Little things you do for us

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It is rightly said that teachers play a very important role in a student’s life. They are the ones who strengthen student’s confidence and courage, and sustain their dignity to develop a personality to be loved and accepted in society. Their role in a student’s life is very crucial. We feel very fortunate to study in a school where teachers simply don’t teach, but they also empower our overall growth.
We all, personally, had a really exciting and inspiring journey with the teachers of the primary grades. We all know that in primary grades we learn the basics of every subject which help us in the higher grades. 
Once, when we were in grade 4, there was a student named Henilbhai. He was a person who had some problems in studies. Our English teacher, Renuka ma’am used to be very tolerant with his problem and used to help him overcome it. She used to take him to the sand piles outside and make him draw the alphabet “b” and “d”. Henilbhai could not understand the difference between those two alphabets. This way, she used to help him overcome his problem.
At another time, when we were to give our final maths exam of grade 7, respected Swayam ma’am, who remains extremely busy at all times as the vice principal of our school, helped us tremendously to understand the difficult concepts of maths. She sat with us for approximately 2 hours! Due to this we were able to perform our best in the exam. We are very thankful to her.
The previous year, one of our classmates was very poor in studies and also had an unruly behaviour. Our respected Saumya ma’am used to call him in his free time and inspired him to change. In this way she helped him to edify himself to become a mannered and composed individual. 
These are just three examples, but all the students of our grade have had such numerous experiences with all the teachers.
Although all our teachers are extremely knowledgeable, they came down to our level for our convenience. This is what touches us all more than anything else. We were all immensely moved by this humility of theirs. They not only taught us the subjects, but also taught us how to be bold and face the challenges of life. They made it seem as if our problems were their problems. They are always there for us. Their positive encouragement helped us to gain confidence. The knowledge they gave us not only taught us how to solve an equation, identify verbs or understanding history, but they helped us to follow the commands of Swamiji and become a true bhoolku of Swamiji. Hence make our parents proud. There are no words to express our gratitude or describe your efforts in words. All we can say is that we love you for all you have done. 
Little things you do for us
Like nobody else make us feel so good
Little things you do for us
Make us smile like no one else could
And that’s why we love you.
You heard our mad stories
With a secret or two
And all our worries
You knew they were not true
But you liked that we shared.
Little things you do for us
Like nobody else make us feel so good
Little things you do for us
Make us smile like no one else could
And that’s why we love you.
With an aim to unlock
You sat and discussed
The mind which is flocked
Developing an immense trust
Answering our curiosity and doubts
Little things you do for us
Like nobody else make us feel so good
Little things you do for us
Make us smile like no one else could
And that’s why we love you.
You showed concern for our needs
In all your deeds
Went with us on a stroll
To discuss our goal
You appreciated our every little effort
Little things you do for us
Like nobody else make us feel so good
Little things you do for us
Make us smile like no one else could
And that’s why we love you.
J Happy Teacher’s Day!!!   J
Smit K Patel, Vinamra Patel, Yathansh Joshi (Std 8)

Leading us from darkness towards light…

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Teaching is a unique profession in which the teachers work not for themselves but they selflessly devote themselves for the betterment of their students. Teachers create the future of mankind by imparting knowledge to the next generation. They nurture students, care for them and help them to live a happy life and create a bright future for themselves. Teachers are only concerned with the improvement of their students and do not work for monetary benefits.

Though there are many teachers around the world who impart high quality education, but, all of us are impossibly fortunate to have a very different calibre of teachers who not only impart education but instigate a fire of doing good for the society and making a contribution for everyone’s betterment. This is the wonderful concept of “Atmiyata” that we are being exposed to in this school. All the morals and values that we learn in this school are the things that actually matter more in our lives. There are many people who are much smarter than we are but the advantage that we have over all of them is that we have such a great environment and such great teachers around us.

All the actions that we perform in this school, all the activities that we do, all of them have two aspects. One is the learning aspect of discovering new things and improving our knowledge. But more importantly, the other part of all the activities is the spiritual aspect. Teachers here teach us to see only positive in all the things and imbibe all positive values from others in our lives which helps us to strengthen our character. These are the kind of things that we learn in the course of all the activities we do. This is the “divine touch” which is the hallmark of our school. But, all of this is only possible due to the grace of our guru, Param Pujya Swamiji. Swamiji is our ultimate teacher. With Swamiji’s divine grace and our teachers’ help, we can very well progress further in our most important journey:

असतो मा सद्गमय।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय।

The journey from ignorance towards truth, from darkness towards light and from mortality towards liberation.

