Vande Mataram! My India, My Pride…

Republic Day is celebrated every year to honour the day and moment when the Constitution of India came into effect. This day also resembles unity, acquiring independence in the real sense, where everyone is equal and important. The 65th Republic Day was celebrated with great pomp at Atmiya Vidya Mandir.

This morning event was graced by Respected Fuvaji, Pujya Suhrad Swamiji, Respected Narendra Bhai, Haresh Sir and Honourable Dr. Vijay Patel. They all were escorted by our sports teacher and Students Council members. After our guests performed Thakorji’s Poojan, the programme continued. The chief guests unfolded our tri-coloured flag and there by infused the spirit of nationalism and patriotism at Atmiya Vidya Mandir’s campus. The school choir sung the “Zanda Geet”, “Vande Mataram” and “National Anthem”.

 


A wide range of activities centred on the theme of nationalism were conducted to instil the spirit of national pride and love for the country. A grand march-past by students of Grade 7, 8 and 9 was witnessed with zeal by everyone. A broad smile could be seen on everyone’s face when the excited young kids of classes 1st, 2nd and 3rd presented Mass PT on the beat of beautiful music. The primary students of classes 4th, 5th and 6th added colours to the programme with Hoop Drills. This celebration also included an eye catching dance performed by the students of class 10 on the song of “Satyagraha”. The entire school courtyard was echoed with the rhythmic beats of “Satyagrah”.

Our honourable chief guest Pujya Fuvaji expressed his gratitude in witnessing the program presented by the students. Though in simple tone, he addressed the essential aspects of students’ day to day life. Mukesh sir explained the history and significance of the Republic Day. The guests also acknowledged the student winners from different fields who were awarded on this momentous occasion.

The day’s celebration came to an end by proposing the vote of thanks, where the staff and students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir were thanked for making the day a wonderful success. The event came to an end with the distribution of sweets to all the members of Atmiya Parivar.

Written by: Rashmi Ma’am

Ghanshyam Charitra (Divine play of Bal Ghanshyam)

ભગવાન જ્યારે જ્યારે ધરતીને પાવન કરવા અવતાર ધરે છે, ત્યારે એની પાછળ કંઈક દિવ્ય હેતુ સમાયેલો હોય છે. ભગવાન સ્વામિનારાયણે વચનામૃત કારિયાણી પાંચમાં કહ્યું છે કે, “પોતાના જે પ્રેમી ભક્ત તેના મનોરથ પૂરા કરવા એ જ ભગવાનને અવતાર ધયા પ્રયોજન છે.” પોતાન પ્રેમી ભક્ત તેના મનોરથ પૂરા કરવા અને તેમને સુખ આપવા ભગવાન દિવ્ય ચરિત્રોને ગ્રહણ કરે છે.

Satyam House was indeed blessed to have been gifted with an inspiring value “Ghanshyam Charitra”. Satyam House teachers led by respected Saumya Ma’am had a splendid discussion to organise and plan out the schedule of the daily assemblies.

 


Pleasant weather gave a thunderous call to start the morning assembly in the divine presence of P.P Swamiji. The template of the daily assembly was designed as such to have a video darshan of different charitras of Bal Ghanshyam followed by the unique message each day.

Monday:- The very important and fundamental message of the assembly was that ‘God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient’. He cannot tolerate the atrocities incurred on His devotees. To liberate them, He takes incarnation on the Earth and saves His devotees through His divine touch.

Tuesday:- The message of the assembly was: “Don’t suppress and make others feel inferior through the power of muscles or brain. God weakens the power if it is not used for the welfare of others.”

Wednesday:- Inspiring message of the assembly was: “We should respect all the creatures living on Earth as everyone has a right to survive.” The incident watched showed how compassionate Bal Prabhu was towards the tiny creatures like fish also.

Thursday:- One of the exceptional charitras of Bal Ghanshyam was: “Samadhi”. In the episode shown, He saves the crop in the field by sending 1000 sparrows into samadhi through His divine power and thus obeys His father.

Friday:- The loud and clear message of the episode shown was: “Do not claim ownership of things which you have not earned through hardwork.”

The Saturday Creative Assembly, entitled as ‘Ghanshyam Charitra Vihar’ began with a rousing welcome and introduction by two tiny tots. The underlying truth behind the play was Divine miracles of Lord is the source of bliss, peace and happiness.

