Inter House Volleyball Competition 2013-14

The last Inter House sports competition brought tremendous joy and excitement to the students as the sports calendar of the year 2013-14 ended with the Inter House Volleyball Competition. It was held in the week ending on the 10th of February, 2014, on the school volley ball courts and went on for 4 days. During these 4 days, many extra-ordinary performances were seen from the students. The artistic decoration made the atmosphere even more joyous.

Students were divided into three groups:

• Sub-Junior group including the students of grades 5 and 6
• Junior group including the students of grades 7 and 8 and
• Senior group including the students of grades 9 and 10.

On the very first day, the competition began with poojan of Thakorji and then with the first two matches in the Sub-Junior group. The first match was played between Satyam House and Suhradam House in which Suhradam House won the game by 25-11 and the second match was played between Shivam house and Sundaram House in which Sundaram house won by 25-16. On the same day, one match was played in the Junior group, between Shivam House and Sundaram House in which Sundaram House won by a set score 2-1. Besides that, in the Senior group the first match was played between Satyam House and Suhradam House in which Satyam House won by set score 2-1. This match ended the day.

On the second day of the competition, students came back with recharged energy and enthusiasm. The first match was the 3rd place match in the Sub-Junior group between Shivam House and Satyam House, in which Shivam House secured the 3rd place by winning the game with a set score 2-0 in a best of three set match. In the Junior group, the match was played between Satyam House and Suhradam House, in which Suhradam House won by set score 2-0. Next match was played between Sundaram House and Shivam House in which Sundaram House won by set score 2-0.

The third day of the competition was pretty exciting as the final match was held in the Sub-Junior group between Sundaram House and Suhradam House, in which both the teams played equally good but it was the Suhradam House that managed to secure the 1st place in the Sub-Junior group by set score 2-1. The next match thereafter was for the 3rd place in the Junior group. This was played between Satyam House and Shivam House in which Satyam House won with a set score 2-0. After this match, the third place match in Senior group was played between Shivam House and Suhradam House in which Shivam House took away the 3rd place by winning the match with set score 2-1.

The last day of the competition saw excitement at its zenith as the two finals were played - one from Junior group and second from Senior group. The occasion was made even more special as the school principal, respected Vijay Sir and vice principal, respected Ashish Sir graced the volleyball court. Fitting to the occasion, the students gave an incredible performance as the excitement level increased by many multi folds. The day began with the first final match from Junior group between Suhradam House and Sundaram House. Both the teams performed brilliantly, as from the Sundaram House side, Mantavyabhai and Jaybhai played exceptionally well and from the Suhradam House side, Rajveerbhai and Rahulbhai kept the spirits high. But it was the efficient smashing from the Suhradam players which led to secure the first place in their group by set score 2-0. But it was not the end of the day because still the second final was left - between Satyam House and Sundaram House from the Senior category.

Both the teams looked very confident and equally matched. This was because both the teams had one marvellous smasher each, Parthbhai from Satyam House and Nirmalbhai from Sundaram House. Both these players had recently represented the school in the CBSE Inter School Competition and this time around they were to face each other in the last match of this competition. The match began with both teams countering their opponents very well. This tightly contested match reached the deciding set as both the teams won 1 set a piece. Initially, Satyam House fell behind but their rejuvenated and inspiring serving took them to equal points. They kept their nerves in the final few points of the game and narrowly beat Sundaram House.

The overall house winner position was a bit tricky as no particular house team dominated all the three categories. Following is the overall points table for the competition:

• Satyam House: 16 points
• Shivam House: 12 points
• Sundaram house: 24 points
• Suhradam house: 20 points

As can be seen above, the Sundaram House team captains led their teams to secure the first position in the competition. In the end, Tarun Sir concluded the competition by thanking the sports department for managing and organising such a memorable competition and the students for their louder than words enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

By: Rahul and Nimit (Grade 8)

The Habit of Winning

“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.” ― John Dryden

Our habits can make or break us but we do not give enough attention to them. Habits are really more important than we think. Our habits are formed by the choices we make over the years. We seldom think upon whether these choices are good or bad ones. It is very important to cultivate good and positive habits from the childhood because we are not born with them. Habits are the result of the choices we make time after time. These choices finally harden into habits.