If only we observe His life and His actions, it has the power to completely transform our lives!

All of the teachers of our school are there for us at any time of the day and are ever ready to help us in every situation of life. They don’t merely teach us, “they inspire”. They are not just our academic guides, they are our “portraits of inspiration”. They not only teach all the students but they see god in all the students and never fail to help any of them.

Although on the occasion of Teachers’ Day there is a lot of pomp and show but without understanding the actual meaning of Teachers’ Day, all of this celebration will go in vain. There are some situations when we hesitate in following our teachers. Though we may physically accept what they say, somewhere in the corner of our mind, we are uncertain about their decision. So the real celebration of Teachers’ Day will be to surrender to our teachers and accept their decisions completely and follow all their instructions to the dot. We must never distrust their decisions because they are wise, experienced as well as decisive. Thus they will always make a decision for our advantage. This day of Teachers’ Day will come each year but what is important is that we take the message.

Because the message is much more important than the celebration.

 
Sachin Verlekar (11 Science)
Head Boy

એક મંગલ અવસર: જન્માષ્ટમી

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નંદ ઘેર આનંદ ભયો, જય કનૈયા લાલકી;
હાથી ઘોડા પાલખી, જય કનૈયા લાલકી.

જન્માષ્ટમી આપણો ધાર્મિક તહેવાર છે.

જન્માષ્ટમી એટલે ભગવાન શ્રીકૃષ્ણનો જન્મદિવસ. તેમનો જન્મ શ્રાવણ વદ આઠમની રાત્રે મથુરાની જેલમાં થયો હતો. તેમના પિતાનું નામ વસુદેવ અને માતાનું નામ દેવકી. ‘દેવકીનું આઠમું સંતાન કંસનો નાશ કરશે’ એ ભવિષ્યવાણીથી ગભરાઈને કંસે વસુદેવ અને દેવકીને જેલમાં પૂર્યાં હતાં. મધરાતે શ્રીકૃષ્ણનો જન્મ થયો, પછી વસુદેવ શ્રીકૃષ્ણને કંસના અત્યાચારથી બચાવવા માટે ગોકુળમાં નંદરાજાને ઘેર મૂકી આવ્યા તથા જશોદાની દીકરીને પોતાની સાથે લઈ આવ્યા અને શ્રીકૃષ્ણ ભગવાનનો જન્મ ગોકુળમાં જાહેર થયો. તેથી શ્રીકૃષ્ણના જન્મદિવસને ‘ગોકુળઅષ્ટમી’ પણ કહે છે.

આ વર્ષે આત્મીય વિદ્યા મંદિરમાં જન્માષ્ટમીનો તહેવાર ખૂબ ધામધૂમથી ઊજવવામાં આવ્યો. કૃષ્ણ ભગવાનના અત્યંત પવિત્ર જન્મદિન નિમિત્તે તેમના અગણિત ગુણોને યાદ કરીને, પર્વને આનંદથી ઊજવવા માટે રાત્રે 8:30 થી 10:00 વાગ્યા સુધી ભજન સંધ્યાનું આયોજન કરવામાં આવ્યું. તેમાં નાના નાના ભૂલકાંઓએ ઉલ્લાસમય સ્વરે ભગવાન શ્રીકૃષ્ણની બાળલીલા ગાઈ હતી. ત્યારબાદ પંજરીનો પ્રસાદ વહેંચવામાં આવ્યો હતો.

બીજા દિવસે સાંજના 4:00 થી 6:30 વાગ્યા સુધી ફૂટબોલ ગ્રાઉન્ડ ઉપર મટકીફોડના કાર્યક્રમનું આયોજન કરવામાં આવ્યું. કાર્યક્રમની શરૂઆત મુખ્ય મહેમાન હરેશ સર, વિજયસર, આશિષ સર તથા અર્જુનમામા દ્નારા ઠાકોરજીના પૂજનવિધિથી થઈ. ત્યારબાદ દહીં , માખણ , મધ તથા ચોકલેટથી ભરેલી મટકી ફોડવાનો કાર્યક્રમ જય રણછોડ માખણ ચોર, નંદ ઘેર આનંદ ભયો, જય કનૈયા લાલકી ના નારાથી શરૂ થયો. જેમાં પ્રથમ મટકી ધોરણ – 1st, 2nd, 3rd ; બીજી મટકી ધોરણ – 4th, 5th, 6th ; ત્રીજી મટકી ધોરણ – 7th, 8th, 9th તથા ચોથી મટકી ધોરણ – 10th, 11th, 12th ના વિદ્યાર્થીઓ દ્નારા ફોડવામાં આવી. આમ, કૃષ્ણ જન્મોત્સવ તથા મટકીફોડના કાર્યક્રમની ઉજવણી ખૂબ જ શ્રધ્ધા અને ભક્તિભાવ પૂર્વક કરવામાં આવી.

