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Vasant Valleytoday

MARCh 20161

School WatchJust A Minute Competition , 16th March1st- Siddhant Nagrath

2nd- Udhay Aman Chopra, Dhruv Arora and Krish Dahia

3rd- Vira Chatwal, Navya Prakash, Mehek Anand, Arjun Shringee and Daksyani Chandra

Map Quest, February 2016

Class 6-Udhay Aman Chopra and Jai Mittal

Class 7-Sabeer Singh Bhullar, Devaditya Tomar, Katyayani Jha, Myra Kapur and Tishya Kasliwal

Class 8- Armaan Gandhi

Class 9- Asmita Shah and Shiv Mehta

Class 9CBSE- Veeraj Jindal and Saniya Sidhu

Class10- Aditya Kapur

Class12- Arjun Chakladar, Srishti Dewan, Nikita Aggarwal, Tarini Sharma and Rahul Jerath

#alaknanda16With pillow creases still marring our faces and eyes reflecting dreams of giant Zzz’s, the eighty-eight of us piled into school at an unearthly hour on a Tuesday morning. We left families patiently waiting outside the white gate to embrace the ones that awaited us inside with impatience. For the ninth and final time, we sat huddled on the centre steps and listened to Mrs. Krishnan call (and berate) us out. And for the last time we ascended the bus and train with shoulders leaden with “tuck” filled bags (shh), ready to undertake our final journey together.

The next four days were a repetition of starry skies, glimmering sands and the endless beauty of River Ganga. A sea of red, blue and yellow lifejackets, we eagerly piled into rafts that served as our makeshift homes at night. Equipped with (now lost) Go-Pros, water balloons and a crazy amount of energy (“props” to all the “eggs” we ate!), we gave everything we had into making our last the absolute best.

We picked up a lot along our journey downstream. Screaming “Ganga maiya ki Jai!” at the top of our lungs (and leaving both the Jai’s basking in the spotlight) was one of them. Getting ‘shark-attacked’ into the icy water was definitely another. Paddles became our weapons of choice, which we used to start mulitple water fights. But the highlight of our ‘education’ was learning how to survive one of the most dangerous rapids on the Ganga, ‘The Great Wall’. And we can proudly say that we all did (barely) make it out alive, with only two lucky rafts flipping over during the perilous venture. With reluc-tance we’ll admit that every battle fought with the Ganges did not result in absolute victory (dislocated shoulders and hairline fractures stand testimony to that!).

The Expedition was an ode to all the gandi games we played and learnt to play and a postponed farewell party that continues to carry on. We cribbed together as sand wiggled its way into every single pore of of our body, laughed together as we dug perfectly squared toilet pits in remote locations of the campsite, cried together as we used dettol to soothe the nicks and cuts that dotted our battered bodies and exclaimed with wonder to-

gether when we took in the beautiful view that awaited us at the end of an arduous trek. When ‘sentiness’ threatened to permeate the air, it was immediately pierced through by the loud chorus of kajrare that became the anthem of the trip.

It’s hard to believe that what had once been seen through dreamy, childlike eyes has become a thing of the past so soon. With sunburnt faces and darkened skin, we returned home in the wee hours of the morning, bearing the evidence of a battle well fought. With the awaited Alaknanda Expedition under our belts, it’s exciting (and nerve wracking!) to see what the future holds in store for us.

#kajrare #gandigame #dicey #onson/ovothy #karle #andrew #juice #camp2017

"रपिड फाड क आना, होय! रपिड फाड क आए, होय!''

-Sarina Mittal, 12

Vasant Valley Today // PAGE 2

ADVENTURE CAMPS 2016

At camp we have lots of fun carrying out callous pranks, singing catchy songs (that we’ll remember camp for), and sneaking into others’ tents. But the one thing that we make the most effort for is packing tuck. From the daily bunkers to even the ‘sidha-sadha’ teachers’ pets, everyone is willing to risk it all for a few packets of chips. Even as experts, we admit that hiding tuck is not the easiest of tasks! Even though carrying more than one packet is not allowed, (between you and me, sh) does anyone really follow that? Believe it or not, some of us have carried suitcases fill with tuck to fill the stomach’s of four kids for two days! We have hidden chocolate bars in socks, rolled chips in towels and even put candy in our toiletry pouches. Upon reaching, we’re prompt in taking out our tuck from our bags and hiding them under our beds, inside pillow covers and in different corners of the tent. And if… just if, you forget to bring your beloved Lays, or worse yet are caught red handed, don’t worry! Your friend has three extra packets for you to voraciously devour. So if your luck ran out this year, fret not, you’re always covered.

