Joy Of Learning @ Kalinga Literary Festival

Sandeep Dutt is an Advisor to the KFL and was invited as a speaker. In conversation what Geetika Kohli, he speaks about life, times and how we thrive in life with the #JoyOfLearning. 

The link to the video on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/live/jSj94W-q4LU

The literary extravaganza, a spectacular range of language diversity in the programme, participation of 10 countries and over 25 languages. Over 500 speakers from various nationalities and recipients of major awards such as the Nobel, the Booker, International Booker, the Sahitya Akademi and many more.

Featuring a range of themes, including the ongoing climate justice debate under the urgency of borrowed time theme, the great women writers and artists focusing on the female voice and identity, crime fiction, memoir, translation, poetry, economics, tech morality and Artificial Intelligence, the global crisis, cutting-edge science, India and the world, art and photography, health and medicine, amongst others.

Every year, the festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue. The Kalinga Literary Festival has hosted nearly 2500 speakers and performers and welcomed book lovers worldwide since its inception in 2013.

Celebrities from literature, cinema, media and politics will assemble in the temple city of Odisha to deliberate on the “India and the World” theme at the Kalinga Literature Festival in Bhubaneswar from February 24-26. Acclaimed writers from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, the UK, Italy, South Africa, and Austria to the festival.

Is it important to have a purpose in life? - Reflections 19th Feb 2023 Sunday Reading

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for a newer and richer experience." Eleanor Roosevelt.

Life without a purpose can not be called life. No one may have no meaning in their life. If we have a purpose in life, we should fulfil it with great focus and deliberation. It is essential to have a purpose in life. We need to achieve our goal of being better and more successful people in future. If we have a purpose, we have to move with it and complete it. Carrying a sense makes our life interesting, simple and peaceful. Hence we should have a purpose in life.

- Nishan Karki

A building would be incomplete even if any one piece of brick is missing. All the bricks of different sizes are equally crucial for constructing the building. Similarly, every person in this world has a purpose in life. Many people together form a society; one individual can never create a community like one flower doesn't make a garden. Looking around our society and environment, we see many people doing different things, working and doing jobs.

When you wake up, you find your breakfast ready on the table, and then you go to work, school, college, or office through various modes of transportation, and you buy items and products from the market. People are serving us, and directly or indirectly, we also have value in society. We all should have a purpose to create a happy community without having any goals in life. We are like damaged roots that can't support or assist plants.  

- Tenzin Jambey

Joy Of Learning Studio

My Good School

We are at Dehradun just above the 100-year-old The English Book Depot. Our social space is open for all and focuses on reading,  writing and speaking—books, coffee, friends, family, reading and the joy of learning.

Video courtesy Kanishka Kandhari of Doon Global Education Mart

The Importance Of Separate Realities - Rishona Chopra

We all have our own thoughts and ideas. It may be about something, but we all have different thought processes, which everyone must embrace. It will be difficult to perform anything in a group or create relationships as a colleague, friend, peer etc. Different opinions make us unique, just like in the picture above. Few people sit near the sunset, yet all think differently, making the photo special. 

We all try to find happiness in things. We think, " If I get a cycle, I will be happy. If I get a phone, I will be happy", and so on. But all this is temporary happiness and does not last long. Soon the phone will break, and we will want a new one. Our joy should be in our control, not someone's or something's control. It is OUR and in our possession, yet we let it depend on other objects that barely mean anything. Every situation has its pros and cons, and despite the opposing sides, we can be happy if we focus on the positive ends. We can be happy every day, every minute and every second! 

It is truly up to us. As said," The happiness we are looking for is inside you. It really is. That's where mental health lies".

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI 
Gyanshree School

The Art of Focus - Why Is It Important To Ask Questions? - 12th February 2023

Thank you TENZIN NYESEL

Reflection For The Art of Focus

Why is it important to ask questions?

सवाल पूछना क्यों ज़रूरी है? 

The word "ASK" stands for always seeking knowledge, so asking questions helps you explore new things and learn. If we are curious to know about anything, we should rise and ask about it to understand it better. Sometimes we feel nervous and feel scared of asking anything new people and those who are older than us. It happens because we think we might speak something unusual and wrong, but we should be confident enough to ask. Finally, our level of confidence and our speaking skill level will develop. 

TENZIN JAMBEY

Asking questions is a critical element of the learning process. Questioning helps students direct their learning by merging their prior knowledge and new information to make sense of these ideas. We ask questions to learn more details about something and answer questions to provide more information. Asking and answering questions is part of how we know and our social skills; we ask and answer questions to be polite and build and maintain relationships.

