The Many Islands of Peace

Yesterday was the Independence Day. A national holiday, much looked forward to, it is an apt occasion to reflect upon our democratic ethos, and question ourselves, what does ‘independence’, in essence mean. Rather than being merely enjoyed as a holiday, it should celebrated as a moment to revisit the ideals our country and our world is built upon, and we attempted a similar exercise.
 

The past weeks have been spent by our students drenched in the spirit of internationalism, as they discovered the world beyond their own national frontiers at the Model United Nations. The second annual Shiv Nadar School MUN Conference also unveiled the very pertinent theme of ‘Human Rights’, which students debated with much passion and conviction, backed by sound research. They analysed data, quoted facts and made impassioned speeches capable of moving the hearts of all gathered. And for what? The primary aim through all these endeavours and international conclaves is to arrive at peace and understanding in the world.

World peace is not an easy concept to comprehend or define. Talk of just ‘peace’, and our thoughts and ideas start turning more abstract. As the students fought for the rights of their global brethren, we went around asking them what they understood of this heavy and deep term, ‘peace’, and here is what they shared with us.

MY PEACE

For many, the idea of ‘peace’ resided in a personal moment of calm or fulfilment. “Peace means being able to live with myself, and being able to pursue whatever I want without interference or obstruction”, says Aakriti Sinha, from Shiv Nadar School, Noida. Ms. Monica Sagar, Principal, Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon, echoes the same thought, albeit in different words, “My idea of peace is to be accepted for who I am, and not being made into something I am not.” Sounds simple enough, but acceptance is an expensive commodity to come by in our social environs.

Colonel Gopal, when asked about the same, developed a faraway look in his eyes and he shared that his idea of peace resided in the Himalayas. “Peace is a moment when I am in the Himalayas, with wonderful clean air to breath, and there is no one around to interrupt my thoughts and solitude.” A lungful of clean air and eyes full of nature’s miracles – who wouldn’t find joy and peace in this?

Raghav Puri’s notion of peace comes with a blend of the best of the personal and worldly notions. This student of the seniormost grade from Shiv Nadar School, Noida, says, “Peace would mean removal of anarchy, chaos and conflict from the world, completely. But then, the idea of peace is also being able to eat anything, anytime I want.” A chuckle later, you are forced to think if it is these light-hearted young lads like him who will effect a transformation in the world? A cacophony of laughter could also be a path to peace, wouldn’t you agree?

WORLD OF LOVE AND RESPECT

Ona Dubey, from Shiv Nadar School, Noida, very laconically tells you, “Peace is when no one opposes the other with violence. It is important to discuss, debate and even argue, but any violence should be out of question. Peace is when we are able to accept opposing viewpoints.” After hours of intense discussions in her MUN committee, talking of civil opposition of disagreeable viewpoints is only obvious! Mahek Sanghera, Director General, Gurgaon MUN goes a step further to explain, “These arguments are only necessary to maintain peace. Peace needs us to talk and to listen, both with patience.”

Some of our students also gave a very purposeful, defined idea of peace. Dhruv, a new student in our Noida school, said, “Peace means a stable economy. It also means political and social stability”. These sentiments were echoed by Kabir from Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon, who went onto explain what each of these domains entailed. “There should be opportunities of economic fulfilment for all. People should not be discriminated on the basis of their gender, caste, colour or creed. Each group should find political representation and their concerns should be raised at appropriate forums. Peace is a combination of social, economic and political factors.”

For Ms. Leena Aparajit, Executive Director, Shiv Nadar School, peace is “a world where there is acceptance. Mutual respect. Trust. Love.” This seemingly easy definition carries the burden of several concepts human race finds hard to accept and imbibe in our times. We must, though, for peace’s sake.

SIMPLIFYING PEACE

Have you, by now, begun questioning, what is peace to you? Many answers are simple, like ‘harmony’, ‘slow music’, ‘sound sleep’, ‘happiness’ and ‘absence of fighting’. Anurag Pandey, Secretary General of the Gurgaon MUN, also has it very simple. “Peace is when everyone is able to sit together and talk and not have any ill feelings. Peace is in being together”, he says.

Bandita Nath, the mentor of International Media at Gurgaon, said, “Peace is inside us. All that is needed is for us to be able to take it out and spread it to the world!”

