sense of solidarity in the midst of diversity is my interpretation of Woodstock.

I think that another thing about Woodstock that has had a great impact on me is how, right from the day I arrived here, I was made to feel at home - including the interview. There was a genuine warmth that radiated from the surroundings and the people that greeted me. From countless hot chocolates and chai at dorm parents' apartments to dinners at various teachers' homes, food has been a medium for everything from academic discussions to sentimental confessions. On my blue days, people I had only exchanged a smile in the hall with came and asked me what was wrong, and I think the sense of care is what I depart from Woodstock with.

Today, on the day of our graduation, I would request all members of our class to ponder upon the journey up to this point, and not so much the fact that it is the end. Having gone through the process myself - and, I must mention, with a lot of support from my father - I want us to understand that it isn't important whether or not we go to the best institution in the world, or get the highest SAT scores; it really is about understanding the significance of the changes we undergo as individuals - the independent samsara that moulds all of us. On behalf of the graduating class of 2008, I request all members of this congregation to appreciate us for what we are really about - an ever-changing entity, Renaissance.