War Vs Peace- Mizan Ali

My journey so far as a teacher; Joining a new school

Transition to a new school as a teacher can be both exciting and challenging. It seems difficult to navigate the transition smoothly but it actually depends on many factors. I still remember my first day at Sunbeam Indiranagar. 

It was the 1st of  Feb 2023, the harshness of the winter was moribund, the temperature was mild, the sky was clear, and early signs of spring were visible. A scenic landscape was in front of me. A cosy place; not very big in infrastructure but big at heart, created a stunning sight for exploration and learning. Longer daylight and a perennially blooming shady neem tree standing in the eastern corner of the assembly ground, protected people from harsh sunlight for decades and gave a peekaboo view of the vast sky, providing ample scenic beauty to admire nature's blessings with refreshing and invigorating air all around, took away my heart as if it was love at first sight.

My sight captured the view of a designated space in the centre, for the performance of little artists to begin their journey of becoming eloquent orators and dramatists, in future.

I entered Indiranagar premises, being an optimistic person I didn't lose hope so I gave a second chance to myself and prayed to God to help me prove my worth but still, my heart was skipping beats.

I had worked tirelessly at my previous workplace, giving my tooth to it, even in bleak circumstances related to my health and happiness, but I couldn't prove myself. So again I swam with the current to prove myself.

I kept walking and then climbed the uncarpeted stairs to reach the staffroom. I was a little nervous and had some apprehensions about my future but with a big smile, I entered and found inquisitive eyes, smiling faces and open arms to accept this fallen leaf of a strong, old renowned tree. And soon they became strong pillars for me, no less than family. They were generous, kind, and gave me a warm welcome, showed nonjudgmental behaviour that allowed me to fly high & walk the extra mile.

The day passed enthusiastically and we had a lot of fun working together. After a few days, I was asked to move to the kindergarten section as a recruit was demanded over there. Meeting all new faces back to back was a little sceptical but I was proved wrong. Their heart and arms both were waiting for me. They made me old in a day. 

Ongoing learning, tireless striving towards perfection, daily insights and of course the true and unconditional support of my work buddies made me what I am today. The appreciation, trust and recognition by the chairperson and colleagues helped me gain my courage back, granting me access to demonstrate my confidence and allowing me to think and do beyond boundaries. Hence what I learnt at Indiranagar is not to be judgmental even with the Wanted Back Bencher and Last Ranker Teacher (Book by Kavita Bhupta Ghosh).

A unique, note-worthy, verdant, enchanting, harmonious, majestic, luminous and invigorating school that nestles its people to foster growth, is my ''Sunbeam Indiranagar'' a great source of peace for me!

Mizan Ali 

Sunbeam Indiranagar

Humility and Appreciation - Sharmila Vijayvargi

The two values are most important in shaping one’s life and instilling feelings of confidence, motivation in others.  For this post, I have tried to depict the importance of these two values by way of a few lines:

NEVER BE BOASTFUL

Those who are virtuous

Never boast of their worth.

Simple, modest and humble,

Like them, who's there on earth?

If you’re good

                                        And you do good,

                                      It’ll reflect in your deeds.

                               Never, never be boastful, indeed.

We should always acknowledge that nothing on earth is permanent – wealth, power or beauty. Pride leads to a fall; vanity leads to folly. NEVER be boastful of your possessions. If we look around, we will find that the greatest people around us were never boastful but were humble, simple and down to earth people. Similarly, we should also inculcate humility in our deeds and show it to students and others around us. Let your actions speak louder than your words. ALWAYS BE HUMBLE AND SIMPLE.

APPRECIATE OTHERS

Others need appreciation, too

As much as I do.

I must acknowledge and appreciate

Others for their love and care,

For the joys and sorrows, they share with me,

For understanding and accepting me as I am.

One word of appreciation can make their hearts

Glow with happiness and mine, too.

