The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SCHOOL BUZZ
Teachers urged to take charge of future generation
Smriti Kak

To felicitate teachers for their contribution and exemplary performance, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit honoured 60 teachers with the annual state teachers’ awards. Ms Dikshit assured that her government would provide all infrastructural, financial and technical support to schools and exhorted teachers to perform their duties in shaping the future generations.

Delhi Education Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said there are plans to hold an exhaustive workshop of ‘Vidyalaya Kalyan Samities’ (school welfare committees), aimed to bring about co-ordination between the committees, schools and government.

In Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, the students put up a show for their teachers. Students also bid farewell to Ms Meeta Rai, the Vice-principal who has now been appointed Principal, DPS, Ghaziabad. Ms Rai was the founder Vice-principal of the Vasant Kunj School in 1990.

Students of GHPS, Vasant Vihar, celebrated Teachers’ Day by planting saplings of fruits along with their Principal and the 140 staff members. The plantation drive was carried out by the teachers to make the student aware of their responsibility towards nature and the environment.

The Principal of the school, Mr S. S. Minhas, has been awarded the First Spardha Ratna Award by the All India Sports and Cultural Organisation. Former Education Minister, Mr Narendra Nath, presented the award to him.

Grandparents’ day

Grandchildren all set to paint the town red on Grandparents’ Day.

Pre-schoolers at Mother’s Pride gave their grandparents a reason to celebrate.

Celebrating a day meant for the grandparents the children put up a wondrous show. One could see tears of joy and pride in the eyes of the grandparents gathered there as they were wooed by film songs like ‘dadi amma dadi amma maan jao’ and the favourite of every child, ‘Nani teri morni to more legaye’.

Punjabi pop singer Bhupi made the party swing to his beats and joining the celebrations was actor Ranjit. And there were prizes for the grandparents as well.

Principal honoured

The Principal of Queen Mary’s, Ms Neelam Kapur, has been awarded two prestigious awards in the field of education. She has been awarded the Dr Radhakrishnan Award and the Delhi State Award for excellence in her field. Ms Kapur incidentally was a student of the same school. From a nursery student to a principal she has travelled a distance with ease and success. She is also the recipient of the Excellence award instituted by the Institute of Economic Studies.

Narayanan’s speech

Former President K R Narayanan speaking at the First Raghubir Singh Memorial lecture, organised in the Capital recently, stressed the need for inculcating modern values among students and called for shunning obscurantism and outdated practices in teaching followed in schools.

The lecture organised by the Modern School Diaspora Initiative (MSDI) was to pay homage to the founder of the school, Mr Raghubir Singh. The former President recalled that there was a Hall of Religion in the school, which was inaugurated by Rabindra Nath Tagore. Mr Sukumar Bose, who was specially sent by Tagore, painted the frescoes in the hall.

Speaking at the function Mr Anil Wilson, Principal of St. Stephens College, said that education today was caught between seemingly ‘purposeless academic activity on the one hand and concern with vocational skills on the other’. In such a situation, the first casualty is a total loss of interest in the moral dimensions of learning. Mr Suhas Borker, Convenor of the Diaspora Initiative, asked the students to inculcate the values of truthfulness, frankness and self-control.

On the occasion, Mrs Geeta Dudeja, Headmistress and Prof Anita Rampal, a former student, were presented the Modern School Diaspora Initiative Prize 2002. The Diaspora Initiative has instituted this prize for an old student or a teacher who has internalised the values of the school. The programme culminated with a spiritual invocation sung by Dr Krishna Shukla, a former student of the school.

‘Amrit Chhakna’

Students, parents and teachers of GHPS, Shahdara, take part in the ‘Amrit Chhakna’ ceremony.

More than 75 students, their parents and the teachers of GHPS Shahdara, participated in the ‘Amrit Chhakna’ ceremony organised by the Dharam Prachar Committee.

The school’s Vice-chairman, Sardar Waryman Singh, who was present at the occasion, spoke about the rich culture and tradition of the Sikhs.

He urged the students to inculcate such values that have been the stronghold of Sikh religion.

CBSE-Heritage quiz

The CBSE Heritage India Quiz for this year began on Saturday. Over 1,000 schools from all over the country have registered for the quiz and each school will send three participants to identified centres for the first round of written quiz. A notification was earlier issued to the schools and the details of the 53 centres as identified by the board are available on the CBSE website.

PRINCIPAL SPEAK
Guru-shishya: A sacred bond

It’s a very ancient saying, but a true and honest thought - of you being a teacher, by your pupils you will be taught. The teaching learning process goes beyond books to the lessons of life.

