Sailing the Skies

Ascend

Life spurts from water, perhaps that’s why it also sports with it too. Water sports therefore are of one of the most challenging and adventurous activities. Last time when I went undertook swimming as a long term CAS activities I had learned some wonderful things underwater. This time, I planned to explore what happens over it during my visit to Goa recently. It is dubbed as India’s most tourist oriented state and one of the most delightful vacation destinations. However, a perfect place to do all sorts of action and adventure was what it was to me.  During my jogs along the scenic coastline of the Arabian Sea I saw various water sports being organized. I was fascinated to undertake such an activity. I approached Joseph, one of the water sport organizer of Baga beach and asked him to be my supervisor. When he agreed I instantly asked my CAS coordinator Ms Vijayalaxmi Kanate for consent. I then decided to undertake parasailing. The activity was expected to account for approximately 4 action hours.

Parasailing is one of those sports which are a colossal challenge initially but a rewarding activity for whoever takes the challenge. The first big thing is to be ready to travel in a small boat deep into the sea, away from land, where the parasailing boat can function. For me, it was a thrilling experience (not the most thrilling as I was about to realise). The literally maneuvered vertically as it hit the waves. One needs to be physically strong and at the same time be confident to surpass such a situation. As we approached the parasailing boat I was startled by the mere anticipate of what was about to happen. I never did such a thing before and it definitely was a challenge for me. I thought that the first thing which was necessary was physical fitness. That is to say, a person who intended undertakes such an activity is required to be able to stand by the physical hardship it demands. Surprisingly however, I was amazed to see one of the participants attempt such a thing despite his hefty body and no prior experience. I became more aware about the sort of people there are in the world. At the same time I realised that I myself needed to keep my theoretical assumptions aside and look at the real world.

One of member of my team went first and I got to see how it actually feels like. To an extent I was a little afraid to go up in the air since I could see how dangerous it was if safely measures failed. I did frankly, feel like quitting the activity. But I wasn’t a time to back off, I wasn’t going to get this opportunity again and so I stood firm on my commitment and told Joseph I would go next.

Up in the air!

Descend

Joseph gave instructions to wear the harness and other safely gear and also informed me about the technique required to enjoyably perform this activity. A rope is tired to a harness worn by the person and he/she is left in to the open air. The act of going into and returning back is a little technical. But once you are in the air, the view and the experience is unparalleled. I wish I could take a camera up there with me. I cannot forget the time I spend up there. I had to ensure I stayed in the harness and gripped the ropes well because below me, what the entire world; long stretches of ocean and massive patches of land. Although it wasn’t that high, but as I stared down at our planet, flying singly in the air, I felt a sort of connection to it. It was a sort of connect we experience about our parents or elderly—a sense of responsibility. One of most important global issues is attaining a global perspective. Thinking of the entire earth and its residents as our home can undeniably revolve many problems. This fact is known to all of us but institutions only seldom succeed in inculcating this outlook in their candidates. Hanging in air, up there, I felt that the torrent of emotions which I generated from this experience made me realise my role as global citizen more than any other academic source. I strongly believe that just like me, anyone who engages in such and activity will, at least to some extent, develop a global outlook. It was a strange epiphany. I mean, it is true after all that some incidences or activities, such as this, provide solutions to the most complicated problems faced by the civilisation and yet we struggle to find it in books.

Parasailing as seen from a distance.  

After getting back, I did feel I had undertaken a challenging action activity but with it was a strong realization. I have stated to believe that the global citizen in us will only come to it bloom when we actually see the world we live in one, and something which belongs to us. If we can obtain this experience from activities such as parasailing, then there are more worth than any lecture addressing the same. 

Abhudaya: Helping the Sunrise

“For Every Child We Teach To Cherish Learning, A Universe Is Born.”
― D. Simone

Learning is one thing, cherishing what one learns and encouraging the willingness to learn is completely different. The latter is a very prominent issue across nations, cultures and societies of varying number. Evoking the curiosity of students can be seen as a latent global issue the world is facing. There will always be a certain percentage of learners but sadly, it makes up a minority. In order to encourage learning amongst masses one must employ appealing educational curriculums. The essence of such a curriculum is activity based learning –very much like IB. An important concern however is that such an educational system is not affordable to all.

