Reflection 10 : First note!

Music is inevitably an important part of life. It makes you discover yourself and also pushes away all other tangled thoughts in mind. My friends and I teamed up to form a CAS band at school. The sole purpose of this activity was to improve our coordination skills and also carry forward our passion.  We've practiced in small time slots for a week, and will continue again if we get a chance to participate in an upcoming program at school. Few of us were singers and the others played the instruments like the guitar, keyboard and the drums.  Many songs came down in our list during the our practice sessions as all of us pitched in alternatively. We planned to do only 3 different activities due to the time constrain, the English songs medley, Regional songs medley and one grand English song completely. We spent a lot of time on listening to the listed songs repeatedly to ensure that they were appropriate to be sung at school in front of a huge crowd, and that they were in a tone which was comfortable for all the singers to sing in.

Here is an sample of our list (for the English medley) :

1. Home we will go
2. 7 years
3. Grenade
4. Crossfire – (ending)
5. One call away
6. Cooler than me
7. Cake by the ocean
8. See you again
   
   Similarly, we made a list for the regional medley and also narrowed down to a grand English song which we practiced fully. Beyond the music, something beautiful was that we got to know each other really well and we began singing together in perfect coordination!
   Duration : 2 hours 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Journal 9.1 : Something new!

Yoga, just as calm as it sounds, is a form of spiritual practice that brings peace within you. I learned yoga when i was in third grade for a few months, but lost touch after that. Now, I'm back on track! I've begun learning it all over again, from an instructor who comes home in the morning everyday. Today was my first class. I realized how close yet far I was from the essence of this kind of practice. Every time I performed a posture, the squeeze and stretch of the muscles caused soothing pain. My instructor, Mr. Shankar handles lessons very lightly and not in a rigorous manner. He manages to keep us engaged through out the class by talking to us and educating us about the benefits of performing each posture. Today we learned the most essential part of yoga, surya namaskaram which is a sequence of different postures. Surya namaskaram has to be done before doing all the other postures everyday. Towards the end of the class, we did the deep relaxation exercise and then just stayed still for 10 minutes for the relaxation of the mind. After class, I could actually feel the positive energy run down me from head to toe.

Duration : 1 hour

Journal 5.3 : Tiny slip...

Today, we assigned one plant for each of us to take care of. I took in charge of the spider plant. Also, I will research on how to take care of each one of the plants and help my friends learn as well.
We watered the plants regularly till date. But much to our surprise, most of the plants were dried out and looked like they were going to wilt in no time. We then realized that it was all because of the air conditioner in the room, and due to the lack of soil. The mother soil of most of the plants was different from the soil that we had at school. So one of our team mates arranged for a drop of the required soil today afternoon, at school. Carrying that big sack of soil all the way upstairs from the reception was quite a challenge. Using a shovel, we then transferred the soil to the pots, and also removed the moss that had grown on the surface over just a few days. We also removed the dried leaves and rocks in the soil. Lastly, we watered them before keeping them next to direct sunlight on the bridge.

Duration : 2 hours 

Journal 5.2 : Part 2!

We stepped into the second stage of our activity, buying the saplings and planting them at the teachers' cabins at school. We kept them watered and then put them into pots made up of coconut waste which don't cause water leakage. Transferring the saplings from their covers to pots were pretty hard though. Every Friday, we will spray the fertilizer and water the plants, each one on of us are assigned to take care of. The plants we installed :

Tulsi

Aloe vera 

Boston fern 

Spider plant

Snake plant

Monstera 

Asparagus

Ivy plant

Peace lily 

Adiantum 

Duration : 1 hour 

Reflection: A step towards a revolution!

The murderers on the headlines of the newspaper are not the only citizens to be accused of crime in today's world. Perhaps any kind of murderer is a criminal including us who abort children. With the growing population, foeticide is an issue with a drastically increasing frequency, and the possible solution to this is to give the child for adoption instead.

On this note, we the students of The Indian Public School participated in a rally, spreading awareness to

'Girl Child – Stop Abortion , Start Adoption'

The rally which started at 9:30am, went on till 11:30 am with students of Grade 9 and us, Grade 11 carrying posters and placards from Women's Polytechnic College to VOC park. The posters carried slogans like 'Stop Abortion, Start Adoption', 'Save the girl child' and more. At the same time, we were chanting slogans in harmony as we made our way to VOC.

We stopped at signals and caught the attention of the fellow citizens passing by, with our slogans and colorful posters. While passing through the ATT colony, we drew the attention of the residents of the area, who peeped out through their windows and took videos of the rally.

We were accompanied by the students of Micheal Job School... We had a troop marching forward and around 500 students followed the band swiftly for a noble cause. This collaborative activity was a part of CAS for the us, being the students of DP year 1, and a social interaction for the students of Grade 9.