JANUKA BASNET

Asking questions not only clears your doubts but also teaches you how to overcome come to those difficulties in your life. It even gives a better understanding and broadens our knowledge of that particular situation. I agree that asking questions is necessary since it develops our speaking and communication skills. It can also be beneficial to extend any conversation. Asking also teaches us to stand out from the crowd and clear our doubts confidently. In this new generation, many people struggle to ask questions or clear their doubts since they don't get enough confidence to do it. Instead, they should know that asking questions can only benefit them and be very useful at the moment and in the future.

TENZIN NYESEL

Why is it necessary to ask questions? - Nishan Karki

 Why is it necessary to ask questions?

Every person in the world has questions ranging in their minds. Questions indicate desire and curiosity to know something by asking others. People may ask questions to several people like parents, teachers, relatives, friends, brothers, sisters and many more people. Every time different questions come into people's minds.

There are several reasons for the necessity of asking questions. We ask questions to get information about different things. Asking questions helps us to develop our thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, etc. It also increases our general knowledge or knowledge about different things. Thus it is necessary and essential to ask questions. 

Nishan Karki
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

Travellers and Death - Reveda Bhatt

“The dead are not powerless.

Dead, did I say?

There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

‘Will I die? Or will I just leave my body?’

Oh! Wait! Let me reframe a part of my question-“the” body.

Well, hello, “travellers.”

Don’t like to travel? Still travellers.

Why?

Let’s see.

This writing, I guess, could seem to be an interactive session because I have a lot of questions there

is no right answer to?

So, your interaction would not be with me but with yourself.

In the beginning, I addressed you as a “traveller,” should I have called you a “human?”

Probably, right now, you’ll agree because you have a body, right?

Or are you “in” a body?

Let’s face it. The truth is the second.

Somebody might be called a human until they’re “alive”, but once they die, they’re called “dead.”

But, you know, there is life after “death”, so why be called dead once we’ve left our physical body?

It’s just that the soul is like water filled in a bottle which is the body. So you see, the water doesn’t

reduce in amount until you drink it, in the same way, if, in the end, you say that you can’t live life

loudly, there’s no one to blame except you! That’s on you! Be it anyone coming in the way, the fault

is in you because you let them in, in through the gate to your mind, to pull you down!

Why be backstage when you can rock it up on the floor!?

So, if I don’t see you when we are both in bodies, don’t worry!

We’ll get a chance to meet on the other side!

Reveda Bhatt
The Aryan Schoo, Dehradun

Launch your child into Space with Slooh

In season 10, episode 11, Anna Paolucci is in conversation with Sandeep Dutt, the Founder of the Learning Forward India Foundation. 

Slooh has democratized school space access through innovation, and in association with the Learning Forward India Foundation, Slooh is spreading the joy of learning in India #JoyOfLearning. 

Space Program Technology: From backyard telescopes to networked mountaintop observatories, 15 online robotic telescopes, including a flagship observatory at a top site in the world U.S. Patent 7,194,146 B2, issued in 2006 for instant imaging via networked telescopes, 18 hours of live feeds per day, 1000 plus daily "Missions" to space 

Community: From a solitary experience to a social one Student communities sharing control of the observatories Live Star Parties syndicated to the media attract millions of viewers Education: From textbooks to experiential learning Gamified, asynchronous STEAM curriculum from elementary to college Fulfils NGSS requirements by enabling the capture of phenomena for analysis Join a global community, and explore space via a network of robotic mountaintop telescopes. 

Live online telescope feeds unique astronomical events from Slooh's observatories in the Canary Islands and Chile. School Space Program makes learning a fun process. My Good School curriculum focuses on service, skill, sport and study. The Slooh program adds value to the school curriculum. 

The Learning Foward India Foundation through My Good School encourage schools and students to become involved in activities beyond study; this helps develop confidence, knowledge and networks.

To discover more, please visit www.Slooh.org.in.

School, school, school chale hum...