જન્માષ્ટમીનો ઉત્સવ ફક્ત વિદ્યાર્થીઓના આનંદ માટે જ નહિ, પણ તેમને ભારતીય સંસ્કૃતિનું ધાર્મિક મહત્વ બતાવવા માટે રહ્યો.

ગૌતમ સર (ગુજરાતી શિક્ષક)

Where there is Vasudev….there is Victory!

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yatra yogesvarah krsno
yatra partho dhanur-dharah
tatra srir vijayo bhrutir
dhruva nitir matir mama|

“Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjun, the supreme archer with the willingness to fight, there will also certainly be magnificence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality.”

In this fast pacing 21st century world which is chiefly swayed by association of man and machine, the epic like Mahabharat and its teachings seem utopian… But for the students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir the message of this historical epic comes more relevant and attainable. Recently Sundaram House celebrated Janmashtami week by elucidating the wisdom and teachings of Mahabharat to all the students. Sundaram House celebrated this week by putting forth the characters and happenings of Mahabharat through speeches, videos and various performances based on this great epic.

 

On Monday the students were introduced to this great Epic and explained about the early childhood and education of Pandavs and Kouravs by Guru Dronacharya. How the seed of war seeped in and how Krishna became the shanti doot ….answers of these questions were explained on Tuesday. It was followed by a simple explanation of Geeta Saar on Wednesday, it was well explicated that when Arjun denies for war saying if he wins the battle of Mahabharat, he would lose his loved ones, so with whom would he share the victory and if he loses then also the kingdom will go in wrong hands so he expresses his doubt, then Lord Krishna explains it is in our hands to perform Karma without worrying about the result as that is not in our hands, it is taken care of by God. We should simply perform our duties sincerely but not out of greed for the outcome.
Moreover, on Thursday and Friday, students were introduced to Bhishma and Karna. Students were also well informed about Krishna’s advice to keep a balance in all our activities and maintain emotional stability. In addition to this, there was a grand creative assembly on Saturday, in which the most relevant essence of Mahabharat was conveyed through a drama performance by students of Sundaram House: “मांगे तो क्या मांगे प्रभु से “.

The character portrayal of Krishna, Arjun, Duryodhan, Jaydrath, Shakuni and Dushasan in the drama brings home the message that intellect and knowledge are always outshined by faith and devotion to God. In today’s world, we are like Arjun in our daily war with our senses and mind, which try to pull us away from our goal and in order to emerge as a winner in this war with negative forces; we need to have Krishna by our side, the charioteer who guides us to the right path. The key message of this creative assembly was that we can ascertain our victory if we ask just for God Himself by our side, in all our endeavours. The best part of this creative assembly was a gentle reminder of the beautiful fact that we all AVM members (like Arjun) are fortunate enough to have Swamiji (who is our Krishna) in our life, His constant visits to the campus clear all clouds of doubt…. enlightening us to follow the right path.

हिन्दी पठन-कौशल का विकास

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(कक्षा 9
में पठन कार्यक्रम का आयोजन )
आज के प्रतियोगिताओं से भरे संसार में अनवरत प्रगति करनी हो तो ज्ञान परमावश्यक हैं। और ज्ञान के विकास के लिए पठन-शैली में उत्कृष्टता हो अनिवार्य है। बच्चों का पठन शुद्ध उच्चारणयुक्त होगा तो पठनीय
सामग्री बुद्धि ग्राह्य बनेगी।

इसी
उद्देश्य की पूर्ति हेतु दिनांक 26, जून 2013 को हिन्दी विषय के अंतर्गत कक्षा 9 में पठन कार्यक्रम का आयोजन किया गया था। हिन्दी शिक्षक मुकेशभाई जोशी के मार्गदर्शन में ये आयोजन किया गया, जिसमें विद्यार्थियों ने पठन शैली का विकास, शुद्ध
उच्चारण, ‘र’ के विभिन्न उपयोगादि का अभ्यास किया।
हिन्दी शिक्षक मुकेशभाई जोशी

