Assam Valley Express 28_Jan_2011

A V E

Issue I ssue 1, 2011

Established: 1995

Tuesday, 28th January 2011

The AVE welcomes back the student community from a well-deserved winter break and wishes Class 10 and 12 good luck for the forthcoming ICSE and ISC examinations.

Campus News th

EDITORIAL

RSC A T H ISSAR st

From 28 November to 1 December, 2010, The Assam Valley School participated in the Round Square Conference at Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hissar. The theme of this conference was Get Going; and it encompassed areas as diverse as leadership qualities and the development of reading habits.

F IRST AVS I NTER -S CHOOL B ASKETBALL T OURNAMENT In the first AVS Inter-School Basketball Tournament held at AVS during 15-18 December 2010, AVS secured the second runner-up position. St. Francis School won the trophy.

AVS AT ALL-ASSAM BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT At the All-Assam Basketball Tournament held at Guwahati in December, 2010, the AVS Girls’ team reached the semi-final round, while the AVS Boys’ team defeated Jorhat district and achieved the fifth place in the tournament.

M AKING

A

D IFFERENCE

At the Young Round Square Regional Conference held at The Daly College, Indore during 7-9 January, 2011, AVS was represented

by Anoushkaa P. Kashyap, Anushka Ganguli and Moumili Dutta. They were escorted by Mrs. Pamela Syiemlieh.

P EACE S UMMIT

AT

D ELHI

During 19 -21 January, 2011, the Regional Round Square Conference took place in Delhi. Nishi Agarwal, Daksha Salam, Chaity Sarkar and Mrinal Koijam of AVS took part in the conference. They were escorted by Mrs. Anusha Sharma

Y OGA C OMPETITION

In the 37th Annual Yogasana Championship 2011, the AVS pupil awardees were: Award Name P o s i t i o n House Gold Niharika Dowerah First Subansiri Gold Rohan Tayal First Namdang Silver Riya Todi Second Subansiri Bronze Shivam Bajaj Third Lohit 1

- Mr. Adreyo Sen the laurels of a final year richly spent, as you start prepar ing for the ICSE and ISC examinations, many of you (often for no reason at all) are undergoing considerable anxiety. You think in a linear fashion, imagining that a good percentage in the Board Examinations will guarantee a good college placement, which will then assure you a good career and the promise of a stable life afterward.

This is wrong. Life is not linear and the years that follow your graduation from these sylvan confines will be as full of joys, sorrows, reversals and victories as your years here. Increasingly, people switch jobs, hunting for that perfect career, and this uncertainty is by no means agonizing. The best institutions are not always that much better than the ones that come after them in the rankings and once you finish your education, you might often be at par or better in the job market or graduate study hunt as your counterparts from better institutions.

Institutions are competitive and people are competitive. That exam that looms so large now will become a mere blip on your resume as you proceed with your lives.

Learn for the sake of learning. Pick up skills that reflect or enhance your vocation. Convert those hours spent in Social Service or Desktop Publishing into a career that never fails to excite you.

Be with your friends, but study in silence. Play that one hour of badminton or squash or go for a long walk through the whispering groves of our campus.

Remember always that no matter how you do in the examinations, you have already been blessed. You have grown into fine young men and women, mature, thoughtful and kind, always ready to extend a helping hand. You have learnt to rise as you fall and smile away your tears of pain. You’ve become strong individuals with an unwavering conviction of what is right. Remember, too, that you’ll always be happy and that it takes very little to be happy and that as long as you can carry your band of friends and family in your heart, you will have all the armour you need to take on the world.

So study hard, but don’t tear your heart out. Memorize the melting temperature for ice cream, but don’t scream your lungs out.

And best of luck.

H

AVING LAID DOWN

Weekly Newsletter of The Assam Valley School

BASKETBALL AT AVS - Mr. Hardeep Singh Gill VIATORS DARED TO make their first foray in the All-Assam Basketball Tournament at Guwahati in December 2010. Though the young AVS pupils were pitted against seasonal adult players, they performed brilliantly. The AVS Girls’ team made AVS sporting history in team games by reaching the semi-final round. The AVS Boys’ team defeated Jorhat district and achieved the fifth place in the tournament.

Another significant basketball event was the first AVS Inter-School Basketball Tournament held at AVS during 15-18 December, 2010. Six teams participated. In the finals played between Shri Ram School and St. Francis School, there was stiff competition from both teams. St. Francis School won the tournament, while Shri Ram School was the first runner-up. AVS secured the second runner-up position.

