C.A.S Project – Proud moments…

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”   -Herman Cain

RWP’16 also known as, Ride with pride 2016 against breast cancer was one of my biggest and greatest life achievement in 2016.

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(After our event, the very next day on 7th March 2016, we got featured in a Gujarati newspaper)

This event was organized by two of my friends and me. Cycling is our passion and hobby, so we decided to do something related to it.  The event was truly a new experience for all three of us. Our motive was to create awareness for breast cancer and healthy life. Plus, through this event we planned to donate all our earning to cancer hospitals that do operations for free of cost. The event enlightened 1500 Surtis plus 300 cyclists where both men and women came together with their bicycles and ride them to glory promoting a world devoid of these threats. It was really fun organizing such a huge event for our entire city, but we had faced a lot of challenges that forced us to be more dedicated towards our goal.

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Once we started with the event planning, we encountered challenges and few circumstances where we didn’t know how and what to do. Managing time was the biggest problem. We couldn’t manage studies plus the event work simultaneously.  Due to our event scheduled on 6th march, we had really less time to prepare for our final exams and we missed a lot of curriculum, which became really difficult to cover the portion. Not just this, but because of working for the entire day and going from one place to another we couldn’t have our breaks on time that affected our health and the daily routine. Through this I learnt a lesson for my future that never give up on health, it should always be our first priority plus put first things first.

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Secondly, deciding upon the route was a difficulty. As, it was a Sunday there is an U-TURN event already going on in the city and most of the Surtis usually go there on a Sunday morning. We got really tensed because most of the people go there so there were really less chances for us to get participants plus it was almost impossible to get the NOC (No objection certificate) to block the roads. So, we approached the U-TURN head and asked him if he can help us. After negotiating with him, we made U-TURN our event partner. Through U-TURN we could also go on Sundays and promote about our event. Additionally, as U-TURN is a government initiative and now that it was our event partner, we directly went to the commissioner’s office to get an approval for the event. And thankfully he agreed with our plan, as he was really happy for us that we three young girls are doing such a huge rally for an awareness program, which is outstanding.  

(On a Sunday morning at U-TURN for promoting our event)

(On a Sunday morning at U-TURN for promoting our event)

Thirdly, after getting the plan approved we couldn’t begin with our event preparation, as we didn’t have the startup money. Thus, we then decided to go and seek for sponsors. Getting sponsors was the most difficult and tiring task.  So, we made a PowerPoint presentation to persuade the sponsors to provide a helpful hand by supporting the cause. We listed all the benefits that the sponsors will get through our event. Although, one problem that we had faced was while we asked for sponsors we had told them that we will advertise about your business everywhere including few hoardings in the city, roadside banners, newspapers, radio etc. But, when we went to hoarding company for getting hoarding of our event in the city, we didn’t have substantial amount, as the rates were really high-pitched. So we decided not to put hoardings. This was unethical, as we had already told our sponsors that we would at least put 5-6 of them in the city. At the end while cutting off this idea, we got a contact through one of our event partners who didn’t charge us for the hoarding so we decided to put one hoarding, to fulfill our promise. 

(Hoarding designed by us)

(Hoarding designed by us)

The fourth challenge that we faced was we didn’t get the expected number (500) of participants till one week before of the event. So all of us got really scared and worried. We had lost hopes of our event getting successful. We regretted for all the hard work we had put in to make our event as effective as it can be. Later, we decided to not give up and instead we motivated ourselves by listening to what our parents and friends said about the hard work we had put in.  We had the same energy and determination again like we had on the first day of our event planning. Then we brainstormed about what we can still do to get at least 250 participants. We thought of all the effective advertising techniques that were possible by looking at our budget. Because till this time, we didn’t even reach the break-even point of the budget as we already did a lot of spending on all the tee shirts, medals, Gatorade and water by buying it in quantity of 500. Hence, we planned to advertise through schools, radio, social media, newspapers, pamphlets and we sent a SMS to all the Surtis. 

(Types of newspaper where we advertised)

(Types of newspaper where we advertised)

Last but not the least, I also faced few problems when it came to collaboration of work. At times it so happened that there was miscommunication between the three of us and I was not updated of what my two partners had thought of. So, we decided to divide the work and allot tasks to each other. This led us to do more efficient work with less time and no miscommunication problems. What I leant was working in a group becomes difficult at times as everything doesn’t take place the way we want it to. But, at the end three of us were really happy because we could reach our aim.

