Meet and Greet with Bhairavi Jani

Learning Forward Podcast Season 10 Episode 14, we try to understand India's strategy for unleashing its innate greatness: Ms Bhairavi Jani, the author of Highway to Swades. Join Anvesha and Rishona on this marvellous trip to rediscover India's superpowers. In a country overflowing with its culture, a nation intertwined along with its love for heritage and a place blossoming in its beautiful diversity. We belong to India, the land of differences, but these differences act as a binding force for each of us. India is indeed a great country, full of stories to tell and experiences to share. Indeed, all the powers mentioned in the book have their unique meaning.

Photo courtesy: timesnownews.com

Heaven is Haven - Reveda Bhatt

 My Favorite Place In The World

Everyone desires to go abroad to explore on vacation. Earlier, I also used to fall in with the typical crowd and wished that "To go abroad on this vacation would be very nice." On the contrary, we went on adventures in our country India, in general, and our state Uttarakhand, in particular. This is because my father loves his motherland and religion deeply. It was not like I wasn't happy on our "interstate" trips, but maybe it was for the feeling of bragging that I wished to go abroad. Anyways, the past is past; what is essential is that I have come to realise that back then, I was foolish!

"Devbhoomi", the land of Gods, is my "Matribhoomi", my motherland, and to explore every part of this land is my moral duty so that I never forget or be unaware of my roots, at least me! The wonders hidden here or found here are unexplored.

The "Char Dhaam Yatra" isn't something I've been on, but it is something I'd love to be on. It's just unimaginable for atheists and unexplainable to anyone not on the same page as me. It took time for me to picture everything, but I consider myself lucky enough to understand my mother nation's importance. Many invaders came to put us down, but we stood up again because, exceptionally, our land had that courage. Every part of our country is flourishing and with different tribes living altogether. Uttarakhand is another such state blessed with the presence of pilgrimages, the importance of which foreigners have come to understand, but the saddening part of it is that we, being Indians, are craving to fly out of our culture and taste some other culture.

My favourite part about Uttarakhand is that anytime I feel distinct and not closer to my culture, some or the other reminisce of any cultural trip or the power of the fresh air brings me back to connecting with it again! The treks on mountains, the "living on lakes", the rafting on the Ganges, you name any adventure, you'll find it here. Our villages have their authenticity still alive-cooking in clay pots on a self-lit fire, picking out sticks, drawing out water. I am an adventurous person so, for me, what's better!? The open forests, the breezes, the Temples-All is here at my favourite place.

To keep the culture of my country alive, I'd do anything that is in my hands! We all should! Growing every day! Diving deeper today! #BackToRoots!

Reveda Bhatt
Grade X
The Aryan School

Reveda is fond of art and writes blogs at My Good School.

My Good School Retreat 2023 - Tenzin Jambey

Seeing all the teachers and friends leaving with whom I spent an excellent time for four days, I almost cried. After spending four days together, I felt like we had been together for a very long period, and during this time, I became very close with them; I suppose that we all became so close that we were much more than best friends and because of this bond I emotional when everyone was leaving, the only thing which  I could say was " goodbye " and " best wishes ahead " I wanted to say many things, but the words were not coming from my mouth, one after one everyone started leaving and only HPS (Hyderabad Public School) group were left, for few minutes we talked and after a while, they were also nowhere to be seen. 

I was sitting near the basketball court of The Doon Girls School with my other Pestalozzi's friends and Shelja Ma'am, we were waiting for our bus to come and then suddenly my memories flashed back and I saw two vision that deeply touched my heart, first was the vision my friends entering the school on first day with full excitement and another was again them who were now heading  back to home with happy memories, pocket full of knowledge and with sad feelings of getting apart then I remembered the words of Monisha Ma'am who on first day told us that the word retreat means "heading back" but in our case the word retreat meant  something else for us it's meaning was heading back with good memories, memorable experiences, pocket full of knowledge and atlast the sadness of getting apart with eachother, these thoughts kept roaming in my mind and I kept on reflecting upon it while I was sitting near the basketball court of The Doon Girls School (DGS) where we had a friendly match with DGS versus the retreat group, I match was fun and and went tough as I was also among the player I really enjoyed but the spectators enjoyed even more seeing us putting basket and getting tired.

