Regulars

IB Visit

We welcome Nigel Forbes, International Baccalaureate’s Associate Diploma Programme Manager, and IB Regional Representative (South Asia), Farzana Dohadwalla who visited the school from August 9-11. With them was Christopher Durbin, a Hong Kong-based educator. They were here in connection with the school’s plan of adding the IB Diploma Programme to the curriculum.

Another Welcome

We would like to welcome back Manoj Pandey (MNP) to the Hindi Department and the school. We wish him a fruitful tenure.

Slam Dunk!

Abhinandan Rajan, Rishabh Chatterjee, Shiva Gururani and Harsh Verma represented Dehradun in the Inter-District Sub-Junior Basketball State Championship, 2006. Dehradun was victorious in this championship.
Well done!

Say ‘Cheese!’

National award winning photographer, Bhumesh Bharti visited school on August 8 and gave the students of the Photography Society a talk on camera lens techniques.

Debating Circuit

The following represented the school in the Shri Debates held at the Shri Ram School, Gurgaon:
Shikhar Singh
Chinmay Sharma
Ashish Mitter
Akshit Batra
Thirteen schools participated in the debate. The school won the first two rounds and then lost to La Martiniere Girls’, Kolkata. Akshit Batra bagged two Best Speakers and a Second Best Speaker award. Shikhar Singh and Ashish Mitter were jointly adjudged Second Best Speakers in the debate.

The following represented the school in the Frank Anthony Memorial Debate held at La Martiniere College, Lucknow:
Ashish Mitter
Kushagra Kumar
The school emerged victorious and has qualified for the final round of the debate. Ashish Mitter was adjudged the Best Speaker of the debate.

Aditya Ajmani represented the school in the preliminary round of the Outlook Debate. He stood first and has qualified for the next round.
Congratulations to all!

Social Service News

Professor M.S. Swaminathan, an internationally recognised agricultural scientist, widely known as the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’ in India, visited Fatehpur, the village adopted by the school and HESCO, on June 7, 2006. He dedicated the mini-hydel water mills (generating 5 kilowatt of electricity) to the community while praising the school’s involvement and commitment to the upliftment of this area. He was accompanied by KPB, MCJ and a team of Masters and Doscos who have been actively involved in the school’s social service programmes. A report will follow in a subsequent issue of the Weekly.

the sunset and the city view are breathtaking. Down the slopes, through the alleys, one passes by Casa Buonarroti, a house once owned by Michelangelo which contains his Madonna Della Scala, executed by him when he was only sixteen. A little further down is an old prison Bargello, now converted into a gallery, which hosts works of Donatello, Cellini and Giambologna. To counter the overwhelming choke of art (arti-choke!) we moved west, an hour’s journey away, to climb up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Unfortunately, one could not make the trip to the Tuscan Chianti wine estates due to paucity of time.

The next city covered was Venice, Queen of the Adriatic, built on lots of tiny islands connected with over 400 bridges. Here were more marvels for us- Rizzo’s sculptures of Adam and Eve on the façade of the Doge’s Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, Piazza San Marco, the Grand Canal flanked by Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque style palaces. Paintings by Picasso, Bacon, Kandinsky, Braque and also some by Dali, were spread across various museums. It is lovely to take the gondola; less romantic is the public waterbus. The streets suggested mystery and promised romance. Thanks to PCH, who insisted on it before we left, we visited the tiny island of Torcello, to see the remains of the very first Venetian community. The experience was really worth it. En route, ATB and a few boys leapt out of the boat on to a barren island by mistake. Panic buttons were pressed. I was reminded of Tom Hanks in Castaway, except that our art master would have had some company! Other islands that were a treat were Murano and Burano, as was Lido beach: Murano for glass blowing, Burano for weaving lace, so that people on Lido could at least wear something!

Any trip to Italy is a cultural tour de force and mention must also be made of the food and the music that we enjoyed. For Italians, a meal is a celebration of life itself. Each region has its own cuisine. Hundreds of years after the Arabs left mainland Italy, the sorbets and sherbets are still popular. Most liqueurs get their secret formulae from here. Stuffed or sun-dried tomatoes as antipasti with slices of fresh mozzarella dressed in olive oil and topped with sprigs of basil is the stuff dreams are made of. Thrushes, larks, buntings, quails are eaten as whole, bones included. Pigeons wrapped in bacon, roasted and served with green olives, nutmeg and Parmesan…I guess they eat anything that moves or flies. The vegetarians amongst us had their own tale to tell. Pasta, more pasta and pastani moro, much ‘moro’, and even ‘tomoro’! The ice-creams were out of the world. We could eat one before and after anything.

Unfortunately, we were unable to enjoy the opera, but thanks to our Music School and the assembly notices, we could identify the seductive strains of Verdi and Vivaldi, the lush strings of Rossini. I guess our school can boast of its own Pavarottis and Puccinis as is obvious by the sounds emanating from the H House bathrooms at bathtime! The one thing we were glad to give a miss was the Mafia, which, by the way, means ‘protection’ in Arabic.

Tejasvi Mathur tried playing the violin in the subway and was lucky to have one Bangladeshi coin thrown his way. Most of us were throwing Indian coins in an Italian wishing fountain, hoping to visit Egypt on the next art trip. I am sure KPB will encourage it, wonder if the Mummies will!