Additionally, there was one ethical consideration that i could think of after the event. We were making people aware by giving them a leaflet about what breast cancer is but at the same time we were even wasting a lot of paper. So, what i personally learnt is, if we are in a world full of technology then we should make use of it effectively. Thus, we can also save paper and aware them through various techniques through technology usage.

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The event was a huge success. I can’t describe how happy I was. My happiness was beyond imagination because my parents, friends and everyone else were so proud of us as we reached our aim, while we donated a huge amount of money too few cancer hospitals, which was of help too few women. Through this event I thoroughly enjoyed my CAS experience as I could achieve all the three strands creativity (by designing the logo, pamphlets, hoardings, banners etc.), service and activity, which will help me in my future.  

(After event FUN )

(After event FUN )

 

 

 

Janki Van – Great things never came from comfort zone!

Gardening is something everybody will love, once they start doing it. – Disha Sarawagi

Being well versed with the current environmental conditions on Earth and therefore the importance of plants, I am scared what this world would be after just very few thousands of years. Our school had initiated a CAS trip for us. The Indian government took an initiative to open a botanical garden that is named as Janki Van, near Vansda.  We as the responsible citizens of the planet went to the garden and helped the local labors working there to plant saplings. The garden is for future tourists attraction to explore the village and the beauty of the plants and I am glad that I was a part of the process.
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We departed for the trip early in the morning around 7 o’clock and we reached by 10 o’clock. Later, our tour guide instructed us about the process of planting saplings and divided us into teams of two, where both the teams planted saplings but at different spots in the garden.

Frankly speaking, I don’t like to confess it, but I was already too tired to take up a challenge as the bus journey was too tiring plus I was bored at the early stage of the process itself. But as I started working, I gradually predicted the implications that my actions would hold. Just reading and learning in the books about the environmental hazards that we humans are making like deforestations of trees for making rubber, wood etc., isn’t going to help us in the long run. So, to make our Earth a better place I undertook this challenge of putting in efforts to actually plant, rather than just learning and complaining about it.

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There are five learning outcomes that i accomplished during the entire activity of plantation. The one of most supreme importance was I engaged in a global issue locally.  In today’s century if I notice, with globalization has come increasing exploitation of natural resources like water, soil and trees. The man-kind thinks of their own benefits of natural resources that will soon go scarce. Thus, I feel blessed that I participated in a significant global issue at hand by planting new saplings. Though the number of saplings that i planted was 75 which is a very insignificant amount compared to the exploitation rate of trees. This gave me a feeling of responsible environmental citizen.

The second learning outcome was I showed perseverance and commitment in my activity. Planting saplings through a proper method was a difficulty. But, for the first time planting 75 saplings was an accomplishment for me. We not just planted the saplings but we also watered all the plants and applied fertilizers to them. The containers were quite heavy and we had to fill the containers with the saplings to transport them from one end to another on foot.

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The third learning outcome was i worked collaboratively with my colleagues. During the entire process we had to work collaboratively while planting the sapling and by filling the containers and carrying them from one end to another. Through collaboration of work, I realised how  fast the activity progressed due to synergy of work and sheer will to do it. Without the teamwork, the task would have become tedious after few hours of continuous work.

   Screen Shot 2016-03-30 at 3.09.30 pmFourth learning outcome was, I considered the ethical implications of my actions. The one thing that made me happy was I helped saving the environment by contributing for a greener tomorrow. Additionally, this would also inspire other school students to engage in eco-friendly programmes like this one.

The last and the most important learning was that, I undertook new challenges. I had never done something so interesting like this. Infact, before the trip I was really worried about the activity as i thought it would be very difficult and i couldn’t do it. But, I began my work with the end in mind that it is a good opportunity for me to do something for my planet, and i completed it.

Overall, the trip was really fun and I gained a lot of knowledge about planting and the environment.

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After completing all our work, a group picture was a necessity 😉

 

HINDI DIVAS

This was my first experience of planning an event  for grade 11 and grade 12 students of our school .This event was for awaring people about the importance of hindi language.In this event there were three activities:

    • Arre Bhai Kehna Kya Chahte Ho?(One person from each team acts out a given song – (1 minute per song).2 songs will be given per team. 20 points for each right guess)
    • .Yeh Konsa Dialogue?(  Each time will be shown an incomplete dialogue. They need to come up with the complete dialogue. )

 

  • 7-min Ka Jalwa (Both the teams are supposed to entertain the crowd to the maximum. Each team will be given 10 dares they need to fulfil in their performance.)

