How does one put into a few hundred words the commitment of a lifetime?A commitment that included integrity of purpose, straightness of vision and the complete willingness to preserve the atmosphere of a School that was the dream of her predecessor and guide.

Miss Srivastava, or Sas, as we all called her with affection and humour, may have been little in stature, but she was never ‘little’ in the way she thought or acted. I certainly don’t think any of us ever thought of her as small. There was an inherent dignity in the way she carried herself and her steely will was very evident when she dealt with the less promising of us!

Even back then, as little girls in school, who never really thought too deeply on the meaning of life or the manner of commitments, it was very evident to us that Sas had a ‘thing’ for Welham! It was her life-blood, & we were the extensions of her hopes & dreams for the future.

“Any head of School worth his or her salt must have some dream to fulfill in her role. If a head thinks that her task is to get children to pass examinations, her vision is far too narrow and limited. Children at school age are in their most malleable years and the success of a school lies in the kid of future citizens it produces. Men and women of integrity, who will be the future leaders of the country.”

She believed firmly in the formation of ‘character’ and her life was devoted to helping bring out the best in us. Sometimes the lectures wearied us and we fidgeted and whispered, but most of us retained somewhere within us, the basics of what we learnt under her guidance.

One of Saz’s most endearing characteristics, remembered laughingly by generations of Welhamites who studied with her, was her ability to start weeping in the midst of Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, or a particularly pathetic chapter of History. Her voice would wobble, the lump in her throat would become evident and her head with its’ characteristic neat knot would nod a little. Awful as we were, we’d wait for her to actually start crying, but then someone would giggle and Sas would be back to normal in a jiffy with a sharp reprimand that quieted and often even managed to shame, the irrepressible creatures that we were.

We learned much from Saz’s simplicity, her loyalty and her complete selflessness. Over the years, even though she had retired as Head of School, she remained passionately involved with all of us. Meeting Exies with overwhelming affection, delighting in our successes much the same way a parent would, encouraging those of us who went to her with our problems and always giving us that much needed pat on the back if we returned to School with laurels won. Her commitment to Welhamites, present or Ex, was the most wonderfully heartwarming quality; one that will be deeply missed now that she is no longer with us.

Most of us were lucky to have met her during the Golden Jubilee. She was frail then, but never without her glowing smile or the joy that she exuded on meeting her flock. Tired though she must have been, she met each one of us, chatted, praised, scolded or questioned with the same intensity that she always had.

We all feel in our hearts that Sas willed herself to live to see her School reach it’s fifty years of glory – and she can be justly proud of the Welhamites it has nurtured.

She went quietly and with the dignity that was so much a part of who she was …but her spirit will always stand watch over the School that was her life and gently continue to guide it and its girls, even as she did when alive.