The real school is life itself and in this process of initiation into life, the teacher and the student share a sacred bond. The mother gives birth, but she entrusts the teacher the responsibility of giving worth and on every Teachers’ Day students spontaneously endorse this worth through expressing their love and gratitude for their teachers.

Year after year I continue to be overwhelmed at the guru dakshina I receive. Every child is a curious learner and his own teacher, but this process needs facilitation. The teachers step in and use themselves as bridges over, which they invite the students to cross and the having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse encouraging them to create bridges of their own.

A child’s world is made up of questions. Some have answers, some don’t. But what is most important for a teacher is to hear the questions of a child and encourage them to ask more.

For a teacher this is not just a profession, but a mission to make enlightened adults out of young children by teaching them to know themselves, recognise their self-worth, rise in their own esteem and choose their destiny.

There may be many human failings on both sides, but the purity of a relationship between a teacher and a student should be upheld with little effort and a whole lot of trust.

A guru is like God-always there to guide the students towards the path of truth. ‘Guru Brahama, Guru Vishnu/ Guru Devo maheshwara/ Guru Shaksharth Parambrahma Tasmai Shree Guruvenamaha’. He creates good students, help them preserve all higher values and destroys the evil in them. He takes them from darkness to light.

I take this opportunity to thank my Gurus who gave me the sound values of life and hope to be a role model for my students, by being there friend, philosopher and guide. I believe what Goethe said, “if you treat an individual as if he were what he ought to be and would be, he will become what he ought to be and would be.”

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan

In service of engg graduates of Rohtak

Rohtak, September 8
Indian Information Technology (IT) professionals have secured lucrative jobs in foreign countries, especially in the USA. Nearly 30 per cent of the engineers working in Silicon Valley, known as the heart of the information technology industry in USA, are Indians.

Mr Ravinder Dhamija, an engineer serving with TCS in the USA, said this. He was talking to newspersons before addressing a seminar on career consultancy organised by Technocrat Technology and Management Services (TTMS)here this evening.

Mr Dhamija is one of engineering graduates belonging to Rohtak who have joined hands with TTMS for providing guidance to the upcoming engineers and those school students aspiring for engineering so that they can successfully compete in the international IT market for jobs.

Mr Vijay Tandon, Director of the institute, said he had been striving to establish the institute as a centre for interaction among students and teachers of government as well as private engineering colleges in the region. He told the newspersons that the institute had established a charitable society providing free guidance, consultancy and coaching to the poor and needy and also to some meritorious students. He said the idea behind the establishment of this institute was to create a unique service centre for Rohtak. More than 100 engineers hailing from Rohtak and at present working in various parts of the nation and the world have been brought into this network. These young men want to contribute for the uplift of the students of their hometown. Answering a question, he said despite the worldwide slowdown, Indian professionals are in great demand overseas. He said merely procuring an engineering degree could not ensure a lucrative placement. A graduate has to imbibe certain qualities in tune with the requirements of the job market and the specified industry, he added. OC

Making your own fate with Vaastu
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8
Fortune sure comes a-calling for some. Take the case of Rakesh Chawla who was initiated into the science of Vaastu by a guru who assured him that things would look up.

Chawla runs the Institute of Vaastu Kala in the Capital and has been providing services to scores of people, including corporate biggies. About 14 years ago, he met a pandit well versed in Vaastu Shastra who suggested changes that Chawla was sceptical about.

The pandit’s assurance, “it will not harm you”, prompted Chawla to take the plunge. And today he confesses that things did look up, “I was going places in my career and things were great. I even got married,” recalls Chawla.

“I was always curious about metaphysics and this probably was the catalyst that finally made me take it (Vaastu) full-fledgedly.” Chawla then began to learn all he could, he travelled across the country and when teeming with knowledge and the desire to make use of it, he began to envision setting up a Vaastu Kala institute.

“I wished to impart the knowledge that I had learnt to those who wished to learn it and make use of it.” The reasons were also to make people realise that Vaastu works at physical, mental and spiritual level and that it is not just about directions and colours. “To ensure that the knowledge does not remain confined to the book or shastra, but is available to one and all and lastly to teach them the importance of universal elements and how to balance them within yourself and in your environment I opened the institute,” adds Chawla.

The institute, started in 1999, offers both regular as well as correspondence courses to students. The minimum qualification to join is completion of 10+2. The institute is also planning to offer courses on astrology, palmistry and numerology.