 

 

This was an event organised by our teachers but was planned and carried out by me ,abhishek and our sub -leaders.First of all we planned the activities which we were going to include in the event then we appointed sub-leaders for planning the activities which we decided.The planning of the above mentioned activity were  very challenging for me as I was required to co-ordinate with the teachers as well as with our sub-leaders as to  inform them about the criteria  ,collect all the resources required etc.The jobs which I was asked to handle was too much for me which made my activity more tough.I was also able to identify my strengths and weakness as I was handling  the assembly  jobs along  with  my other jobs .Then I was also able to develope the skill of working planning an event  collaboratively as this event was totally dependent upon collaboration . My toughest challenge in the whole activity was to show commitment towards my work  which I think I did very well .And also the main aim  of the whole event was to inform/aware  people about the importance of hindi language ,its role in our life etc.

 

Also while planning and conducting the activities we specially took care of the ethics involved in this activity as we decided upon ,that while conducting the activity we will not any person , religion,cast. The most difficult task of the whole event was to control the students and as a member of the organising committee we faced a lot of problems ,but  somehow  we managed that by either setting certain rules or by taking strict steps.In the end we can say that the activity was very successful. Everybody who came over there enjoyed the activity and also me and my team got appreciation from our teachers and friends. Although the planning of the  activity was quite stressful but at the end it was good to see that we made it .And also the best part of the experience was seeing rich smile on the faces of friends while the activity was going on and also watch the activity move on smoothly and firmly as we expected it to be.

FLASHMOB

This was my first experience of doing a dance performance.My friends planned this activity and I participated in it . The aim of this activity was to spread awareness about various Global issues and spreading awareness about the importance of our indian festivals. We planned to do a dance performance followed by drama along with posters and flashcard giving clear message about the disease or problems  people  face in life.Which helped us to achieve our aim.

 

We performed at three different occasions  :

  1. Janmashtami(VR mall)
  • Here we performed a dance on lord krishna’s song followed by a skit on women empowerment.
  1. Teacher’s day(VR mall)
  • Here we performed a dance to attract people followed by a skit on appling people to donate organs.
  1. The garba fest ( in school) .
  • Here we performed a dance on famous various songs.

 

This was really important for me as it gave me confidence to perform in front of such a large audience.While doing this activity I was able to learn new dance forms like we did hip hop, garba we also did contemporary. As this was my first time it was very challenging for me to perform in such a large audience and also the training which we undergo was a tough job for me.

 

While doing this activity I found that I was not  able perform dance steps properly  as dancing was one of my weakness and was out of my comfort zone however after the performance it’s no longer like that as now I’ve gained more confidence to perform and also have improved on my stamina in doing such tiring jobs which has now become my strength in doing various things.And also this activity required a lot of commitment and perseverance as learning a new form of dance is not an easy task.I suffered a lot through this training phases as i’am not a regular dancer I got a lot of injuries while training.

 

This activity also  required a lot of collaboration as it was a group performance and so if  anybody does a single step wrong the whole group suffered and so we paid lot of attention on this thing.And also we paid a lot of attention on ethics while we were planning for drama. So we created such script in which we don’t hurt any sentiments of people’s religion ,cast ,creed ,etc and still make the message loud and clear. In our dramas we talked about women empowerment, importance of organ donation etc. At the end the event was successful enough and also the experience was a major learning for life.

Reflection about Plantation trip to Vansda

It was a CAS trip planned by our school. We went to Vansda, a public garden that was being constructed by the government. Making huts, digging pits, planting sapplings and creating amazing views. We helped them in making garden.  After dividing in two groups, our group was to garden at one place and the second one at other. I was given a task to cut open the plants from the plastic bag and to create Ridges for plants (keeping water flow/consumption/irrigation in mind [all about science!]).

When I was cutting open the plants out of plastic bags, I had no clue as to how am I supposed to do it and as a result, I had damaged a few plants in the process; which ended up in scattered soiled plants, drain off a lot of energy and many people taunting me for my unexpected work. For improving my work, I had asked a few people to guide me and later on it helped me work better and faster, with the bonus of saved energy for later use.

