The Value Of Integrity - Anvesha Rana

Reading Chapter 18, The Art Of Focus
Honesty Wins
Human Quality: Integrity

Honesty is a value, but integrity is practice.

We can be honest without having integrity, but we can never have integrity without being completely honest. Being truthful to others is honesty and being truthful to yourself is integrity. A lot of people are honest, but hardly a handful possesses integrity. Honesty is visible to others, but integrity is the amount of transparency between the world and us. 

Trust is a vital factor for integrity. If we have confidence and belief in ourselves, we can only do what we deem right, but if we don't trust our instincts, we may end up being wrong. Faith in oneself should be the maximum, and it should be such that even if we are wrong for the entire world, we will still do what we think is right. 

The king gave seeds to everyone for planting, and the one who grew the best plant would be rewarded, but no one had the ingenuity to arrive with an empty pot. None of the people trusted themselves because the prospect of the award made them blind to any sign of failure. Still, only the young boy was truthful, confident, honest and humble enough to accept his defeat and admit that the plant hadn't grown even though he had tried his best. 

We all need to be like the boy. We need to be transparent enough in this world of opaque people, learn to absorb the rays of happiness and hope and let them penetrate through to others, and be solace to others in times of hardship. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School 

Autobiography Of A Top - Rishona Chopra

Hello there! I am a top, and my life is spinning. I hardly ever stop. My balance is excellent!

I am a top, 
I am as small as a drop.
I spin very fast,
I will leave you aghast! 

I have my own spinny life, you see. I can't see anything correctly. I have two best friends - My Owner and my Floor. My Owner spins me so perfectly that I never fall and always do in on the floor because he knows he is my best friend. But now the only floor is my friend as my Owner lost me and threw me away, left alone wounded.

Now, I am sitting in the park, separated from my friends, and finding a new owner.

Rishona Chopra
Grade 6
Gyanshree School

Why The Mistakes? - Rishona Chopra

Albert Einstien was once teaching a class and said 9x10 = 91, the whole class burst out laughing, and Albert Einstien calmly said, "I said 9 correct answers, but no one appreciated me, but I made one mistake, and you all laughed at me. This means that our society notices the smallest mistakes but never the good things." 

When our teachers make a small mistake like a typo error, don't all students point it out, but most of us don't even thank them when she teaches well. We, humans, practice always pointing out mistakes, and even I do, but we never appreciate things. Look at nature; we never understand its beautiful branches but point out the dry flower. 

In the same way, we all don't notice what we have but see what we don't. We have a family, a home, a school to go to, books, fancy pens, and clothes to wear, but still, we eye the things we don't have. Like a pair of shoes, we don't appreciate that at least we have feet. Have you ever thanked God for giving you a healthy and happy life? Have you felt gratitude for having a beautiful face, hands, and legs? We think it is normal, but it's not. Even giving birth in this world is a blessing. 

Rishona Chopra
Grade 6
Gyanshree School

Makeshift Spinning Top - Ishwar Pratap Singh

 

Hope you enjoy spinning the top! Share your top moment with us, comment below and maybe even share your experience with a लट्टू  (top in Hindi).

Ishwar Pratap Singh
Doon Girls School

Learn To let Go - Reveda Bhatt

Left one moment and then waiting for its return...

neither to your left nor to your right, and boom!

Then realise that it's just the one you've lost during its finding; just like that, you lose another moment in figuring out where the first one is hiding

but in this process, you tend to create a series of lost moments that just keeps binding.

So learn to let go!

Reveda Bhatt
Grade 9
The Aryan School

Act With Humility, Defeat Ego - Rishona Chopra

You love modesty; you hate artificialness. You do your best to be humble. Yet your ego and pride show their strength from time to time. Does this happen? Sometimes we don't realize what our stubborn ego is up to. The problem could be as fundamental as not knowing what ego is. Any image which is not our true identity is ego. It is when we make something we have acquired as our identity.

Our qualification, position, skill, relation, religion or caste - when we make any of these our identity, we play our roles based on this identity. We expect others to behave accordingly to us. Every time you act with humility, your ego gets defeated. 

At the same time, Appreciation for others shows your modesty and humbleness. Instead of thinking about ourselves, we appreciate other person's efforts. Humility and Appreciation build a good relationship between peers, two base values of a healthy classroom. Values like cooperation and respect come in when we have the base of humility ready.

Humility is that rare value that we hardly find in people today. Simple gestures like holding the door for someone else or picking up someone else's belongings show humility. It demonstrates that you do not consider these actions small or petty. Humility is not thinking less about yourself. Instead, it is about thinking of yourself as less. We don't have to stop thinking about ourselves, but we must stop thinking of ourselves as more significant than all because we are equal in many terms. We should treat others the way we wish to be treated. I believe in life, we all need to be humble, and it is the only way to peace, happiness, and success because humility is, after all, the mother of all virtues and beings. It is the supreme power. Humility is essential in the classroom; it teaches us to be able and kind to all around us, our peers and teachers. Rishona Chopra Grade VI Gyanshree School

Happy Gandhi Jayanti - Rishona Chopra

Gandhi Jayanti is not only used to mark the birth anniversary of Gandhi Ji but of the great things he did. I take pride in saying that Gandhi Ji's teaching made the whole of India proud. Satya and Ahimsa were two of his primary teachings. As in truth and non-violence.

