ExpressionsKāsiga School NewsletterAugust, 2014 Volume: 4

The tyranny of rain is apparently over and the nature is clad again in its lush-green outfit. A season, tem-perate and mellow, welcomes us at Kāsiga. As the spells of incessant pouring have given way to beams of yel-low, peeping through the autumn sky, the School is abuzz with an assortment of events, Inter-House West-ern Music to Swimming Gala. Young Kāsigans have proved their mettle beyond the landscape of Kāsiga too. Our little heroes have brought laurels by winning the PPSA Soccer Tournament and through an impres-sive performance in Cathedral Model United Nations Conference at The Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai. As the days progress towards the much-awaited Diwali break, bells of alarm tinkle for the students, a reminder of the half-yearly examinations. This edition captures those myriad footprints that have marked a rewarding journey of academic, co-curricular as well as personal excellence for each student at Kāsiga.

Kāsiga School Celebrated the Independence Day

Braving the incessant rain, on Friday, the 15th of August, 2014, the Staff and students of Kāsiga School celebrated the 68th Independence Day of India with vim and vigour. The School had the opportunity to host Mr. Manoj Kumar Srivastava, the Regional Officer, CBSE, Dehradun as the chief guest of the programme. After a formal felicitation of the Chief Guest, the Chairman and the other dignitaries, the programme began with Kashish Oberoi, the mistress of ceremonies, inviting the audience to reflect on the sacred deeds of those many brave-hearts who had earned this much-desired freedom for our country. The congregation then sang the national anthem as the Chief Guest unfurled the national tricolour. Vipul Singh, Captain of the Blue

House, recited a beautiful poem, azadi abhi adhoo-rie hai, composed by our former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Bajpai. Jitesh Rao’s flute recital, a blend of patriotic songs, followed. The School Choir then presented a mellifluous rendition of Vande Mataram. The much-awaited Investiture Ceremony was next in line. Badges were received by the School Prefectorial Body from the Chief Guest. It was definitely a proud moment for these young and upcoming adults who pledged on taking the institution forward under their able leadership. The Chief Guest, Mr. Srivastava, ad-dressing the School, mentioned the immense possi-bilities of this young and aspirational institution and praised its Staff and pupils for their forward-looking

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and international outlook that sets this apart and makes it a true temple of learning. He had also emphasized the various prospect and potential of the CBSE curriculum and how efficiently it has been contributing in the field of national education system. His words of inspiration were of pivotal importance to everybody in the au-dience. The students of Kāsiga had presented a fusion dance, a tribute to our motherland, to end this beautiful event. Mrs. Anusha Sharma, the Deputy Head of School, had given a vote of thanks to the guests and teachers for their presence and participation which made this morning so meaningful to all the members of Kāsiga family.

Inter-House Western Music CompetitionThe Inter-House Western Music Competition was held on 23rd August’14. The honourable judges for this Competi-tion were the two passionate musicians, Mr. Baldeep Pradhan, a guitarist and a drummer who is cur-rently working at St. Patrick’s Academy, Dehradun and Mr. S. S. Gyan, the violin instructor at Kāsiga. The Competition was divided into three categories - The Junior School Choir, The Mid-dle School Duet/Solo and The Senior School Solo. Starting with the juniors, the first to perform was the Green House Choir who sang a beautiful number, Camp Down Lady. Next on stage was the Red House Choir. The singers had mesmerized the audience with their melodious rendition of Rail Road. The Yel-low House Choir sang Battles of Jericho which left our feet tapping. The last to perform from the Ju-nior School category was the Blue House Choir who sang an all time favourite Rivers of Babylon. After an impressive performance by the Ju-nior School, the Middle School took over the stage. The first participants to perform were Sameeksha Khera and Ojaswi Rawat representing Green House, who sang ‘Distance’ by Christina Perry. Ananya Chandok, representing Red House was next on stage who too sang a lovely number by Christina Perry ‘A Thousand Years’. After Ananya, Kashish Oberoi of Yellow House came on the stage and performed ‘Back to December’ by Taylor Swift. The last to per-form from this category were Sadhika and Sarvesa Thapa representing Blue House. They sang ‘Warrior’ by Demi Lavato, leaving the audience enthralled. Raunak Bansal was the first to sing from the Senior School Solo category. Af-ter him, Sonam Yeshey Tshomo of Red House sang the song ‘White Horse’ by Taylor Swift.Representing the Yellow House was Stephen Irom Gatphoh who sang as well as played ‘When I was your Man’ by Bruno Mars. It was a heart-touching num-ber which earned huge applause from the audience.Last to perform from this category was Tejas-wini KC. She sang an original number from the Disney movie ‘This is Me’ by Demi Lavato.