So as a school, it is very important for us to imbibe such good and positive habits in our pupils. Sundaram House was privileged to be part of such an endeavour by celebrating the value “Habit of Winning” through the medium of daily morning assemblies. During the week, Sundaram House team members shared different habits of winners through short motivational stories. These stories can change the way one thinks, works, lives and ultimately leads him towards the path of success. Furthermore, most of the discussions in the assemblies during the week, including the key points and many inspiring stories were taken from the book “Habit of Winning” - by Prakash Iyer (Author, Coach, Speaker and Managing Director of Kimberly-Clark Lever).

The first habit highlighted was “Setting the goal”. We have to first set a goal to have clarity of what we want to achieve. We may have the best tools to climb a mountain, we may also have a group of other climbers with us but what if we don’t have a mountain to climb! All those sophisticated tools are useless if there is no mountain to climb. Similarly, if we don’t have any goal to achieve in our life, we’ll be purposeless like an animal and will not achieve anything. It is also very important to stick to the goal once it is decided. If we identify the rabbit we want to catch, we should focus only on that one. If we try to catch many rabbits, we may end up with none. If the rabbit proves elusive, we need to change our tactics, but we shouldn’t change the rabbit. At AVM, incidentally, the summative exams are on their way so this was a very timely opportunity to set or review the goals set by the students.

The second habit discussed was “Self-Belief”. Once we fix our goal we should believe in what we are doing and have faith in God. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. Believing in ourselves is a big step forward after setting the goal. Often, in our quest for more, we believe we need to abandon what we are doing and go out and look for new ways of success. We fail to recognize the diamonds lying right under our feet.

The third habit that followed was “Perseverance: Consistent hard work”. “Main Khelega!!!” these were the two magical words with which the cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar, achieved many milestones in his life. In his debut test match against Pakistan in December 1989, he got injured by Waqar’s nasty bouncer and he started bleeding but he did not quit and said “Main Khelega!” and kept playing. In our life there can be situations when the pressure mounts and we feel that we cannot do this and we give up. But at that time we have to stick to our set goals. We need to keep that “Main Khelega Spirit alive” and continue fighting with our mann. That is perseverance: continuous hardwork.

The fourth essential habit is “Appreciating the role of other contributing factors to our success”. It was brought to light that apart from our own selves, our teachers, didis, housemasters, parents and friends play a critical role in our lives. In the game of football, there are a total of 22 players on the field at the same time but only one plays at any given point of time. And yet, what the remaining 21 players do on the field at that moment has a significant weightage in deciding the fate of the game, not just what the one who is sprinting ahead with the ball does. Life is not just about what we do when we are in control - it’s also about what we do when someone else has the say. Students were encouraged to be pillars of success for each other by being considerate of each other rather than being the cause of others’ failure or even under-performance.

The fifth habit discussed upon was “Developing a winner’s mind-set”. How do winners think? If we expect more, we get more. In much the same way, if we expect failure we get that too. The secret is remain persistent and not giving up. Being such a fundamental thing, the students were yet again reminded about the significance of the company of good friends. Furthermore, they were encouraged to exploit the potential of mind that God has gifted to all rather than being tricked by it. In order to achieve beyond what was already achieved, one needs to do things differently and that surely requires a different mind-set – a winner’s mind-set.

The sixth habit taken up was “Finding Balance”. The bottom line was that one needs to take a good judgement in balancing between success and the core values of life. The necessity of being righteous and acting accordingly was emphasised through some remarkable stories. The story of the Canadian sailor and an Olympic hero Lawrence Lemieux who never won a gold/silver/bronze medal but instead was presented the Pierre de Coubertin medal (True Medal of Sportsmanship) for his selfless conduct in the Seoul Olympics touched everyone’s hearts. Together with other anecdotes, the students were inspired to aim for a rightful life full of values.

The seventh habit discussed was “Winning with TEAMS”. Whatever our goal may be, we cannot achieve it alone, we need a team for that. Teamwork always wins. To make a kite fly higher, one needs to pull it towards self, not let it lose. The same also works with people. Atmiyata, the core value of the school was elaborated upon and students gained a fresh perspective of it’s importance.

The eighth and the last habit for winning taken up was “TAKE ACTION”. Dreams always come true, although, for that one has to wake up from sleeping and take action. Again, using some real life incidences both at AVM and from outside, the all-important need to take action in the direction of achieving our goal was conveyed. It was highlighted that the key to success was to get started and to learn to finish what we started.

Finally, the students from grades 1 to 4, presented posters, one each for each of the habits talked about during the week. One student held the poster, another summarised it for the school and the third in the team appealed to all to take the first step, today and build upon that as days pass.

Throughout this week Sundaram House students and teachers shared the above mentioned habits through small talks, short stories, presentations and videos.

-Priyavadan Sir

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