As the exhilaration for our annual adventure camp rapidly permeated the air at school, we were tasked with a quest: to find out the school’s preference over the much critically acclaimed school food vs. the-sort-of-variable-eh camp food. Armed with those set of instructions, we set about our journey, asking two, simple questions as we went along:

“Are you more likely to develop a sudden ‘allergy’ to everything on the plate at school or at camp?”We received a rather unexpected and erratic list of responses. According to Amiya Kumar of class 9, she would totally go on a ‘bhookh hadtaal’ if somebody stole her tiffin (which is prohibited, mind you) at school. While some people wholeheartedly agreed with this statement, we also had a minor group of rebels reciting stories of how they’d discovered their secret talent for drama after all the vigorous acting they’d had to endure doing to convince teachers that they were honestly sick, in order to get out of swallowing the horrid food. And that, of course, brings us to our glorious second question.

“Would you go on a hunger strike if your tiffin or your tuck got confiscated?”This, again, received an intriguing set of answers. We got a cold glare and a superior hair flip from Smitee Oberoi of class 9, who questioned, quite straightforwardly – ‘do I look like the type of person to go on a hunger strike?’ – and then went on, declaring her eternal love for food. Most people, quite unfortunately, didn’t completely agree with this statement, sticking firmly to their idea of heroically holding tiffin in one eye and starvation in another. There was, once again, another rare breed of people claiming that they’d cancelled all dietician appointments after discovering that they’d lost at least 3kgs at camp, after their bags and bags full of tuck got – uhm, confiscated.

Finally, after a lot of near-death experiences, having to break up a lot of fights, especially one between Armaan Lakhani of class 8 and Devaki Divan of class 9 (which contained a lot of wild arm-flailing and rude gestures, as well as the classic – ‘please, have you tried school ka rajma-chawal?’) and dealing with Yuv Arora’s constant interjections, we nearly survived our quest with a clear enough winner: camp food.

“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.”

TEST YOUR LUCK WITH TUCK

SCHOOL FOOD VS. CAMP FOOD

– Aishwarya Arya & Sanah Kapur, 9

-Ayushe Nagpal & Prithvi Oak, 8

Vasant Valley Today // PAGE 3

The adventure camp venue for class 6 got changed from Shivpuri to Damdama lake, Oh no! compared to rafting these adventure activities felt like they would be a piece of cake.the disappointment faded away soon enough ,when we saw our pitched tents and started playing bluff,we stepped out for lunch and in the bushes we heard a snake,my friends and I froze at the rattling,to contain our fears in our minds we were battling,fortunately it slithered away proving it was not fake.enjoying the landscape we took an evening stroll through fields of wheat and mustard ,on our return we enjoyed a wholesome dinner finished with banana custard ,at night we shared the tent with bugs and mosquitoes,and that’s not all a bandicoot got attracted to my cheetoes.waking up at the crack of dawn wasn’t easy,as in the morning the campsite was a little cold and breezy,zorbing in the morning was lots of fun,there was rock climbing, rappelling, ropes and obstacles some of which I won,throughout the the laughs and giggles we also fought ,being together the experience closer us brought ,the four days came to an end too fast ,I have to say though we had a real blast!

The train’s oily iron wheels screeched as they came to a sudden halt. We, the eager and half asleep students of class 7, who had been wait-ing for over an hour at the station, sitting on our suitcases battling flies, quickly wrapped up our belongings and scampered towards train. People tumbled over their bags, while others let out frantic howls of disagreement at all the mayhem. When I made my way up the rusted steps into our dingy compartment I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy journey! Our compartment looked like a ruddy pea-nut factory whose machines had gone wild shooting peanut shells in every direction. Our expectations of the train being something like the Hogwarts Express were now officially thrown out of our minds. Things went worse when queer people; hand-less, leg-less, red-eyed, burnt-ashy haired, ragged and torn clothes, distorted faces, started filling into our train pleading us for money and food. To top it all of when we were waiting for our train to arrive on our last day, some-one, from another train that was rushing past the platform at full speed, vomited out of the window; spraying some of us with the revolting remains of his train supper. No wonder the poor guy was so sick... We tried to get rid of the disgusting stench by sprawling the air with deodorant. However, the deodorant didn’t help us recover from the horrifying incidents we had gone through. Our journey in the train was a nightmare not easily forgotten, but it was also memo-rable for the right reasons as well! Though our expectations had been crushed, we still bonded over these horrific events over consecutive games of UNO and shared tuck. After all, isn’t complaining what camp is all about?

