LUCKNOW, India // The first day for any new pupil can be an overwhelming experience - so imagine arriving as one of 40,000 pupils at the world's biggest school.
The latest edition of Guinness World Records awards the title to the City Montessori School in Lucknow with 39,437 registered pupils in the 2010-2011 academic year.
The school says enrolment numbers have already risen above 45,000, with 2,500 teachers, 3,700 computers, 1,000 classrooms - and one of the hardest first-XI cricket teams to break into.
CMS, as it is known, was opened by Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti in 1959 with a loan of 300 rupees (Dh12) and just five pupils.
Today it sprawls over 20 sites in the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, and is as famous for its exam results and international exchange programmes as for its scale.
"The phenomenal growth of our school is a reflection of our efforts to please our parents with our service to their children," said Gandhi, who is still involved in the school's management at the age of 75.
"Our students have exceptional academic results each year and outstanding global exposure. This Guinness record is heartening but it's not just about size," he said.
The pupils, who are aged between three and 17, all wear uniforms and each class has about 45 members.
But the whole school never gathers for assembly as there is nowhere big enough to hold them all.
CMS, which has no government funding, charges 1,000 rupees a month in fees for younger pupils, rising to 2,500 a month for seniors.
"In such a large school, there are many advantages, one being you get to make a lot of friends across the many sites that we have," said Ritika Ghosh, 14.
"But as the school is so huge it takes a lot of effort to get noticed.
"There are certainly more challenges and competitions, which in the end prepares us for real life."
Fellow pupil Tanmay Tiwari, 16, credits the size of the school for making him more outgoing. "I used to be very shy but the school has given me that confidence," he said. "Now I am in the college team, debating in national competitions."
The school's size is matched only by its idealism, with pupils taught a philosophy of universal peace and globalism under the motto "Jai Jagat" (Victory be to the World).
With pupils under fierce pressure to get good exam results, sport is not always a top priority, but cricket coach Raju Singh Chauhan says selecting a team is still tricky.
"To fish out sports talent in the 45,000-plus students can be a huge problem," he said.
"For this reason we hold inter-branch competitions to dig out the best children and then eventually we get our best XI."
CMS first held the title of the world's biggest school in 2005, when it had 29,212 pupils, beating the previous record holder, the Rizal High School in Manila, Philippines, which had 19,738 pupils.
Alumni include Ushhan Gundevia, an executive banker at Goldman Sachs, and Prakash Gupta, a senior United Nations diplomat in New York, as well as Harvard scholars and several leading surgeons and scientists.
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Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
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Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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