Category: Disha Sanjay Sarawagi

A sport that I immensely love to play. I can and I did put all my efforts in this sport. I have been playing volleyball since past 7-8 years of my life. The journey has been amazing so far. However, after all these years it still requires a lot of practise and new skills to be inherited. And the result is not just shown in the tournaments we play in, but also the self-satisfaction we as individuals and as a team get.

 

Every year we participate in a taluka level volleyball competition in which our aim is to get selected for the district level. Winning has never been my aim but to get selected in district level was what I aimed for, because reaching a new level gives me and my team a sense of satisfaction. I also think it is proud movement or achievement for my coach too, as all that we are today is because of his guidance to us. Plus, my main goal has always been to develop my techniques and skills and coordinate with my teammates. Coordination in a team game is the most important factor, even if 1 or 2 players are not skill-full we can still win the game by having better coordination. For the competitions that were approaching: I had worked hard for the tournaments as I used to come to school early for the morning camps that we had. But there challenges that I had faced during these sessions. Firstly, because of morning camps i used to spend more time at school that equaled to almost 10-11 hours per day. This caused a lot of stress physically and mentally both, because being the DP students we had a lot of submissions and study plans but due to the physical stress I couldn’t study well. This resulted in my time-management problem.

Plus, because of more physical work I used to get very exhausted, as the intake of food was not enough. This also taught me that if i play and workout, I should also give proper time to my food habits. Secondly, it was just 3-4 of us who used to come early for practicing more and developing our coordination. But because the other players from the team didn’t turn up for the sessions there was obviously a less probability of us getting selected for the next level. This at times gave a sense of dissatisfaction from the teammates and at times I even got angry about it because being the captain is a tough job that i am supposed to perform well. Everybody is having expectations from me about the players i take in, the coordination we play with and the cheering we do. Cheering and motivation were key factors at the time of game. Because we constantly needed to motivate our teammates to perform their best.

At the end, my team did won at the taluka level and got selected for the district level, we were all proud of each other and even our coach appreciated us. I did have to learn a lot of things like never to lose hope. Moreover, I also got aware about my strength and weaknesses, which I have to work upon to now get selected for the states.

You must do the very thing you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt

The Fountainhead senior school Math-Science inter-house quiz was conducted on 25th of April, and students from Diploma 1 chose to volunteer as quizmasters. I had never participated in such events in senior school, but this year due to an opportunity given to me to take over the quiz show; I was overjoyed at the idea of conducting this event. We were a group of 4 people who conducted the quiz event for Grade 9 and Grade 10. Through this activity I wanted to enhance my own math and science skills plus share my knowledge with my juniors. So, about how the quiz proceeded – there were 2 rounds in which both the grades had to participate mandatorily to give a test and whomsoever won went to the second round. Here for the final round only 2 teams from each grade of all the houses were present.

Here, few of my strengths like, working collaboratively and having good research skills were showcased. I think i worked pretty hard while searching questions for the tests and the final presentation, as I made sure I put my best efforts for this activity. However, I think I was not confident enough, as we were also supposed to host the quiz. But, trying to motivate myself and having helpful co-event partners helped me boost my confidence. plus, because there were like 150-200 students it was difficult for us to manage this huge crowd. However, we asked the teachers to split in the entire auditorium so that there were no chances of chaos left.

 

For how the activity was planned, the four of us divided the work between us so that it is easier and less time consuming for us. Plus, for the presentations and the tests that we made, we were supposed to get it cross-checked from the teachers and many a times it was inconvenient as the teachers and us were not free at the same time. Moreover, it was difficult for us to search questions that were from the syllabi of these two grades. But, at the end we worked though it quite well and the event was satisfying and pleasing enough.

For this activity, it was VERY IMPORTANT for us to be ethical, while taking the test and presentation. Few of the questions were taken from the internet and few from our prior knowledge, so it was mandatory for us to make sure that we site all the sources. Plus, while hosting the quiz, in the presentation round, I was marking down their points. Therefore, I had to make sure that I marked and summed up their total properly.

Overall, I think i learnt a lot of new things through this activity. My stage fear and time management skills were improved, whilst my research skills were appreciated. So, I think all that i learnt is going to help me in my near future.

