Shivam House Week – Born to prosper…

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Following the benchmark of excellence set by the Satyam House students, it was only obvious to keep up with the standards set and that was exactly what was witnessed during the Shivam House Week!

The week started off with the auspicious event of Rathyatra. Hetbhai (Class 8) explained the true meaning of Rathyatra. He explained that:
• the soul is Rathi – owner of the `chariot’ which is the body,
• the intellect is the Sarathi – driver,
• the mind is the rein,
• the senses are the horses,
• the Panch Vishayas – material objects of the five senses – are the fields of pasture for the horses.
• the person whose Sarathi – intellect – is wise, whose mind fully controls the senses, can traverse Samsaar to reach the desired goal – the Lord’s abode.

He further informed that on this auspicious day, as per the tradition, the deities of Jagannath Mandir (Orissa) are installed into a huge rath and devotees pull it through the streets. The local king used to serve by humbly sweeping the road ahead with a golden broom.

The softboard theme was also chosen as Unity by the house. One softboard had a divine glow of the spiritual meaning of Unity – that of the mann, buddhi, chitt and aham. It gave out a clear message that the oneness of these four faculties was very essential for any success in life.

The other softboard had a dynamic flow highlighting the contributions in different areas by the people of the North, East, West and South zones of India. Everyday of the week had a different flavour based on these zones. Against the timeline of events, the increasingly reducing maps of India were displayed and the young onlookers were appealed to do something about stopping the disintegration, solution being to forget the differences and to UNITE!

Unity was the theme for the Saturday Creative Assembly. Due to the school picnic to Chhab Chhaba Chhab, it was kept on Monday instead of Saturday. The Juniors performed a very lively dance-drama based on the fact that if we work together we can do anything and everything. The story was “hola upaad” in which a hunter catches some birds in his net. The students depicted the struggling of the birds and their flying off with the net being united.
The Seniors performed a drama that highlighted the two perspectives of Unity – destructive and the one for good cause. Taking into account some AVM based experiences, the drama conveyed both perspectives in a simple yet effective manner.

The week, hence concluded with an enlightening message of the need for Unity within so as to prosper within and the need for Unity in the country so as to make India prosper.

The softboard had a very appealing statement of HDH Hariprasad Swamiji which kind of summarised the week’s events:
“As long as there is no harmony within an individual, there cannot be peace within a family,
As long as there is no harmony within a family, there cannot be peace within a society,
As long as there is no harmony within a society, there cannot be peace within a nation.”

The choice is ours!

Compiled by: Het Adhvaryu (Class 8 – Shivam House)

The students of Satyam house feel honoured and proud to be the house week beginners!

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India is known for “Unity in Diversity” and the same is true for Atmiya Vidya Mandir, too. The new academic year commenced with a new zeal, excitement and a determination to do something creative and unique which is aimed to provide real life exposure along with strong academics to the students.
This gave birth to the “Students’ Council” wherein students were formally elected for the positions of Head boy, Vice-Head boy and Sports Captain. Moreover, prefects were selected from every class for each house – Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram and Suhradam. The sole objective of this was to bring to the fore and nurture the latent talents and skills of the students.
Sarthak Jariwala, Yash Pachchigar and Vikas Patel were elected as the Head Boy, Vice-Head Boy and the Sports Captain of the school, respectively.
On 29th June, we celebrated the “Investiture Ceremony” in which the Head boy, Vice-Head boy and the Sports Captain of the school took an oath for their duty and service as the representative of the the Students’ Council.
One of the new things Atmiya Vidya Mandir has started this year is celebrating the morning assemblies (and the creative assembly on Saturdays) and decorating the Display Boards on a theme by the Houses – Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram and Suhradam every week, respectively.
Satyam House got the opportunity to celebrate the Morning Assemblies for the first week. The House was launched on Tuesday, the 6th July with Parade and Music by the House Captain, Vice-Captain and the prefects from each class followed by a speech by the Vice-Captain, Harsh Sarda (Grade VIII) who spoke on the mission of Satyam House, which is – Truth Prevails, and Atmiyata. On other days of the week, students presented small skits on Unity and Atmiyata. Love Patel (Grade VIII) addressed the assembly on the topic – Atmiyata.
On Saturday (16th July), Satyam House presented the first Creative Assembly of the year on the value – Discipline. The value was presented in the form of a mime (i.e. Do’s and Don’ts of our daily schedule in Hostel, Prayer Hall, Dining Hall and the Classroom) and a speech on discipline by Sumit Chaudhary of Grade VIII A.