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School, school, school chale hum...
Thank you, Mr Kanishka Kandhari, for your support

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Thank you, iro 2023 & Food4Thought Foundation

Greetings from Sandeep Dutt at The English Book Depot, the bookshop that won the Award for Best Book Store of the Year Category in IRO 2023. Getting the prestigious Award in our 100th year of service at the Hyderabad Literary Festival 2023 is a big honour for us. Thank you, F4TF, for conducting IRO 2023 and recognising individuals and organisations promoting reading habits. I also thank all Sponsors, Aurobindo Pharma Foundation, Amadeus Labs, Odessa Technologies, Signode India Limited and Greengold Animation Pvt Ltd, for supporting F4TF and helping in organising IRO and, most important, identifying people from PAN India and appreciate their work. india reading olympiad® is a platform which enables, encourages, and endorses an ecosystem which creates functional reading spaces & joy for Reading and appreciates the efforts towards igniting a reading revolution across 13 categories, i.e. Life Time Achievement, Reading 4 Pleasure-School, Reading 4 Pleasure- NGO, Reading 4 Pleasure-Institute, Innovative Library Format, Innovation 4 Reading, Best Reading Club, Best Book Store of the Year, iambond Under 18, iambond Above 18, Joy of Reflection(Students), Best Library (F4TF) and Caught Reading. The three broad objectives of the india reading olympiad® are Encourage Reading habits and enable Joy of Reading at large, Encourage and appreciate individuals, groups and institutions which promote Reading and Inspire citizens to become lifelong readers & book lovers.

100-year-old Bookshop in Dehradun

The Drawing House now explores the rich book-reading culture in its hometown - Dehradun. And this new journey starts with 'THE ENGLISH BOOK DEPOT', a 100-year-old book shop in Dehradun, popularly known as 'BARISTA WALI BOOKSHOP'. Watch this amazing charcha about the history of his amazing bookshop.

Website: englishbookdepot.com Address: 15, Rajpur Rd, Ghanta Ghar, Chukkuwala, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001.

The producer of the video, Somya Mohan Sharma, decided to open this channel that can become the voice of all the industry artists and academics. With over ten years of experience working in the animation industry and in academics.

Oh Teacher, I Salute Thee - Nishan Karki

Teachers are the person who teaches us in school, tuition, online classes, etc. They try to give their best to teach us. Kabir Das, in his Shakis, says that if God and teacher are in front of me, to whom I shall greet first. Then he says, it is only possible because of our teacher that I can see and helps us reach God. He simply wants to say that teacher is even greater than God.

What Kabir said in his Sakhi is also true. The teacher always supports and encourages us to study well. They always advise us to go on the right path in life and always choose the right one. Teachers give us many things for which we should salute and respect them. 

Nishan Karki
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

Oh teacher, I salute Thee - 5th Feb 2023 Reflections For The Week

I salute my teachers for being an inspiration to me. Teachers provide knowledge and education. They become our moral supporters for us. With the teachers, we can make it this far. Our parents are also teachers. They were our first teachers who taught us how to walk when we failed and attempted a lot of times. Our teachers in School are the ones who showed us the light when it was dark. Teaching is a complex thing to do. & With all my heart, I thank my teachers for cooperating with us during the pandemic outbreak. Pestalozzi has also played a massive role in my life by giving me the best quality of education and supporting not only me but thousands of children like me.

I am thankful to be a part of this train journey full of joy and happiness. At last, hats off to the real heroes of our society... 😌✨

Tenzing Dhekyong N

We should always respect our teachers not only because they are elders than us but also because they are the ones who love and care for us like their own children. They taught us not only how to read and write but also to distinguish between right and wrong. We can best show respect to our teachers by listening to them and following their instructions. We should not talk unnecessarily with our friends while the teacher is teaching in class; we should focus more on the teacher leading us and ask questions by being curious. This is the best way to communicate with teachers, be humble, and show respect to them.

Jeni Sherpa

Saluting basically means respecting someone, so we respect teachers. Someone has rightly said," School is the second home, and teachers are second parents." The teacher has a significant role in shaping student's life, making them able to solve problems and face the world confidently and boldly. Nothing is enough to pay the debt of the teachers to students because teachers are the ones who teach us every value in life and enlighten the students. Many people find teachers more valuable than god. By being good to them, listening to them, being respectful and doing well, we can be students, which is what every teacher wants their students to be. Teachers are those who show every student their correct path and guide them. Words are not enough to thank teachers as they stand there for students in every problematic situation.

Shristi Khulal

Teachers always want the best for us. They care for every student and are forever ready to help us. Beyond our academic success, they also care about our happiness, well-being and life outside the classroom. Though they can sometimes be a little strict with us, we must understand that it is for our own good. As I say for teachers Wishing you joy and happiness, you are a fantastic teacher, and you only deserve the best. You are the spark, the inspiration, the guide, the candle to my life. I am deeply thankful that you are my teacher. Books, sports, homework and knowledge, are the pillar of our success, and you are the best in the classroom.