એવું કહેવાય છે કે, ભગવાનના દિવ્ય ચરિત્રનું ચિંતવન અંતકાળે જો થઈ આવે તો એનો જીવ ભગવાનના ધામને જરૂર પામે છે.

A very fascinating aspect of the play was to witness the commendable performance of 80 participants on the stage.

The play was divided into three episodes from the life of Bal Ghanshyam.

The first episode was about the glory of Bal Ghanshyam. Lord Indra commands Ashwinikumar (the doctor of Gods) to render his medical treatment service when Bal Ghanshyam gets a cut on His thigh while playing the traditional sport ‘Ambli Pipali‘ with his dear friends Veni, Madhav and Praag.

The second episode was about His divine power. Bal Prabhu teaches a lesson of humility to three mighty wrestlers of Ayodhya by defeating them in wrestling.

The last episode was about His ultimate wisdom. At a mere age of ten, in the presence of great scholars, He participates in the philosophical debate and successfully establishes the Doctrine of ‘Vishishtadvait’ (qualified non-dualism) at Gomath, Kashi. By giving a divine vision of their istdevs, He brings the realisation to those age old scholars that Brahma Darshan is not a matter of debate but of experience.

It was really a tough job to work with tiny tots but being the director of the play, Suhradam Sir exhibited tremendous patience and enjoyed their innocence. He successfully brought out the best from them.

Our inspirational source beloved P.P Swamiji’s divine presence has remained the constant guiding force without which the creation of the assembly would not have been possible.

All the members of Satyam House strongly felt that it was a charismatic experience to deal with young Bal Ghanshyams of AVM and getting involved wholeheartedly in the making of the play that has left the everlasting impression on everyone.

Written by: Samidh Ma’am

Making the miracles within reach: Sundaram House

At Atmiya Vidya Mandir, every day is a
tiny step towards the ultimate goal of life. The daily morning
assemblies are the onset of this gradual march which brings daily dose
of values strengthening and preparing the students for this journey of
life. To fulfil this very purpose of making the students better human
beings, in daily morning assemblies, we share inspiring material which
forms weekly reflection. In this manner, in the second week of January,
Sundaram House members presented the incidents and details of inspiring
lives of the Nobel Laureates from India.

This
inspiring week started with the detailed introduction of the Nobel
Prize and its making. On the first day, the students were explained the
humanitarian purpose of Alfred Nobel in establishing this peace prize
which bears his name. Students were also given a short insight on the
lives of legendary Nobel Laureates of Indian origin, like Mother Teresa
and Rabindranath Tagore. The following day, the success journey of
another Indian Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman was talked about by Priyavadan
Sir. C V Raman’s contribution to the human society was explained through
videos. It was followed by another inspiring day, as the students were
explained how Nobel Laureates like Amartya Sen and Har Gobind Khorana
made their way to this most prestigious award of the world. A power
point presentation elucidated the motivational lives of these renowned
personalities and details of their research work. The yet another
morning of this week again unwrapped history of unprecedented
achievements of Dr. Subramanyan Chandrasekhar.

Thus, though the
list of the inspiring Nobel Laureates is long and the inspiration is
unlimited, but a secret spark in these young minds was ignited. This
way, these assemblies about Nobel Laureates induced a dream in students’
hearts that they should stride towards their glorious future in such a
way that they also contribute to make the world a better place.

Written by: Seema Ma’am

Anger – Just one letter short of Danger

ANGER doesn’t solve ANYTHING; it builds NOTHING, but can destroy EVERYTHING

Suhradam House members elucidated the value “Anger – Just one letter short of Danger” during 23rd Dec to 28th Dec’13 with a divine intention to enter in the New Year 2014 taking a heart full of joy and love for others, leaving the Dangerous Anger behind. During the week, tremendous efforts were made to understand one of the most unpleasant aspect of human emotions – Anger. Efforts were made not only to help the students know what anger is, but also to know the various ways to deal effectively with it and control the behaviour in certain situations.

On Monday, students were introduced to Anger as one of the common human emotions such as happiness, sadness, etc. Different situations which make them angry were discussed with some illustrations like – children get angry when they get hurt, teased by fellow friends, left alone some times, get bullied or embarrassed by the peers or more often when they listen ‘No’ from anybody denying something they want.