हिन्दी में नाट्य द्वारा अभिव्यक्ति क्षमता का विकास

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विषय- ‘गिल्लू’
पाठ के आधार पर नाट्य द्वारा पशु-प्रेम की अभिव्यक्ति करनी।
आज समाज
में मनुष्य-मनुष्य के बीच आत्मीयता का अभाव आ रहा है तो पशु-प्रेम की
गुँजाईस कहाँ है ! ऐसे अवसर पर बच्चों का न सिर्फ मनुष्यता का विकास
हो बल्कि प्राणी-जगत के प्रति भी सहानुभूति का संचार हो यह आवश्यक हैं।
इस विषय पर
वज़न देते हुए दिनांक 27 से 29, जून 2013 को हिन्दी विषय के अंतर्गत हिन्दी शिक्षक मुकेशभाई जोशी के मार्गदर्शन में कक्षा 9 में नाट्या का आयोजन किया गया था। जिसमें विद्यार्थियों ने सहर्ष हिस्सा
लेकर इस कार्यक्रम का आनंद लिया।

वर्ग के
सभी बच्चों को चार जुथ में विभाजित किया गया। हर जुथ ने अपना पशु-प्रेम एवं नाटकीय गुणों को एवं अपने हाव-भाव को स्वयं
को मिले पात्र द्वारा निरूपणकर स्वतंत्र
भावाभिव्यक्ति की।
हिन्दी शिक्षक मुकेशभाई जोशी

AVM TT Champs Winning in Style!

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Continuing with the rich tradition of Atmiya Vidya Mandir in sports and in particular table tennis, the new breed of students sweep the District Level Table Tennis competition in all three categories. Beating the competition from 7 other schools in the district, AVM boys dominated U-14, U-17 and U-19 categories under the guidance of respected Devang Sir, and stamp their authority in the region.

Out of the 11 students participated, 10 got selected to play for the district in the state level competition. 

Here is the list of students who made AVM proud. Congratulations to all of them.

(To view the following more carefully, please right click and open in new tab)

The Immortal Characters of Ramayan

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Ramayan is the epic which has mingled with our conscience because of the ideas and values the characters have exhibited through their life. Ramayan pictures the whole gamut of life of an individual in various aspects. It was a privilege for the members of Shivam house to commemorate, understand and learn to apply the teachings of this wonderful epic in our life.
It is rightly said that, “Men may come and men may go, but the virtues they exhibit in their life remain with us forever.” For example,  Hanumanji is known for his immense faith in Lord Ram and humility in all his actions. Lakshmanji is known for his extreme love for Lord Ram and the service with devotion which he offered to Lord Ram. Kaushaliya and Sitaji are known for their selfless love and sacrifices they offered to Lord Ram. Shabriji is known for her faith in her Guru Matang and devotion for Lord Ram. Vibhishan is known for his unshakable faith in Lord Ram and unwavering positive attitude. Manthara and Kaikai are symbols of jealousy, greed and fickle mind. Ravan, as we know is a symbol of lust, anger, ego, greed and other negative qualities. Lord Ram through his life has set examples of highest degree in various roles as son, brother, student, husband, friend, master, teacher and so on… These virtues that they exhibited in their life have made them immortal. 
Throughout the week Shivam House explained the significance of each of the above characters through videos and thoughtful speeches. Characters of various personalities like devotion of Shabri, faith, service, devotion and humbleness of Hanumanji, unshakable faith and unwavering positive attitude of Vibhishanji, faith of Angad were explained. A comparison between Kaushaliya’s character and Kaikai’s charater was beautifully portrayed through videos and speech. 
The last day of the week, Saturday, was creative assembly. In this assembly, a Hindi Drama “Jaisa Sang Vaisa Rang”, was presented. Entire drama comprised of 40 students from standards 6 to standard 10. This assembly was graced by the presence of P. Kothari Swamiji. The assembly began by welcoming him and doing his Poojan. Thereafter the first part of the drama began with Tulsidasji singing hymns in praise of Lord Ram. Pleased with his devotion, Valmikiji himself from the divine abode of God descends on earth to do his Darshan. Upon request from Tulsidasji, Valmiki narrates an anecdote of Lord Ram’s life. When lord Ram was sent to exile, Bharat along with all his ministers and people of kingdom goes to bring Lord Ram home. This anecdote was mesmerizingly dramatized. Lord Ram’s adherence to follow their father’s commands and Bharat’s unselfish love was portrayed in this drama. Lord Ram’s duties as an ideal child and as an ideal brother were put forth.