Our welcome at AGVS

Mrs Bhagyashree  Deshpande is currently running a NGO funded school called Abhodaya Global Village School in the Khapa district of Saoner. This place, situated in the outskirts of Nagpur, provides primary education to the children of 9 surrounding villages at subsidized costs. The school was founded by Mrs Bhagyashree’s  father who a no less than a visionary. Our coordinator Ms Vijayalaxmi suggested us to take over the school for one day as a part of CAS activity. Since teaching at an elementary level is more impactful for child’s brain, we could all see the social benefit of encouraging active learning in students of grade nursery to 3^rd.  We contacted Mrs Deshpande to asked her if such an activity was palatable. She readily agreed to allow us in, however as I later realised during a conversation with her, it was majorly because of yet another global issue – lack of efficient teachers. In almost all developing countries appropriate teaching faculty is one of the most daunting scarcities. We, as IB learners were ready to accept this challenging opportunity by contributing our bit to this problem. In addition, I personally think that it is the moral responsibility of knowledgeable people – or people with relatively advanced knowledge – to educate those who aren’t as fortunate.

Therefore, we collaboratively discussed the schedule for a 6 hour long CAS activity which emphasized on Action since we agreed that lecturing the young minds might in effect discourage learning. 

When we first reached there each one of us was surprised to see the discipline which these kids maintained. Although there was no doubt that it was due to all presence of teachers but the respect and kindness they demonstrated was really awe-inspiring. All of them greeted us warmly and welcomed us whole heartedly. I was really motivated by this earnest nature of these kids. However, as I later realised this motivation was necessary to manage what awaited us.

The entire activity was challenging for each of us but perhaps most challenging for me since I took up grade 3 with most number of students. A throng of over 50 kids all in a room created a moment of bewilderment. I had to mentally prepare myself to confront them. I started with asking each of them their names (which I strived to remember till the end) as it allowed a first-hand one to one interaction with the kids I was going to spend the day with.

To commence our first session I asked them to move from the class, out into the natural surroundings. As they did so, I asked their teacher what they had learned hitherto. I started with asking them what they already knew so that they feel comfortable with me and I can mix up easily. After a small session of poetry and alphabet recitation – which ended up being a cacophony – I executed my plan to teach them about self-improvement and social conduct. I asked common things like when they sleep/wake up; what did they eat every day and at what time; how did they treat their friends and parents; and what their views on cleanliness were. Although at their age they could hardly understand the significance of these things but they did candidly answer my questions. I think it is better to let students discover what they are expected to learn than to dictate them. I discussed concepts like good habits; greeting manners; healthy diet; and cleanliness.

In the next session, we had a small story telling session which was really enjoyable. Following it was a colouring session. I asked the kid to recall how the bird depicted in the colouring sheet looked. What colour it had? While some correctly identified it to be a parrot the others set their imaginations free into the realms of creativity. The result was a bunch of colouring sheets with the same bird coloured is various vivid colours. As I was arranging them an idea stuck me, why not combine all of these into a beautiful mosaic wall hanging? So I pasted all of the arts works on a huge chart and nailed it in their class, not only as a display of their work but a memoir of this day they spent with me.

The following two sessions were focused of action. I had planned to conduct two main sports — football and dodge ball — and indulge in them myself. However, as it turned out, my plan didn’t work for football. Although all of them were extremely enthusiastic about football and also started off very well, they capricious minds and ever-changing mood turned the game into a melee after a while. It became difficult to manage them. Leashing the chaotic Brownian motion of kids made it even more physically engaging. Nevertheless, I stood committed to my responsibility and cooled them down without panicking.

In the next session I was prepared. I realised what could go wrong and so was ready to deal with it. I then made them play dodge ball and in doing so I asked them to be their own monitors. I also told them that they will only be able to enjoy if they play by the rules. But to make them play, I couldn’t be a thrived person spectator. I have to get physically involved in the game not just to show the how to play but to teach them how to enjoy it. We played for a long time till the conventional end of the game. I learned from this that in order to teach someone something you need to get involved in it yourself. A teacher cannot simply instruct, he must himself do what he tends to cultivate in students. It was a really memorable experience for me. I had played dodge ball when I was a kid but playing it with these kids was really fun. I was really happy to think that I was exposing these kids to one of the most fantastic sports they could enjoy.

Towards the end of the day, all the children had formed a sort of attachment with me. I felt an emotional thrill running down me when it was time for me to bid them good bye. I must say it was one life changing CAS activity.

Creative Funding Service

During our candle making activity, we made over 100 candles and now it was time to do the charity – to sell them. Ever since then, our friends from IGCSE also contributed to our work with their 50-80 candles, so now we had more than enough to sell. We packed all the candles, labeled them and priced them from `20 to `175.

