Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Inter School District Level Handball Competition 2014-15

The under-17 handball team of Atmiya Vidya Mandir, under the guidance of coach Kalpesh Sir, participated in the Inter School District Level Handball Competition held at Satrawala Uma Vidyapith (Valthan) on 23rd August 2014. A total of 11 teams took part in this event.

In the first match against Vidyamangal School, the AVM team, won by 20-1. The following players showed remarkable performances:
  • Tapan Dandawala: 5 goals
  • Vaishvik C Patel: 5 goals
  • Manav Patel: 4 goals
  • Dhwanit Tamboli: 4 goals
  • Yash Jariwala: 1 goals
  • Abhitya Talreja: 1 goal

The second match was against DPS-Tapi school in which the AVM team won by 14-1 and qualified for the semi-finals. The score was built upon the performances of the following players:
  • Tapan Dandawala: 5 goals
  • Vaishvik C Patel: 4 goals
  • Manav Patel: 2 goals
  • Dhwanit Tamboli: 2 goals
  • Parag Algotar: 1 goal
The semi-final match was against Satrawala Uma Vidyapith. The hosts put up a commendable performance due to which the AVM team lost by 6-16. The following players put in their best efforts in the match:
  • Tapan Dandawala: 2 goals
  • Manav Patel: 2 goals
  • Vaishvik C Patel: 1 goal
  • Hitarth Savani: 1 goal
Congratulations to the team for their performance in the tournament and especially to the following players who got selected to represent the school at the state level competition.
  1. Tapan R. Dandawala
  2. Dhwanit R. Tamboli
  3. Manav N. Patel
Written by: Ritesh Sir

Monday, August 25, 2014

Satyam House celebrates the value Sincerity

To offer real service to mankind we must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money and that is Sincerity and Integrity.

The central message that was delivered by Satyam House during daily assemblies in the middle of August 2014 was ‘Sincerity is not to SAY everything we think, but to MEAN everything we say’. It is indeed difficult, but not impossible, if we assure ourselves to dedicate our service to the nation with utmost commitment.

Satyam House began by presenting an invaluable description of the life of Param Pujya Swamiji whose sincerity, right from the childhood till date, is immeasurable and unspeakable. Imbibing lessons of Sincerity, a bit every day, from the life of this divine entity enables us to inherit the qualities of modesty, integrity and value oriented life.

There are various aspects that could be considered in order to understand this important value of sincerity. How can we say that a person is sincere? Is it when he/she is honest, faithful, truthful or hardworking?

When we say a person is sincere, then the virtues like honesty, innocence, nobility, faithfulness and truthfulness are bound to be found in that person. The real quality of a ‘BHOOLKU’ is that he/she never compromises with the quality of work that he/she undertakes.

Throughout the week, the students were explained that in order to be successful in any field, whether it is academic, sports, arts or music, one has to be sincere in his/her work. ‘Sincerity means to put our 100% efforts in whatever we do'.

To further justify the topic, anecdotes from the lives of the great personalities who have encouraged all by living a life that demonstrates sincerity were highlighted.

Through these assemblies, the students were assisted to gain the understanding that development of the nation not only depends on the intelligent human resources but also on the sincerity and honesty of these human resources.

Thus, Satyam House put in humble efforts to inculcate the important value ‘sincerity’ in day–to–day life. The seeds of sincerity that have been sown in the students’ hearts and minds will definitely bear fruits in their attitude in the coming time.
Written by: Samidh Ma'am

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Inter School District Level Skating Competition 2014-15

Our school team participated in the Inter School District Level Skating Competition 2014-15 organised at P. P. Savani School, Abrama on 19th August 2014 under the guidance of coach Mitesh Sir.

In the U-11 Boys Quad event, a total of 48 students participated. In this group, Krishiv Davariya (Std 4) and Devam Dhaduk (Std 4) represented Atmiya Vidya Mandir. Both of them reached the finals with Krishiv securing 1st position and Devam at 4th position in the event.

In the U-11 Boys Inline event, Hari Martin (Std 3) and Manthan Patel (Std 3) represented AVM and put up a commendable performance in the first round but did not qualify for the next round.