The results were as follows:

The Junior School Category:1st Position: Red House2nd Position: Yellow & Green House3rd Position: Blue House

The Middle School Category:1st Position: Sadhika & Sarvesa Thapa2nd Position: Ojaswi Rawat & Sameeksha Khera3rd Position: Ananya Chandok

The Senior School Category:1st Position: Stephen Irom Gatphoh2nd Position: Tejaswini K.c3rd Position: Sonam Yeshey By Anubhav Vashisth, XII

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A spectacular Inter-House Swimming Gala was orga-nized by the students and Staff of Kasiga on the sunny afternoon of 23rd August in the swimming pool. It was a delightful event and it gave the young swim-mers an opportunity to make their way through water to beat the heat. The competition featured four categories; freestyle, backstroke, butterfly-stroke and relay. Amidst the audience cheering for the contenders representing different Houses, the judges whistling and waving at

the terminal point and the time-keepers busy record-ing the seconds, the swimmers enjoyed the afternoon leaving a mark of their merit in blue water. In the Sub-Junior Category, Rajeev Kumar Singh, fol-lowed by Atin Bharti won the Best Swimmer’s titles while Uday Sharma had bagged the Champion’s Tro-phy in the Senior Category.In the Junior Category for Girls, Annie Srivastava grabbed the Winner’s title for the second consecutive time. By Sumangal Dutta, XII

Inter-House Swimming Gala-2014

PPSA Soccer Tournament, Dehradun Inter-House Basketball Tournament, 2014

In the prestigious PPSA Soccer Tournament, Dehra-dun, Kasiga School lifted the Winner’s Trophy. In a thrilling finale, The Senior Soccer Squad (Boys) beat Doon International School, 6-5. Ashutosh Acharya scored two goals while Shubh Agarwal, Suppayes Thepthong, Palden Tshering and Hong Moi Chong scored one goal each. Sarthak Keshri was adjudged the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament.

The week-long Inter-House Basket Ball Tournament came to an end with the Green House winning the Champion’s Trophy followed by Yellow in the Boys’ Category, while in the Girls’ Category, Blue House lift-ed the Winner’s Trophy followed by Red House.

By Sports Correspondents

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Kāsiga Participated in the Cathedral Model United Nations ‘14

Between the 6th and 12th of August, 2014, twelve stu-dents of Kasiga attended the Cathedral Model United Nations ’14, which is the oldest and one of India's most prestigious Model United Nations Conferences. It was an incredible experience for the young enthu-siasts as most of them attended a MUN for the first time. The students of Kasiga stayed at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Over a period of three days, students assumed roles of delegates representing var-ious countries, formed committees and debated on diverse topics of global importance at length. Apart from gaining confidence to be articulate on global is-sues, students had also familiarized themselves with the nuances of world politics. CMUN-2014 was an ex-traordinary platform, both in terms of number of del-egates participating from various schools of India as well as the number of committees simulated to bring forth a wide range of choices. There were eight com-mittees including the HSC, Lok Saba, UNCND, Legal Committee and DISEC.

Participating in MUNs can be a very exciting thing to do. The idea to represent a country and debate about issues with delegates of other countries and make decisions itself sounds exhilarating. The second day was more thrilling as the delegates got to socialize and have fun in a celebratory dinner at The Cathedral and John Connon School. The last day ended with the closing ceremony where the hard working delegates were recognised for their performances. The delegates got time to do some sight-seeing before finally com-ing back to Kasiga. By Pranav Shukla, XI

English Inter-House Debate

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“Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice, should not enter into the heat of the debate”On the 30th of August, 2014, the inaugural In-ter-House English Debates (Qualifiers) were con-ducted at the Foyer. The debates were conducted in the Oxford style and eight students representing all four Houses participated in this event. The evening was witness to an intense audience when the debat-ers battled it out over the topic, 'This House prefers a benevolent dictator to a parliamentary democracy.' It was very evident that the teams were well prepared and they used various skills like overstatement, defi-nition, irony etc. to convince the audience. The par-ticipants, armed with statistics and data made their

arguments more emphatic with firm conviction and powers of persuasion. All the four teams exhibited great oratorical skills. As it was a qualifying round only two teams could qualify for the Finals and they were Green and Yellow House. Aman Verma from the Proposition and Stephen Irom Gatphoh from the Op-position were adjudged the Best Speakers while Arav Bhatt was awarded the Most Promising Speaker’s title. The finals will be held shortly and it is expected to be laced with more nail biting moments and an intense face off. By Rohan Bhatia, XII