Appreciation boosts our self-esteem, confidence and enthusiasm to do and be better still. Appreciation makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Sharmila Vijayvargi

The Fabindia School

svi@fabindiaschools.in

Simplicity and Trust - Manisha Deora

Simplicity is nothing but being yourself. We can observe that in childhood we just consume and use what we need; that's simplicity. We are rightly advised by the elders to believe in simple living and high thinking. Simplicity can be shown in food, speech, manners and in the way of living. Eating fast food, using costly items, losing the temper, etc are some examples of not being simple.

Great men and women who have achieved and succeeded in life followed a simple lifestyle. Even today great men like MS.Dhoni, Rajini Kanth and many others are living a simple life even though they have achieved more success in their life. It is not important to run after fashions and costly gadgets.  It is not necessary to look for tall buildings and apartments. Living a comfortable life in a simple way without any stress is simplicity. There is always beauty in simplicity. Let us experience what simplicity is.

Trust is the belief in the ability or strength of someone or something. It also means acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation. Trust is when you ask someone to do something and you know they will surely do it. We should believe the statement said by the other person. Trust is when you feel comfortable with them while sharing our views and ideas.

We should try to listen to others' statements and understand what they are up to. If we can surround ourselves with people we trust, then we can create a safe present and an even better future. Trust means giving something now with an expectation that it will be repaid, possibly in some unspecified way at some unspecified time in the future. It is a special thing to be trusted by someone. Trust should be valued highly and seen as a true bond between two persons.


- Manisha Deora, The Fabindia School

Simplicity And Trust - Prerna Rathod

Simplicity and trust, these two things are not ornaments that we can wear; these are the qualities of a person and are connected to each other. It means that if you are simple it is quite easy for people to trust you because you will have nothing to hide. In other words, if

we keep things simple, there is no place for trust issues. Also, there is a beauty in simplicity. "True sophistication lies in simplicity."

Simplicity is a quality or condition of being easy to understand or do, whereas trust means firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. If a person has the ability to keep things simple and is able to keep the trust of people, then that person definitely lives with inner peace. A person should not only have these qualities to show to the world, but he/ she must have it when he is alone too. Simplicity makes life simple and having someone's trust is truly a blessing.

I would like to recall some quotes:
"Live simply, so that others can simply live." This indeed means that keeping our life simple will help others to live simple.

The best example I can recall is of Mahatma Gandhi. He leads a simple life. Thus, people trusted him from their heart. They believed that Gandhiji would help them to achieve freedom for India. They followed all rules made by him and at last, we got our freedom. Thus, India got its independence in 1947.

Prerna Rathod The Fabindia School

Simplicity & Trust - Super 7

THERE IS BEAUTY IN SIMPLICITY

“Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child’s eye. It is very beautiful.” 
– Kailash Satyarthi

To be able to view the pure and unadulterated world around us, we need to train our minds to be simple in our thoughts and beliefs. Teachers often marvel at the simple solutions, that the children come up with, to seemingly difficult problems. Life's experiences condition adults to unnecessarily complicate things. It is only after a considerable amount of introspection, does one notice that one is caught up in a complex mesh of life which forces one to turn a blind eye to the beauties of the world. 

It takes quite a good amount of time to come out of this mesh and look at life afresh. However, it’s important that we spend that time to introspect. Similarly, it’s also important for us not to impose our complex ideas on our youngsters, thereby leaving their perception of this colourful world untainted.

A fine day saw the teacher talking to her students about the importance of technology. The discussion brought about obvious references to the latest gadgets and innovations. Sudden unrest was noticed at one corner of the class and after much probing; she found out that a child named Rahul was teasing Soham, his classmate, for the financial condition of his family. While Rahul was the son of a leading businessman, Soham’s father was a professor. Soham chose not to argue with Rahul over the hand-me-down, old phone that he used while going for his after-school activities. He kept calm and politely answered Rahul, “Simple living high thinking is the mantra of our life.” This immediately shut Rahul up, and never again was he caught teasing his friends.

Later when the teacher had a word with Soham, the latter clarified, “My father told me that being simple is not a crime. It is more important to be knowledgeable than to be rich.” 

The teacher was surprised at the calm composure exhibited by such a young boy. When she later shared the tale, it was an eye-opener for all of us as well. We often run after unessential materialistic pleasures not realizing that the real treasures lie right in front of us.

