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ACHIEVERS

Hobbies form an important part of our childhood and youth. Some pursue their hobbies zealously and excel at it. We at Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School are proud of their accomplishments.

Isha S. Khedekar, a student of Std. V ‘B’ School, is the proud recipient of a gold medal consecutively for three years in Judo from 2007 to 2010 at the Mumbai Schools Sports Association.
She has won gold medals in 2008 and 2009 at the Mayor’s Cup organized by B.M.C. Isha also excels in playing the synthesizer and have been learning Kathak Dance form since 2008. She was also awarded the ‘Best Player Trophy’ by the Judo authorities for the year 2009 – 2010

Hashmita Bhawnani of Std. II, was selected to participate in the final round of the International Art and Craft Championship – 2009 at Goa on 21 April, 2010. Ms. Jasmine Mody, her art teacher and her mother accompanied her and Pidilite Industries Limited had sponsored this event. She won the third prize at this Championship.

MY VISIT TO PIDILITE INTERNATIONAL ART CRAFT COMPETITION

Art is a bud which blossoms within us and its beauty and creativity is seen on our art sheets.

It was unbelievable when I heard the news that I was selected at the final round of International Art and Craft Competition to be held in Goa. Being in Group I my mother had to accompany me. My art teacher JASMINI MODY and myself represented my school.

It was a three day stay in Goa arranged by PIDILITE. There was a warm welcome for all the sixty winners from India and other countries. On 21 April, we were to start for our competition by nine o’clock in the morning. The teachers present there were very supportive and kind. They provided us with all the art and craft material required during the competition and the topic given was “MY MOTHER, MY WORLD”. I was a little afraid but the Pidilite staff was very helpful.

We were given a two hours time to finish our work. Evening was the prize distribution show which was again very fantastic and enjoyable. The judges had done their work. It was now the time for the Chief Guest to arrive, the Chief Minister of Goa.

We all awaited the results. It started with the youngest group that was mine and when they announced the third prize, it was my name HASHMITA M. BHAWNANI of LILAVATIBAI PODAR, MUMBAI. Along with my art teacher, JASMINI MODY, we were called on the stage to collect the prize. It was a great experience. Later they announced the other second and first prize winners. We were thrilled with joy. PIDILITE Industry had arranged every part of our trip carefully.

On 22 April, we were all to depart back to our destinations. What I received from this trip are many new friends from different parts of world, third prize award and great experience. It broaden my knowledge for art and craft creativity and more loving for it. Now I will like to learn and involve myself in the world of ART and CRAFT.

HASHMITA M. BHAWNANI - II B

A report by Archit Patke of VII C for securing first rank at National Level in the nstse examination - 2010

Unified Council is a professionally managed progressive organization in the field of education, established in the year 1998 by eminent personalities from various fields, some of who are academicians of international repute. Since its inception, Unified Council has brought together the best brains in the field of education in an endeavor to make the younger generation fundamentally stronger and to nourish their brains for a bright and enterprising future. The exams are conducted in 14 countries.
The Annual Awards Celebrations for the students who excel in the nstse (National Level Science Talent Search Examination), and UCO (Unified Cyber Olympiad) and awards to various schools for participation and performance conducted by Unified Council was held at Ravindra Bharathi Auditorium on 02 May, 2010 at Hyderabad. Sri M. Shashidhar Reddy, Hon’ble M.L.A and Member – National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India, Dr. D. N. Reddy, Vice Chancellor – Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Dr. Ahmed Kamal, Project Director – National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Sri Yandamoori Veerendrananth, Eminent Writer and Motivator, Dr. B. V. Pattabhiram, Eminent Psychologist and HRD trainer, presented the awards to the toppers in the nstse and UCO at a well attended Function.