Students of Kasiga School had participated in Cap-ta Caelum, an Inter-School Cultural Festival hosted by Wynberg-Allen School, Mussoorie on the 1st and 2nd of September, 2014. Eleven Schools across coun-try had participated in this prestigious Festival. On the First Day, Stanzin Stobdan and Dhruv Arora had won the Second prize in ‘Shoot-a-Flick’ event while

in the ‘Do a Duet’ event, Stephen Irm Gatphoh and Tejaswini K. C. won the Second position too. On the Second Day of the Festival, Stephen Irom Gatphoh had claimed the Second prize again in ‘Mono Act-ing’. Second prize was also bagged by Tejaswini K. C. Muskan Shrestha and Aditi Aryal in the ‘Headgear Designing’ event.

Capta Caelum

Teen Philosophy“What students want in Education?”

by Srishti Sharma, VIIIA collection of some random thoughts;

Challenge us to think... For example: discussing how the aftermath of the World Wars led to an unsettled situation in the Mid-dle East, which continues even to this day. In this way, it must evoke deeper thinking in all of us. Nurture self-respect… At School, we learn how to assist others without even expecting something in return and we learn to view challenges as just obstacles trying to get in our way. Challenges will come in life, but the key is how we deal with them. This experience could be the begin-ning of many accomplishments. Show us that we can make a differenceLet us do it in our wayPoint me towards my goal I understand learning for passion rather than just for grades. I often experience this when I read an article in the web. I’ll read it and look up the additional in-formation if I am interested, even if it has nothing to do with my other obligations. It’s harder to think of a time that I really enjoyed

learning in a classroom. Let’s face it, high school is just a means to an end, it is a stepping stone to some-thing bigger. Every student is responsible for his or her learning. How hard we work in school, how much we take charge of our learning experience, depends on our goals in life. Those students who want to be doctors and lawyers have to work very hard, those who have no dreams tend to slack off. We never learn in school purely for the enjoyment of learning but for the promise of enjoyment that will come later when we attend a university and enter a fulfilling occupa-tion. We inspire ourselves and we make our learning experience into whatever it is, be it positive or nega-tive. Make me feel important Build on my interests Tap my creativityWhen I get an assignment that involves art or in open-ended, it is easy for me to get lost in it. So I think there should be fewer rules and more space for cre-ativity. Bring out my best self which can only be done through self-interest and by hands-on-experiences.

The Meaning of Lifeby Sadhika Thapa, IX

Many people believe that life is pointless, not realiz-ing that it is a very precious gift. Life is very fragile therefore we should make the most out of it. Life has a worth of its own, a worth that cannot be compared to anything. We should respect what we have than crib-bing about what we don’t. It is so ironic that we get a glimpse of it when someone is dying, diagnosed with a chronic disease, or when we see or hear something terrible happen around us but we tend to forget so soon and get into our ‘monkey march’ lifestyle. Life may not feel like a gift when your life seems stuck somewhere and you don’t see any progress or changes that you hoped for. You forget the value of life being caught up with the same routine day after day. Be grateful for getting this life and make the best out of it. We don’t know how much time we have, so we must learn to use what we have wisely. We must learn to appreciate everything we have in life. We don’t quite realize the importance of what we have until it

is either taken away from us or is gone. Life is brief and uncertain. Don’t live a life full of regrets that will only inhale the future and exhale the past. It would be really gloomy to be breathing your last breath and feeling like you have wasted your life and haven’t re-ally achieved much. Every day may not bring success and joy, but we should learn to move on looking at the positive aspect of life. There is always a solution to a problem. Life is messy. There are starts and stops; progress and regress and then more progress. Solu-tions also depend upon one’s prospect hence there are different ways of doing one thing. We shouldn’t give up. Life is precious. We should not ruin it with hatred, abuse, and violence. Instead, we should use it to spread love, laughter, and peace. Appreciate what you have and help people who are less fortunate than you. Speak up against injustice and wrongdoing. Be the change agent to make this world a better place.