Januka Basnet

A teacher is someone whose position comes second in our life after our parents. Our parents only tells which I the right path but our teacher tells us how to walk on the right path. Our parents tells us not to make mistakes but teacher tells how to rectify the mistakes and learn from it. Life is like a journey on a train and our parents and teachers are like the drivers of the train. From our birth to the year of three our train of life is driven by our parents and when we get in play group the  driver gets charged and we get derived by the teachers for almost seventeen to eighteen years. The teachers are the most important person in our life because they are the one who thinks about us and lead us to a brighter future. That is why School is also known as our second home.

Monika Singh Pundir

Pestalozzi Children's Village India 

Oh teacher, I salute Thee - Tenzin Nyingsel

"Teacher, a person who awakens joy in creative expression and knowledge," said the great scientist Einstein. They might indeed scold us or punish us, but that has always been what is done well for us. Whatever the teacher has always done for me has always been perceived as a valuable learning experience and never as an arduous duty. Teachers have always been the person in my life who've guided me on the right path of my life and have always encouraged me to move forward in my life.

 At last, I want to say to teachers that whatever you've taught and have given lessons will always be walking by my side on my life path to which I salute you.

Tenzin Nyingsel
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

The Road Less Travelled - Rishona Chopra

There are two paths in life: the first is where you have many friends and where you are liked by everybody. You adjust and fit in the crowd. The second path is lonely. You only have a few friends and simply focus on your goal. Instead of fitting in, you stand out. 

We can see thousands of bad examples around us, the ones we should not be influenced by. You can take the example of people who drink, who smoke, and teenagers who party all day and don't study. Often, we find ourselves trying to fit in with others. On this path, we see many people who don't like us simply because they are jealous. As it said, "If none hates you, you're probably doing something wrong"!

On the first path, we find ourselves indulged with many people; we are happy, but as I said, around us are bad examples and hardly anyone good. Often, we get in touch with bad company and lose our way. 

Although it is said to focus on the journey and not the destination, the goal keeps you moving in life.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

Prévenance - Rishona Chopra

La prévenance, c'est juste quand une pensée vous vient à l'esprit pour prendre soin de quelqu'un. Simplement cette pensée crée la Compréhension. Un peu de considération, et un peu de révision pour les autres, font toute la différence.

Prévenance pour les animaux, vos parents, vos amis et toute personne dans le monde. Même en donnant de l'eau à un chien, en ouvrant la porte à un enfant et en montrant que les lacets de quelqu'un sont dénoués. Tout compte et montre votre attention. Prévenance pour mère nature. Si la prévenance existait pour tout le monde et pour tout, tout irait beaucoup mieux.

Un exemple où je me souviens avoir éte pensif es lorsque, lor d'une course dans une école, l'un des élèves est tombé. J'ai remarqué que personne ne l'aidait et que j'étais trop occupé à gagner la course. Pour être honnête, au début, je n'ai pas remarqué non plus. Je pensais que les étudiants autour d'elle l'aideraient mais comme personne ne le faisait, je suis monté et je l'ai aidée à se lever. Mais même si je l'ai aidée à se relever, je n'ai pas attendu une minute de plus et j'ai juste couru pour continuer la course, ce qui, je pense, est un peu égoïste de ma part. Au fond de moi, moi aussi, j'étais préoccupé par la victoire de la course.

J'ai besoin d'améliorer cela en moi et de surmonter le désir d'égoïsme et d'apprendre à être altruiste. La réflexion ne doit pas venir simplement pour montrer à quelqu'un que vous avez fait quelque chose, mais doit venir du cœur. Rishona Chopra Grade VI Gyanshree School

Oh, teacher, I salute Thee - Shambhavi Nautiyal

I salute all the teachers, whether or not they have taught me, as every teacher deserves recognition and honour. I salute you because you struggle, hustle and take action just for the betterment of me, a student. I come to you to earn and attain the knowledge you have, and in this cultivated relationship of a teacher and a student, we start to play a significant role in each other’s lives. You find ways to make me understand the lessons better and be more engaged in class, so I don’t feel estranged and stuck out like a sore thumb. You are the one who decides my favourite subject, and all these efforts of yours make me admire you and look up to you after seeing your concern for me. Oh, teacher, I express my utter gratitude to you and hope that I come out as gratifying student. Your words of wisdom and encouragement make me push ahead against all odds and work harder than I did before to become worthy of a teacher like you. Please remember that we, your students, will be there for you in times of need. Oh, teacher, you make our childhood, and I promise to continue to trust what you have told me.