I was awarded a laptop, a gold medal, a memento, Britannia Encyclopedia CD and a certificate for securing first rank at National Level in the NSTSE exam held in January, 2010.
Shounak Nipun Rangwala student of Std. VII C, secured second rank at National Level in the UCO exam held in October, 2010. He was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 5000/-, a gold medal, a memento, Britannia Encyclopedia CD and a certificate.

The school was awarded with a trophy for the best participation.

Mrs. Kairavi Irfan Ahmed, our senior art teacher and administrator was invited by UNESCO and the Korean Government to present a paper at the Second World Conference on Arts Education on 25 to 28 May, 2010, in Seoul, South Korea.The topic of her paper was ‘Art Glossary for Re-Search in Art Education’.

D.E.A.S. (DUKE of EDINBURGH AWARD SCHEME)

Trip for DUKE’s Award to Hrishikesh – By Aarti Kuber, IX G

On 07 April, 2010 afternoon at 03:45 pm, we were asked to assemble at Bandra Terminus. On reaching there, I found out that there were 71 students coming for the camp! Our train was at 04:50 pm and as soon as it arrived, we boarded it with a lot of excitement. Our parents bid us farewell and all of us cheered as our adventurous journey began. After introducing ourselves to everyone, we began to chat, listen to music, sing songs, play cards and eat our eternal junk food. We didn’t realize how time passed and at night, we tried as hard as we could to sleep and finally rested our heads long time passed midnight.

The noise of the hawkers selling their products by calling them out loudly woke us all up. Once again we began making a lot of noise and enjoying ourselves. We reached Delhi at around 03:30 pm.

We started our road trip to Hrishikesh by bus. It was indeed very tiring. We reached Haridwar at around 11:00 pm in the night where we stopped at a hotel. We had dinner and went to sleep in our allotted rooms. The next morning after breakfast, we left for our campsite. We reached there in the afternoon. We were put into tents where we settled our enormous haversacks. Then we were given a brief introduction to the camp and about the activities that we were going to take up during the camp.We were then ready to try out

something that Hrishikesh is most famous for – White Water Rafting! The water was so inviting and the air was so parching that we all felt like diving into it without a thought. We were made to wear the life jackets and helmets and were explained how to hold the paddle and how to row. The movement and safety of the raft depended completely on the co-ordination of all the members of the team. We had an instructor in our raft who controlled the direction and commanded us to row ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘stop’, ‘all in’, and even to jump out of the raft and swim in the river, obviously with the safety rope. The water did nothing but rejuvenated all our senses thoroughly. It was a splendid, once in a lifetime experience. Now I know that the purity of the Ganga River was not exaggerated by all. In our path, we had to go through some rapids, which are parts of the river that move at a faster pace, as the depth and width of the river decreases in these areas and the river water gushes through. In the rapid section, we needed to paddle really fast, to avoid the overturning of the raft. All of us were luckily safe. We crossed the Lakshman Jhula and the Ram Jhula and then we finally stopped our raft at a corner. We returned to our tents. We were told that we were supposed to report the next morning at 07:00 am sharp or we would be punished. So after dinner, we all went to sleep.

The next morning, only fifteen students has assembled on time at the given place. The rest had to duck walk all the way to the bus as punishment. We went for a trek to a waterfall. We were allowed to get wet in it. We had a lot of fun splashing cold water on each other. Then we walked all the way down to our bus and back to our campsite. On arriving there, we were divided into two groups. One went for rappelling and the other for kayaking, rafting practice and swimming in the Ganga. My group did the latter first.Swimming in the Ganga, though had life jackets was extremely hard.The current pulls us backward so hard

that it is impossible to swim at all! But all of us helped each other and it was finally not as hard as it seemed. After we all had completed all the tasks, we freshened up and got ready for rappelling. The other group had also come back by then.

