The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDUCATION

SCHOOL BUZZ
Crusading against cruelty to animals
Smriti Kak

The students of Sadhu Vaswani International School for Girls observed November 1 to 25 as ‘Stop all killing’. The month-long meatless campaign saw the students participating in various events and spreading the message of vegetarianism to all.

A puppet show was organised in schools, slides saying no to killing were displayed in cinema halls, and a sadhbhavna yatra was organised with a message to stop cruelty to animals.

A fleet of 18 school buses with stickers carrying the message and a vegetarian food festival were also part of the campaign.

Founder’s Day

Modern School celebrated its 82nd Founder’s Day last week. The former Chief Justice of India, Justice B. N. Kirpal was the Chief Guest. The students presented an exemplary performance in the ballet ‘Saanware ke rang rachi’. Inspired by the Meerar Bhadun, a novel by Satya Prakash Dutta, the ballet opened with a stark depiction of bloodshed and carnage.

The ballet contrasts the life of the 16th century Rajput Princess, Mirabai, who won hearts with her messages of love. The students also presented a variety of programmes, like tabla recital, classical dance numbers and a symphony created by the school choir.

Robotics’ workshop

Robotics fascinates school students. To teach them what they want to know about the gripping subject, Vasant Valley School conducted a workshop in the school along with the students of IIT Kanpur, who volunteered to teach the students on how to work on light sensors to interface with the Lego connector of the Lego Mind storm kits.

Dr Amitabha Mukherjee, Professor of computer science and head, centre for Robotics, IIT Kanpur, initiated a programme called Build Robotics create Science about two years ago was also present.

The students made a simple wall following robot using DC motors, gear sets and wheels, acrylic sheets and a switch as a wall contact sector. They also learnt the complexities of circuitry. And now they are carrying this programme forward with other schools in the Capital.

Annual Day

A cultural show at Jaspal Kaur Public School.

The school celebrated its Annual Day with much fanfare. The Chief Guest was the former Chief Justice of India, Justice B. N. Kirpal. The two-day event was inaugurated by the Chairperson of the NDMC, Ms P. M. Singh.

The students presented various cultural programmes and performed skits with a social message.

Santoor Maestro, Pandit Bhajan Sopori presented a recital at the Jaspal Kaur Public School. Organised by the Spic Macay under ‘Virasat’, the Santoor recital was a unique experience for the students. Sopori was accompanied by his son Abhay Rustam Sopori.

Gurpurab at GHPS

Students of GHPS, Vasant Vihar dressed as ‘panj pyaras’.

The students and staff of GHPS, Vasant Vihar, celebrated Gurpurab with great fervour. A procession was led by five students dressed as ‘panj pyaras’ and culminated at Gurudwara Nanak Piao.

The students sang hymns and illuminated the school with lamps and candles. The school choir sang shabads and narrated anecdotes from the life of the Guru.

The students of the school won medals and trophies during the Delhi State Roller skating championship 2002 held at Talkatora Stadium.

Harbani of Class XI bagged two gold and one silver medal in speed and one silver medal in roller skating hockey. Tanjeet of Class XII won one gold and one silver in speed and one gold in hockey. The boy’s hockey team won the match.

Discovery quiz

National Finals of the pulsating Discovery Quiz took place in the Capital. Six junior and six senior teams competed with each other to emerge winners.

The finals were a multi-stage competition. The first step was the preliminary round that selected the final six junior and senior teams to go for the final round. The final rounds quizzed children on analytical skills, testing facts, a buzzer round, crossword clues and a quick fire round.

Quiz master Derek O’Brien had the contestants and the audience on their toes.

Tips on dining

Students at a workshop on the art of fine dining and hosting at DPS Mathura Road.

A workshop titled, ‘The Umbrella of Excellence’ was organised in DPS, Mathura Road, by the Radisson Hotel. The workshop was attended by 232 students, who were taught the art of fine dining and hosting.

Conducted by Nilesh Mitra and Ashok, the workshop was divided into three segments, pre-dining, dining and post-dining. From calling the steward to understanding the menus from how to use the cutlery and glassware to body language, the students were taught to create a lasting impression.