Tuesday was a very enlightening day for all as Archana Ma’am discussed the biological effects of keeping anger inside us through a very informative PPT. She explained that keeping anger inside one’s body can be very harmful and repeating it for longer period of time causes serious problems such as high blood pressure, high sugar level, withdrawing from life, taking risks, over eating, using alcohol or drugs and also developing negative attitude towards everything.

On Wednesday, the effects of anger when let out and its external physical effects were brought into light. It consisted of different behaviours like insulting or harming others, teasing someone, throwing tantrums, destroying property and even taking revenge over somebody through humiliating pranks. Some people also express their anger on innocent people and helpless pets or animals as they can’t fight back.

The assemblies on Thursday and Friday were simply inspiring as the young talents of Suhradam House immaculately explained students the ways to find source of their anger and how to manage it. They discussed constructive ways to find, express or release anger by thinking positively about the situation, talking to others, writing it out in a diary, letting anger get off, diverting mind and body to any creative activities, relaxing and then getting active again, etc. It was very well explained that getting to the source of anger and coping with it positively yields fruitful results.

Saturday assembly also proved to be a splendid one as senior students explained a variety of ways to deal with people in different situations when they are angry. First of all, one should wait till the person calms down. And after sometime to approach him and suggest going for some activity like singing, relaxing, performing creative activities, listening to the music, etc.

Thus, the week turned out to be remarkably fabulous and immensely helpful to students due to praiseworthy hard work of students as well as teachers. It is utterly divine not to get angry. But Suhradam House has surely tried very well to enlighten the ways to cope up with anger positively without allowing it to harm one’s life as it’s rightly said by Vijay Eswaran that – “You can keep a sword or a gun but never have to use it; so it is with ANGER.

Submitted by: Harsh Gondaliya (10-A) & Keyur Patel (10-B)

Practice Makes Perfect

Morning assembly is one of the most important parts of the daily schedule in a school student‘s life. Values build up character. Value-based assemblies help children learn values that are important to build character and live a peaceful life.

Thus, Satyam House conducted the assemblies for the week of Dec.16 to Dec.21, 2013 with the value Practice Makes Perfect. The underlying theme was that proper & repeated action results in perfection.

This value is very significant for the students as it can help to perform better in academics, excel in sports or master any art such as dance, music, drawing and painting, etc.

The following was witnessed in the assemblies during this week:

Thought For the Day:
This forms a very insightful feature of the morning assembly. What great people think about the value is conveyed to the children. Pleasant morning, fresh mind and peaceful atmosphere makes it an ideal time for them to spare room in their thought process for the value. One of the thoughts conveyed during the week was: “Chance favours the prepared mind.”

Introduction:
On Monday, the Primary Section kids were very privileged because the value was introduced by the Principal Dr. Vijay Patel through a ‘vaat’ from “Swami Ni Vaato” and an interesting story.

At the same time, in the senior assembly, Kshitij Sir introduced it through a scientific research conveying how special type of brain tissue called Myelin, plays a key role in helping us to gain mastery over the skill and how regular practice rewires our brain. The assembly continued with a discussion of examples of two great personalities, Ludwig van Beethoven [the great music composer and pianist] and Karoly [handicapped pistol shooter who won gold medals in two successive Olympic Games].

AVM Young Talent Show: [under the guidance of Sharmil Ma’am]
Three students of AVM with outstanding performance in different fields were interviewed by the Show Host, Naman Banka of Std 7.


Young Talents:

  • Amit Chaudhary (Std 9) in Running
  • Niramay Tanna (Std 10) in Mathematics
  • Love Patel (Std 11 Commerce) in IT

All of them were clear-sighted that daily practice without fail, blended with God’s company and blessings helped them a lot in pursuit of excellence and still their journey is on. The SHOW helped students know the significance of practice in their day to day life.

The Music Maestro:
Jaimin Sir, the school’s tabla guru, shared his experience throughout his journey towards mastering the art of playing tabla. He highlighted that the painful struggle and the thrill of the journey led to happiness after each step forward from what he was in the beginning, only because of PRACTICE.

