Terrorists silence Oshwal Academy

By LILLIAN ALUANGA-DELVAUX

“I don’t know how to close their files”. That statement mirrors the anguish of Dr Geetika Saxena, head of Oshwal Academy, Junior High, Nairobi, a school plunged into mourning following last week’s terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall.

The ‘files Saxena is referring to belong to three students killed last Saturday when between 10 to 15 attackers shot their way into the upmarket mall, spraying bullets at terrified and unarmed shoppers in a bloodbath that numbed the nation and shocked the world.

When the guns finally went silent, over 60 people, among them three students from the school, lay dead.

Another three students, still nursing bullet wounds, were among the 175 people injured, while dozens more know a friend, neighbour or relative that was either killed, injured or evacuated from the mall during the attack.

At the academy’s Senior School deputy headgirl Sonali Shah is mourning the death of her father, Anuj Shah. The proprietor of a photo studio at the mall was killed in the raid.

Gruesome

It’s a hot afternoon and Saxena has just returned to her office after attending the funeral of one student. She flips through the pages of the student’s file then gingerly lays it aside, as if hoping to pick it up again and write something in it.

But she too knows the gruesome events at the mall permanently closed the files of promising students that had much to live for.

Among those killed in the Westgate attack were Pramsu Jain, Pavraj Singh Ghataurhae and Neha Mashru, described in glowing terms by the school head as lively, sociable, and exemplary students.

Says Saxena of nine-year-old Jain, who was shot in the head at point blank range, by the assailants,” he was such a sweet boy and had this bright eyes that just lit up when he smiled.”

Jain, whose father is an employee of the Bank of Baroda, had only been at the school for about two and-a-half months.

She recalls her first meeting with Jain when he came into her office with his parents seeking admission in the academy’s primary campus. Saxena smiles as she remembers how the boy sat behind her immaculately polished desk and tinkered with a knob in one corner of the table. “He just kept pressing it,” Dr Saxena says.

Jain had accompanied his mother to watch his elder sister participate in a children’s cooking competition at the mall.

His sister, Poorvi Jain, was among the school’s three students that escaped with gunshot wounds. Their mother was also shot in the hand.

It is believed, a sports day for the primary campus, that was being held on the fateful day saved many parents and children from going to the mall.

“Some parents had planned to drop by the mall after the event to get something to eat,” says Saxena.

Those plans were, however, quickly shelved as news of the attack began filtering out.

As Jain’s remains were flown to India, those of Pavraj were accorded final rites at the Hindu crematorium in Kariakor, with his favourite hockey stick placed by his side.

The school head fondly refers to the 16-year-old also known as ‘Pablo’ as ‘my hockey player’, and confesses how she found it hard to scold him even when he erred.

“He would just flash this smile. He was a friendly boy and popular among fellow students,” she says.

Saxena says she would sometimes open the window to her office, located on a lower level adjacent to Pavraj’s class and see him standing outside.

Refused to leave

“He would smile and then say ‘am not causing any trouble miss, just taking in some fresh air before going back to class,” she says, of the selfless student who refused to leave his grandmother’s side even though he had the chance to run out of the Mall.

Pavraj was at the mall with his grandmother, Mrs Dalvinder Kaur, to offer some moral support to his cousin, Sihra Kaur, (another one of the three girls that were shot but survived) in a cooking competition when the terrorists struck.

Since his grandmother couldn’t run when the bullets started flying, Pavraj chose to stay by her side.  Both were shot dead.

“Although he is gone we are all proud of him for what he did,” says Saxena as she stares at Pavraj’s school leaving certificate which she had signed shortly before the attack.

Pavraj had just moved to the Academy’s Senior school after graduating from Junior High.

In the certificate he is described as a sociable student who mixed well with his peers as well as a basketball and hockey player who turned out for the school team.

As Pavraj made his mark in the field, Neha Mashru, the first born in her family, was setting an example among her peers in leadership and community service, landing a presidential award she was expected to receive in October, next month.

“She was a school prefect and very outgoing. She was also an active member of the President’s Award club. We were excited when we got a call from the director of the programme telling us Neha would be getting the golden award,” says the school head, of a student she also describes as a good artist and creative writer. The Presidential Award Scheme is a youth empowerment programme that provides a challenging programme of practical, cultural and adventurous activities with a focus on the personal and social development of youth aged between 14 and 25 years.

Saxena also talks of Neha’s excitement when she qualified for the finals of the cooking competition, just a week prior to her death.

The Year Eleven student was also preparing for her International General Certificate of Secondary Education exams and her teachers were expecting good grades.

Saxena stares at a photo of the smiling girl and pauses for a moment but meets nothing more than the stony silence of the walls.

Although it’s a weekday, the school is eerily quiet, a situation that is likely to change as it stirs back to life with the resumption of classes later in the week.

Memorial service

“We closed for a few days because of what was happening at Westgate,” says Saxena, of the school located along First Parklands Avenue.

The volley of shots and explosions that sometimes rent the air, as armed forces engaged the attackers holed up in the mall, as well as a heavy security presence in the environs where many students live, made the atmosphere anything but conducive for learning.

But even as the students returned to school, Saxena knew what could potentially be a long healing process was only just beginning.

“We have talked to the teaching staff. We have a school counsellor and may also get additional help. We are also planning to have a memorial service where students can bring flowers and light candles in memory of those killed in the attack,” she says.