 
In the U-14 Boys Quad event, a total of 58 students participated in which Krish A Patel (Std 7), Ishaan S Davariya (Std 8) Shreemad J Patel (Std 9) represented Atmiya Vidya Mandir. All of them reached the finals with Shreemad achieving the 1st position and Krish at 3rd position.

The U-17 Boys Quad event saw a total of 28 participants. Hrushi A Patel and Uday C Jariwala participated from Atmiya Vidya Mandir and they also reached the finals with Uday securing 2nd position and Hrushi, 4th position.

And finally, the U-17 Boys Inline event had a total of 12 participants. The two students that participated in this group from AVM, Vishrut I Patel (Std 10) and Durgesh N Gami (Std 10), also reached the finals with Durgesh securing the 2nd position and Vishrut the 3rd position.

It’s a matter of pride for the school that the following students got selected for the state level competition:
  • Krishiv Davariya [Under 11 Quad]
  • Shreemad J Patel [Under 14 Quad]
  • Uday C Jariwala [Under 17 Quad]
  • Durgesh N Gami [Under 17 Inline]
  • Vishrut I Patel [Under 17 Inline]
Congratulations to all the students for representing the school and for their achievements!

Written by: Ritesh Sir

Thursday, August 14, 2014

A Refreshing & Inspiring Trip!

Despite being a very young school with just 3 graduating batches so far, we are proud that our students are already doing well wherever they have gone across India or across the globe. With their hard work, Param Pujya Swamishree’s blessings and God’s grace, all are doing well at very good places.

These Atmiyans have been building small Atmiya communities wherever they have gone. This Rakshabandhan break, we decided to visit two of these Atmiya communities.

 
The first trip was to Chennai, to meet with those studying at the SRM University. There are 16 AVM students studying there from the three 3 batches combined. As a pleasant surprise, we were greeted by familiar faces right outside the Chennai airport on 9th August evening. And it was such a pleasure to see them! We stayed with them for 3 very memorable days.

We spent the entire Sunday with them, discussing all sorts of topics with them: about personal, academic, professional and spiritual progress. On Monday, we visited the university to find out first-hand about the place and the opportunities it offered. We were able to look around 3 departments, meet two HoDs and the Nanotechnology Research Centre Head.

The labs and the research facilities of the university are truly impressive. We were touched even more so by meeting with the HoDs. Dr. Thyagarajan (HoD, Dept. of Biotechnology), came across as an extremely learned and yet humble person. He spent about 2 hours with us, personally showing us around the labs and discussing his views about education and concern for welfare of the youths.

In our meeting with Dr. Murali (HoD, Dept. of Mechatronics), we found him also to be very much concerned about the well-being of the students. And in Mr Gopalakrishnan (Centre Incharge, Nanotechnology Research Centre), we found a patriotically hearted spiritual person.

We are extremely happy about the progress and performance of the atmiyans and especially so by seeing that they have continued with the Atmiya way of life, staying together, maintaining simplicity. They have made us proud of their continuing with the legacy. It was wonderful to see our children mature into responsible young men who are not only conscious about their academics and professional life, but also caring about their families, and making an effort to further improve their personal life. We feel all the more assured that these individuals will grow into outstanding citizens of our wonderful country and make their parents proud.

As for our views of the SRM University, we found it to be a place that offers ample opportunities for research, has great infrastructure while constantly improving and adding new facilities. Students indeed have the opportunity to learn from faculty who have exemplary qualifications and experience, and also the chance to study at some of the best places around the world due to the tie-ups with foreign universities.

The next part of the trip was to Mumbai where another sizeable community of atmiyans reside, doing great at great places like NMIMS, CBS, NM and HR. We spent an evening with them (with some good coffee!) and discussed a wide range of topics related to their all round development.

We came back re-energised and refresh, inspired by the thoughts, actions and aspirations of these young gentlemen.

And we look forward to meeting with them all soon and over and over again.

Monday, August 11, 2014

જેના મિત્રો સરસ, એની જીન્દગી સફળ!

The one who has the company of True Friends, lives a truly successful life.