Display Boards were creatively decorated on the theme “The Significance of Values in Our Life”. Through Display Boards Satyam House tried to emphasize that Education = Academics + Values. Without values, education is worthless. It was shown that Academics earn you a living and Values teach you how to make life. Biographies of highly successful people who lived and are still living a value based life were also displayed, e.g. John Wooden, Narayan Murthy, Ratan Tata, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam and Amitabh Bachchan. Based on the display boards, students were asked questions, e.g. which is the most important value for a successful life? Students dropped awesome answers for the same.
During the course of the week, House has presented before the students the values of the month through various activities. The students had great time and learnt a lot together throughout the week. In a nutshell, it was a great learning experience for students. Stay tuned to receive more updates from Satyam house on the value “Being proactive” next month.

Written by: Paras Sir

“सम्मान”

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सुना न हो सफ़र सत्कार का, आगे और ज़माना भी है।

सम्मान देते-देते भूल न जाना, एक दिन सम्मान हमे पाना भी है।।

“सम्मान”

ये कोइ उपहार नहीं जो किसी के हाथ में दिया जाए।
ना ये उधार लिया जाए, ना भाड़े पे चलाया जाए,
ना छिना जाए, ना चुराया जाए,
जब होठों से भी ना उगला जाए, तो आंखों से जताया जाए,
ये तो बस कुछ ऐसा है कि, साँसों में समाया जाए।।

देख वीरों के शौर्य को, जब इतने से भी दिल ना भरें तो,
जज़्बातों से तने सीनों पर पराक्रम पदक लगाए जाएँ।

गिनती के ये साढ़े तीन अक्षर, हर मांगें साक्षर और निरक्षर,
सब बीमार तीन अनार, सम्मान आदर और सत्कार।।

संप को सम्मान है,
सुह्रद को सत्कार है,
एकता को आदर है,
पर इन सबसे भी पहले आत्मा को सम्मान है,
क्योंकि आत्मा की सराहना, आत्मा की सेवा, और आत्मा का सम्मान,
बस! यही आत्मीयता का दूसरा नाम है,
बस! यही आत्मीयता का दूसरा नाम है।।

– पुष्पक एम. जोशी

Republic Day celebration at AVM

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Republic Day celebration at AVMIn a befitting tribute to the nation on the occasion of 60th Republic Day celebrations, the management staff and students organized a simple but a meaningful ceremony to salute the nation and express solidarity with it as its being continuously tested, trying to grapple with severe problems of internal and international tensions, at the same time keeping the economy afloat progressing in the wake of global recession.The threats of regionalism, linguistic divisions, external aggressions and terrorist bloodbath are looming large over the Indian nation and the need of the hour is to confront them with courage, upholding the dignity of the citizens, at the same time keeping the country united, as was said by a staff member to the gathering.The management representative, Mr. Haresh Patel further urged the members of the Atmiya Vidya Mandir family to take a pledge to spread the message of “Atmiyata” and contribute towards making India energy efficient by saving energy.The ceremony concluded with the school vibrating with the spirit of patriotism through heart rendering patriotic songs sung by the school choir group represented by students and led by Mr. Somnath Mitra, their mentor and Music instructor at the school.Report by: Rupashree Asthana

Empowering the leaders of tomorrow today.

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It is being proclaimed on the Indian Government website of Department of Science and Technology that today India is one of the top ranking countries in the competitive economy especially in the field of research. However it is said on the same website that we need to embark on some major science projects which have relevance of national needs and which will also be relevant for tomorrow’s technology.
This means we will need a few more Nandan Nilekani’s in India, who currently is the Chairman of the Identification Authority of India. On his blog and in his book, he describes that this project will give each Indian a unique identification number which in turn will enable direct benefits, and fixing weak public delivery systems, giving the poor access to better healthcare, education and welfare safety nets.
One of the leading Scientists of India, Padmashree and Padmabhushan awardee Dr Raghunath Mashelkar while talking to school children at a reputed school in Mumbai highlighted top five attributes of success:
1. Believe in yourself.
2. When you fail, do not go into depression and when you succeed you keep your feet firmly rooted to the ground.
3. There is no substitute to hard work.
4. Positivism, it matters more in the case of leadership. That way you can get extraordinary work done from ordinary people. There is an extraordinary spark in every individual and you should know how to tap it.
5. Believe in teamwork. Individuals can achieve little what a team can. You therefore should build effective teams and guide them to success.
He also said that the gap between academics and industry in India is quite high. What does industry do? It converts knowledge into money and academia converts money into knowledge. Every evolving society needs to strike a balance between these two and the balance will make the society richer in terms of both money and knowledge. In the western countries we find no gap between academic scientific research and industry and therefore we see how advanced they are in terms of knowledge and both application of science.
So what children in 21st century need is more than academics and the top attributes as highlighted by Dr Mashelkar believe in oneself, Leadership, Positive Attitude, Teamwork and Team Building.
The teachers, staff and management of Atmiya Vidya Mandir are aware of these current societal needs and have been imparting these values in children since the inception of our school and thus empowering the leaders of tomorrow, today.