A live performance by him filled the environment with some beautiful rhythms that shall stay in the children’s minds inspiring them.

Hindi Assembly:
Paying respect to our National Language, assemblies are also often conducted in Hindi. Pushpak Sir conveyed the importance of ‘Practice’ through a self-composed poem:

सौ-सौ बार में एक ही कोशिश, कभी किसी ने की होगी,
तब जा के एक बार में उसने, दो-दो दक्षता हासिल की होगी।
पहले भी किसी ने ऐसे ही, अभ्यास की कही कहानी होगी,
आगे यहाँ से आपको भी, ये पद्धति पे पद्धति चलानी होगी।।

Practice polishes the inborn talent of a person. Arjun and Eklavya, who acquired perfection through their tireless practice in archery, are not unfamiliar to us.

Videos:
Young or old, everyone enjoys exploring information through audio-visual presentations and they also leave a prominent effect on our minds. Inspiring videos related to the fields of music, art, sports, academics, adventures, etc. were shown which left the spectators spellbound. Glimpses of the movie Bhag Milkha Bhag; a girl practising for the World Math Day and other sports were selected by Rekha Ma’am for discussion in the Gujarati Assembly.

Activity in the Junior Assembly:
An activity was conducted to show comparison between two groups of students, the one who practices certain skills on everyday basis and the one who never practices. It was concluded that the group of students who practise daily performed better than those who never did so, even for the actions which seem very simple.

Its effect?
It was a pleasant surprise to find that the tiny tots of grade I and II had brought the value into practice.


Grade IV students of handwriting class noticed improvement in their hand writing when they compared it with their writing on the first day of the class.

Annual Athlete Meet: Inspired by the value, some of the participants put efforts at their level best on practising for various events to win medals for their respective houses.

With such inspiring examples that followed this week of value-based assemblies, Satyam House was eager and ready for the next.