We were taken to a spot by bus and we all sat down facing the high rock that needed to be descended by us. Sir demonstrated and explained how we needed to rappel and that there was nothing to worry about. We all were confident and had already started betting on each other’s performances. We were supposed to lean back, keep our legs straight and not bend our knees, stay at 90 degree position with the rock and push ourselves downwards. It was fun to watch our friends rappel. One of our instructors displayed a stunt called Commando Rappelling which we watched in aw. He actually ran down the steep cliff with his face towards the ground. It was pretty late when we returned to the campsite and out of fatigue, we all went to sleep.

The next day was the most exciting and awaited one. After breakfast, we headed to go rafting to the toughest path. We went to the spot by bus. I could see how fast the river was flowing at certain spots. It charged all of us up. On reaching the spot, we were given the safety devices and settled us into different rafts. All of us were very excited to experience the thrill of rafting once again in a more challenging way! Like all the other days, the water was freezing cold. We started off and passed a lot of rapids. Each rapid had interesting names like Three Blind Mice, Double Trouble, Good Morning, Initiation. In one rapid called Body Surfing, we were allowed to get into the water, holding on to the safety rope.It was fun to get dragged along with the river gently. The last rapid called Golf Course, though it doesn’t sound dangerous, was considered to be the ONE. Those who were in confident were asked to leave.The rest continued, I did! We all were really nervous as the huge waves came crashing onto our raft. I felt like I was surfing on a huge wave in the sea when our raft turned 90 degrees

with the water level.We rowed faster and harder than ever with all our mights on the commands of our instructor. With the impact of one wave, a few students fell out of our raft. All of us were worried, but we bravely rowed ahead. The instructor managed to save one of them with the rope. We were relieved. The other two team mates were rescued by the other boat. We continued to row till we reached the shore. Everyone was so excited and amazed by the nerve chilling experience. We went back to our tents and spent the last night with our friends by staying up late and talking about everything that happened and how much we will miss these days. Our wake up call was at 03:30 am as we needed to leave for Delhi in order to catch our train on time. We reached Delhi in the afternoon and we had yummy food for lunch. Then we went to a mall called Ansal Plaza where we all relaxed for about two hours. After that we went to the train station and started our journey back to Mumbai. None of us had realized how the days passed so quickly right in front of our eyes. We all enjoyed thoroughly and would love to go back in time and relive those moments. When we reached Mumbai the next evening, all our parent embraced us inspire of the fact that we had not bathed since the past 4-5 days. We felt good and relieved to be backing home, but we all surely missed to awesome experience of adventure and being with nature with a tinge of fun.

Four students, Ajinkya Karia, Neil Malu, Rutvij Shah and Tejas Hegde of std. VIII were selected to participate in the Duke TIP programme from 16 May to 05 June At IIM, Ahmedabad

A report by Ajinkya Kalia, IX E –

The Duke Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) an education program based at Duke University. Its purpose is to identify gifted children and provide a unique learning environment designed to motivate and challenge them academically and stretch them beyond their self-perceived expectations and limits.

Duke TIP in India is a three-week residential summer program, held on the campus of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad from May 16 to June 5.

Over 100 Indian students participated in Duke TIP 2010. They studied one course from a choice of courses, ranging from engineering to entrepreneurship to forensics. The students experienced life on a university campus, and they made friends who are also academically gifted.

I chose to attend the Forensic Science course and had 15 other students taking the same subject with me. From our school, Neil Malu, Rutvij Shah and Tejas Hegde also attended Duke TIP with me.

We stayed in the IIM Ahmedabad Campus hostel and I was a part of the group managed by Hunter-our Residential Coordinator. The forensic Sciences class was taught by Ms. Jasmine Johnson who was assisted by Ms. Sweta Sengupta.

The mornings would start early with breakfast at 0730 followed by classes at 0900. The classes would continue up to 1630. We had some free time for projects after that.

At the classes we learnt various new concepts which helped to broaden our horizons. I had selected the forensic science course and this course taught us how to use Biology, Chemistry and Physics in a way that helped us analyse evidence and use it to solve crime.