A teacher sheds blood, sweat and tears to ensure that her students are confident in their knowledge and are confident enough to present it. The teacher works hard only to improve the student and not to profit herself in any way. She dedicates her entire life to spreading her knowledge amongst a different set of students every year. She looks out for her students and corrects them when they are wrong. Education is what distinguishes humans from animals, and teachers are the ones who educate us, so we should respect teachers above all. Outside of the classroom, no one knows a teacher or her worth. It is the students only who genuinely know her, in light of the fact we as students should carry our teacher’s legacy because we are who we are today because of the teachers who taught us in whatever category or time.

Shambhavi Nautiyal
Ahlcon Public School

No Discover Like Self Discovery! - Oshi Singh

We all wanted superpowers as children!

We want to be like Iron Man and Spiderman. Accept it or not but we all tried the levitating spell like Hermione taught us "Wingardium Leviosa". We all used household items like props. Spatula used to be the weapon and your bathing towel, your drape and our most memorable memory was saving the world. It sure seems like a lot of fun having a superpower like if you could read minds you could  be the best person around for everyone or time travel would enable you to have a perfect life because you could just use your power and not make any mistake. This sure seems perfect and it might be if someday we could experience it right? But the show must go on because as always I differ. Not because this doesn't seem tempting enough but because we all already have superpowers and I am not talking about a power to stop time or something like that but the one inside us like MS Dhoni has for cricket, Da Vinci for Painting and Robert Downey Jr. for acting. If you think you have to be famous to find your superpower you're wrong. It can simply be anything beatboxing for someone and modelling for someone. Now some of you might be under the impression that I am just saying this cliché stuff like everyone else but I differ again.

Hypothetically if I ask you a question that would you rather have a superpower or push a mysterious button and wait for the mystery to unravel. You would probably go with superpower right? Many of us would and with this ladies and gentlemen, I prove my point. When we have something that others don't, we start feeling special and unique. In time we let that thing define ourselves. Instead of taking risks and finding our personality, we play safe and stick on to that thing. It doesn't matter if you are a great athlete or a musician what YOU will see of yourself would be just one thing that is the superpower. If you were born and brought up in a family of dancers when you grow up, you would feel that your interest is dance, but the inner truth is that it's not. Take some time alone and whatever fascinates you is YOUR interest.

If you are thinking that this is just an aimless paragraph you are reading, cooperate a little more because the paragraph is really important. It is about finding your self-worth and self-discovery. So do you really know yourself? Why should you know yourself? Are the questions you might be wondering. Well knowing yourself is what will make you unique. It will help you find yours and a if you don't know yourself how can you except people to know you and respect you? 

Knowing yourself is no else than a superpower. 

Find your values, and your interests, your temperaments. Focus on yourself, and your strengths while making your weaknesses stronger than ever and if you don't know where to start, spend some time with yourself and you shall get all the answers. After all, there's no discovery like self-discovery! 

Oshi Singh
VIII D 
Gyanshree School 

Changes In Our Lives - Nishan Karki

We must change our lives, mistakes, behaviour and bad habits. Changes are essential to our life from now on. We can be successful people in future if we start making changes in our day-to-day thoughts and work. I want to be a better person and enjoy a bright future. For this I will need to make many changes in my life going forward. I need to change my day-to-day thoughts about how ideas, behaviour, and various skills like thinking, reading, writing, listening, communication skills, etc. If I start improving myself and changing these skills I will surely have a great future ahead.

Nishan Karki

Pestalozzi Children’s Village India.

Meet and Greet with Dr Akash Khurana

At the Meet and Greet hosted on Sunday, the 29th of January, we met with Dr. Akash Khurana. It was an enriching experience for all participants. From reading the book Mentor-Morphosis to a conversation with Mr RP Devgan, it was all so exciting and wonderful! 

We discussed how to find the perfect mentor and who can be a bedrock mentor? As explained by Dr Akash, a bedrock mentor is one who believes in you more than you believe in yourself and he/she plays quite an essential role in our life. 

We all simply loved the experience and wish to meet him again, hopefully at the new My Good School Studio at Dehradun. Here is a small screengrab of our session: