Relections for the week - Sunday 18th August 2024

- From The Guru Nanak Docuseries-  

1. What did you learn from the episode today?
2. How aware are we about our own religion and cultures?
3. Does true devotion lie in bathing in "holy rivers" or is it something deeper?
4. Why do you think the chapter is named "Adhikaar"?
5. What is religion and its true meaning?
6. What makes one "pure"?

More food for thought, notes shared by Akshar Bhasin from JMPS:

1. Questioning the futility of religious rituals and practices which are often performed blindly and without looking into the depth and intent behind them.

2. ⁠Aiming at the purification and cleansing of the inner soul and being rather than simply bathing the physical self in the Ganges and considering one pure.

3. Questioning the society’s olden practice of keeping a women confined and labelling her as impure during mensurational cycle.

4. ⁠Pondering about how a  man is often bestowed with the title of ‘pandit’ (wise one) just because of his ability to recite holy texts and mantras without actually realising depth and intent behind them and acting according to the righteous way of life.

5. ⁠Understanding and embracing the truth of religion and it’s teachings rather than blindly worshiping deities and praising their teachings. 

6. ⁠Understanding how enlightenment can be attained not by cremating someone at a holy site like Varanasi  but by following the correct path and embracing wisdom.

7. ⁠Can one, instead of embracing a religion professed by others, find his own path and way in life ?

- From The Hidden Life Of Trees – 
1. What is your takeaway from today's session?
2. Why is there a battle for every light of sunshine in the forest?

3. How do forest species adapt in their need for sun and resouces to grow from the environment?

Check out the GSI Journal and listen to the latest podsact from Sunbeam School Timeless Tales. You will find the podcos on the right column and are most welcome to visit the Good Schools India Journal webiste: https://www.gsi.in/.

These are some suggestions you can choose from. Looking forward to seeing your wonderful and thoughtful reflections! 

      

You can email your reflections at -      

mk@learningforward.org.in

Sunbeam Varuna #JoyOfLearning

 We love ❤️ Sunday School

We are reading

Jataka Tales by Francis & Thomas

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

My India - Yashraj Sharma

 Independence Day Celebrations

Yashraj Sharma is the Head Boy High School at Gyanshree School Noida. He has been with us at My Good School for three years and helped set up the Astronomy Program as the Slooh Intern for GSA.

Reflections from Sunbeam Lahartara

Sunbeam School and Hostel Lahartara in Varanasi share #JoyOfLearning in their maiden newsletter!

Sunday School 11th August 2024

Sunday School by Sandeep Dutt

Jugjiv Singh is the narrator at the My Good School sessions for reading, reflection, and relationships #JoyOfLearning.

Read on Substack

We share our #JoyOfLearning at our Sunday School; enjoy the My Good School session recording on 11th August 2024. Check it out: excerpt of The Great Dreams - Jataka Tales, our current read. Jugjiv Singh is our anchor and coach for the Sunday morning Zoom Sessions. His reading and conversations are legendary. 

Let There Be Light - Sanvi Rai

Anemones 

 Anemones, also known as windflowers, are flowering plants in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). They thrive in temperate and subtropical regions across the world, except for Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the Middle East. These plants exhibit a consistent structure in rainforests due to competition for sunlight. When a large tree falls, creating a gap in the canopy, small trees rapidly grow to fill the space. Over time, they compete for sunlight, resulting in a predictable size structure across the tropical rainforest.

 Battle for sunlight in the forest 

 Rainforests have a consistent pattern of tree sizes due to competition for sunlight. After a tall tree falls, sunlight reaches the forest floor, allowing small trees to grow rapidly. As their crowns fill the gap, some trees are left in the shade, leading to this characteristic size structure observed globally in rainforests. 

 Sanvi Rai

 Sunbeam School

BHAGWANPUR

Memphis Tigers - Akshar Bhasin

Cover photo: Akshar Bhasin with the Memphis Tiger

It's wonderous, really, how quickly a moment captured and stored away in a phone, when seen years later, can induce a rather long yet delightful walk down memory lane. One can think of memories like a spider web basking in the sparkling droplets of early morning monsoon dew. If he chooses, he can take a stroll down a string of the web, passing through those little dew drops of memories, but even when he reaches the end of that string, there is yet another one that commences. So on and so forth, memories connect and merge into each other, combining to create the 'past' of each individual. But, eventually and inevitably, as those dew drops are bound to vanish when when the sun comes up, we, too, forget these moments as time moves on.

But, today, as fate wills it (in my case a wonderful educator and friend did too), I shall reach into the unfathomably vast web of memory, and choose to stroll through one of those strings of web. Now, as I fade away from the present, moments and images flood into the screen of the mind and a movie begins to play.

The year is 2016 and I'm residing in the U.S.A, in the state of Tennessee. To be more precise, I was living in the University of Memphis campus area. I'm enjoying life though. Teachers see me as a 9 year old incorrigible Indian headache, but, frankly, I'm not aware about the strenuous concepts of societal expectations or self image or what-do-people-think-of-me. Or maybe I was but I was but just didn't care.

I was too annoying to be befriended by anyone at school, but I really never felt lonely. The company of books doesn't really ever let one feel alone. And gratefully, I had the Benjamin L. Hooks Memphis central library to refill my shelf with 25 different books each week. I could honestly go on about that piece of paradise for hours on the end but, I suppose that string of web is for another day.

- Akshar Bhasin is a student at Jodhamal Public School, he loves to read and this is his reflection for The Great Dreams from Jataka Tales.