Sunday, December 29, 2013

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

Sunday, December 22, 2013

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)

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

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.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Inter-House Football Competition 2013-14

If you walk on the streets of bigger cities in India, you will often find youths wearing the T-shirts of Messi, Ronaldo and Beckham. In a café, football often dominates the conversation. These are signs of a changing India. Still a predominantly cricket crazy country, football is surely finding its feet in our country.

AVM is not different from most of the urban centers of India as so many students enjoy playing and watching football. That made the recently concluded Inter-House Football Competition a perfect stage for students to showcase their skills, talent and enthusiasm towards the game. The eagerly awaited showpiece tournament preceded by a 15 day – training camp for all the houses to sharpen their skills and develop team combinations. Dhiren Sir, Tejas Sir and the rest of the Sports team worked very hard with all the houses to make sure they were all ready for the competition.

 
The students were grouped in 3 categories for the competition: 
  • Sub-Junior (Class 4, 5 and 6)
  • Junior (Class 7and 8)
  • Senior (Class 9, 10 and 11)
The week long competition had two knockout matches for each of the houses. The winners of the first knockout match in each category would meet in the finals, whereas the losers would meet for a 3rd place match.

After the first round of matches in Sub-Junior category, Shivam house and Suhradam house met in the finals on Friday, December 6, 2013. After a very tough fight, the match went on the penalties where the boys from Suhradam house kept their nerves and won the competition. Satyam House finished third in the category.

Junior category was equally entertaining as Shivam house and Suhradam house qualified for the finals with the dominant performances. In a closely contested final on Saturday, December 7, 2013; Shivam house edged Suhradam House and won the competition. Sundaram House finished third in the category.

Senior category captured the imagination of the audiences with their skills, team combination play and at times with goals galore. In the first round, against a very committed Shivam house team Satyam house scraped through a victory and reached to the finals. In the other knock out match, Suhradam house upset the favourites Sundaram House with some very good organizational and counter attacking play. In the showpiece final on Saturday, December 7, 2013 Satyam house boys finally came to the party and swept Suhradam house and won the finals comprehensively. Sundaram house won the third place very comfortably against Shivam house.

But overall, it was Suhradam house who won the competition as they made it to the finals of each of the categories. Here are the final results:
House          Points     Place
Suhradam       26          First
Shivam           22        Second
Satyam           20         Third
Sundaram       16        Fourth

In conclusion, Inter-House Football Competition truly lived up to its hype and expectations as the students were treated with thrills, entertainment and enthusiasm. The school management congratulates all the sports teachers and students for organizing such a magnificent event.

CBSE WEST ZONE HANDBALL TOURNAMENT 2013-14

This major CBSE Handball Tournament was held between 27-29 October 2013 by Singhania Global Academy, Sikar (Rajasthan). 32 schools from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli participated in the tournament.



The Atmiya Vidya Mandir team played and lost against Lucky Bal Niketan in the Quarter Final.

Akshay Golwala scored a total of 5 goals, Love Patel scored 3 goals, Manan Ladani 2 goals and Harshil Soni and Pradeep Chaudhary 1 goals each during the tournament.

AVM Sports Team

CBSE CLUSTER 9 VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP 2013-14

The CBSE Cluster 9 - Volleyball Championship was held between 13-15 October 2013 by Shri Ramkrishna Harikrishna Academy, Kamrej (Dist. Surat) in which 41 schools from the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Rajasthan participated in the tournament.

 
 
The Atmiya Vidya Mandir team reached the Quarter Final in which it gave a commendable fight (25/23, 25/23, 26/24) to the tournament’s runners up team: Montfort School Nagpur.

The following students showed remarkable performance in the tournament:
1. Romil T. Patel (Class 12) 
2. Nirmal A. Patel (Class 10)
3. Rohan Shingala (Class 10)

AVM Sports Team