Just like the British used violence, and we tried our best not to and hardly used violence in our life, people may trouble us, but instead of bothering them too, we must stay calm and peacefully resolve things. 

Ethical, moral values contrasted by seven sins by Gandhi Ji:
1. Wealth Without Work
2. Pleasure Without Conscience
3. Knowledge Without Character
4. Business Without Ethics
5. Science Without Humanity
6. Worship Without Sacrifice
7. Politics Without Principal

Today let us do just 3 things:

1. Take content with what we have - Gandhi was not very rich but was still happy and took pride in what he had and who he was.
2. Stay calm in each situation.
3. Be peaceful throughout the day.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

A Unique Gandhi Jayanti - Oshi Singh

Happy Birthday to the father of the nation resting in heaven! MK Gandhi has taught us many virtues like Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, and many more. He taught us all these great values by not only speaking but by doing and reflecting on them through his actions, like a great leader should. This second October, we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti every year, but what's new? You're just sitting at home yearly, probably watching television, relaxing. Probably Netflix and chilling. But come on, why are you wasting your time when you can do these 3 awesome things to learn more about Bapu and have a fun day ahead! 

1. I believe how a person dresses speaks a lot about them? And if we look at Bapu's clothing, it was pretty simple a white dhoti and a pair of sandals. According to me the white clothes symbolises his pure heart and simplicity towards life but do you know why Gandhiji wore that dhoti? Do you think it was fashionable back then? Those who do well you're wrong! That dhoti was made up of khadi fibre which bapu spinned himself using the charkha. This was to boycott the dependency of Indians on Britishers and become self-sufficient and independent. 

2. Books and old artefacts are a great and fun way to get to know more about the history. Furthermore why don't you visit a museum this Gandhi Jayanti to learn more about the independence struggle faced by our fellow Indian brothers and sisters. Maybe you could visit the National Gandhi Museum and Library or The Swatantrata Sangram Sangrahalaya. 

3. Who doesn't know Gandhiji ke teen bandar. See No Evil - Bura Na Dekho, Speak No Evil - Bura Na Bolo and Hear No Evil - Bura Na Suno. Why don't you play a game with your friends to test each other's knowledge about the teen bandar? The minimum number of players should be 4 out of which 3 will be the bandar and one will be the speaker. You will need three glasses, headphones and a small cloth or scarf to wrap around your mouth. The speaker will call out some phrases and the participants will need to choose the correct action for each spoken phrase. The fastest and the one with the most number of points wins!

These were some ways you could use to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti a little differently this year! 

Oshi Singh 

VIII D

Gyanshree School 

Quality - Rishona Chopra

"If a judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein 

We all have a beautiful quality about us. Something that makes us happy and makes us feel alive. There may be 1 bad thing about us, but there are 10 good things about us too. We all have a quality that we can never get tired of. Writing makes me feel alive, and I believe it is my quality that refreshes my mind. 

Today let us close our eyes and think, what do we wish to do that we could do all day? Reading, writing, playing an instrument, drawing, painting, or even doing nothing is a quality. I have noticed that most people can't stay still and want to do something, even if I can't. So if you can stay still doing nothing for even 15 minutes. I say that's beautiful quality!

Take out a day to do whatever you want without any hesitation!

Apart from these hobbies, it is essential to have God's seven qualities in us:
Wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Begin Your Day With A Close Meeting With God - During the early morning hours, when nature is silent and pure and human beings are quiet and detached from their physical existence, experience yourself as a soul and enter the soul world and float in it, touching and absorbing the pure vibrations of God. These vibrations will fill you with God's 7 qualities.

Rishona Chopra
Grade 6
Gyanshree School

The Value of Peace - Oshi Singh

 Piece Or Peace?

This September, we celebrated Peace

Mental Peace Or Mental War? 
Ultimately, Peace is the final aim of war, isn't it? 

Both these 5 letter words have the same pronunciation but different meanings. Some of you would correct me and tell me they're called homophones, and you are totally right. While one could be a piece of cake, the other could be self-discovery. They are like Night – Day, Arrive – Leave, Junior – Senior, Better – Worse, Right – Left, Rich – Poor. But now that we are talking about Peace which is the month's value let's discuss it a little further. According to Wikipedia, the definition of Peace is: 

Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony without hostility and violence. In a social sense, Peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. 

Do you really think this is what Peace means to you?

Close your eyes, and imagine these five beautiful letters. The first thing that comes to your mind is what it is for YOU, unless you are thinking about a piece of cake. Peace can be anything in the world with approximately 7 billion people; there are billions of other definitions for Peace. It could be harmony with loved ones only, it could be harmony with everyone, it could be harmony with the surroundings, or it could be self-development. It could be anything if you just remember to be yourself. 

Before ending, I would like to share my views about Peace: 

Peace for me lies in nature. It seems so dark and mysterious, yet I find it so bright and blissful. It makes me realise the true meaning of Peace. It constantly reminds me to switch the lights on in the darkest times of my life. 

Oshi Singh 
VIII D
Gyanshree School