Journal 9.12

I skipped a few classes this week because of a lot of school work. However, the other classes this week were really productive. I finally touched my toes with my forehead in the butterfly posture. I tried so hard to do that last week, and couldn't. So, that achievement made me proud of myself. I also stood longer in the vrikshasana posture because of more focus and balance.

Journal 5.10 : More plants and plans...

The Boston fern is healthy without any brown or yellow leaves. Also, few more people joined the Eco club this month. We now have a big team! In the meeting held this month, we came up with ideas of installing plants in the dining hall and also creating a plant aquarium! We discussed the pros and cons of the ideas and ended up deciding that both the ideas would work. So as per the tradition, we split into groups and started making proposals to give to the management. We also bought a few more aloe vera plants and jate plants this month to replace the few that died. Before leaving school for the winter break, we took all our plants to the parking lot at our school so that the gardener who comes to school every day could water our plants too.

Journal 9.11

Knowing how each posture in yoga is beneficial for the body makes you do the posture as perfectly as you can. That's what my teacher does. He never forgets to tell me how each pose can be beneficial. Some are for the stretch of the lower back, some are for the stretch in the thighs and the others would be a muscle stretch in different regions of the body. Most importantly, each pose should be followed by a counter pose. For example, if we perform a posture that involves the bending the back backwards, we must perform another one which makes you bend your back forward. We didn't learn anything new this week.

Reflection : Ideathon!

             This was one of the best CAS experiences this year. We participated in this competition called the ‘Ideathon’ where we were given a task to pick up any global problem that a mass amount of people face which could be related to either Science, Technology or Business and come up with a solutions for it. We had to split up into teams of 4 or 5. Unfortunately, I got the chicken pox and couldn’t go to school for a week and hence couldn’t join any team or prepare for the competition. But the day I recovered and went to school was the day of the competition. The best part was that my coordinator let me join one of the teams in which one person was absent. I was excited and all set to go even though I had no idea what my team had planned to present.

            They explained their ideas to me the entire bus ride to the venue of the competition, from our school. It was about how we could make water consumption efficient when there is a high level of water scarcity. We rephrased our solutions and also added a few more, before we reached. Our solutions included using small gates in the water pipes which will close when the level of maximum water usage is reached by every house or building and connecting this mechanism to an app which can prompt the user. Another solution was that trees can be planted in 20% of every construction area instead of using all of the land for the building. 

          Since the competition began very late, each team got only half the time that was promised to be given. Hence, we could only present some of what we had prepared for. I have to confess, I could feel  the fear run down my spine a million times every second from the time we walked on to the stage till we finished our presentation. We didn’t qualify to the next round probably because our PPT wasn’t up to the mark or because we didn’t do a good job in putting forward our solutions. However, as we the CASians always say, It’s not the destination that matters, it’s only the journey that does. Having said that, the experience of this activity which happened in very short span of time especially for me, was amazing and worth the time. We learnt a lot about other problems and saw many different kinds of people out there who had different skills sets and a lot creative ideas. The exposure and the knowledge we gained from this activity was extraordinary.

Journal 9.10 : Increasing stamina

This week, we increased the number of surya namaskarams from 5 to 15 gradually. We also did the back bend many times this week to stretch the lower back. We did the eye movement exercise thrice this week along with all the regular postures and exercises.

Journal 5.9 : Expanding beyond...

Good news! My boston fern is back to form. It has no more brown leaves, it looks green and healthy, just like it was when it was bought. We also bought 2 creeper plants and kept them next to the bridge. The terrace garden plan is still going through the planning process. About the paper wastage reduction, we are making the proposal to handover to the management. In the meeting we had this month, we thought of expanding the Eco club and spreading the awareness of the importance of indoor air purification plants to our juniors too. So with the permission of the management, we held a meeting with the fifth graders and talked about the Eco club and also gave each classroom one Peace lilly plant (an amazing air purifier) after seeing their high levels of enthusiasm. We made a presentation and made sure that all them were engaged through out the meeting. Much to our surprise, one of the sections in fifth grade made their own club called "Go Pachai" (Pachai means green, in Tamil) which is basically their own Eco club. They made small objects like pencil holders with news paper. Believe it or not, those pencil holders looked like they were made by professionals! They came to us and explained that plastic is harmful to life and so they are working towards replacing plastic with something harmless, like news paper. That's when we thought of hosting something called the "D-day" (Dustbin day). After asking the coordinators of fifth grade and DP, each one of us went to one class room and made dustbins out of news paper along with all of them. We rolled sheets of newspaper into long pipes and stuck the pipes together to form the body of the dustbin. We then stuck the whole thing on a piece of cardboard and shaped the cardboard so that it would be a perfect base for the body of the dustbin. All the sticking was done with regular glue. And guess what? My class made the biggest dustbin!

Journal 9.9 : More perfection

I feel more flexible now. We learned new asanas over this one week and also tried bringing the old ones to more perfection. We did the surya namaskaram, bujangasana, dhanurasana, chakrasana, yoga nedhra, yoga mudhra, vrikshasana and a few other asanas regularly everyday. Along with these postures, we also did a few different additional ones like twisting the body and sarvangasana. The best part is that I don't get tired easily now and i can also stay in a particular posture for longer.

Journal 9.8 : Something cool!

Today, I learned a new asana called the sarvangasana which is performed by lying on your back, placing your elbows on the floor and raising your legs to hold the entire bottom region of the body on top. I needed my instructor to help me take my legs up. But I could stay still for a few minutes thereafter. I did the regular asanas that i've learned so far, and ended with deep relaxation.

Duration : 1 hour

Journal 5.8 : New ideas!