Activity	Components (C/A/S)	Duration with start date and end date	Learning Outcomes
Volleyball	Activity	July 8th, 2015 to September 29, 2016	LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5
Tree plantation in Janki Van – a new botanical garden in Vansda	Service /activity	July 18th, 2015	LO2, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7
AS – Cooking	creativity	July 8th, 2015 to September 29, 2016	LO1, LO2, LO4
Creative Mela	Service/creativity	September 15- 17th october	LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7
Winter trip to Naggar (CAS project)	Creativity/activity	December 26th, 2015 to 2nd Jan 2016	LO1, LO2, LO4
Surat city half marathon	Service	September 13th	LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7
Ride with pride (CAS PROJECT)	Creativity/service/activity	January 25th- 6th march, 2016	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7
Serving the FS-Staff	Creativity/service	April 5th, 2016	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO5, LO7
Math science trivia	Creativity	October 3rd, 2015	LO1, LO3, LO4, LO5, LO6, LO7

Cooking? “If an architect makes a mistake, he grows ivy to cover it. If a doctor makes a mistake, he covers it with soil. If a cook makes a mistake, he covers it with some sauce and say’s it is a new recipe” – Paul Bocuse

                    

I never liked cooking; I am not lazy but for me cooking was something that didn’t interest me any day. However I took cooking as a challenge and tried learning it. In an entire 1-year course, I learnt how to cut vegetables, few starters and some items from the main course. Gradually, I developed interest in cooking, because after cooking – we got to eat all the good food. 😛 In Fact, cooking is one of my favourite leisure time activities now. It’s difficult for my parents/friends to digest the fact that I can cook GOOD or EDIBLE food.

 As, in one the cooking classes in school, my ma’am asked me to make lemonade and I thought that ya it’s going to be easy to do so. But while  I was making it, inspite of adding more sugar I had added more salt. I shall not tell how it tasted, but it surely looked like surf excel mixed in water. 😛 But, this incident in fact made me realize my perception towards cooking being easy, whereas I have now realised it that it’s the most difficult activity. I think when I cook it requires a lot of attention, concentration into what/how I’m doing and the safety measure to be taken care of. Cooking has helped me also realize that it one important thing that an individual should know. Plus, it is going to help me when i go out of home for further studies, at least i will be able to survive on my own;independently. Cooking is now one of my strengths. Below are few of the food items that I indulged in, in the past few months.

 

                   

 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart – Helen Keller

C A S. where do I start from? You know what, the BEST part of doing IB was CAS. I would have left Diploma and opted for course, but the ONLY thing that stopped me from opting for course was and is, CAS. It’s what I love doing at any point of time. Because it’s not just the activities that we are doing, but also the life experience we get from it and the memories that follow down the lane. This component is a package full of new discoveries and adventure. It has taught me things for the very first time in my life. It has made me more independent and it has changed my perception for the world I’m surrounded by. Alongside learning new skills, CAS has helped me know more about myself. It has helped me develop to be a better human being. CAS has lot aspects that I undertook as a learner and that I effectively achieved them. To the places that we visited, unexpectedly taught me to be an open-minded and a confident person. I take in pride by saying that ‘CAS will always be the heart’ for me than any other subject of IB.

C A S was a turning point in my life where it helped me excel in the entire process of planning, taking opportunities, expectations, challenges, progress, and finally leading to personal growth. In this essay I will be talking about the most memorable moments I had in my entire CAS period.

There have been a lot of ups and downs but I always told myself that “If I have started this, I am going to end this”. This always motivated me to complete my CAS activities. Like, while I was doing my CAS project, we used to work for hours and I used to get exhausted, but I was very keen and determined for my work. I and my teammates never gave up. We kept doing our work till the event day and at the end all our hard-work just paid off, specially when I could see thousands of children and young ladies smiling and riding a bicycle. I can’t express, how heartwarming it was. On the other hand, organizing creative mela for kids was different experience in all. Because, while planning activities for them I really had to place myself in their position to experience whether they will really like it or not. After the event, when I asked them how they felt, they all were SMILING and they thanked me straight from their hearts. The little ones never fail to be the most adorable and loved ones to work with and creates memories with.  

All the events that I took part in or the ones that I organized, have taught me to be a better person for tomorrow. I think I am proud enough to say now that, I can challenge and take risk in life to achieve what I dreamt of.

Activities like sports tournaments are also imperative as they yield something much more than medal, they yield experience. I believe that experience and success have a cause and effect relationship and learning to lose once is a healthy practice. Personally, I believe learning to survive daily is of more prime importance that to be winning.

Plus, working for the underprivileged and helping in planting trees, has taught me a lesson that, One day wherever I may be, from all that I’m going to earn, I’m ALWAYS going to keep some percent of the profits for the betterment of the society. Contribution doesn’t just mean donation but also the skills that i posses. CAS has taught me, about the world that surrounds me. Because we have got the privilege to be a part of this world, we should always contribute for a better tomorrow. CAS has helped me change my mindset that trying something for the first time is not a threat but a challenge that will lead to an experience of a lifetime full of discoveries. Discovering my secret possessions, which will help me know myself and help me perform better in life. Anyways, if I’m asked to replace CAS with another name, I would replace it with “LIFE”.

 I always wish to rest and retire in the Himalayas. – Disha SarawagiNaggar, the capital of Kullu for more than 1450 years, which is famous for its apple, the great architected temples and the customs/traditions of the Himalayan people. Two friends and I planned and executed the entire trip. This was the best trip I had ever been too in the valley of himalayas, as I was with friends who were like family. The trip started with long journeys from Gujarat to the Himalayas (North).