"Bus has come," said Shelja Ma'am and in a minute, we were inside the bus, I still looked at the DGS building even when the bus was moving, and after a turn, I could not see the school. We were going from the same road, the road from where we went to the Kalanga war memorial, The Doon School, and Khan Farm, and now from the same route, we were going back to Pestalozzi, the same road. I was sitting in the front seat, and it was 1:50 pm, and I played the "Jena Jena" song on guitar. No other song came into my mind; only this song came, which Malan Sir played for us during guitar class in DGS.

He taught us many guitar lessons in one hour, and if we had more time, he might have taught us many more things. I don't know whether this kind of feeling comes in every person or not; I get overwhelmed with happiness when I meet someone from my place or northeast as I am also from north east "Arunachal" I feel happy to meet someone from there; the guitar Sir was from Manipur, and because of that, I got even more interest in learning from him and also many students in DGS were from Arunachal. For a moment, I felt like I had met my brothers and sisters, as we have many things in common, especially those tiny eyes. Getting apart was the most challenging situation for me; it was even more difficult than singing a song on stage on the last day among different schools and students I had never seen or met.

The bus suddenly stopped, and I opened my eyes and found that I had reached back. I didn't even know when I went to sleep, but while I was getting off the bus, many thoughts came into my mind, which made me feel a bit worried as I was absent for three days from school. I wondered how much homework I must have got, which I could do without any difficulties, but the lessons or chapter taught in school was something I had to understand all by myself. I entered my room and saw all my friends resting; I was also tired and fell on my bed and tried to sleep. Still, the memories of the retreat kept me awake for a while. Somehow after a few minutes, I managed to sleep.

At 5 pm, ma'am came to wake us up, and there was a workshop. After the workshop, my friends. I went to Cheme la Ma'am to thank her for allowing us to attend the My Good School Retreat. She was simultaneously pleased and proud of us because we guys did an excellent job within these four days; she said, "We don't need to be thanked because you all deserve it." Those who work hard are always rewarded, which motivated me to work even harder even in future. I would love the reward of attending the My Good School Retreat.

We had our study hour from 8 pm to 10 pm, but I didn't feel like studying, and I thought of writing the reflection on the trip for four days. Then I took my reflection notebook and a pen and started putting my thoughts and emotions into words. From the first day of my visit to the Kalanga war memorial to the last day of the Earth Day celebration, I kept emphasising my mind to remember every moment.

In my notebook, I wrote down the lessons I had learnt and the life skills taught by Monisha Ma'am greatly influenced and motivated me to push myself towards success. I kept on writing, and I didn't even know how two hours had passed, and at 10 pm, I went to bed. I was lying in bed when I heard the sound of thunder bursting, and it took me back to the visit to Khan Farm. We enjoyed sitting on the sofa on the veranda and seeing the thunder and shower of rain was one of the most beautiful pictures I had ever seen. The lightning of thunder brought daylight for a second, and again, the darkness came  While I was thinking about this, it was already 11 pm. I felt like someone had stolen my sleep away, I wanted to sleep, but I could not.

I missed all my friends, and I wanted to see the faces of Monisha Ma'am, Shilpika Ma'am, Kunal Bhaiya, Sathya Ma'am, Malan Sir, Taraksh, Aradhya, Snigha, Vibha, Sanitah, Tammana, Yashraj, Ragav, Oshi and my Arunachal I friend Zirpo. More than that, I was excited to sleep because I thought they all might come in my dream, and after sometimes I went into a deep sleep.

At last, I would like to thank Sandeep Sir, Monisha Ma'am and DGS group for organising the beautiful events and assisting us in various ways.