In the second part of Drama, Lakshmanji’s focus, ardent service and devotion towards Lord Ram and Sitaji was portrayed. On the contrary, negative influence of the touch of Ravan’s throne on Lakshmanji was also portrayed. 

Through these anecdotes it was explained that Lakshmanji who was in company of Lord Ram for 14 years of exile, who served Lord Ram with utmost faith and devotion, who had conquered sleep, and who had conquered all the desires of senses was also affected by the negative vibrations of Ravan’s throne. Negative company whether in form of touch, words, friendship, sight or any other form can disrupt our focus, hinder us from performing our duties with dedication and leads to our moral demise. So, we must be very careful in choosing our company. 
There is a famous saying which goes like this
“Jitne Taare Gagan Main Utne Dushman Hoi, Krupa Ho Sri Ram Ki Baal Na Baka Hoi…” But, to achieve such a shield from all the negative influences and experience the grace of God in life, we must all have complete faith in God, follow his commands with devotion and perform all our duties with utmost sincerity.
By members of Shivam House.

हिन्दी-गुजराती भाषांतरण प्रतियोगिता

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आज का युग विद्यार्थियों का तेज़ दिमाग,प्रतिभावान के साथ-साथ बहुभाषी होना अति आवश्यक है। और जबकी हम भारत के एक बहुधार्मिक एवं बहुभाषी राज्य मे रहते है जहां हिन्दी हमारी राष्ट्र भाषा एवं गुजराती हमारी मातृभाषा है तो यह आवश्यक हैं कि हिन्दी तथापि गुजराती दोनों ही भाषाओं पर प्रभुत्व हों।
इसी उद्देश्य को ध्यान में रखते हुए दिनांक 03 अगस्त, 2013 को कक्षा 9 एवं कक्षा 10 में हिन्दी- गुजराती भाषांतरण प्रतिहयोगिता का आयोजन हिन्दी शिक्षक श्री मुकेशभाई जोशी एवं गुजराती शिक्षिका रेखाबहन के मार्गदर्शन में किया गया था।
जिसमें—
* कक्षा 9 एवं 10 के गुजराती विषय पसंद करने वालें छात्रों को हिन्दी के दस सुवाक्य-सूत्र दिए गए, उन्हों ने उन हिन्दी के सुविचार युक्त सुत्रों का गजराती में भाषांतरण किया।
* कक्षा 9 एवं 10 के हिन्दी विषय पसंद करने वालें छात्रों को गुजराती के दस सुवाक्य सूत्र दिए गए, उन्हों ने उन गुरजराती के सुविचार युक्त सुत्रों का हिन्दी में भाषांतरण किया।
वर्ग के सभी छात्रों को चार भागों (सत्यम् हाउस, शिवम् हाउस, सुदरम् हाउस, एवं सुह्रदम् हाउस ) में विभाजित किया गया। चारों जूथ को दस-दस सुविचार युक्त सुत्र दिए गए तथापि 20 मिनट की समयावधि दी गई। छात्रों ने दी गई समय मर्यादा में उन सुविचार युक्त सुत्रों का भाषांतरण किया। तत्पश्चात् हर जूथ में से एक छात्र ने मंच पर आकर उन भाषांतरण किए हुए वाक्यों का उचित उच्चारण में पठन किया।
प्रतियोगिता बहुत रसप्रद रही। छात्रों में उत्साह देखते ही बनता था।
वर्ग के सभी छात्रों ने सोत्साह भाग लिया।
प्रतियोगिता के अंत में छात्रों ने प्रतिपुष्टि (feedback) मे बताया की यह प्रतियोगिता बहुत मज़ेदार रही। ऐसी प्रतियोगिताएं हमारा उत्साह बंढ़ाती है तथा हमारा आत्मविश्वास दृढ़ करती है
इस हिन्दी-गुजराती भाषांतरण का परिणाम इस प्रकार है—-
— हिन्दी भाषांतरण प्रतियोगिता में 200 अंक में से 169.5 प्रांप्तांक हासिल कर सत्यम् हाउस ने प्रथम क्रमांक प्राप्त किया हैं
— गुजराती भाषांतरण प्रतियोगिता में 200 में से 182 प्राप्तांक हासिल कर शिवम् हाउस ने प्रथम क्रमांक प्राप्त किया है।

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