Kids at the fancy dress competition.

Bon Appetit! Should we say?

Fancy dress

A fancy dress competition was organised at Shamrock Pride School, Hargovind Enclave. The kids wore colourful clothes inspired by their role models. So there were actors, lawyers, police officers and even fairies.

(Input by Nalini Ranjan)

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Why worry? God will take care of you

In all the activities of school, home and life outside, we all tend to worry a lot about how we will get everything done and whether everything will work out right. We are tempted to worry about a lot things. Wisdom says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for God will take care of you”, but we go believing that unless we worry our head about tomorrow, things won’t turn out right.”

What we forget is that worrying about things does not get them done, it is doing them to the best of our abilities that brings about desirable results. Not only is worry needless, it is also a waste of time. Someone wrote about worry; 40 per cent will never happen, for anxiety is the result of a tired mind. 30 per cent concerns old decisions, which cannot be altered 12 per cent in criticism, mostly untrue, made by people who feel inferior 10 per cent is related to health, which worsens while one worries, only eight per cent is legitimate, showing that life does have real problems, which may be head on when one has eliminated senseless worries.

Worrying about people, relationships and performances in various spheres of life does not open doors and bring answers, it only worsens the situation, because frayed nerves cannot produce healthy results. In fact doubt, worry and nervousness show a lack of courage, commitment and confidence.

Confidence comes from planning and preparation. Grit, determination and discipline replace worry with confidence. Many of us spend half our time wishing only.

“Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer and prayer drives away trouble and perplexity”. Prayers open our eyes to the wisdom of keeping worries away and working with total dedication to achieve our ends. We all know that worrying about a person will not protect him, but such worry can have a positive perspective, underlying such worry are a deep concern, love and interest.

One prayer does more than all the time spent on worrying. Positive thoughts have positive results. “The art of wise living involves four steps, plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively and pursue persistently,” said Swami Sukhabodhananda.

With faith in the ultimate creator, there is little need to worry.

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan

COURTS

No service stamps, work of consumer court hit
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1
The functioning of the consumer court, supposed to deliver speedy justice, has been severely affected for the last two months because the postal department has not been able to provide service stamps necessary for despatching summons, notices and even warrants.

Officials in the forum are now facing a big problem, as they cannot work properly without the support of the authorities concerned. “We have not been able to despatch copies of approximately 250 orders, 600 notices and 50 warrants to the parties concerned due to non-availability of service stamps,” officials in the New Delhi District Consumer Forum at Kasturba Gandhi Marg said.

In fact, the postal department had issued a circular last January saying they had stopped the printing of service stamps, but delivered a copy of the same circular to the forum only in October, they said.

Following this, the consumer affairs department released the funds for the purchase of a franking machine to print stamps, the official said. However, the postal department had, so far, “neither approved the licence of the machine nor released stamps worth Rs 40,000 despite their records showing that our cheque has been honoured,” they added. When contacted, the postal authorities said they were “going through the files concerned”.

PIL seeks to make bottled water
essential commodity
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court has sought to control and fix a reasonable price for bottled drinking water available in the market by notifying the item under the Essential Commodities Act.

The PIL filed by the Free Legal Aid Cell also sought court directions to ensure that drinking water was not packed in low standard plastic bottles causing injury to public health.

Taking cognisance of the matter, a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice A. K. Sikri has told counsel for the petitioner S. C. Aggarwal to name the places in the city where proper arrangements for supply of free drinking water was not available.

The cell in its petition had asked the Delhi Government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Jal Board to arrange for and manage free drinking water facility in various public places, unauthorised colonies and thickly populated areas.

Emphasising the fact that the weaker sections of the society were unable to purchase drinking water bottles, each costing at least Rs 10 (for one litre), the PIL claimed that the authorities by not making proper arrangements for providing free drinking water had failed in controlling the prices.

The petition alleged that besides assisting and colluding with private companies selling water, the authorities were themselves busy in selling bottled drinking water.