Written by: Sunita Ma’am

આવી આવી આવી રે… ઉત્તરાયણ આવી

આવી આવી આવી રે… ઉત્તરાયણ આવી,
તલસાંકળી, ચીકીને મમરાના લાડુ,
અને
ચટાકેદાર
ઊંધિયાની સોડમ સાથે લાવી.
આવ્યો સંક્રાંતિનો અવસર આ રૂડો,
સાચવીને
મિત્રો ! તહેવારનો તમે આનંદ લૂંટો.
સૂરજદાદાના ગુણકારી કિરણો સાથે લાવી,
આવી
આવી આવી રે… ઉત્તરાયણ આવી.
હિંદુ ધર્મમાં એક માસને બે ભાગમાં વહેંચવામાં
આવ્યો છે. એક છે સુદ પક્ષ અને બીજો છે વદ પક્ષ. એ જ રીતે વર્ષના પણ બે ભાગ
પાડવામાં આવ્યા છે. પહેલો છે ઉત્તરાયણ અને બીજો છે દક્ષિણાયન. આ
બંને અયન મળીને એક વર્ષ થાય છે. મકરસંક્રાંતિના દિવસે સૂર્ય થોડો ઉત્તરની તરફ ઢળે છે. આથી આ કાળ કે
સમયને ઉત્તરાયણ કહે છે.
હિંદુ ધર્મમાં મકરસંક્રાંતિને ઘણું મહત્વ
આપવામાં આવ્યું છે. વેદો અને પુરાણોમાં પણ આ દિવસનો ઉલ્લેખ જોવા મળે છે. દિવાળી, હોળી, શિવરાત્રી  અને અન્ય તહેવાર સાથે વિશેષ કથાઓ જોડાયેલી છે અને આ બધાં જ તહેવાર અંગ્રેજી મહિના અનુસાર ન આવતા હિંદુ
માસ અને તિથિ મુજબ આવે છે જ્યારે મકરસંક્રાંતિ એ એક ખગોળીય ઘટના છે અને
જેનાથી જડ અને ચેતનની દિશા અને દશા નક્કી થાય છે. આ તહેવાર એવો છે કે જે
અંગ્રેજી મહિના મુજબ ૧૪ જાન્યુઆરીએ આવે છે. ૧૪ જાન્યુઆરી પછી કમુરતાં
પૂરાં થઈને લગ્નસરાની મોસમ શરૂ થાય છે.
સૂર્યનો ધન રાશિમાંથી મકર રાશિમાં પ્રવેશ તથા
ઉત્તર તરફની ગતિને જ ઉત્તરાયણ કે મકરસંક્રાંતિ કહેવામાં આવે છે. મકરસંક્રાંતિના પર્વનું ધાર્મિક, સામાજિક અને વૈજ્ઞાનિક દૃષ્ટિએ ઘણું મહત્વ છે.
મકરસંક્રાંતિ સમગ્ર ભારતમાં ઊજવવામાં આવે છે. જોકે દરેક પ્રદેશમાં તેનું
અલગ-અલગ નામ છે અને ઉજવણીની રીતો પણ જુદી-જુદી છે.
આ વર્ષે આત્મીય વિદ્યા મંદિરના ધોરણ 5 ના
નાના-નાના ભૂલકાંઓને મકરસંક્રાંત્તિ(ઉત્તરાયણ)ના પર્વનું ધાર્મિક, સામાજિક અને
વૈજ્ઞાનિક દ્વષ્ટિનું મહત્વ સમજાવવામાં આવ્યું. તથા પતંગ ચગાવવાની વિવિધ કળાઓ વિશે
માહિતગાર કરવામાં આવ્યા. જેમ કે પતંગ ખરીદવા, માંજો પાવો, પતંગને કિન્ના બાંધવી,
પતંગને ઊંચે આકાશમાં ચગાવી ગુલાંટ મરાવવી, ઢીલ આપવી, ખેંચ મારવી અને બીજાના પતંગને
કાપવો વગેરે કળાઓ શીખવવામાં આવી. ત્યારબાદ પતંગ ચગાવતી વખતે રાખવમાં આવતી સાવચેતીઓ
જેમકે પતંગ ચગાવતાં પહેલા આંગળીઓને મેડીકેટેડ ટેપ લગાવવી જોઈએ, વીજળીના તારને દોરી
અડે નહિ એ રીતે પતંગ ચગાવવા, લીસી, ખરબચડી, તૂટેલી અને નબળી અગાસી/છત કે ધાબા પર ઊભા
ન રહેવું જોઈએ, જાહેર રસ્તા પર પતંગ પકડવા દોડવું ન જોઈએ, પતંગ ચગાવતી વખતે એ પણ
ધ્યાન રાખવું કે તમારો આનંદ તમારા માટે કે બીજાના માટે જોખમ ન બને વગેરે વિશે
વિશેષ ધ્યાન દોરવામાં આવ્યું હતું. આમ, બાળકોએ ખૂબ જ ઉત્સાહપૂર્વક  ભાગ લીધો અને પતંગ ચગાવવાની મજા માણી.
હેપ્પી ઉત્તરાયણ….

પ્રેરણા: ગૌતમ સર

The Wisdom and Teachings of Gunatitanand Swami ni Vaatu

Gunatitanand Swamiji, the ideal devotee of Lord Swaminarayan, through His talks, has explained the glory of God in such simple and lucid language so as to appeal to any individual, regardless of their age or education.

He has talked to a great extent about the causes of our misery and sadness and about ways to liberate ourselves from that. He has highlighted that one of the biggest hindrances in acquiring the bliss of God and happiness is our mind. However, most of our life’s decisions are made by consulting our mind and hence cause us excitement or frustration. In our mind lies laziness, likes and dislikes, over-confidence, greed, uncertainty, tension, ignorance, lack of faith in self and God, fear of accomplishments: How it will happen? What will happen? Will it happen or not? Our mind engages us into all such nuisance and creates a distraction or divergence from doing what is required to be done at the present moment.

One of the core ideas of all the religions around the world is ‘We are not our mind. Our true identity is our soul.’ That is we are different from our mind. God resides in our soul and our soul harnesses the energy of Aksharbrahm. Gunatitanand Swamiji has explained this core concept through various examples in His talks which are very easy to understand. He has also explained how to take continuous fight with the mind and where one should engage the fickle mind to make it steady, peaceful, well-mannered and focused. Throughout the week various Swami ni vaato were explained in the assembly.