CLASS 6- DAMDAMA LAKE

THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME

– Aishwarya Arya & Sanah Kapur, 9

-Arjun Shringi, 6

-Arshya Gaur & Katyayani Jha, 7

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This year the Union Budget was presented in the Parlia-ment by the Finance Minister Mr.Arun Jaitley. Here are the top ten highlights-

The price of bottled water and soft drinks will be increased due to an increase in the excise duty on mineral water and aerated drinks from 18% to 21%.Thus one can except a bot-tle of water or a Coca-Cola can to cost one or two rupees more.

Prices of mobile phones are set to rise as there is a propos-al to levy basic custom duties and special duty on variety of components. This tax will increase the prices by around 5%.

Cars will become costlier as the government will be levying a 1-4% infrastructure cess on cars, depending on the cate-gory of the car from a hatchback to an SUV. Air travel will also become more expensive.

Multinational corporations(MNCs) are going to be under increased scrutiny and pressure as the government will make it mandatory for MNCs to submit their profits, num-ber of employees they hire and the taxes they pay in each country where they operate. The tax holidays in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) will also be phased out, increasing the tax revenue.

According to a new scheme, people who have undisclosed incomes or assets in India can come clean by paying a 45% tax. They will not face prosecution for the same.

The budget gives a boost to the infrastructure sector as the government is allocating 1.5 lakh crore rupees for mega power projects for the next two years and another 1.5 lakh crore rupees for highways for the next financial year.

The government has also doubled the clean environment tax on coal to 400 rupees a tonne,thus raising the price of power by 20 paise a unit,that will pass on to the con-sumers. This will increase the price of steel and make non-conventional energy projects more viable.

The government has promised electricity to every village in India by 2018. This will help the development of the solar energy sector in India.

The budget also proposes a 100% tax exemption on all profits of any three of a startup’s first five years.This will apply to all new startups set up between April 2016 and March 2019.

The budget has a central focus on using technology as much as possible, suggesting the establish-ment of a land information management system, an online agricultural marketing platform and a data mining platform to catch tax evaders amongst many others.

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UNION BUDGET 2016-17

-Aditya Kapur, 10

ek ja,maanaa qaa ik ‘kuC kuC haota hO’ AaOr ‘idlavaalao dulhinayaa lao jaae^MgaoM’ jaOsaI iflmaoM na isaf- baa^@sa Aa^ifsa pr QaUma macaa rhIM qaI bailk dSa-kaoM kao Apnaa dIvaanaa BaI banaa Dalaa qaa.[na iflmaaoM maoM ek caa^klaoTI hIrao haota qaa jaao [na tIna GaMTaoM maoM vaao saba kuC kr Dalata qaa ijasao hk,Ikt maoM saaocanao maoM BaI Saayad k[M- idna laga sakto qao.AaOr jaOsaa ik hmaaro isanaomaa maoM hmaoSaa haota Aayaa hO…… Ant maoM saba kuC AcCa hI haota hO AaOr saba #auSa hao jaato hOM.pr samaya badlaa AaOr yah badlaava isanaomaa maoM BaI naja,r Aayaa.‘eyarilaFT’ AaOr ‘naIrjaa’ jaOsaI iflmaooM Asala ija,MdgaI ko Asala hIrao pr banaIM.iflmaaoM nao dSa-kaoM kao na isaf- ApnaI trf #aIMcaa bailk baa^@sa Aa^ifsa maoM kmaa[- ko irka^D- BaI taoDo,.[na iflmaaoM kI saflata sao ek na[- baat jaao saamanao Aa[- vaao qaI– Aaja ko dSa-kaoM kI badlatI psand.Aba dSa-k [na tIna GaMTaoM maoM kovala hIrao ko karnaamao do#a kr hI #auSa nahIM haoto hMO.dSa-kaoM kao Aba klpnaa kI duinayaa maoM jaa kr manaaorMjana sao j,yaada AcCa lagata hO ik Asala ijandgaI ko AsalaI laaogaaoM kI jaIvana kI saccaa[- kao ek baar ifr ApnaI naja,raoM ko saamanao do#anaa.iksa trh naIrjaa BanaaoT AatMkvaaidyaaoM sao AkolaI iBaD, jaatI hO ijasao na ApnaI jaana kI prvaah hO AaOr na hI ]na #atrnaak laaogaaoM ka #aaOf.isanaomaa sao baahr inakla kr hr iksaI kao ijasa gava- ka eohsaasa haota hO ]sasao saaf, pta calata hO ik Aaja dSa-k saca ko krIba rh kr #auSa hMO.ijana GaTnaaAaoM kao isaf- hmanao saunaa hI hO AaOr idmaaga maoM ]nakI klpnaa hI kI hO ]na GaTnaaAaoM kao Apnao psaMdIda naayak va naaiyakaAaoM ko saaqa do#akr dSa-kaoM kI vaah vaahI Apnao Aap imala rhI hO.samaya badlaa AaOr Saaolao ko gabbar ko ek ek saMvaad pr ijasa trh dSa-k ifda hao jaato qao Aaja ko isanaomaa maoM ‘maaMJaI’ jaOsaI iflmaaoM maoM Aba saunanao kao imalata hO ik–