Trust is yet another virtue which helps us to appreciate the simple but profound beauty of relationships. If two people share a mutual appreciation for each other, trust is a natural by-product and is catalytic in helping the relationship evolve. Trust does not lead us to any quantitative gain; rather trust is gain in itself. Developing trust and fostering emotional intelligence in the classroom is essential to building strong teacher-student relationships. Not only is it important for students to trust their teacher, but it is also important that they trust each other.

Hoping to build up this virtue a teacher planned an activity titled “Trust Fall” during the CCA class. Each child had to jump from a chair blindfolded where others of his group were supposed to catch him before he hit the ground. The ground was adequately padded up to ensure that no child gets hurt, should any child fall down. However, it took a lot of courage for kids to actually take a step off the ledge.

While most were anxious and could not do it at the first attempt, there was one noteworthy child who smartly got up and jumped without much ado. When questioned later he answered, unhesitatingly, “Oh I knew my friends will be there to support me like always.” His infectious smile immediately echoed radiantly in the faces of all others. That’s the beauty of trust!

Super 7 @ Billabong High International School, Thane 

-Sayantani Mukherjee, Dimple Awasthi, Ritu Chitnis, Manjusha Saji, Jyoti Ramdhave, Vijaylaxmi Ramesh & Sumati Muthukumar

Art is Life and Life is Art

                                   Art is Life and Life is Art.      
                                         
  It is said that' Art is Life' .There is close relationship between life and art.Art originates beauty in the world of man.The aim of art education is to sensitize the students so that they may learn to respond to the beauty in live color, form moment harmony,rhythm and perspective.
                       
 Art is the medium to express the creative bent of mind.Figures  and sketch forms make us understand anything very clearly in a lucid manner.The history of  art is as ancient as the evolution of of man.The painting in the caves of early man  shows the fascination of human life,shapes and colors.Without art  life is like curry without spices  that is to say  dull and. Tasteless.It is source of joy ,it also recreates  the eyes and satisfies the soul of both the artist and the spectator.
                  
 Art in every age has portrayed the inner thoughts, feelings of a common man. It also deports the sorrow struggle, failures and successes, God has created  every form of life, a perfection of design and creativity. Everybody is is born with talent.There is , however, a need to identify it for yourself Having an aptitude for fine arts is equivalent to have talent in other field .Regular practice and determination.Undoubtelly, brings the best out of u sooner than u can think of .   LMz Now with the help of computers u can enhance the quality of your  talent  and take art as  a bright career option .'Art is that creation of Man Which provides an ever ending joy'.

agr.sns@dbntrust.in          

Scientists of Beauty

Dirac wrote a book on the link between Relativity and Quantum Physics unsolved for a half century. Of this his biographer Farmelo wrote that ‘everyone was aghast at its beauty, with  its elegance and power. He was a like a great poet with equations.’ On occasion Einstein who had a copy could be heard mumbling “Where’s my Dirac?” when confronted by a tricky problem. These scientists could be called scientists of beauty.  Schroedinger had a row with Karl Popper for criticizing the 2nd Law of Entropy that he  thought the most beautiful theory in Physics. Dirac said the beauty of an equation was far more important than whether it was right or wrong.   For them Beauty was All.

Strangely, this is also true of Religion. Unfortunately excess words cause a blindness to beauty suffered by many scholars who cannot see mystic beauty;  i/3rd of school children leave school having lost the ability to visualize thereby losing the ability to discern beauty. Thus lay people are  fed words stripped of beauty. Islam suffers worse for their Mutukallimun (people of words) are murderers of  Sufis and now  suicide bombers.

I got from Robert Bridges  His Testament of Beauty and have my version in creativeinfinitymind.com using various aphorisms  that caused the Padre’s daughter of a Minister to call it absolute beauty. Here I  have Testaments of Love, Compassion and Beauty.  This is the ultimate Elixir of life that Thoreau sought.

Ted Falconar
www.CreativeInfinityMind.Com