Inter House Basketball Competition 2014-15

With great joy and celebrations, the Atmiya Vidya Mandir - Sports Department organised the Inter House Basketball Competition from 27th Aug to 30th Aug 2014. This competition brought out the real keen competitive spirit of all the students and their support for their respective houses. The event was very eagerly awaited by all for the entire two weeks leading to the event, during which the house teams practised enthusiastically to be prepared to deliver their best.

The competition schedule was as per below:

Date	Day	Sub Junior (Std 4 to 6)	Junior (Std 7 - 8)	Senior (Std 9 to 11)
27 Aug	1	Sundaram v/s Shivam Satyam  v/s Suhradam	Satyam v/s Shivam	Sundaram v/s Satyam
28 Aug	2	Third place Final	Sundaram v/s Suhradam	Suhradam v/s Shivam
29 Aug	3		Third place	Third place
30 Aug	4		Final	Final

The first two matches in each group were knockout matches and the winners of these matches (in each category) would shake hands in the finals, whereas the losing teams would meet for the third place match.

Day 1: Wednesday, 27th August 2014
Sub Junior Group:

• In the first match of the tournament, Sundaram v/s Shivam in this group, Shivam House won by 8-2.
• In the second match, Satyam v/s Suhradam, Suhradam House won by 10-8.

Junior Group:

• In the third match, Satyam v/s Shivam in this group, Satyam House won by 26-14 points, thanks to a very good game played by Ojasbhai and Dhyeybhai.

Senior Group:

• The last game of the day was between Sundaram v/s Satyam in the Senior group. An electrifying performance by Manavbhai ensured the victory of Sundaram House by 39-11.

Day 2: Thursday, 28th August 2014
Sub Junior Group:

• The first match of the day was for the third place in this group, Satyam v/s Sundaram in which Satyam House won by 14-6.
• The next game was the final match in this group between Shivam and Suhradam and it was won by Suhradam House by 12-6.

Senior Group:

• The third match of the day was the knockout between Shivam and Suhradam in the Senior group, in which Suhradam House won 20-17 because of an awesome performance by Harshbhai Gondaliya.

Junior Group:

• The fourth and last match for the day was Sundaram v/s Suhradam in the Junior group. Sundaram House won the match by 33-8, thanks to an inspiring contribution of Shivambhai (Std 8).

Day 3: Friday, 29th August 2014
Junior Group:

• Out of the two matches played on this day, the first one was for the third place match between Shivam and Suhradam of Junior group. Shivam House won the match by 29-00!

Senior Group:

• The second match of the day, again a third place match between Shivam and Satyam in the Senior group, saw a decent victory of Shivam House by 27-17.

Day 4: Saturday, 30th August 2014

• On the last day of the tournament, there were two very exciting finals: for Junior group and Senior group. The first final match was Sundaram v/s Satyam in the Junior group. Satyam House won the match by 17-10 with another fantastic performance by Ojasbhai who score 13 points for his house.
• The second match was the Senior group final, Sundaram v/s Suhradam. Due to an outstanding team play by Sundaram House players, they won this very closely fought final match by 40-30, with commendable performances by Manavbhai and Pavanbhai.

This is how the scorecard looked like in the end:

HOUSE NAME	SUB JUNIOR	JUNIOR	SENIOR	TOTAL POINTS	POSITION
Satyam	6	10	4	20	3rd
Sundaram	4	8	10	22	1st
Suhradam	10	4	8	22
Shivam	8	6	6	20	3rd

Throughout this remarkable tournament, many academic teachers had come to cheer their respective house teams which further encouraged the students to perform to the best of their abilities. Even the Sports teachers were quite excited about the tournament and enjoyed the break time of various matches by practicing shots from different positions.

Dhiren Sir, Ishwar Sir, Ritesh Sir and Bankim Sir were the referees for the tournament and their judgments were decisive and very transparent. Devang Sir, Tejas Sir, Hemant Sir, Kalpesh Sir, Pritesh Sir and Mitesh Sir took care of the scoring duty in a very fair manner and with full dedication.

The event was special also because of the school principal, Vijay Sir coming to the basketball courts for the final matches to encourage and cheer the students. At the end of the tournament, Tarun Sir announced the results of the competition and Vijay Sir gave away the (joint) winners’ trophy to the Sundaram House and Suhradam House Captains.

The competition was an enthralling experience for the Sports Department as it gave an opportunity to see the students perform to the best of their abilities like true sportsmen.

Report submitted by: Bankim Sir (School Basketball Coach)

An Impressive Tally of WINS at the District Level Table Tennis Competition 2014-15

The District Level Table Tennis Competition 2014-15 was held on 2nd September at Sincerite School, Bardoli. There were about 12 schools that participated in the competition.