My second task of working with others for forming ridges was an unexpectedly easy task. Usually, people fight for the task that seems comfortable to them and easy to do, hence results in small conflicts; but because all of us over here wanted to help and came with a purpose of providing good service, people were ready to take up difficult task and do more. This time, after the experience from my first work, I decided to understand how to do, what I am supposed to do. This action helped me in reducing my efforts and helps me do a smart work. I was able to work fast, leaving me time in between to take rest for few seconds.

As it was in monsoon season, I thought it would make our task easier; but the unexpected seasonal changes increased our workload. The task of bending down for doing your work and then staying/walking in the same position made it all better for an experience of hard core pain in the calve muscles. This experience of uncomforting only made me realized the tedious efforts of the laborers working in here for the same, for months!

After we completed our part of work everyone one was tired and was ready to run away. While working, everyone was sweating in the sun, there were times when everyone was thirsting for water and we had less of it available; that moment of fight and sharing the resources made me realized the importance of it as well as the hard work everyone was doing.  As we had distributed our work, we could work in more synchronization and effective results were seen.

After completing, we all were discussing our experiences with our friends from the other groups, and that enthusiasm with which we talked showed how happy/satisfied we were on our success of servicing. After the whole act of service, we all were appreciated in front of our mentors and pals; making us all feels proud of ourselves. You see, hard work always pays off!

 

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Literature and Humanities Fest- CAS PROJECT

PROPOSAL STAGE:

It all began is 2015 year start, when I had a talk with our Language Team leader, Miss Subhlaxmi Iyer, about introducing a Literature and Humanities Fest in our school for the middle and senior years. To my delight, the proposal was accepted, and I knew from that moment on that this would be one historic and most remembered events of my life, because I was planning to be involved in it right from the proposal stage to the final execution.

Very soon, I got news that I was selected as the Event coordinator for this event… well, I was really excited about it, but I felt I just had a very huge responsibility on my shoulders beginning now. I had organised events in my school first, so I knew neither me nor my teachers doubted my experience in management, but what was worrying me was, that amidst the challenges of the IB diploma programme, would I be able to be consistent in my actions and give my best to the event?

To my relief, I wasn’t alone. My senior, Diya and I were together held responsible for this event. I am always someone who likes doing everything by myself, but I soon realised that in order to be effective and consistent, we required immense understanding within us, and needed to divide our work wherever necessary.

 

PLANNING STAGE:

In order to organise this big of an event, it was necessary for us to be very organised and hardworking, both that don’t come naturally to me. However, before planning for the event started, I penned down my priorities and assigned myself a checklist which consisted of my expectations from myself through this event.

The most important thing for me at first was to befriend and understand Diya. It was imperative for us to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to work synergically. Turned out, over the course of the event, we became really great friends and it was honestly so much simpler to deal with all the crisis and work that came our way, together.

After thorough planning, we decided on the activities that will be held throughout the two days, held interviews, and assigned segment coordinators to these activities, but well, easier said than done. I had a lot of pressure on me to choose the segment coordinators. My position demanded objectivity out of me, there was very little room for me to choose people who I liked and not someone who was worthy of the position being offered. One such prominent incident was when I had to choose between my friend and someone I didn’t really like as an activity incharge. Deep down inside, I knew that the one I didn’t like was more capable, but I constantly made excuses like “It’s better if I choose someone I like so that you know, I can work better with them.” It was true to a certain extent, and I knew I had my friendship at stake but when I choose the better person for the work, maybe I think I lost my friendship to a certain extent, but it really did make me feel proud of the decision I had just made. It was a light of maturity that I had achieved already through this event. However, In order to be on top of all things, we came early to school for about 2 weeks everyday and held one to one meetings with all segment coordinators. Doing this was really challenging because this meant about 10 hrs in school. I had to sacrifice my sleep for a lot of days in order to manage both my academics and the event.

The most difficult thing was consistency, this wasn’t an event wherein you take out a day and complete everything. It required time and efforts over a long period of time. For example, simultaneous to our Lit fest, there was going to be an Arts Fest. This demanded that our timetables were set harmoniously so that students could take the most off both events. The trouble began when the event coordinators of Arts Fest did not make their time table for a very long time, we had to follow back with them everyday for about 3 weeks! I lost my temper multiple times but I still never stopped asking them each and every day if the timetable was made. Eventually they gave in and our timetable was made in about a day.