Young in her years, but mature in her notions, Shania Ratra, Secretary General of the Noida MUN, has this to say when questioned about peace – “Peace can mean many different things. To me, it would mean a situation where everyone is happy. Not just me or my people, but the entire world. And the whole world cannot be happy with the way we’ve been going.” True, and Raghav Palaha, who was at the dais at UNSC in Gurgaon MUN, goes onto emphasize the simple character of peace. He explains “Peace is very simple, really. Peace is when we share. Peace is when we smile. Yes, I believe peace can be achieved with a smile.”

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Is Peace really this simple? Or is it complex? If it is really all that simple, what is the obstruction in its path? We put this question in front of our students, and the unequivocal answer received was ‘humans’. Unfortunate, and true. However, if this young generation has accepted that fault lies on their side, the hope is they can grow up into adults who lead us to a calmer tomorrow.

To peaceful coexistence, we march on!

‘I Can Call It My Own’

‘Poetry is so unique. It is something I can call mine, and at the same time, it can belong to everyone’, shares Anavi Akhauri, a budding Spoken Word poet from Shiv Nadar School, Noida. In the week that has just gone by, the school celebrated poetry – along with its many facets, and its inherent character which evokes the most raw expression out of people. Stretching from 28th August to 31st August, this Poetry Week saw writing, teaching, reciting, reading – all in action at Shiv Nadar School, Noida. In every manner that poetry can be explored and relished, the students made sure it was a part of their plan.
 

‘Some time back, I had watched a video of Sarah and Phil Kaye. They are internationally renowned Spoken Word poets. I thought of doing something similar in school, and thankfully enough, we were able to pull together a great poetry week’, says Harsh Jain. He, in fact, was so inspired by the duet video he saw, that along with Aishwarya (surname?), he wrote a poem on adolescent sensitivities. These are topics and concerns topmost on the mind of our youngsters – poetry often becomes the aesthetic vehicle, perched on which, these can be shared and expressed in front of multitudes.

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According to the book ‘What is Poetry?’ written by Michael Rosen, ‘Poetry belongs to all of us; everyone can read poems, make up poems, or share poems with others. Though we often talk about poetry being dense or difficult, poems are able to present complicated or challenging ideas in ways that we can carry around in our heads. They help us ask questions about the world, how we use words and who we are.’ That makes poetry sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Let us take you through a brief journey of what happened during this week.

The Old and the New

Poems are a part of a continuously evolving tradition, which contains many great, classical poets, as well as some contemporary names which have just about begun emerging on the horizon. To create exposure, as well as a culture of appreciation, a board was put up in the school, wherein, two poets were featured each day – one old, one contemporary. Titled ‘Flair of the Feather’, this board actually afforded passers-by a moment of reflection or two, as they tried to read out the immortal verses written by legends like Oscar Wilde, John Keats, as well as the Instagram generation of Rupi Kaur, Christopher Pointdexter, etc.

Writing and Reciting

While a lot of us scribble little verses of glee and anguish at the back of our diaries and in quick access sections of our electronic devices, many of us don’t share it on a public forum. In a bid to encourage expressions and expressiveness among students, they were asked to submit their written work to the editorial board. Some poems from among these were then selected for publication, and a few others for a specific kind of recitation session, called ‘Spoken Word’.

The session saw 8-9 poems being performed by senior school students in front of an engaged audience, who spoke of issues close to their heart. ‘The spoken word session was amazing. My friends presented many different kinds of topics in their poems’, said Shifa Farooqi, a budding poetess. Upon being questioned about her poem, Anavi Akhauri said her poem ‘reflected her relationship with anxiety.’ The deeply felt emotions and experiences, all were verbalized beautifully through these raw verses composed by students.

Letting Creativity Flow On

While the Poetry Week was led mostly by senior students, they did not forget to include the junior students in this celebration of expression. As a part of the week, the student organizers conducted a workshop for fifth graders. They spoke about poetry, its many forms and figures of speech during the workshop. Not only this, each facilitator of the workshop is now mentoring a small ground of fifth graders. ‘We wanted to introduce this system of mentorship, in which the junior students can learn from their seniors. It is wonderful to see the exchange of thoughts and ideas between them’, shared Kirti Kaul, the teacher convenor for the Poetry Week.