In the under 14 level, there were 56 participants. From Atmiya Vidya Mandir, Krutarth C. Patel of class 7 played very well. He stood third and got selected for the state level competition.

In under 17 level, there were 44 participants in which the Atmiya Vidya Mandir team performed extremely well. Deep J. Patel of class 9 titled himself as the champion with Nikunj Aggarwal of class 10 at third position and Smith Patel class 9 at fifth position. All of them qualified for the state level competition.

In under 19 level, there were 28 participants out of which five were selected for the state level competition. It is a matter of great pride for the school that all the five participants from Atmiya Vidya Mandir: Niramay Tanna, Jil Patel, Divya Patel, Uttam Italiya and Krutarth J. Patel of class 11, were selected for the state level competition!

The competition hence provided an opportunity to a very talented 128 table tennis players of the region. And out of the total 15 students that represented Atmiya Vidya Mandir in the competition, 9 were selected for the state level competition.

Congratulations to all the students on their performances and best wishes to the state level candidates!

Reported by: Devang Sir (School Table Tennis Coach)

Developing Immunity against Distractions!

In today's feverish culture of multi-tasking, it is common to remain engaged with smartphones, random chat with friends and acquaintances on social media, a casual input of movie reviews and variety of music. The constant chaos in our hyper-connected worlds and the prevalence of attractive gadgets, influencing groups and wavering thoughts make it impossible to sustain focus on the desired goal.

However, students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir are fortunate to be studying and growing in ‘a home away from home’ which provides a firewall against these alluring distractions. There is no mist of worldly chaos here hence there is a clarity of destination for the students of AVM. Yet being focused in studies and having full concentration in the class have always been a challenge for students. Whether that involuntary doodling during the self-study or day dreaming during lecture, or enticing talks about sports; the attention does get an easy escape at times.

How to get rid of distracting thoughts? How to keep the mind on track? What kind of people might take us off-track? What kind of objects are the hurdles in our success journey and how? How to prolong that concentration span? Vachnamrut Pratham 16 provides answers of all these questions. Hence, during the last week of August 2014, Sundaram House members took the opportunity to explore the teachings of the holy scripture Vachnamrut to find answers of these questions.

In order to present the wisdom of Vachnamrut P-16 in the simplest way with its real essence to the students, the house members segregated the teachings in the form of small easy injunctions:

‘A wise person identifies the flaws within himself and thoughtfully eradicates them.’

To begin with, on Monday, Purvesh Sir explained the students that introspection on daily basis is an effective way to identify our flaws but more importantly one has to be thoughtful and keen enough to eradicate them.

The next day, on Tuesday, Mukesh Sir, continued with taking yet another pearl of wisdom form Vachnamrut P-16, which is ‘A wise person rejects any apparent flaws he perceives in others and imbibes only their virtues.' A story based on the same message was narrated to the students, as a result, students understood that the best way to maintain harmony or Atmiyata with others is by perceiving only good qualities of others.

The third important aspect of the teachings of Vachnamrut P-16 is 'A wise person accepts whatever words of advice GOD and saint offer as the highest truth but does not doubt their word in any way.’ This was very well explained through a presentation by students with the guidance of Binu Ma’am.

The brightest day of the week was Thursday when students watched a video clipping of Swamiji. The students were enlightened by listening about the valiant and great warrior Shivaji and his Guru Ramdas. In this video, it was stressed upon, that Guru foresees the impending danger and protects us from all odds hence Guru’s words consist highest truth.

In today’s world, where alluring and distractive elements are inevitably our daily encounters, the much relevant and most prominent part of Vachnamrut P-16 is ‘a wise person identifies those objects and evil company that may cause bondage and raise deficiencies in his (goal) ekantik dharma and shuns them; but he does not become bound by them.’

In Friday’s assembly, this thought was elaborated with examples and presentation so students can build the technique to seize that unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Students were suggested to seek constant strength from God to be strong enough to withstand the distractions and remain determined towards their goal so that they cannot be swayed by diverting elements.

Finally, this Sundaram House week’s assemblies concluded on Saturday, with an urge to the students to imbibe positive thoughts and avoid negative thoughts. Students were explained how good company and friendship with saints can help them harbour good thoughts and repel evil thoughts.

As the summative examinations are approaching AVM students are all set to follow the prudent teachings of Vachnamrut Pratham-16 so that they can conquer all those diverting thoughts.

Good News!! Students of Atmiya Vidya Mandir are learning to tame their mind... they are learning to nip the bad thought in its bud.