We learnt how to analyse the evidence using various methods and techniques which included chromatography, gene and DNA analysis to track down people and their relatives, analysing trace evidence like hair, fibres, paint chips etc. to identify the clothes worn by the culprit etc. We also analysed body fluids like blood, saliva etc. to identify a person. Blood stain and blood pattern analysis, a new concept which began to be used as an effective weapon to solve crime was also taught to us. Observing gunshots and the gunshot residue (GSR) to help us know the caliber of the gun and the distance from which the gunshot was shot. We also came to know how to dust, lift and identify the ultimate piece of evidence-FINGERPRINTS-an individual and unique ID-Card for everyone!!

Finally, we learnt the importance of Forensics and had a guest lecture too. We also had a mock case and trial to test our skills. Our instructor, Jasmine, and her Teaching Assistant, Sweta were always there to guide and help us.

Although we spent a lot of time in attending our classes, we also had a lot of residential life and a lot of free time during Sundays. During those times we were entrusted in the care of us. They helped make our stay enjoyable and coordinated everything!! We also met other participants and learnt how to live independently and away from the protected environment of our homes. Of course there were strict rules and we had to follow them!

Many extra-curricular activities were hosted during our stay. To relax and enjoy ourselves we had a few evening activities like football, cricket, Frisbee, singing, group dances and board games. We had weekend activities like Beach Party, Masquerade Ball and a Farewell Party. We once had a special dinner comprising of chaat!!! A Quad-Fest was organized – it was an event where four teams would compete against each other in various events like the Lily pad Race, ground Spelling, Human Knot Sponge Race, Guess the RC, Water Balloon throw and many more, which helped to instigate a competitive spirit in us and also the spirit of sportsmanship and team work.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of learning new things, to meet new people and to learn to manage myself on my own for three weeks. I am proud to have been invited to the Duke TIP and will remember it for all time. I hope to stay in touch with my tutors and fellow participants.

Duke Talent Identification Program
- Tejas Hegde and Neil Malu (IX - B) (ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING)

This summer, we were graciously invited for the Talent Identification Program by one of the top ranking institutions in the world – the Duke University of Durham, North Carolina. We were thrilled to bits to know that we were few of the students thought to be deserving enough to participate in this program. We had no hesitation in putting our names across for this program, since we had heard of Duke’s high standards, and we thought that it would be a great experience.

Duke TIP definitely did not disappoint us in anyway. Everything was in keeping with the high standards the University is renowned for thus making our visit of 21 days one of the most memorable times of our lives. The venue was well chose: IIM Ahmedabad which is well-known all over India, as one of the most prestigious business schools in the world. The new IIM campus was truly welcoming and hospitable, and promised to give us the time of our lives. We were provided with AC rooms with proper housing and dining facilities. We were assigned residential counselors who ensured that our stay was really comfortable and enjoyable. We felt very homely in their company and were very frank while communicating with them.

The study standards in the Duke TIP program were high:
We were exposed to college level studies. The faculty included staff from the Duke University itself; 12 teachers who taught six subjects in a wonderful way. The subjects that the course offered included Forensic Science, Environmental Engineering, Game Theory, Java for Video Games, Entrepreneurial Leadership and Macroeconomics. Tejas and Neil opted for the same subject: Environmental Engineering. The subject included the basics of engineering, environmental studies and the combined study of both.
We had debates, presentations and model building sessions. We were assessed on several aspects during our stay at the Duke TIP Program. We built models of a bridge, and the blades of a windmill. We also had a solar car race in which our cars ran on solar power. We also visited a local drinking water treatment plant where we gained a whole lot of knowledge about the sources of the potable water, treatment, storage and preservation and most of all, the waste management.
This program not only helped us knowing our subject (Environmental Engineering) from scratch but also helped us making numerous friends and socializing with them. We are sure that by now we must be having friends from every corner of the country as students came from all over India. We hope that the benefits of this program will be long term and that soon we will be reputed engineers and role models to many other students aspiring for similar, high goals.