Uninhibited expressions by students open gates of wonder, innovation and creativity for all listeners and readers, and poetry is a powerful vehicle for doing the same. The poems shared during the week stand as a testimony to the power held in the imagination of young voices.

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SciMaTech Moments!

Science is an avenue for expression, mathematics is an opportunity to get creative and technology is the vehicle to show your thought process to the world – and the magic of all three combined in the SciMaTech week. It is when the language of numbers combines with the concepts of science to create mind boggling experiments. It is also the week when basic phenomena of the world around us are deconstructed, studied and presented in front of an audience of students, teachers and parents. It is here that new ideas take flight and innovation with action is encouraged. And why not! It is here and now that young minds can be stimulated to envision a future where their skills can be employed to build better living conditions.
 

SciMaTech Week – a celebration of Science, Mathematics and Technology through engaging activities – finally came to a close this past Friday, on the 3rd of November, when all students from grade 6 to 11 of Shiv Nadar School, Noida, put on display their fascinating projects in the Exhibition!
 

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Van De Graaff Generator – Get Charged!

When a Van de Graaff generator starts charging, it transfers charge to the person who is touching it. Since the person’s hair follicles are getting charged to the same potential, they try to repel one- another and the person’s hair stand up!
This experiment was a hit with students and teachers alike, and other than learning about charge and its transfer, led to a lot of fun. Well, wouldn’t you have fun if your friend’s hair rose up in the air, right there, in front of your eyes!

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Coloured Shadows – There aren’t just Black!

Students of grade X dazzled our minds by creating coloured shadows using flashlights of different colours. When lights of different colours shine on one spot on a white surface, the light reflecting from that spot to our eyes is a mixture of all these colours and so when we raise our hands or any object in front of them, the shadows are formed in colour. How interesting then to notice that if we put our brain to it, we can also add colour to the dark shadows. Our creativity, combined with comprehension of scientific concepts can literally make a dull day bright!

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Among the festivities, were other amazing projects and games like The Flying Drone, used to check air purity; Solar Magic, a solar-powered mini-boat; The Chemical Cut, making fake blood and so on.

We’re already waiting for the next SciMaTech week, for the sheer excitement which practical application of concepts generated in us. Few of us have already begun thinking of the projects we will undertake next year, and hopefully, we’ll come back with a grander event.

–          Written by Shania Ratra, along with members of the Senior School Ed-Board.

A Time To Make Learning Creative!

Complete immersion in learning is one of the foremast practices at Shiv Nadar School. Each year, grades across the school experience a topic or a theme through integrated, experiential and immersive learning. By now you would know, this dedicated time is called Funkaar Week – where the artist, researcher, orator, scientist or explorer hidden in students finds the opportunity to express themselves, while the curriculum objectives get met in this innovative learning process.
 

Students of Shiv Nadar School Gurgaon recently observed their Funkaar Week for the primary classes. The week was an opportunity for arts to mingle with scholastic subjects, for science to pour into literature and for social studies theme to find expression in mathematic – in short, lot of learning, but not in a silo.
 

Let us give you a gradewise glimpse of this exciting week.

SEASONS

Students of great 1 journeyed through the seasons. Each of the five sections picked a season and undertook deep research about the festivals, occasions, temperature and general climatic conditions during that time. Winter was represented with Bon-Fire, Spring had students flying Kites, Summer contained an Ice-Cream Stall, Monsoon displayed Puddles and Autumn was symbolized by yellowing leaves. Each season also put up a festival corner where the children dressed up in festive clothes and shared stories and significance behind the celebrations. Art, craft, science, and language, thus combined to make seasons come alive in the school corridors.

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FOOD

India is a land of multiple cultures and an intrinsic part of each culture and region is the food eaten there. Food was the Funkaar theme for grade 2. Under this theme, grade 2 explored food preferences, festive foods, medicinal properties of food, waste management and seasonal food. On the day of the culmination, students laid different counters and stalls, which included food stalls with laddoos, sandwiches, buttermilk and green tea, a display of medicinal plants and a counter which showcased food waste management techniques.

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AIR AND WATER

The EVS theme of ‘Air and Water’ was explored by grade 3 during Funkaar week. Under this broad theme, students learnt about Deforestation, Water Pollution, Story of Yamuna, Water and its properties and Air and its properties. Through making projects and models, all these sub-topics were understood in great depth, and later explained by students during displays on the culmination day. Their final presentations also included a skit on the Chipko Movement.