The biggest crisis was faced just 3 days before the event. After posting students selections on the blog, we started getting SO many grade 7 and 8 emails saying their name wasn’t there anywhere. We realized that there was a technological flaw and none of their responses were recorded. It was devastating and panicky, we didn’t know what to do now! Just then Diya and I sat down together and started brainstorming. Her support really made me calm and helped me think out of the box for solutions. Together we decided to keep a session with Grade 7 and 8, and sorted things out with grace. With that, our 1 month’s hard work and perseverance was almost coming to end, soon it was THE day!

EXECUTION:

I couldn’t have any complaints with the two days! They were flawless! Our determination grit and hard work was clearly reflected! I began with giving a speech and guiding the students through the two days, while Diya checked all the venues and made sure individual events ran smoothly. It was a fabulous team effort and the greatest thing wasn’t it’s success but Diya and my friendship.

FINAL TAKE AWAY:
This event was crucial in my learnings about time management and crisis handling. I had also realized an area that I can work upon, it was that being in leadership positions did NOT essentially mean being loud and bossy, in fact it meant being strategic and calm.

Given a chance, I would take up this activity next year as well, and this time I would keep in mind 3 very important things:

1. Portray true leadership skills

2. Market this fest so well that people can do nothing but just wait for an event like this

3. Change perceptions about language, literature and humanities in not only minds of the students but also parents.

With that, I believe this was in fact a wonderful and enriching experience for me in organizing and for students in participating. Looking forward to more such challenges that force me to grow as a person everyday 🙂

 

 

EVIDENCE:

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Young Orators ( 2015-16 )

An activity, which I have always enjoyed, is oratory. Recently, I had participated in young orators 2016, where I secured the second place in the semi finals and the second place in the finals. This competition is held on a wide scale consisting of about 100 participants from three different cities, so I had to carefully plan my speech over a period of 2 months for the semi finals as well as finals. The topic given to me was about “Dashrath Munjee – the mountain man”, which was something I was previously unaware about, thus by researching about it, I was able to expand my knowledge about great Indians and their stories.

In the finals, I was given an extempore topic on how it feels like to fail in class. I had previously never attempted extempore speeches and it was a challenge to come up with ideas in 15 minutes, but through the tips given to us, I was able to speak confidently and secure the second place. This helped me identify my strength of speaking, and I look forward to developing my skill of extempore speaking. In the competition, I also heard speeches from educators and radio jockeys who spoke about the importance of having good communication skills. They shared their stories of struggle and success and about issues of global importance like illiteracy, poverty, lack of proper education etc. These talks were very inspirational and gave me a lot of new information and made me aware about what we, as individual citizens, could do to have better personalities to make our country better. Overall, participating in young orators helped me identify my love and skill for speaking, made me attempt extempore speaking and also made me realize that I should broaden my imagination to come up with ideas instantly. I also learnt that planning in advance for a good speech gave me more time to include more ideas and portray them efficiently. The speeches given by the educator ( principals of 3 different schools ) and a few radio jockeys opened my mind to look at global problems like illiteracy and lack of education in a new way and inspired me to organize an educational fest. Oratory has always been something I’ve loved, and winning in a competition among a large number of participants was a very memorable experience!

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Reliving childhood with Bal Mela

Bal mela is an activity organised by my school (Fountainhead school) every year. The main aim behind organizing such an event is to give opportunity to underprivileged to relive their childhood and to spread smiles. All the activities that we had planned for were planned in a way that children would enjoy to their fullest.. This event was a huge success because of a lot of reasons, one of which was the synergy that we had among ourselves. From planning to executing the whole event every decision that was made involved opinions of everybody from the organizing committee. A lot of students including me were a part of this organizing committee. In order to make this day a memorable one for the children, we had planned for activities such as face painting, dancing, tattoo making etc.

After putting in so much efforts, 13th Feb 2016, was the day for the event. Personally I wasn’t feeling good about the event because I was very nervous as to how will I manage to handle 40-50 kids at a time. Also what made me nervous was, will I be able to take them back into the times of their childhood. Because what I thought earlier about underprivileged kids were that they might not be very enthusiastic when it comes to mingling with new people and that they might have low self esteem. However, I was wrong.

