PANAJI
Budgets in tens of millions may be spared and spent year after year to promote Goa as a tourist destination but none of it will match the positive publicity from an impromptu send-off to a to-retire colleague while on a Christmas vacation tour by a group of teachers hailing ironically from Kerala which competes with Goa, ferociously for the tourism pie.
The teachers of the Government Higher Secondary School, Chengamanad, which is on the outskirts of Kochi city, staged the unique send-off for Susheeladevi P, a mathematics teacher, on a South Goa beach. The whole episode shot on a smart-phone and eventually posted on social media has gone viral among teachers' groups in Kerala on messaging app Whatsapp and other social media platforms.
The story of the viral video has caught the attention of mainstream media platforms and The Hindu picked up the story.
"We were on a two-day staff tour to Goa and I had no clue about the surprise in store. We were at a beach when they suddenly put a crown on my head and slung a sash-like band with the words ‘Retire to be,” The Hindu quoted Susheeladevi, set to retire this May (2024) after 30 years on the school's staff roster.
It was the idea of another staffer of the school, Lalimol Gregory, when the Goa trip was planned back in October last year -- an impromptu send-off for Susheeladevi.
Gregory had the crown and the sash made of chart paper ready on the day before the trip and secretly shared the idea with some other teachers so they play along if and when the moment came, The Hindu reported.
On the day, after struggling to find an appropriate location and setting, Gregory found the opportune moment, at a beach in South Goa.
"Somehow, there was an elevated seat and a walkway of sorts flanked by casuarina trees, making the perfect setting,” Ms Gregory was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
The botany teacher of the school, Suresh Kumar K K, a regular uploader of reels on Instagram, shot the video, edited it and initially shared it only on WhatsApp since Instagram would not permit it as it breached the 90-second threshold.
The video went viral with teachers across Kerala sharing it among colleagues and it eventually got posted on social media where it went viral.