Friendship is the most important and influential factor of our lives. Friends provide the stimulus to the way we think, speak, act, talk, behave, etc. They delineate our character and mould our success stories. Shivam House was very much privileged to celebrate the value of “Friends” as part of weekly assemblies.
 
So, how do we make friends? What kind of success can a friend help us achieve? Generally, we make friends based on the following:

1. Usefulness: How useful can one be to you? Will he lend me his perfume? Will he share his chocolates with me? Will he help me to complete my homework? Will he support me in case an adverse situation arises? These are some of the questions we ask ourselves and confirm, before making friends.

2. Pleasure: Some people are fun loving and their presence drives all your worries away. They always have some funny things to share that make you roar with laughter. Some others may accompany you in shopping and watching a movie. You may share the same interests in academics sports and technologies, for example:
  • I like watching and discussing about American Football and Raj also likes it, so he is my best friend.
  • I like gadgets and latest technology like an Apple iPhone and Ani shares with me the latest apps and games of iPhone, so he is my best friend.
  • I enjoy making working models and Jeet is also interested in making scientific models, so he is my best friend.
3. Virtue: When someone has creditable personality traits or values in him, we are naturally attracted to that individual and want to make him our friend. Some of these virtues include being respectful, faithful, effective communication, proactive, supportive nature, understanding nature, etc. The fact that he is your friend makes you feel proud. You will be ready to do whatever such a person tells you to do.

So now there is another very important question as to which of the above mentioned friends are good friends? And yes, there is still the question of definition of success.

Thinking carefully, the type 3 ‘Virtuous Friends’ are the ideal friends. But it is also true that one who is virtuous may not be as helpful and joyful. So then, type 1 ‘Useful Friends’ may be a good option. But there may or may not be situations in life where you may need help from people and hence, such friendship lacks quality and constant contact. Now the only option that remains is type 2 ‘Pleasure loving Friends’. But how long can one keep on laughing at jokes and foolishness of some other people. Moreover how long will you share things of interest? There will be a point of saturation reached, someday.

In a way, all of the above discussed friends are good friends. We need friends with virtues so that we can become virtuous, we need friends who are useful as they will be ready to share things with us, and we definitely need friends who bring joy and pleasure to our life and who share the same interest as ours. As Param Pujya Swamiji has regularly emphasised that whatever good we find in others we should observe, meditate and imbibe. Moreover, when we get to learn something good from someone he is our good friend.

Furthermore, Swamiji has also explained through His discourses that a true friend is the one who…

  1. Will help you to achieve academic success and will help you to make your senses positive.
    One may claim that he has friend(s) who helps him academically and they both are academically successful. But the real question to ask is:
    Are they helping each other to see positively? Are they helping each other to talk positive about others? Are they helping each other to listen positive about others? Are they selflessly helping others by sharing knowledge?
    Thus, a true friend will help you make your senses positive, develop the focus and hence become academically strong.
  2. Will help you to settle down in life, live a morally and culturally sound life, maintain positivity and live happily.
    One may say that he has earned a lot of money in life and he is successful. He may also claim that he has lots of friends who are extremely rich. But the question arises, is earning money the true success of life? Money will get you all the necessary materialistic comforts, however it will not be able to buy respect and humility; it will not fetch you a tension free live and it will not fetch you good and positive thoughts. Only a true friend will teach one to live a morally and culturally sound life and that will help one to develop humility and gain respect.
    A true friend will help you to stick to positive thoughts and hence, will be loyal and committed at all times.
  3. Will teach you to grow spiritually i.e. to live with ‘Atmiyata’ and ‘Suhradbhav’. He will support you in following the commands of Guru and will teach you to offer service with devotion. He will teach you to celebrate the diversity and adversity of life. He will teach you how to attain the true bliss of God.
Under the guidance of teachers, the Shivam House team made a humble effort to put forth the above discussion in the daily assemblies through videos, presentations and speeches.

The week concluded on 9th August with a heart touching drama depicting the importance of true friends. In the drama, it was portrayed that true friendship is brimming with faith, acceptance and selfless sacrifice. It not only benefits the friends but influences the people around in a positive manner.
Written by: Prabhudarshan Sir

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The budding writers, poets, orators of AVM

As the school campus draped in a green covering after the monsoon-showers, the freshness and vivacity became fast prevailing, the palpable verve spread all over as if accelerating learning with conducive environment. Hence, the school retrieved its rhythm in academics, activities and incorporated competitions.