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Kasiga Art School Round-UpApril-July 2014

The Art School at Kasiga was originally located in the Main School building for quite awhile. It was later felt that it was necessary to identify a storage area in order to reorganize, clean and change the setting of the room. All this was accomplished in a record speed in the month of May.On the 4th of May, the Art School arranged an educational outing to Mindrolling Monastery in Clement Town, for select pupils to observe and appreciate the Thangka paintings. An exhibition was displayed on movable display boards for the first time, entitled 'Panorama' for the parents to witness during the two Parent-teacher Meetings. Water colours, monochromes, craft work and pot-tery items were on view for the spectators. The New Art School was inaugurated on the 11th of July, 2014. The location is a large glass covered room near the swimming pool with spectacular views on all sides. The Activity and Art Classes have been streamlined with the idea of each pupil gaining as much as pos-sible from the Art school. An Inter-House Art Competition was held for pupils of Senior School on the 13th of July. Each House fielded two candidates. The top position was won by Annie Srivastava of Yellow House, Harshvardhan Taunk of Blue House came Second and Ananya Chandoke of Red House was placed the Third. The House positions were as follows:-

1st-Yellow House2nd -Red House3rd – Blue House4th –Green House

On the 20th of July, a Pottery workshop was arranged for select pupils of the Middle School. The pupils learnt how to prepare and wedge clay. They made cylindrical pencil stands (slab pots incorporating coil work) in this workshop. In the meanwhile, the little ones of the JAP classes (Wall Painting group) helped to make lay outs of simple geometric shapes on paper for a mural which was to be painted inside the extension outside the Art School. The Pupils of the MAP class (Wall Painting group) sanded down the walls next. The pupils of the SAP classes (Wall Painting group) applied a thick coat of white emulsion paint in the designated area. The teachers were mainly involved in applying and tracing the stencils on the wall. This was followed by the neat application of orange and blue acrylic paint. The first stage of the mural was completed on the 31st of July, 2014.It is earnestly hoped that the Art School at Kasiga becomes a hub of fun and creativity with the pupils enjoying their chosen medium of self-expression. by Mrs. Trina ChatterjiPage 6 Expressions

SEWA is an integral component of CBSE-i. All stu-dents from classes I to XII will be part of a community service programme of every year. The objective of this programme is to underline the significance of the in-terdependence of all human beings in this shrinking global village. Students must acknowledge that they have a responsibility towards the less-privileged, the disadvantaged as well as towards the differently-abled. The principle of giving to society has to become sec-ond nature to them.With this view Kāsiga launched SEWA Programme this year for grades IV to XII. On 21st August, our School took us to a slum area in Rajpur which is located near a river. We were told to

interact with the children and adults living there. First we set up a white board and a mat for the children to sit. Many of our students taught them about moral values, safety, health and hygiene related issues etc.We spoke with a group of old men and in our con-versation with them, we discovered many problems which they were facing living in that area. Some of the major problems such as facilities of education and economic standard, housing, migration, want of Govt. benefits and schemes etc.It helped us realize the plight of the poor and at the same time ignited a passion for contribution towards the greater cause of our society. By Stanzin, X and Mrs. Chitra Sharma

SEWA Programme

C hi e f S tu d e nt E di tor : R o h a n B h at i a Ass o c i ate E di tor s : R au n a k , A n u b h av, S u m a n g a l & G u n e e t M a n g at

P hoto g raphe r s : Ya s h Ta n d o n , S a l y l D o b h a l , B h a r at S h a r m a & Mu s k a n S h r e s t h aC or re sp ond e nt s : S a d h i k a , S u h a n a , R i d d h i m a , D i v y u m , Ve d a n s h , S hy a a n & Ni h a l

Pag e D es ig ne r s : S h i v a a n d S t a n z i n . S t a f f E d i t o r : M r s . N a t a s h a Ve r m aP ubl i shed by : He a d o f P u b l i c at i o n s , K ās i g a S c h o o l , D e h r a d u n - 2 4 8 0 0 9

Utt a r a k h a n d . I N DIAEmai l I D : h p @ k a s i g a s c h o o l . c o m

On the12th of August 2014, the Junior School had or-ganized an Essay Writing Competition in both Hindi and English. The topic for Hindi Essay was ‘India is a Nation of Festivals’ and for English, the topic was ‘Three Wishes’. Vansh Garg of Yellow House won the first prize in the Hindi Essay Writing Category while in the English Essay Writing Category Navya Goyal of Green House won the First prize. by Mrs. Sangeeta Sharma

Junior School Essay Writing Competition

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