A

PHOTOGRAPH BY: POOJA GILL, CLASS XII

THE SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING, 25TH NOVEMBER, 2010: EXCERPTS Â A black holiday is to be declared in the occurrence of a death within the School premises. A black holiday indicates the temporary suspension of all forms of entertainment and celebrations. In case of the death of either parent of a pupil, the School is to be represented at the funeral by the concerned House Master/Mistress of the pupil and a senior pupil. ÂUniform Committee would comprise Senior Master, Senior Mistress, Housemaster (Tihu), Head Boy, Head Girl, Subansiri Junior Representative, Kopili Junior Representative, Manas Junior Representative and School Captain. ÂHouse Shows are to be initiated with the intention of discovering and broadcasting talent at various levels. ÂThe Chair expressed his discomfort and angst at the deplorable state of the MSB washrooms.

This is to be immediately looked into by the Maintenance Department. Â For all outbound travel parties the following are incumbent: inspection of the 2

condition of the vehicle and reliability of the driver, availability of a Teacher Escort and early reporting of the safe arrival at the destination by the Teacher Escort. Â New initiatives such as Life-Skills programmes, Grooming programmes and Leadership programmes are to be carried out at all levels in the school. Â An outsourced expert is to educate the community on substance, verbal and physical abuse. ÂIt is mandatory for all pupils to put in at least ten hours of Social Service every Semester.

This is exclusive of the Activity Programme. ÂThe School website is to be upgraded to initiate a page for parents to interface with the school. ÂScholarships and bursaries are to be awarded based on objective criterion to deserving pupils which will be renewable at the end of every academic year. ÂThe Sports Complex and Pavilion are to remain open on Sunday afternoons.

AVE Tuesday, 28th January, 2011.

YOUNG ROUND SQUARE REGIONAL CONFERENCE 2011 - Ms. Pamela Syiemlieh N THE 6 of January, 2011, I Indore and have been serving the deaf community accompanied three excited and eager for 34 years.

On 9th January, the delegates were sent to young girls – Moumili Dutta of Class 5, Anoushkaa P. Kashyap and Anuska Ganguli of various sustainability centres. Anushka and Class 6 - to the Daly College, Indore, to Moumili went to the zoo, where they saw participate in the Young Round Square Regional different animals like the spotted deer and the Conference 2011. The theme of the conference hippopotamus. Later, they compiled the Mission Statement which reads as follows: ‘We all have was – Make A Difference.

The conference began on 7th January with the power and the ability to make a difference. Even the welcome address by the Principal, Mr. Sumer the smallest action adds to the pool of goodness, to Singh. Next was a power point presentation by make the Earth a better planet, to make the people the key note speaker, Mrs. Priti Patel Malhotra, happier and to fill hearts with laughter.’ an artiste who has tried to preserve the essence We visited an organic farm where we were and authenticity of Manipuri dance. Her given hands-on training on making seed balls presentation highlighted the fact that we, as the which are placed on hill sides or areas with less inheritors of tradition, must take pride in it and green cover in the hope that some of them will preserve its richness. germinate and grow. At the farm, interesting The Baraza sessions that ensued were experiments using solar energy were also conducted by pupils of Class 5 and 6 of the Daly demonstrated.

College, who made the discussions lively and This conference was a great learning interesting. That evening, our presentation on experience for all of us and we realized that we Service-One Of The Ideals Of Round Square drew could make a difference in so many simple, yet much applause. effective ways.

The next day, Anushka and Moumili with their groups went to Helen Keller School. There, they played with the children and were amazed to see how the visually challenged kids could be so independent. Anoushkaa and I, with our groups, went for the INTACH (Indian National - MS. D orothe Chandana Uppal Dorothe Trust for Architecture and Cultural Heritage) HE ROUND SQUARE conference at Vidya walk. We were shown Rajwada, the palace of Devi Jindal School, Hissar was held from the Holkar kings. We could not enter the palace 28th November to 1st December 2010. The as the main purpose of our visit was to observe theme of the conference was Get Going. Thirteen the restoration work done by INTACH. The evening featured three noted speakers schools took part in the conference. The who have made a great difference to society. The delegates were made aware of the environmental first Riika speaker, Dr. Anupama Negi, is a cancer issues faced by member nations of the United survivor who runs a non-profit organization, Nations and the solutions they have adopted to Sangini, which advises breast cancer patients and tackle the issues through a mock UN session. provides emotional and social support to them. Talks and discussions with educationists like Mr. The second speaker, Shri Kutti Menon, a A.N. Dhar and award winning children’s writer recipient of the Padmashri for Organic Farming, Mrs. Kamalesh Mohindra on topics like appealed to all the delegates to have green leadership qualities and the development of campuses in their schools by planting more trees. reading habits were enriching and thoughtHe also spoke on the great impact of organic provoking. The adventure activities helped in food on health. The third Riika speaker was Mrs. inculcating and improving team spirit and Monika Punjabi Verma – CODA (Child of Deaf leadership qualities. The informal cultural Adults) - the President of the Indian Sign evenings helped the children to bond and work Language Interpreter Association. She spoke together. about her growing up years and Mr. Rudendra Basak and Mrs. Sunanda Basak how normal it was for her to use were blessed with a baby girl on the 18th of sign language with her parents.

