06 December,2016 05:10 PM IST | | Aparna Shukla
As politicos and school management cope with loss in their own way, parents question need to inconvenience students
A Dharavi resident reads about Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's death in a newspaper this morning
The death of AIADMK leader, J Jayalalithaa, late Monday night plunged Dharavi, largely comprising the Tamil community, into mourning. Tamil-medium schools in the locality were shut on Tuesday in tribute.
KS Somasundaram, Maharashtra State AIADMK party secretary with a poster of the late leader at the party's Dharavi office
Explaining the need to shut his school, Michael Raj, principal of Kamarajar Memorial High School and Junior College in Dharavi, said, "It's a very sad day for all of us. To pay our respects to the great leader, we decided not to run school today. I decided to keep it shut as soon as I heard of her passing.
Kamarajar Memorial English High School and Junior College in Dharavi announced a holiday as a mark of respect. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar
The decision to shut school for the day, however, didn't go down well with a number of parents. Nambi Raja, parent of a student from the school, said, "We migrated here for survival; nothing else. We love and respect her a lot. She was a magnificent women. But, why should schools be shut in tribute?"
S Somasundaram, chief of AIADMK's Mumbai unit who planned to set off for Chennai later, said a memorial was to be organised later in the day at the party office in the area. "We are going to organise a ceremony followed by a prayer. She was such a great leader," he said.
