SCHOOL BUZZ
A marriage of Indian classical and folk dances
Smriti Kak

THE students of Delhi Public School, RK Puram, staged a fusion of Indian classical and folk dances through the ages at the FICCI auditorium last week.

Padam Shree awardee and Bharatnatyam dancer, Saroja Vaidyanathan, directed the show that was conceptualised by Principal, Dr S. Chona.

The students of class nine presented a repertoire of Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri and Bharatnatyam. And managed to enthrall the audience with their talented presentation of folk dances like Chhau, Dandiya, Bhangra, Ghoomar, Bihu and Baul.

The aim was to recreate the magic of the traditional Indian dance forms that have seemingly been pushed to the background by the influx of the western culture.

The Bharat Nritya Utsav as the show was called that sought to bring back the children into the fold of our cultural heritage. The 120 odd students who performed on the stage deserve a pat on the back for the strenuous efforts they had put into make the show a success.

Computer education

ALL CONCENTRATION: The students experiment with the Aptech Plus Curriculum.

Aptech has introduced the Aptech Plus Curriculum for computer education in 127 schools across the country. The aim is to address every facet of integrating IT education into the curriculum of schools.

“IT is no longer a mere subject, it is fast acquiring the status of a universal language. Even the NCERT has acknowledged the fact that IT has an impact on the social and psychological aspects of learning. Aptech Plus Curriculum will facilitate world class IT training for the students and the teachers”, pointed out Mr Pramod Khera, Managing Director, Aptech Training Limited.

In the lower standards, Aptech Plus will incorporate the play way method of teaching in the schools while in the senior standards it will be instructor led. Learning will be conducted into theory as well as lab sessions. The Aptech Plus will empower the students with an internationally recognised curriculum in adherence to NCERT guidelines. Starting from KG to class 12 the course will teach six topics like word processing and DTP, Graphics, animations and multimedia. It will also include database, spreadsheet, programming and Internet and emerging technologies.

Carnival at Gurukul

Having a ball: Cine star Sudesh Berry with the kids at the carnival, organised by Gurukul International School.

Gurukul International School organised a grand carnival for the children to shake a leg and let their hair down.

Little ones gave a captivating performance, which tempted the adults to shake off the confines of age to rediscover the child in them.

The overwhelming response of kids between 0-10 left the audience spell bound. There were competitions for the kids, right from the healthy baby to charming baby and an open dance competition.

More than 1000 kids participated in the event that has cine star Sudesh Berry as chief guest.

Berry gave away the prizes and congratulated the school and the students for having put up a splendid show. The competitions were also organised for the parents of the kids.

The Director of the School, Mr V. K Pasricha, felt that such competitions provide a stage exposure to the children and helps them to develop stage confidence.

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Haste makes waste

TIME carefully spent is time saved; haste only makes waste. In today’s fast paced life, we hurry forward in the ‘heat of hope’, desperate to get ahead like somebody running up an escalator. So many things to do-school or workplace to attend, schedules to meet, records to smash - these are our goals and all to often our gods.

It is time to pause and ponder - aren’t we missing out on the essence of life and the joys it offers as we rush forward with our blinkers on?

God has, without exception, given 24 hours to everyone. Then how is it that some people are always in a hurry, moving at a hectic pace, whereas, some always have plenty of time to cherish every moment and yet achieve what they want?

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend, so it should not be spent thoughtlessly. Therefore, it is a good idea to inculcate a firm habit of respecting time by making proper schedules and achieving goals at a comfortable pace. Our tardiness and our lack of planning become our undoing.

The students often do not keep pace with their studies. They justify their laziness by deluding themselves that they are intelligent and slogging is not for them.

A few days of short-cut preparations would yield the same results. Then, as time draws short, they panic, frantically borrow notes, buy poor quality guidebooks, spend sleepless nights and make their families suffer as their anxiety rises.

The two days’ sure shot guide to two years’ work certainly has its limitations.

Moreover, the last minute tension reduces the power of the mind to comprehend and retain.

Nothing comes easy. Short cuts are temporary measures whose results are not far reaching. They make you compromise on quality. Excellence in work comes only when your work reflects your pride in it. People don’t remember how fast a work was done but the quality of that work.

Rapidity does not mean progress and is neither desirable nor advisable. Haste can prove extremely costly and shattering. An ambitious architect, seeking instant fame, may raise a building in no time, too impatient even for the cement to dry and firm.

It will surely collapse crushing beneath it, his dreams, the labourers’ efforts and other’s resources - all turned to rubble. Where the foundation lacks careful planning, work perfection and patience, the work can only be slipshod, unreliable and facile.

If we do not slow down, sooner or later every phase of living will turns into a physical and emotional treadmill. Thus, it is important to prioritise our goals?

If we try to do everything all at once, in our effort to break time barriers, we would end up breaking our bodies and spirit. We must find our own work rhythm and work steadily at that pace.

A few golden rules are, start in time, do it now, for it is not what we do but what we don’t get done that wearies us, be selective in spending time for our time income is fixed and lastly take out time for things you enjoy for they restore the zest in your life.

I should like to end with a pertinent parable of two men - one called ‘Make Haste’ and the other ‘Slow But Careful’. The two men owned large apple orchards. When the apples were ripe, they decided to pick them. ‘Make Haste’ quickly plucked all the apples and threw them into baskets to sell. ‘Slow But Careful’ carefully picked his apples, sorted the good one’s from the bad, neatly put them in crates and soon sold all his apples at a huge profit. Make Haste’ suffered a dreadful loss for none wanted his dented and bruised apples. The message is clear.

Madhu Chandra, Principal, Birla Vidya Niketan

Women’s wing soon at Gohana college
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, May 19
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, laid the foundation stone of a women’s wing in Government College at Gohana town, 35 km from here, on Saturday evening.

According to a report, this wing, consisting of 26 study rooms, a common room, principal’s office etc, would cost Rs 80 lakh. A sum of Rs 10 lakh has been contributed by the people and the Chief Minister has announced a matching grant of Rs 30 lakh for the purpose. He has also assured that the remaining amount would be allotted by the government for the completion of this building.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chautala recalled the services of Tau Devi Lal towards the people of the area and said that the education of the girls was very dear to his father and it was his dream to see every girl educated in the state. He disclosed that as many as 55 girls colleges were functioning in the state and two new colleges, one each at Kurukshetra and Uchana, were opened during the last year alone.

He declared that his government was determined to train the youths to engage themselves in self-employment programmes and for this purpose, the state government had increased the number of ITIs from 58 to 138 in the state. He also disclosed that the state government had upgraded 300 schools in the state and decided to upgrade 160 more schools in the near future.

The Chief Minister also declared that the state government had taken a series of steps to expand technical education to end the unemployment among the educated jobless youths. The state, he said, had achieved a distinction in the setting up of engineering colleges. The number of students in these colleges had now risen from 9,000 to 22,000. He claimed that the state government had also achieved a distinction in the information technology (IT) and Haryana had emerged on the national map of the country.