  • On the first day, “ત્રણ જણ  સુખીયા, એક તો મોટા સાધુ કહે તેમ કરે તે, તથા મન નું કહ્યું ના માને તે જ્ઞાની, તથા કઈ જોઈએ નહિ તે.” (somewhat translates to: “3 people are happy: one that does as per what a saint says; the wise one that does not listen to mind and the one that does not have any desires.”)
  • On the second day, “ડાહ્યો હોઈ તેને વઢે ત્યારે રાજી થાય અને મુર્ખો હોઈ તેને વખાણે ત્યારે રાજી થાય.” (“The one who is wise feels happy when scolded, and the one who is foolish feels happy when praised.”)
  • Third day, “ગાફલાઈ ટાળવાનું કારણ તો એ છે જે ખટકો રાખે તો ટળે ને બીજો ઉપાય તો કોઈ શિક્ષા કરે ત્યારે ટળે.” (“The way to get rid of carelessness is to remain vigilant and another way is if there is someone to guide or show right from wrong or scold, carelessness can be removed.”)
  • Fourth day, “મુંજવણ આવે તો કેમ કરવું? એ પ્રશ્ન પૂછ્યો, તેનો ઉત્તર કર્યો જે “સ્વામિનારાયણ સ્વામિનારાયણ …” ભજન કરવું તેથી મુંજવણ ટળી જાય.” (“‘When there is tension, what should be done?’, was the question asked. The response was: chant ‘Swaminarayan Swaminarayan’, doing which will relieve the tension.”)
  • Fifth day, “સત્ય, હિત અને પ્રિય એવું વચન બોલવું ને ઉપેક્ષા રહિત બોલવું પણ આગ્રહ થી વચન કહેવું નહિ.” (“Speak truth, for welfare and in a pleasant manner but not with contempt and also not with insistence.”)

The sixth day, Saturday, was the creatively assembly. In the creative assembly students of Shivam House had presented an entertaining and enlightening drama titled, ‘લુચ્ચું નાલાયક લબાડ મન’ (“The cunning, unworthy, roguish Mind”). The core idea of drama was based on Swami ni vaat, “કેટલાક ને મન રમાડે છે અને કેટલાક મન ને રમાડે છે.” (“The mind tricks many while many trick their minds”) Through this drama it was conveyed to the children that we need to take persistent fight with our fickle mind. Our mind is like a cunning fox, a skilful trickster. It does not allow us to focus and diverges us from the task at hand. It puts us into difficulty and itself remains away from it. Becoming resolute to never do as our mind says and firm determination to follow the commands of parents, teachers and guru are the only two ways to conquer our fickle mind and make it steady, peaceful, well-mannered and focused. In this assembly, ALL the Shivam House students from Std 3 to Std 7 had participated. Shivam House extends special gratitude to the students of Std 8 and Std 10 for sparing their valuable time in stage set up and Vinayakbhai (Std 8) for his contribution in setting up the music system for daily practice. Furthermore, the House extends special gratitude to Vallabh Mama, Samarthya Ma’am, Ritesh Sir and Devang Sir for their valuable contributions in stage set up.

Lastly, it was a lesson not just for the students but also for the elders. Very often our mind does not allow us to do the right things for many selfish reasons. In those times it becomes very difficult to fight with the mind and make it do the right things. At that time we must have someone in our life who can tell us outright what to do and what not to do and insist us on doing the right things. We must recall the commands of our guru, and pray to God to give us the strength and determination to fight with the devil mind.

By Teachers of Shivam House

There are NO shortcuts…

The world is increasingly “shrinking”. Availability of resources to acquire knowledge and procurement of things are a lot easier than the past. Shopping, entertainment, communication etc. have become faster and easier because of the technological advances. Although these technological advances have made the process of learning and understanding easier, the competition has also grown many folds. One has to be the best in his field of interest to become successful and touch the horizons. One needs to put in persistent efforts to become the best. Thus in the process of development of an individual or in the formative age there is no technology that can replace hard work. In other words there are no short cuts to success and happiness.

The Shivam House students and teachers explored this very important aspect in the daily morning assemblies during the week immediately following the beginning of the post-Diwali break. This report is a compilation of the various ideas shared during this very inspirational week.

Today, people are in such hurry to get success, that, they impatiently take any shortcuts that come across their way and bypass the process of acquiring skill. Momentarily we feel happy but unfortunately after taking such short cuts the task goes beyond our abilities and comfort levels. So, the key to any long-term success is to take the necessary steps to acquire the skills and steadily progress towards the goal.