January, 2011.

They, despite their disability, have Our congratulations to the proud parents. set up Mook Badhir Sangathan in

O

TH

GETTING GOING AT HISSAR

T

3

AVE Tuesday, 28th January, 2011.

PEACE – NOT JUST THE ABSENCE OF WAR - Ms. Anusha Sharma HE BRITISH SCHOOL, New Delhi, hosted on wood in a short span of two days under the the Round Square Peace Summit which aegis of a Global Art Programme. They also commenced with the mandatory flag facilitated free expression of peace on canvas and hoisting on the 19th of January, 2011. The keynote through the idea of peace on white umbrellas, speaker for the day was the very suave and which the delegates loved to do. In the arena of convincing Mr. Suhel Seth, who in his opening debating, profound viewpoints were presented address said, “This Peace Summit is not meant on Media As Perpetrators Of Crime Or Crusaders to talk about the advantages of peace but the Of Peace and discussions about whether The presence of harmony.” In a simple statement the Search For Personal Identity Endangered The Cause significant yet rudimentary message of peace was Of Global Peace were held. The added excitement given. This stated that in each human there resides was the interactive session following the debates both good and evil; a capacity to love and to hate wherein reputed people from the media and and with each step that we take we make a choice. diplomats discussed with the audience and In the end, it all comes down to actions, passive clarified doubts. There was also a service or active. segment where the delegates danced, played and Peace being the “unity of harmony, sang along with their somewhat less privileged serenity, equality and satisfaction”, the summit brethren. focused on five major activity areas which While participating in these workshops, comprised music, dance, drama, art and debate. people who initially did not know one another Each of these were managed by key facilitators broke out of their comfort zones and got to who were experts in their fields. The AVS know each other. At the end, staff and students delegates participated in debates (Mrinal Koijam), alike were seen frenetically exchanging mail ids drama (Nishi Agarwalla), music (Chaity Sarkar) and contact numbers for future reference. The and art (Daksha Salam). The entire Conference Conference was indeed a wonderful exposure to was activity based, thus making the hands-on a multi-cultural ambience where, together, we learning experience extremely exciting. definitely grow stronger and learn to live in peace Sharon Lowen, the famous danseuse, and harmony. conducted the workshop which culminated in an Odissi representation of the famous song, We Are The World. The drama workshop by the On 27th December, 2010, Aviator Siddharth world famous Neil Farrelly resulted in a short Das (2010 Batch, Dhansiri House Captain) died play which very strongly propagated peace in the world. In unison and with tremendous élan, in a tragic motorcycle accident in Guwahati. the choir sang about joy and peace in the world and explored the acapella techniques of making On 8th January, 2011, Mrs. Urmimala alternate music without instruments. Tom Wood Chowdhury lost her father Mr. Debesh Chandra and his group were the most popular as they Baruah. designed two exquisite murals painted in acrylic

T

Bereavements

OPINION POLL Do you think the School can proceed to be a no-plastics zone?

NO (24%)

YES (76%) 235 members of the School community were polled.

On 16th January, 2011, Mr. Rajib Hazarika lost his father, Mr. Kamalkant Nath.

On 20th January, 2011, Ms. Lesley Guha Sircar lost her father-in-law, Mr. Bimal Kumar Guha Sircar.

On 21st January, 2011, Mr. N.N. Goswami lost his father, Mr. Hari Prasad Goswami.

The AVS community conveys its heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and stands by them in their loss.

Chief Student Editor: Ambiso Tawsik Chief Staff Editor: Shubha Chatterjee, Deputy Staff Editors: Adreyo Sen, Supratim Basu E-mail: ave@assamvalleyschool.com. Telephone: 03714-292470. Publisher: Deputy Head (Educational Administration) The Assam Valley School, P.O. Balipara, Dist. Sonitpur, Asom-784101, India. Printed at: Swastika Printers, Rangapara, Asom. Website: www.assamvalleyschool.com.

4

AVE Tuesday, 28th January, 2011.