I was into the department of my interest;’running stage’. We had to make the children do freestyle dance. I was really excited for this. However, what came up as challenge for me was to perform in front of 40-50 people without preparing, so that the children could see us and do the same. Initially I wasn’t very comfortable dancing in front of so many people, however as time passed I could make up to the challenge and was able to overcome it. During this process I was able to identify one of my strengths I never thought about and that was to be able to dance on the spot without having rehearsed.

Something that all of us had to keep in mind was the ethics of our choices and actions. We had to make sure that we treat every child equally so that none of them’s feelings get hurt. In a nutshell, this was an amazing experience and it gave me a lot to remember. What gave me true happiness was seeing the children with smiling faces throughout the event. This was a relief for me as my only purpose was to make them happy and give them a chance to enjoy all the stuff that we do. And something that I took as a lesson from this experience was that one can make through anything if he/she has the dedication and desire to do it. Nothing could give me immense pleasure than knowing that we as a team made it happen,and fulfilled our aim.IMG_0131

A Day with Orphan kids

What else can be more special than spending sometime with orphan kids from Charlie Help age. We did some activities with them like ice breaking session, card making, zumba, painting and we showed them a movie as well.

I personally had an amazing and really helpful experience. Spending time with those kids made me realize  that I am blessed to have such a life with great opportunities coming my way and I should appreciate everything that I have today instead of looking for more. Those kids were so lively that seeing them I couldn’t feel as if they lived in an orphanage and had something’s missing in their lives.

Initially I wasn’t comfortable with those kids as this was my first experience with orphan kids and it took me sometime to get involved with them. However, when we started dancing and when we started with the activities I was able to come out of my comfort zone and interact with those kids. This made it easier for both, the children and me to enjoy the rest of the time with each other and know each other better.

This activity involved a lot of teamwork as we had to make the kids feel comfortable because this was their first time of going into a school, meeting new people and spending a whole day with them. Our synergy brought them closer to us and working together as a team made it easier for us to entertain them and not make them feel as they have something less than us.

Throughout the activity everything went very smooth, we were able to mingle with the kids and so were they and all of us were comfortable with each other except one child. The entire day that child did not utter a word neither did he participate in any of the activities. This led us to ponder about what was it that was disturbing him. Till the end of the day we were able to cheer him up irrespective of the fact that we did not come to know exactly what he was thinking about.

There was one thing that we had to be very particular about. That was considering the ethics of our choices and our actions. Ethics played a major role in the way we treated the children. We had to be very conscious in the way, that we treat all the children equally so that we don’t hurt the feelings of anyone of them.

I learned a lot of things from this activity:interacting with strangers and make them feel comfortable around me, working together as a team, and most importantly being satisfied and happy with what I have. Above all this, what gave me true happiness was seeing the children enjoying themselves to their fullest and forgetting about everything else.

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Planning for the activities to be conducted

Playing Football for Subroto Cup and SGFI

 DSC03796The football camps started with the advent of the new academic year. The team had already been informed of the upcoming district tournament however, most of the players were irregular with their attendance. Since it was a new team and field for me, it took me some time to adjust and coordinate with my new team. During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required

During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required to be filled. Not wanting to mess up the team’s general rhythm, I volunteered to play at a position I had never played before. I was assigned to play as the main defence. The first task was to learn to coordinate with everyone on the team. I realised that I had to develop overall as a player and not only brush up my football skills. The position came with a lot of responsibility that I had to undertake.DSC03894

Guiding the team to ideal locations take shots from was one of those. I learnt many better ways of coordination with the team and being a defender only helped me to enhance my football skills. During the days following up to the state tournament, the 11th Grade along with the rest of the team made it a point to come regularly for the morning training sessions no matter what. There were times when some of us weren’t allowed to board the early bus and other times when there was too much workload however we overcame all those challenges together as a team.  The best part of working collaboratively was that all the required permissions were obtained easily when the entire team went to the coordinators as one voice.

Working with the team also taught us how to be selfless, courageous and to not get disheartened on small losses. Playing football also made me realise the code of conduct I need to maintain at a personal level. It taught me the kind of discipline that is required to a play a sport ethically. However, we came across a dilemma when we were faced by a team of very young girls playing for U-17. We didn’t know whether we were supposed to play an easy game or play tough to secure our positions for the state championship. The entire team unanimously decided to go with their gut and play at a certain level that the opponent team would benefit out of the match however not play rough at all because we realised that winning by defeating and probably injuring those little girls wouldn’t be winning at all. We played ethically and got selected for the state tournament and stood as runners up there.

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