As a matter of fact, at AVM, learner’s delight comes unbidden in activity based learning. However, the implementation of the unique multiple intelligence based competition approach in the school, provides a rich backdrop where students make exuberant discovery of embedded content resulting in the most stimulating learning experiences. This time in the first week of August, Linguistic Intelligence was at work when students showed their fascination for words, reading and writing. A competition for Verbal and Linguistic Intelligence was held for classes 1st to 10th.


Poetry Recitation: 
In this academic competition, students of classes 1st, 2nd were guided by Kavita Ma’am to perform in Poetry Recitation or Action Song depicting importance of fruits and vegetables. Through this competition, the tiny tots got an opportunity to improve their clarity of speech, understanding and using apt words for needed expressions and remaining calm, focused and polite on the stage.

Story Presentation:
Here, students of grade 3 were encouraged and guided by Vaishali Ma’am to narrate a story through dialogues and enactment. In this story telling competition, students were exposed to some significant language skills of expressing their story through dramatization. The young participants of this competition gained confidence to present themselves on the stage in front of an audience.

Crossword Puzzle:
Linguistically smart students of grade 4 savoured and enjoyed arranging words and alphabet for the word puzzle and were on check for complicated words and rich vocabulary. Renuka Ma’am arranged for these interesting activities for grade 4th, 5th and 6th.

Parts of Speech in Sentences:
In this competition, grammar was on check, as the students of grade 5 appreciated and enjoyed the challenges in the complexities of sentence structure in which they required to identify parts of speech and collect them in their respective bowl with the labels of Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Adverb, Interjection and Preposition, etc

Story Writing: 
This competition was for students of grade 6th who are linguistically intelligent possessing a knack of writing. The story writing competition was to enhance the skill of appropriate usage of words and grammar for writing a particular text type.

Poetry Writing: 
Writing in the native or the mother tongue is an important part of language learning. Mukesh Sir and Rekha Ma’am organised this competition to assess students’ aptness and precision at linguistic contest, students of classes 7th and 8th were guided to compose poems on the given subject. 

Persuasive Speech: 
Chirag Sir and Saumya Ma’am arranged for this competition for students of grade 9th and 10th where students were given exposure to show their oratory skills. The participants persuaded the audience with their impressive speeches on the topics like ‘Money is not everything’. The elegant speakers of all houses created a tough competition amongst themselves:



In this way AVM students, participated in this Verbal-Linguistic competition to enhance their oratory skills and hone their writing skills. It has definitely created awareness for vocabulary and grammar.

Thus the future poets, novelists, journalists, bloggers, speech writers, editors and linguists are in the making at AVM!

Inter-house Carrom Competition 2014-15

Monsoon brings life to nature and fills the lives of millions of people with happiness and joy. But it also often restricts the outdoor activities. Therefore, at AVM we always start the inter-house sports competitions with Carrom.

Like many sports, carrom also requires focus and determination to succeed but, in addition to that, carrom also requires a good knowledge of geometry and angles to put the difficult coins in the pocket. Even though students don’t play carrom when the outdoor activities are possible, the spirit shown by the students indicates the enthusiasm especially amongst younger students.

 
The competition was divided into three categories: Sub-Junior, Junior and Senior. Each category had two pairs of students from each house for a knock out match.

In the Sub-Junior category, Sundaram House took the first and the second place while Satyam House took the third place. Harshilbhai and Vrajbhai became champions by beating the other Sundaram House team of Pranambhai and Aryanbhai.

Sundaram House continued their good showing with taking the second place while Shivam House took the third place. However, Satyam House duo of Gauravbhai and Dhruvbhai won the category by beating Sundaram House pair of Shreemadbhai and Shivangbhai.

The Sundaram House pair of Rajveerbhai and Mantavyabhai won the senior category by beating Shreybhai and Harshbhai of Satyam House. Shivam House took the third place in the category.

Here is the brief summary of the final score:


Reported by: AVM Sports Team