Today was our 1^st term examination open house and the last day before the school closed for our Diwali break. So we had decided to display the candles in a corridor where parents and teachers can buy them. I was the first one to reach the school and so I started arranging the place so that my friends don’t need to waste time there. Then I along with my classmates Jaidev and Rucha arranged the candles in a proper monetary hierarchy. Very soon the parents started arriving. I asked Jaidev and Rucha to attend the candle counters and I myself took up the task of accounting at the cash counter. Together we made a great team which worked systematically until the very last candle. I knew it was going to be a mess since many people would buy candle at a time so I had planned to record data in my favourite mathematical way – tally bars. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea since some of my friends opposed it but to my astonishment it just worked out the way I wanted. There was very less time between two costumers and numerous candles to sell; thus tally bars worked out very well for me. I was very happy that we successfully completed the task. I also felt grateful towards my friends Jaidev, Tanmay, Rucha and Shradha. All the buyers were also very happy and satisfied. Towards the end of the day I and Mrs. Vijayalaxmi counted the money we had collected and it turned out to be more than `3,000! I was so excited, since this was the first time I did something of this sort and it yielded such good result!

For now, we have decided to reserve the fund raised until the end of this semester when we will amplify it using yet another activity.

The Medical Service

It was Sunday today. Most people are excited because it’s a holiday, but when you are studying in IBDP, Sundays can bring fun and excitement to you in many other ways. Today, as a CAS activity, we were to volunteer a regional organisation for their ‘Free Health Checkup Camp’.

Next Us was the name of the organising group; it was founded by some of the ex-students of the Bhosla Military School ( India’s most renowned military school chain). It is an organisation which works for the betterment of poor and underprivileged people by conducting health checkup and awareness camps in Maharashtra. Mr. Anup Golar, one of the members, told us that the organisation was their personal altruistic endeavor and that it was self-funded. When I asked how they managed their expenses, since they themselves funded it, he said that the little contributions all the members made were enough for them to help others. There was sparkling confidence on his face, while saying so. I was moved by this statement, the optimistic thoughts behind it were inspiring. The group had organized several medical camps hitherto, the most successful of all being the dental awareness camp. Apart from checkups and medical provisions they gave dental accessories to all the attendees, free of cost!

 During their blood donation camps, they even provided free blood to those who faced extreme poverty. Recently, they collaborated with Hedgewar and Aayush blood-banks. These blood banks have generously agreed to supply blood to Next Us at subsidized rates. Similarly, they have been receiving financial aid from different Maharashtra based philanthropists. I was very happy to hear that. The most interesting thing about this group was that they followed no administrative hierarchy. There was no president, secretary or subordinate; everybody had an equal position and each of them was equally responsible. I was deeply impressed by this notion. It would be great, I thought, if the entire world could learn from their rejection of rank based administration and embrace governance where everybody was equal. 

Mr. Anup then introduced me to my activity supervisor Dr. Trishil Kawaade who was a dentist. I was supposed to volunteer him, while my peers assisted other doctors. Dr. Trishil was a very kind and friendly person; he told me about my duties and gave detailed description about the medicines and equipment. After sometime the patients started coming, a vast majority of them being villagers. It was really difficult to handle them.  Their adamant fallacies were difficult to eradicate. I and Dr. Trishil explained them how brushing their teeth was more beneficial than just scrubbing them with their fingers. In India, there is something called ‘dant-manjan’ which is powered mixture of some regional herbs and is believed to clean the teeth better than brush-toothpaste. It is an outdated product in the modern times because the advent of tooth-brush and paste has elevated the standard of oral hygiene to a greater level.  But their tenacious mentalities were too inelastic to be altered! At one moment, one of the patients even asserted that whatever doctors say is all incorrect and that he has no faith in Dr. Trishil what so ever! It was a really shocking moment for both of us. The entire situation seemed to be paradoxical, if he were not believe the doctors why was he there, in a medical camp, in the first place!?  Dr. Trishil made detailed gum-teeth diagrams to make him understand that rubbing his teeth with his fingers wouldn’t remove the tiny food particles which get caught between the gum and the teeth. In addition we told him how these food residuals can permanently form tartar which may dangerously contribute to tooth decay. But unfortunately, it was an exercise in futility. That man was impossible to convince, and the task was immensely challenging.

Serving others, by lending their problems an ear and solving them, is what I learned from today’s activity. It has made me more aware about my surroundings – the people, their mentalities, their mode of comprehension, their beliefs and perhaps their destinies. In this camp, we were working as a team, although under discrete medical braches, but under one title and with a singular aim – to serve others. While cycling back home, I realised I had spent my entire day serving people and that my Sunday was now redefined. The day our efforts can bring sun those entrapped in darkness, is perhaps a day worth bring called a Sunday. In the past seventeen years of my life, it is today that came across – a Sunday.