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ANIMALS

The corridors containing grade 4 classrooms buzzed with chirps and wild sounds during the Funkaar Week because the theme chosen by them was ‘Animals’. Each section took up a different sub-topic, and these included Birds, Animals, Food Chain, Insects and Vertebrates. Facilitators of each subjects planned lessons in a manner that enabled a deep dive into the concepts, right from building the correct vocabulary, to understanding habits and habitats. Creative endeavours, such as writing the autobiographies of animals was undertaken in language classes. Creativity got yet greater fillip as students conjured animals purely out of their imagination. All this learning, of course, culminated in beautiful displays and sharing.

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PLANTS

While grade 4 dealt with fauna, grade 5 found itself lost in deep jungles of different kinds of flora. They explored trees, medicinal shrubs, eco-systems, flowers and a lot more in their Funkaar explorations. Other than learning about the flora of different geographies, the students also kept a keen focus on the kind of flora which exists in their immediate surroundings, in Gurgaon. Such a close explorations enabled deep comprehension, as well as artistic and diagrammatic representations of what the students learnt.

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A grand mela of education is put up each year where learning echoes in each corridor – but not in the voice of the teacher. It is the chirpy students who eagerly take their elders and peers around to show what they learnt and how they learnt. The pride of having undertaken a project collaboratively with their peers is evident, as is evident the confidence of learning something new from scratch. Funkaar Week is an exploration of not just curricular concepts, but also the self. May the joy of learning never cease!

The Journey from Good to Great

A teacher is someone who causes innumerable miracles on a daily basis, but seldom is seen casting her magic. The miracles manifest in a life-altering gentle touch, in an understanding nod, in causing a moment of inspiration while solving math problems, in stories concocted to take students in the heaven of imagination, and in consistently pushing the students to expand and challenge their boundaries. If not for these teachers, great minds of tomorrow wouldn’t have received the nurturing they require and deserve.
 

At Shiv Nadar School, we recognise, understand and appreciate the role teachers play in making our school a hub of innovation, knowledge and holistic development of each student. In a bid to make these heroes feel like one, with or without a cape, an annual reward and recognition event called ‘Cheers to Peers’ was conceptualised, and has till now completed five memorable editions. Arti Dawar, Head of Human Resources at Shiv Nadar School surmises the journey in these words – “It all began as a simple idea to appreciate and celebrate our teachers – after all, they are the people who enable us to build a fantastic organization! Since the idea was cheering our peers, we decided to name it exactly that – ‘Cheers to Peers’. Now, after 5 years, the concept has acquired a life of its own. Teachers look forward to this day, unique to Shiv Nadar School, when the whole organization, with more than 500 employees, comes together as one big family.”
 

Indeed, we are one big family that constantly inspires each member to keep bettering themselves. We are a family which recognises the Good, but is committed to journeying on till we achieve the Great. ‘Good to Great’ was the theme and message for the year, commitment to which was reiterated during the course of the day.

Cheers to Peers, or C2P, as it is more popularly known, is a day where our teachers also engage other teachers through performances and displays. Like is fast becoming a norm, the co-scholastic faculty put up an arts display. Our art mentors were appreciated by all, as teachers walked by on the red-carpet, enamoured by the mastery on display.

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The Science faculty, for the first time, also came ahead to engage and welcome teachers with some quick brain exercises. They created activities around science principles used on a daily basis – like refraction, flow of electricity, magnetism, inertia – and this experiment with experiential learning proved as effective for co-teachers, as it usually is for students.

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The co-scholastic faculty went on to present some beautiful performances on stage, the first of which was an invocation presented by the music faculty, and later, the dance teachers presented an eye-pleasing Odissi recital and the Western Music faculty gave us a lovely musical treat.

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Colonel Gopal Karunakaran, CEO, Shiv Nadar School, as always, opened the day with an inspiring speech on reaffirmation of the Vision with which we all set out 5 years ago. The speciality of Colonel Gopal’s engagement is that it carries the wisdom of personal experiences. His years of work in the army, and subsequent engagement in the education sector has left him enriched with parables for leading people to their highest potential – a task which teachers have to undertake on a daily basis.

