A Business With A Purpose - Rishona Chopra

Any business needs a purpose to thrive and grow. To fulfil something missing in people's life. To fulfil a much-needed need. A unique idea that serves the customers to their comfort and, of course, an idea that has a clear image and purpose. They know what they want, how to achieve it and how to grow it. 

One such business is the Tata Group. It has shaped the India we live in today. Their business has been serving India for so many years, and all of them have been a success. 

1969 – Entered the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

1982– The Taj Group accelerated its international expansion.

1983– Tata Salt became the country's first iodized branded salt.

Their businesses were firm in their values and had a clear purpose. 

  ***

There is no one person behind a business. It is a team of hundreds of people. Their strong values of cooperation and humility make a strong and concrete business. 

If the co-founder of a business is jealous of the founder and tries to belittle him, then won't the business be at risk. While working in a team, will a business work out if people don't respect each other's ideas? If people don't appreciate each other's efforts, will they be motivated enough to strive for more? 

Cooperation is when you adjust with someone, whether you like it or not. It is when you help someone not caring about yourself and putting their needs before yours.

While doing business, our core values have to be strong for the business to grow without any inner conflicts between people. 

Rishona Chopra
Grade VII
Gyanshree School

A Letter from a Little Girl with Big Problems!!! - Aria Gupta

Opanari Society,

Sec 198, Panlangarh

12 july, 2023

Dear Aanya

How’re you doing, sis?

Everything has been challenging since Mom and Dad died in the car accident. We all hope that you’re not going through the same. We’ve shifted to a small, rented apartment in the Opanari Society. Grandma has been trying really hard to make a living for us. Happy 10th birthday to me, but no one other than her and you actually care, and both of you are busy. I could really use a friend here, but everyone calls me rude and selfish. No one could really understand me. I couldn’t do anything for anyone because of our situation, which made it hard to make new friends. So I’ve decided to focus more on my grades. I want to make a better future for us. I want to ensure that our current situation is hidden forever and is never found by anyone.

I honestly feel this brutal feeling of jealousy that makes me feel sad and angry about our situation all the time. It makes me act rude to other people. But if I tell this to anyone other than you and Grandma, I’ll be called a psychopath. They won’t understand this feeling unless they’re in my shoes. It’s somewhat a reason I don’t have any friends. When I try to make some, it’s always in vain.

I’m a bit ashamed of this situation, as I’m surrounded by children who live entirely normal lives. I want to make it better. It’s why I’m focusing on my grades so much. I want to make a better home for Grandma in the future. I want to ensure my and your future too. We’ll be living a better life in the coming years.

How’re you doing? I hope college is going well. I hope you are not like me and are doing ok.

Thank you for being my only escape from this brutal reality.

Sneha Rawalya
Your little sister

Written by: Aria Gupta Grade VI Gyanshree School

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in the below text is imaginary, including the places.

The flame must keep burning - Rishona Chopra

Diwali or Deepavali is a time to brighten our homes and hearts. The messages of beauty, newness and freshness carried by the festival are being observed and celebrated differently in various parts of the country. Mythology shares that it honoured the return of Sri Ram to the kingdom of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile when people expressed their joy by lighting Diyas (lamps) to welcome him. So it is a celebration of victory and a return to self-governance or sovereignty. But like every other festival, rituals followed during Diwali hold deep spiritual significance. It becomes truly festive and more meaningful when we understand their purity and imbibe them.

Preparations begin with cleaning, painting or even renovation in many houses. What does this spiritually signify? It is a message for us to clean our minds. We need to cleanse it to remove thoughts of anger, criticism, rejection, resentment, hatred, hurt and jealousy. The weight of all this negativity we have been holding on to is weakening the soul. Paint the mind with new colours of peace, love and compassion. We also need to clean our words, actions and behaviour. This has to happen every day, not once a year, so we eventually reach a stage where we have a constantly clean and pure mind and body.

Regular practice of meditation and imbibing spiritual knowledge shared by God help us achieve the stage. Gifts and blessings are exchanged during Diwali. Spiritually, it is a message for us to empower and care for each other. A blessing is a high and pure energy vibration we create in our thoughts and express through our words. We have all experienced that the blessings of saints, parents, teachers, family and friends have created miracles in our lives. Irrespective of people’s sanskaras and behaviours, we empower them to change their sanskaras when we create only pure thoughts and words. Our blessings radiate to them to become their reality and change their destiny. Not just on a festival, our every thought and word every day should be a blessing. 

Giving blessings is the easiest way to receive blessings. 

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

Countering Failure - RP Devgan

It is unfortunate to read about the loss of life among young teenagers who succumb to failure. Doctors and psychologists put it down to emotional stress and depression. If these be the causes, how can one help these children? The root causes are frustration, jealousy, loss of face and fear of failure.

To make children emotionally strong and fight against odds, they must be guided and mentored right from their early years. In Primary School, children are most impressionable. Most of the problems start with comparisons to brighter children. Not-so-bright children become conscious, which leads to jealousy, frustration, loss of self-esteem and lack of confidence. 

The way out of this web is to learn to compete with oneself - forget what the others are doing and concentrate on your improvement. One should set reasonable goals and try to do better one's performance periodically. This gradual improvement brings out the best in an individual. With patience, perseverance and hard work, one gradually rubs shoulders with the best. Concentrating on one's achievement leaves little room for jealousy and heartbreak; children from an early age need to be encouraged to believe in themselves. They need to be told that every child has some talent. It just is waiting to be discovered. Regular encouragement and understanding raise a child's confidence and self-esteem. 