dSa-kaoM nao [sa badlaava kao na kovala #aulao idla sao svaIkar ikyaa hO saaqa hI #aula kr eosaI iflmaaoM

nao pOsaa BaI kmaayaa hO.saca hO ik yao badlaava AcCa hO.

badlatI saaoca, badlatI iflmaoM

-AaSautaoSa i~vaodI, 9

“ Bagavaana\ ko Baraosao mat baOize …@yaa pta Bagavaana\ hmaaro Baraosao baOza hao ”

Vasant Valley Today // PAGE

-Aditya Kapur, 10

-AaSautaoSa i~vaodI, 9

Trip to The Crafts Museum - We went to the Crafts Museum on 9th March, with our teachers and friends by bus. When we reached there we were divided into different groups. The first group went to see the village complex. I saw different types of houses like circular hut and lulu house. We also saw a house on stilts, bullock carts and mud huts. The second group went to see some artisans. We also saw Wali, Rajasthani and Madhubani paintings. I liked the Madhubani painting the best. Veda Kalra II - B

I woke up early in the morning as I was very ex-cited about my camp and finally the day had come. I was a bit nervous too as I would be away from my parents for the first time. My mother dropped me to school and soon we left in two buses at 7:45 AM for Camp Wild in Dhauj, Farid-

abad. On the way we all had tuck and chatted happily with our friends.After reaching Dhauj our teachers allotted us our tents. My tent had Aizah, Anaya, Divyanshi and Ishita. We also had Mrs. Anand with us who was a lot of fun. We were then served yummy breakfast. The camp organizers along with our teachers made us play some exciting team games. We also did an obstacle course, which was super fun. After this we were served a hearty lunch and we all ate so much.Soon after lunch we did rappelling and we were all very tired after that. Before dinner we took our torch-es and went for a night walk. It was so scary. Soon after that we had our dinner, changed into our night clothes and slept off. The next day we all woke up fresh, had hot choc-olate and went for breakfast. We then practised for our performance at night. Other fun activities like “flying fox” had been planned for us. After lunch we did rock climb-ing. In the evening we were served delicious pakodas. We then got ready for our performances. Our group did a play and everyone loved it and clapped for us. We were exhaust-ed and soon slept off.The next day we did “Burma bridge” and also planted trees. Soon it was time to leave so we packed our bags and after thanking everybody at the camp we set off for school . I was very sad that camp was over but happy that we were so well looked after. I am looking forward to camp next year again. Shivantika Swarup III – B

Along with my classmates, I started on our journey to the Adventure Camp in Baghaan on 8th March 2016. Lunch on our first day was served on a Ba-nana Leaf and bowls made out of dried leaves. In the evening we played “Monkey on the Baar” and saw a wildlife movie. Despite the mosquitoes, I slept well on my first night away from home. Also, my fa-vorite teacher - Mrs. Sharan- was there with me all

along. On the second day, we went to the nearby village school and interacted with school children of Class 8. We sang songs and learnt a new game called “Kho-Kho”, which was easy to understand. Unlike last year, this year I participated in all the adventure activities like ‘Zip-lining’, ‘Big-Daddy Rope Course’, ‘ Rappelling’, and ‘Burma Bridge’. There were two bon-fire nights where each group had to perform plays. On the first night, my group showcased our play called “Teachers” as part of the theatre workshop. I played Mrs. Bakshi – I felt very powerful play-act-ing her for a few minutes. The second night was our Tent Show where we performed a play with riddles. My favourite riddle was – “Once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years – who am I?”. The answer is the alphabet ‘M’! Looking at the photographs of the various moments during the adventure camp, dancing and midnight feasts marked the end of our adventures. Diya Nambiar IV- B