Thanks to Cheme la Ma'am for allowing me to attend this retreat, Shelja Ma'am and Minaxi Ma'am for helping us for all four days.

Tenzin Jambey
Pestalozzi Children's Village India

Thanks to the Headmaster, Staff and Students at The Doon School

Conquering new frontiers in space with Slooh

Reimagine how you teach astronomy with Slooh's Online Telescopes. Space is a vast wilderness. Slooh is like a national park with trails and guides.

Explore space in real-time from your home using Slooh online telescopes. Learn about the different objects in our solar system, track asteroids and deep sky objects like nebulas, galaxies, etc. Teachers, Students, and Astronomers can work together to observe and photograph astronomical objects.

Replace City Lights with Starlight
Siddhant Abani, our Slooh India Youth Ambassador and Intern at 
My Good School will help you navigate the spaceship!

Order Blue Sky White Cloud - our Sunday School read.

A defenceless male elephant calf, born on the grasslands of the great Brahmaputra River, grows into a formidable tusker, journeying through the verdant green hills of northeastern India and Burma. With him, we walk through the vastness of the Indo-Malayan rainforests as he attempts to understand the humans who have irretrievably changed the jungles he roams.

Hira Singh, a forest guard in the Nadhia Wildlife Sanctuary, crosses paths with a female leopard facing shrinking forests in the hills that are her home. Their lives closely mirror each other’s, following similar patterns of love and loss, as fate resolves to bring the two together, perhaps for the last time.

Nadia, a wildlife biologist researching geese, travels to Mongolia, where she tags two geese: Blue Sky and White Cloud. As the birds fly southwards over the Himalayas, she meets Vivek, India’s Minister of State for Environment. Their instantaneous friendship soon takes Vivek to a lush valley at the base of the soaring Himalayas, where he must make a decision that will impact the lives of all around him.

With beautiful illustrations and rich prose, the three novellas in Blue Sky, White Cloud narrate stories from the perspectives of man and beast, showing us that, much like us, animals, too, have extraordinary stories to tell.

Visit us at www.MyGoodSchool.IN

The Lost Thinker - Rishona Chopra

Our imagination is limited to what we know. Our thoughts and actions are based on the knowledge we know. It is vital to break that boundary and think beyond it. To add perspective to every situation. In any case, we think only from our perspective and stick to what we know. If we consider ourselves lost thinkers, looking at each view and reflecting on the day correctly, we might find peace and happiness with everyone. 

Sometimes, in situations at home that we experience with family or friends, we try to do the same outside. If someone misbehaves with us, we act the same way with other people. This happens because of all the feelings accumulated in us. We want to let it all out, and doing the same with others worsens things. We all need someone who understands our importance in this world and truly knows us, but no one can understand us better than we do. We have to be that 'someone'. Only then can we find true happiness. 

You need to reflect and move on. You can't simply be ignorant and move on, and you can't keep remembering forever, either. Both steps are part of the journey. 

Life is like a contact sport. Let us take the example of football. There is winning and losing in the sport. But what matters is what attitude we play with. Do we play for the mere joy of playing or for winning? If we play for pleasure, we will be happy even in the hard times. If we take life to be a field with ups and downs, winning and losing and yet a place full of joy, we will never feel disheartened in the tough times and know there is always a ray of hope. 

Rishona Chopra
Grade VII
Gyanshree School

Are you in a dilemma? - Tenzin Kunsel

https://quotesgram.com/dilemma-quotes/

The dilemma word that we all are familiar with is a situation we all face daily. But when we think we are facing a dilemma, it's just a game that our mind plays. We all are already aware of the choice which we want to go with but create another choice just to confuse ourselves. When we debate which option to go with, we should always choose the brain's advice though hard to follow but better for us than the heart's advice which is easier. The brain's choice is better and more practical than the heart's.

Tenzin Kunsel
Pestalozzi Children's India Village