As one starts on the journey to improve, it is crucial to reflect. Pause and look back to see how things are shaping up. Are the proper steps being taken? Too many people in this world repeat their mistakes daily, week after week, month after month and do not realise they are stagnant. They turn into robots.

Teenagers need to have a plan or a timetable they follow. The path to success is slow and, at times, painful. One must not give up. Failure leads to depression. To guard against this, one must learn to face losses and not give in. Most children who are weak emotionally have never participated in activities outside the classroom, be it sports or any extracurricular activities where they have faced disappointment and failure. Failure can be a great teacher. It makes you reflect, gather your wits and prepare for the next time. This makes you emotionally strong, an essential part of your character building.

The other day I was walking down the fairway on the golf course accompanied by a former student. He confessed that playing games and losing matches had taught him to face failure. He admitted that children who were just book worms lost out on building up their emotional strength and strong character. This is why our new NEP 2020 emphasises holistic education, which some call an all-around education.

I wish schools, for the good of children, start following the NEP 2020 guidelines, which will make children emotionally strong and prepare them to face challenges, not give up and not succumb to failure. This will help save the lives of venerable young children and make them happy. They can then look forward to a happy future with confidence and conviction.

Rajinder Pal Devgan
Chairman Learning Forward India
With nearly five decades of experience as an Educationist and serving as a School Leader for schools in India and overseas, Mr Devgan brings rich experience as an administrator, sportsperson, and teacher champion. His love for children further strengthens the My Good School philosophy of every individual's personal and social development with the active support of teachers and faith in experiential learning and learning outside the four walls of the classroom. Former House Master and Dean at The Doon School, currently Member Board of Governors at Welham Boys' School, has settled down at Dehradun to help build Learning Forward India.

Jealousy- ‘ The necessary evil’ - Gaurangi Rastogi

J-e-a-l-o-u-s-y is the word we experience and notice everything. Elderly people say that Jealousy can ruin everything, and it's true. Jealousy can be good or even harmful. Even when I speak that Jealousy can be beneficial, they ask how. Let me tell you an example of my story. 

When I was in grade V, my parents would talk about my cousin, that she is good at that, this... It would make me so sad that I fought with my parents saying I don't have my identity or what. When they said, "Beta! You are more than them; you can achieve anything, so I started working hard towards academics, curricular activities, and sports. After I worked hard on my achievements, nobody told me I was inferior to others. This is the good side; the wrong side is more than the opposite of this example. 

If we always get jealous of others, we never achieve the achievements we deserve, like- becoming a vice president of one of your school's leading clubs, the dancer, singer, speaker or anything you say.  

Jealousy always made me depressed, aggressive, or emotional. Life has competition, but there is always a competitor with whom you will fight forever, and that's yourself. 

Gaurangi Rastogi,

Grade 7,

The Doon girl's school

Forgiveness - Anvesha Rana

' There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. '

All of us have had experiences where we were angry at someone. A small mistake, a menial conflict or an accusation can raise our fury in seconds and without thinking of the consequences, we let anger take control of our actions. We are aware that when we yell, scold or blame, we create a vicious cycle, yet we allow our wrath to flow out on the other person. Why should the person who has no connection to our misery be blamed for it, and then how are we supposed to expect him to say it's ok? A simple sorry does not change anything; sorry is not just a word; it is a lesson and a promise that we make to never repeat the same action again. These days sorry is treated nothing more than five letters, and it is almost obvious, as per the new social norms, that the person we are apologizing to has to say it's ok, whether they like it or not. 

Forgiveness is not just a virtue; it is also a sacrifice that the world immensely needs right now. I believe forgiveness is the best form of love because it requires a strong person to say sorry and an even stronger person to forgive. We should forgive others, not for their sake but for our own peace, since as long as we don't accept the apology, we continue to boil our pessimistic emotions to the point that they start overflowing. We suffer due to the deeds of others. Consequently, we should free ourselves of this and instead forgive the person with our whole hearts. When we hold grudges against people, those grudges consume our good deeds, and they probably affect us much more than they affect the person we are holding them against. Grudges seldom hurt anyone except the person bearing them. 

If we don't bend, we break. Forgiveness does not make the person smaller, but it makes him bigger. Revenge is not the only solution; through the means of revenge, we are retaliating to the person who affected us through his own ways. By seeking revenge, we continue the cycle of evil deeds in the world. Instead, if we forgive everyone for whatever they did, we convey the message that goodness is still alive, and we also instil a sense of morality in the person we had to forgive. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School. 

Holding on my Head - Meenakshi Choudhary

I am holding on to my head

Mountain of expectations

Walking on the path of my life

With boundaries of relations

My balloon of love was ruptured

By religion and culture

My life is pointless and boring

With nothing to nurture

The world is running

For the rain of the fame

For their own mistakes

They just want someone to blame

I just ignored them all

When I should have fought with them

But I wasn't knowing

They play this filthy game

Within no time

I was now left in shame

No one even bothered

To come and feel my pain

Now I am jobless

Waiting for a hopeful ring

What's left in me

Is just a confused being

This world to me

is like a roofless home in summers,

At nights I feel peaceful,

and whole day sun hammers

It has windows, walls doors

To divide me from others

Nothing we talk rather

Then just useless matters

With jealousy of others

my windows shatter

I don't have a lover,

so I don't care about the haters

I end my beer bottles

Till I burst my bladders

I sing all songs in blabbers

Coz for me, nothing matters.

Meenakshi Choudhary

Class - XII Science     

The Fabindia School