The long and anxious wait was over! After a tedious but entertaining 6 hour bus journey, we finally reached camp Hornbill sit-uated in the Jim Corbett National Park. The campsite was spread out over a large area and seemed like a maze at first. On our arrival, we were served a delightful juice made out of a flower. We then settled down and gathered in the “Chopal”. It was time for a nature trail. This learning about nature was enjoyed immensely by all especially the part about the 300 year old sal trees.The nights were extremely dark and spooky and getting to the common washrooms at that time was not something any of us looked forward to.The wakeup call on Day 2 for us was at 6 o’clock and half the campers went for bird watching. We saw egrets, red billed blue magpie, crested serpent eagle , crested kingfisher and gray hornbills. Soon, it was time for the adventure sports-Flying Fox, Mission Impossible, Ladder climbing and the absolutely thrilling body surfing on “Khichdi” canal. After this, came the Jeep Safari and we were lucky to spot some monkeys, jackals, langurs, elephants and many a deer. Day 3 saw “Earn your meal”, a truly interesting activity. The teachers put us in groups and each group was given a picture of a person. The group was to ask around the village and locate that person and their house. Once they were found, the group was to help them with their household chores. Some chores included, feed-ing the cows and making scarecrows. In return, we were served a home cooked meal, we had truly “earned”. This was one of the most delicious meals we had ever tasted. The journey back home was smooth yet tiresome. It was a bitter sweet goodbye to the last adventure camp in Junior school. We can hardly wait to come back together for yet another adventurous escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city next year. Sana Mehra V-C & Myra Prasad V - A

CAMP WILD

CAMP BAGHAAN

CAMP HORNBILL: JIM CORBETT

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Vasant Valley Today // PAGE

Editorial Board

Anoushka Clays, Arusha Nirvan, Darinee Chandhok, Tanvi Bahl, Aishwarya Arya, Sanah Kapur,

Aryan Sadh, Saahil Kumar, Rabiya Gupta, Aditi Singh, Arushi Bhutani, Ishita Malhotra, Zoya Hassan,

Aditya Kapur, Asees Kaur, Jay Jaganaath, Ananya Jain, Kamya Yadav, Nikita Dhawan, Riya Kothari

Editor- Sarina Mittal

Send all articles/suggestions to newsletter@vasantvalley.orgOnline issue available at www.vasantvalley.org

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Psynergy and The Social Science Symposium were recently held in school. Both events show-cased noted speakers whose discussions shared common streams of thought. At Psynergy, the topic given for discussion was ‘Integrity in Excel-lence’ whereas for The Social Science Symposium it was “Youth, Protest and Politics’. Both events tackled the current socio-economic and political scenario in the country head on, leaving no stone unturned. With voices that wavered with pas-sion and love for their respective fields, the air in the Vasant Manch was definitely charged with electricity. Because the speakers ranged from filmmakers to psychiatrists, the audience was ex-posed to a myriad of perspectives, widening the scope for discussion. It was a fruitful experience, creating a platform for conversations that need to desperately be had.

DISCUSSION. DEBATE. DISSENT.

In retrospect, I remember not,Much of what my Physics teacher had taught.

For long hours, maths had occupied my brains But alas I’ve poured that too down the drain.

Memories of lessons, I have long resisted,Alas, now they’re all distant and misted. Tis true however, that I do remember,That one lesson, in a frigid December.

He entered with his smile so warm,And eyes glistening with unprecedented charm.He set down his Mac ( quite a colourful piece!),

The class hushed down, the noise did cease.

I think his audience may have read prose once in a while,But we’d never quite grasped it in his style.

While lessons with him were infrequent and short,We clung to every shared thought.

And were I to ever, again, with him spend time,And be bestowed with more treasures from his mind,

I’d be grateful to receive all his wisdom on rhyme,Literature and prose of all kind.

And I may never read Shakespeare with that fervour again,And analysis of poem format may now seem a pain.

But the knowledge of poetry today that I hold,To dear, Mr. Reichman, is all owed.

While most of us struggle to walk the beam in Standard Test, this French man walked the 140 feet void between the two towers of the World Trade Centre on a tightrope. Philippe Petit, world famous high wire walker, was one of the speak-ers at the India Today Conclave and the Batch of 2017 had the unique opportunity and privilege to have a brief interaction with him. In his question answer session, Monsieur Petit imparted some beautiful life lessons. After dropping out of five schools, Petit said that the greatest

learning takes place in the school of life, where everything is self taught. When asked whether he was ever afraid while walking on his wire, Petit emphasised that the only way to succeed was to be extremely sure of oneself and have unwavering confidence. There was no question of being scared during or before the walk. Quoting a Sting song, “If you love someone, let them free,” Pe-tit said that those who truly love you, will give you unconditional support in whatever endeavours you may undertake. He said that he wasn’t fortunate enough to have a family that understood his dreams but over the years he went back to forge closer bonds with his father. He ended his interaction by wishing us all good luck on the tightrope of life.

ON THE TIGHTROPE OF LIFE AN ODE TO MR. REICHMAN

-Aditya Chopra, 10

-Kamya Yadav, 12