Right from childhood, those children who work hard constantly and have regularly increased the practice hours at different stages in life are the ones to be the most successful and create history. But if the students take short cut then they have to face lots of consequences. The pile of concepts not learnt, or skill not acquired during the formative years becomes too difficult to cope up and finally as they move to the higher standards, more and more hours of studies would be required to acquire what is missed. Increase in stress, tension and becoming ignorant of learning are some ill effects of short cuts. Following are a few from the long list of successful people who have persistently put efforts:

  1. Mozart, for example, famously started writing music at the age of six. Mozart had started composing when he was 6 and the earliest of Mozart’s composition that is now regarded as a masterwork was not composed until he was twenty-one: by that time Mozart had already been composing concerts for ten years.
  2. India’s Grand Master Vishwananthan Anand started playing chess when he was 6 years old and he became the India’s first Grandmaster at the age of 18. He won the first World championship at the age of 31. So it took him 12 years to earn the Grand Master Title and then another 13 to become the World Chess Champion.
  3. Bill Joy an American Computer Scientist co-founder of Sun-Micro Systems in 1982 just at the age of 28. He started programming at a very early age, just after graduating from high school. The programs that he wrote in Unix are used till date as the base of programming in assembly line language.

History also presents to us numerous examples of achievers whose achievements were due to the fierce struggle they did in life and had the attitude of never give. For example, Tenzing Norgay could achieve world fame, only after making dozens of unsuccessful efforts at conquering the Mt. Everest. Our country India would never have achieved independence by taking shortcut. It was the battle of 200 years by our freedom fighters. Let me share with you an interesting secret about the Chinese bamboo. A tree that grows really tall — to a height of over eighty feet. It takes around five years and three months to grow to its full height. But here is the interesting bit. For the first five years of planting the seed, we see nothing, absolutely nothing. Except perhaps a little shoot springing out of the bulb and struggling to grow.

And then, in the next 90 days, it shoots up to a towering eighty feet. That is, for the first 60 months, all the growth is invisible, below the surface. The Chinese bamboo’s roots create a complex network. It is these strong roots that, when fully developed, helps the trees to grow to a very big height. In the next three months it literally takes off and becomes as tall as eight feet.

Often, too often, we do all the hard work and when we are perhaps just a step away from success, we walk away. Trouble is we seldom know that we are only a step away, just a step away from realizing our dreams. In this era of instant coffee and fast food, get-rich-quick schemes and lose-weight-quickly medicines perhaps we all need to take a pause and take a lesson from the Chinese Bamboo. Patience and persistent hard work has its rewards. Nothing happens in a magical way. Persistence always pays. Success in all our endeavours is what we all want, but most of us forget that the road to success is not always sprinkled with roses, it could be thorny and very long!

We may possess the talent but hard work helps us to nurture the talent and make us unconsciously competent by imbibing the skill. Hard work has changed the fortunes of mankind. If we delve deeper into the life of stars like Ratan Tata, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Jordan, Lata Mangeshkar, Pandit Zakir Hussain, Amitabh Bachchan, Marvan Attapatu, etc. we will realize that they are unconsciously competent in their fields of expertise. They were able to achieve this because of their persistent hard work.

The question is, are we ready to put in persistent efforts required to achieve success. 

Written by: Rashmi Ma’am

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

“People may hear your words, but they feel your Attitude”

To facilitate the need to understand and develop the right attitude in the life of the students, Suhradam House got the privilege to celebrate the value: Attitude is everything in the very first week of wintry December. All the members elucidated the value throughout the week with the motive to help the students realize and develop the attitudes an AVM student should possess. The week comprised of many inspirational speeches, captivating PowerPoint presentations and also fascinating stories superbly presented by the teachers and students.

On the first day, the attitude “to be Atmiya with everyone” was well explained with the qualities of a student who is Atmiya with everyone: like forgives and forgets others’ mistakes, respects and loves everyone dearly, is all sincere in prayer and doing pooja. In a nutshell, he shares harmonious relationship with the self and others.