Apart from watering the plants and bringing them out of the cabins for some direct sunlight, we had a meeting with the all the members of the Eco club. We discussed how we could take this activity further. Our ideas included terrace gardening, growing creepers, recycling waste paper instead of burning them, reducing wastage at our school and also buying new plants for the Eco club. We split into groups to execute these small ideas that struck us. I joined the team which took charge of looking into to why they are burning paper near our school. A few of my friends and I went to security officer and inquired him. We then came to know that recycling of paper didn't take place because the school is too far from the main city. Then, we thought of using waste paper for other purposes instead of burning or recycling them. We came up with ideas of making paper bags and other similar things.

Reflection

      This CAS activity is undoubtedly one of the best of this year. I experienced the very essence of team work this entire week. Working together with almost my entire batch was a little challenging, yet amazing! We did have tiny misunderstandings in this short journey when it came to assigning roles for each of us. However, we did overcome them in no time and held hands together till the end.

      Estimating the number of items of each material we required for the decoration, and fitting them into our budget inculcated some really good skills of dealing with money. It was the first time I was involved in such an activity and I found it very interesting. Most importantly, we discovered our horizons of creativity as we came up with new ideas for the decoration, like making lanterns out of thread with the help of balloons.

      One of my favourite segments of this journey was when we were trying so hard to convince our coordinators to get us yellow lights for the hall. They refused to buy them for us since those lights are very expensive and hence won't suit our budget. Immediately, we thought of just sticking yellow wrappers over the white lights that are already there in the ceiling! We were quite proud of ourselves at that moment for coming up with such spontaneous ideas.

      All of us tried our best to stick to our plan each day and managed to finish the tasks allotted. In my opinion, this regular routine for this week, made us more principled and responsible. We made sure not to waste any of the materials we bought and we also returned the extras back to the store at school.

     The night before the day of the farewell was when we very productive. We started and finished the frame for the photo booth and the arch for the entrance in groups! A few teachers and our coordinator helped us a lot that night and also gave us a few ideas here and there. Beyond all the work we did, there was also at least a tinge of fun at every moment!

     The second I saw those surprised and amazed expression on the faces of my seniors, I felt all the hard work we put in was definitely worth it!

Journal 9.7 : Regular lesson...

I didn't learn anything new today. We just tried bringing each posture to a better form. I also took it a little light today because my head started aching after doing dhanurasana twice yesterday. We did pranayama at the end today in a different method to regulate the respiratory system.

Duration : 1 hour  

Journal 14.6: The grand evening!

                      We all dressed up as quickly as possible after wrapping up all the work and then went to the entrance to welcome all our seniors. Only a few of them were on time. We gave them corsages and walked them through the red carpet. On the way to the photo booth, we conducted a small fun interview and also pulled of a prank by throwing slime at them suddenly. Most of them freaked out! We then headed them to the seminar hall...and they were just speechless! Their expression spoke more than they actually did that second! Thats what we were waiting for all these days!

                      Most of them had their own time clicking pictures next to all the decorations we made. Then, we called up the teachers to hand over a momento for each student. That took around half an hour to finish. Also, one student's momento went missing. My friend and I ran upstairs to check the cabins, but it wasn't there either. So we just gave that student a rose and promised to give his momento by the end of the week. Two of my friends then conducted the mafia game for all of them. Few of them got bored towards the end, but most of them liked the game. Later, we asked all of them to write notes for the confession envelopes. Then, we conducted a nerf war in the auditorium, where the nerf team made obstacles through which they can play the game using their nerf guns. Even the girls dressed up in sarees didn't mind playing! It seemed like they enjoyed that part of the evening a lot!

                     Though they were tired, we made them play the treasure hunt after a small break. Another team made the clues for this game. The clues were actually interesting! Most of them were running all around the field searching for the treasure. The treasure was just a box of these chocolate treats. So the winning team was so pissed! Well, their faces were full of smiles as soon as we took them to dinner. We'd ordered Chinese food, including schezwan fried rice, veg fried rice, manchurians, soup and also brownies and ice cream for dessert. Some of us served them food! While they were finishing dinner, we did a flash mob! They all loved our performance and even took videos of all of us dancing!

                     A few minutes later, all the seniors called the teachers and surprised them with momentos. Then we had a small DJ night! Finally, we lit lanterns together and let them raise into the sky...

Journal 14.5: The last minute work..

              Today is the farewell! Those of us who stayed back were a little tired. But we still managed to finish all the work left out. We blew balloons to fill the corners, stuck yellow gift wrapping paper over all the ceiling lights and hung up pictures of the seniors too. I drew a word cloud on the white board in the center of the wall. We took back all the materials left over, back to the cabins upstairs. We also arranged all the chairs neatly and wiped them. After hanging the streamers on the doors, we put up a small banner inside the seminar hall that said happy farewell. Since it was too plain, we climbed on a chair and sprinkled some red paint all over it using a tooth brush. We arranged the dice next to the main banner in the entrance and placed the photo booth a few meters away from it. We also placed all the props that we bought outside next to the photo booth. Finally we made this amazing thing! We gift wrapped the clock and wrote down the numbers from 1 to 12 just like an actual clock. We then wrote the word 'procrastination' all around the clock from 1 to 11 and then wrote 'teacher does the work at the end' below 12. We also hung up the lanterns around the seminar hall and outside too underneath the trees along with the lights.

Journal 14.4: Farewell eve!

              We had the entire day for the farewell decoration today. We made more lanterns and streamers. We also made envelopes for the confessions and decorated the windows with red and black curtains. Few of us stayed back at school overnight to finish all the work. We made more lanterns, finished decorating the boards and sticking the envelopes. We made the photo booth and the arch for the entrance in front of where the red carpet begins. It was a lot of fun working together till 10.30 p.m. However, all of us were really tired and exhausted.