This is the certificate our school received for volunteering.

Treasuring Trees

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.                                                                               -- George Eliot

Today we had our first session of gardening activity. It is a long term service activity and shall account for 8 hours of service for documentation. I find it unfair to limit our CAS hours for CAS is limitless; it is the soul of an IB student. However, I also understand that one needs manage it in order to put it in a curriculum. I never count hours when I am working, but when I sit to write my journal, where I must mention it, I realise how small my task was. I am very much fond of CAS activities; especially this one for it is to do with my beloved plants and nature.

We started with the most elementary of all gardening tasks – weeding. The area we were given was full of wind grass, and so we had to clear it.  At first it appeared like a simple task, but eventually I realised how tedious and tiresome it was. We first started uprooting the unwanted plants with our hands, but I very quickly realised that it was not going to work that way. The tiny – and perhaps microscopic – spikes on the grass caused an itching sensation which was undesirable. So I thought, why not aid our dexterity with some equipment? I asked Ms. Vijayalaxmi (my CAS coordinator) and then ran to our school gardener. He gave me two sickles and a crowbar; I knew it was going to help us for I had seen the local farmers use it. I used my sickle to rapidly crop the grass and shrubs and gave the other one to my friend. It turned out only two people in my class knew how to use a sickle, including myself. I therefore helped my friends learn how to use it. It is extremely simple and when they realised what the trick was, they instantly became experts at using it. It was really a good feeling.

We had planned to work as a team and so we had divided the field into sections. The consequence of our team work was that we were able to clear a substantial amount of land in a little time. We all worked really hard and our sweat was evident of that. I myself became more aware bout my abilities, I never thought I could do such a labour intensive work with such a massive input of energy.  But contrary to the tiresome task we all enjoyed it a lot. The presents of plants brought up many stories and incidences which we shared with each other, and despite our mundane task there was a lot of laughing and giggling which contributed to the already fantastic environment.

Towards the end of today’s session, we sat down to plan for our next session and also discussed why we were doing all this. We aimed to address the global issues likes pollution, deforestation and global warming by planting trees, nurturing them to their bloom and protecting them.  Undoubtedly, all these issues are of global significance and what we would do will contribute, although negligibly, to a healthier global environment.

Tutoring the Litte Buds_4

“Why' is the only question that bothers people enough to have an entire letter of the alphabet named after it.The alphabet does not go 'A B C D What? When? How?' but it does go 'V W X Why? Z.”

                                                                            ― Douglas Adams

  Alphabets are the 26 rungs of that ladder which is climbed and descended endless times to make a house of words. These houses make cities of sentences, countries of paragraphs and indeed the whole world of prose which symbolizes knowledge.  Teaching the alphabets therefore might appear to be a trivial task, but it is actually the most difficult one.

I realised this today during my yet another session with the little buds. We started teaching the alphabets today with the most obvious alphabet ‘A’. I always thought of it as something so basic that everybody in my view understood what it meant. But my erroneous notion was only highlighted today. As we had planned we made some worksheets which were intended to enable the little wonders to write and pronounce the letter A and teach them some basic words which started with A – more precisely ant, aeroplane and apple. To me and to my classmates, it was the easiest task we had undertaken, but we couldn’t interpret the mysterious smile which our supervisor Ms. Shaila had in the outset, until we actually realised the problem. Some of these little minds had merely any knowledge of writing, especially my students – Reshmi and Sonakshi. I asked both the girls to pronounce the letter out loud which they did, but only after a handsome amount of persuasion. Then was the real challenge, to make them write it! The worksheets had dotted-lines which they just had to trace in order to make a small and capital A (a). However they could not make their hands do that! I felt as if I should get inside their heads and make them do what I wanted! Alas! I couldn’t possibly do that! But then I saw my classmate Shradha, holding her student’s hand to help him write. I was struck by lightning at that moment, how could I possibly miss considering that? I quickly did the same, and things became easier. During this incidence I learned something very important. Sometimes, we become so obsessed with our advanced thinking that the most basic things cease to strike our mind. It’s not that I did not know how that was done – I learned it the same way – but at that moment, my mind had gone far ahead to find something new, leaving the most obvious thing behind. I therefore learned that one must always search for the simplest solutions to problems rather than wasting time in complex ideas.  They learned ‘A’ and I learned ‘a’ lot!