In addition to this, Colonel Gopal had a surprise! First, a video was played which carried messages directly from students about what they think are important traits in teachers. Later, he invited a few of these students on the stage, completely catching the teachers off-guard, who then talked about the beautiful difference teachers make to their lives in a truly heart-felt manner.

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Gopal sir himself is an example of pushing limits. This year, he appeared for the CENTA examination in Social Sciences, and attained the 40th rank nationally! While duly recognising him, we also took a moment to loudly applaud 9 other teachers who achieved ranks under 100, nationally, in their respective domains.

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The string of awards continued through the day. Teachers and members of administrative staff were given recognition for their daily dedication to their task. A very special award was given to Raspreet Sidhu, the Sports Anchor at Shiv Nadar School, for her stellar performance as a member of the Indian National Women’s Basketball team in recent tournaments. The rigour and discipline she observes in her pursuit of excellence in sports is looked upto by the entire sports faculty, as well as students.

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The next recognition was for our IT faculty, who have been working on preparing our students for national and international events, and winning accolades consistently. These are also the teachers who are delivering a very unique ICT curriculum to students, helping them also design projects which harness skills of technology for solving social issues.

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There are some faces in each school, who exude an air of dependability and responsibility, and are always there to help in the carrying out of each task. These, hence, deserve Special-Thanks-And-Recognition, and are hence awarded the STAR honour!

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The ABCD (Above-and-Beyond-the-Call-of-Duty) Awards were given to members of the support staff, who work behind the scenes and ensure comfort, safety and smooth functioning of the entire school.

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Green Apple Awards are a great favourite of our organization, which insists on fitness and healthy lifestyle. Colonel Gopal states it succinctly – ‘Healthy teachers go far’. And thus, to keep the spirit of fitness alive, the Green Apple Awards are given to teachers who are recognised as the fittest, through an athletics and Yoga drill organized by the sports faculty. Aside from individual performers, the award is also given in a collective category for the highest participation. With 98% members running in the field and stretching on a Yoga mat, the Shiv Nadar School Core Office took this running trophy home.

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A new award introduced this year was called the Teachers’ Best Practice Award. One teacher from each school was recognised for using an innovative practice in her clasroom, which had shown great results. Giving this award was also an opportunity to share the practice with everyone, so it can be applied in similar and suitable classroom situations.

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Another new award instituted this year was the Trustee’s Award, given to Kunwar Brahmaditya Singh, from the Noida Sports Faculty. The award was given to Mr. Singh for the exemplary commitment in his work, not only on the sports field, but outside it as well. Besides being a level three FIBA certified coach (highest certification given to basketball coaches in India), Mr. Singh is a coach who relates to his students, and thus mentors them even beyond the sports field. Mr. Shikhar Malhotra, Trustee, Shiv Nadar School, himself came onto the stage to give away this award.

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The last set of awards, the most awaited ones, were the eponymous, Cheers to Peers Awards! Given across different departments of all the three schools, these awards are decided on the basis of peer nomination and review process.

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A great moment during the day was achieved when our special guest for the day, Ms. Roshni Nadar Malhotra, engaged with Colonel Gopal in an In-Conversation session. She was quizzed on everything, from her work, to her life, to the upcoming projects, and all the questions were tackled by her with a disarming candour. As the CEO of HCL Enterprise, and with several other professional roles and responsibilities under her hat, ​Ms. Malhotra’s life evokes much curiosity and motivation in those who work as a part of her organization, its extended family, and even beyond. Her session took one on a gentle journey through her life – her beginnings and early memories as Mr. Nadar’s daughter, her education – both school and college, initial phases of her career and later moving into the HCL Corporation. The most touching anecdotes, however, were revealed in the tales she narrated about Vidyagyan Leadership Academy, another initiative of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, working to bring about a dynamic change in the rural education landscape of India.

The day ended with a lavish lunch for the teacher, but not before Mr. Shikhar Malhotra took the stage to share his overwhelming appreciation for how far the schools had come in the span of half a decade. He made it a point to emphasize that each one who is a part of the school contributes towards making it climb higher on the ladder of success. He expressed his happiness with the good work being done, but did not forget to reiterate that the ‘great’ was a journey we were to undertake on a daily basis, and strive towards it with unrelenting passion.

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Oh, and before they went over to the lavish meal, our teachers also shook a leg, in the flash mob-cum-dance session organized as a final surprise! The Cheers to Peers were heard the loudest here!