On the second day, the importance of positive Attitude and the sutra given by P.P.Swamishree to be “ever positive and never negative” were discussed. Furthermore, it was explained that being positive means to look at virtues of others and try to imbibe them in yourself, appreciate the classmates for their good deeds and encourage everyone together to follow rules and regulations of the school religiously, without giving any excuse and just showing the results.

On the third day, the attitude of “being sincere in studies” was shared as one of the most important values a student must have. It was presented through a captivating PPT prepared with the help of the guidelines given by P.P.Swamishree from His discourses to AVM students. Students could understand the importance of sheer hard work, sincere prayer, concentration in class, daily revision and being regular in doing work. Moreover, it was repeatedly emphasised to ask questions to the teachers until the doubts are cleared.

On the fourth day, the attitude of “Respect for everyone” was brought to light. It was discussed that being respectful is to behave politely and humbly with everyone, never criticizing anyone, never giving back answers to elders, and also being friendly with fellow beings. The attitude of acceptance was also highlighted here.

The fifth day contained fascinating stories on another aspect of attitude “using language (vaani) aptly”, shared in speeches delivered by the Suhradam House students. They shared that AVM students should use respectful language while dealing with individuals belonging to any age group and call all the fellow beings addressing them as “bhai”. The importance of speaking only the truth, very politely and avoiding ill-mannered interruptions while others are talking was also shared. More emphasis was laid on the use of English language all the time with use of the golden words like sorry, thank you excuse me, please, etc.

This highly educative week ended with the attitude of “keeping company of good friends” as it is known to everyone that a person is known by the company he keeps. Students were guided not only to have good friends among themselves but also to have one such teacher as a true friend, to whom they can approach easily for any problem which will help to keep themselves on the right track in any adverse situation.

With the persistent efforts of Suhradam House members, the week ended with a positive spirit developed in the students as they made amendments in their attitude. Thus, Suhradam House feels proud and honoured to commence the journey of developing the right Attitude within all of us.

Submitted by: Harsh Gondaliya (Class 10-A)

Sundaram House enlivens the saga of King Vikramaditya

The prayer hall at Atmiya Vidya Mandir on Saturday morning, during the creative assembly session on 7th of December, 2013, reverberated with usual applause and zestful response of the students as they witnessed the drama on the life and message of one of the greatest Indian kings, King Vikramaditya. It was an edifying presentation by Sundaram House members.

The narrative of this creative assembly rests on the inspiring life of King Vikramaditya. The Sundaram House students (Dharmit Mistry, Paavan Shah, Sahjik Trambadiya, Mantavya Ambaliya, Deep J Patel, Uttkarsh Patel) role-played the characters of the drama and relived a few incidences from King Vikramaditya’s life which demonstrated how much just, kind and religious a king he was! They presented the accounts of Vikramaditya’s incomparable sense of justice and his unparalleled quality of being benevolent. This creative assembly presented him as the king of the era who has created the glorious history of Hindus and would be an incessant source of inspiration. Every incident in the life of this great hero is a witness to his brilliant capability which he wisely invested for the welfare and prosperity of others.

 

 
The most enchanting part of the drama was the unique and historical throne of King Vikramaditya which had 32 figurines placed on it and the way they came alive to say the inspiring story of King Vikramaditya. The students performed a small skit on the incident of King Bhoj (role played by Yash Jariwala) who unearthed Vikramaditya’s magnificent throne, many centuries after the latter’s death, and decided to sit on it. But each time he set foot on it, a statue carved on its side came alive (role played by Aayush R, Shivang Patel, Manan Thakkar and Nisarg V) and told him a story of Vikramaditya’s kindness. The statues warned King Bhoj that he should sit on the throne only if he could match Vikramaditya in his deeds. The selected incidences from his life delve into the intricacies of cultural assimilation and shed light on how his unflinching faith in God made him a hero of the era.

Sundaram House celebrated the entire week by elucidating different inspiring qualities of this great king and shedding light on his overarching personality. The regular morning assemblies by Sundaram House members highlighted King Vikramaditya as a role model who was characterized by a commitment to justice and kindness. Students were explained through presentations, videos, documentary and special talks and speeches that a true leader and a successful person should live a life like that of king Vikramaditya.

Thus, the students recognized the relevance of the tales of King Vikramaditya in their lives today and the worth of adopting qualities of fair-judgement, sagacity, valour and charity.