Himalayas is as beautiful as it sounds to be. Chilled atmosphere, adventure and good food is what all I need. We started with small treks in  Naggar and then thrilling adventure in the Solang valley. I love going for adventurous trips and all my life i had just heard about skiing, snow sports and trekking. But this trip marked a tick in my bucket list, as i could finally do all of this. 

 

I felt scared and adventurous both at the same time. When we went to solang, I did snow tubing and skiing, which I had never done before in my life. I was very scared and nervous till my chance has come. Looking at people who did it already, gave me confidence that even I can do it. Finally when my turn came in the queue and when I did it, all the fear just went off with the experience itself. I can’t put it in words how amazing it is to slide down from the top in the chilled air.

Later after snow tubing, it was our turn to do skiing. Skiing sounds very interesting but it’s not as easy as it seems to be. We were given half day training or knowledge about skiing as it is really difficult as it requires proper balance and the activation of your 6 senses. While I did skiing, I was able to grasp all that the trainer told us to do. Thus, i was able to balance myself on the skates and save myself from falling. Plus, because i was able to balance, the trainer asked us to try the difficult routes with more cuts and turns. This gave me more motivation, confidence and much more joy. Learning and doing skiing is one of the best memories i have got from this trip.  

 Plus, while we got the exposure of doing yoga and trekking, I realised that I can further improve my health and fitness by working hard -physically, and i realised how much essential it is for us to eat good healthy food. We used to go for treks everyday (until a week), treks whose routes were long and hard. One day it took us 5-6 hours to reach the top (Rumsu village) for which we where supposed to trek till the top of the mountains and climb more than 1000 stairs. I realised how on regular basis it is very important for me to do cardio. However, we successfully reached the village with a bag of happiness and our body been aching at the same time. 😛 

 Overall, this trip has taught me a lot about myself like I should work hard and improve my stamina and endurance, unity within friends and these simple joys of life.

“Out on the roads, there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons were destined to be” – George Sheehan

 

Waking up early-morning at 4:00 AM made me feel stressed. I reached the venue by 5:00 AM. The roads were all empty and blocked due to the marathon. Runners had started gathering at the venue, but i couldn’t find any member from our school team. Later, one of the organizers came and informed me that our AID station is 12 Km away and our school team has already reached their. I got so frustrated that why didn’t sir inform us about it before hand? But then when I reached at the AID station I was more amused. We were supposed to get a proper tent,  but we ended up getting few tables under which there were water puddles. It was a matter of concern for me because dengue and malaria was spreading in our city and the water puddles increased the risk of raining too. But, as a team we thought of a creative solution, by covering the puddles with chairs. We were getting bored because none of us had anything to do. We didn’t even get our music player, which made the time go more slow. Now that the marathon was going to start by 6:00 AM, we started to unlock the bottles. Waiting…waiting…waiting… for the runners to come. And the 1st runner arrived at 6:45 AM. Fast runners usually don’t prefer having water bottles is what i think, as he didn’t take the water bottle. But when the whole bunch of runners came, we started offering them water and they did take it. We were cheering them to get motivated and boost up their confidence to complete the marathon and not stop running. And when I was back home, i realized my voice box isn’t in a good position now. 😛 While the runners were coming, I saw 2 runners from whom 1 uncle was of 80 years old and 1 uncle was blind who was in his 70’s. I couldn’t describe how happy i was when i saw them. I just forgot everything and I started staring them. They weren’t running, but they were walking fast. And the best part was they weren’t the last ones. There were still 60% runners who were behind these two people. At this age, being this fit is commendable. Plus, while providing water, the runners thanked us….I felt really good because i could help them at that moment. Coming to an end, the other AID station was giving a head bath to all the runners. The water used was fresh. Standing there, i was thinking about how the fresh water was being wasted and what are the environmental causes of it. What i thought was we could have used Hard water to give a head bath and save the fresh water. The runners really enjoyed the marathon. Even we enjoyed it so much. CHEERING THEM WAS THE BEST PART.  

 

“The only joy in the world is to begin.” –  Cesare Pavese

Hi, my name is Disha Sarawagi. I aspire to stay lively and happy throughout the course of my life. I have met a lot of people whom I found are really inspiring and motivated me to make a difference in the society, by coming across unknown people and knowing the story of their lives in this small world. And I being a Co-founder of the NGO, finally started with a small project known as EHDAS (Every human deserves a smile). This was my first step towards enjoying my life, by doing what i wished to. My ambition arrives from making people smile and seeing people smile. Across this, I love talking, travelling places and taking part in every bit of the opportunity i come across where I can take the leadership role by either organizing an event or leading an event.  

 

Apart from all this, I really love reading about the real stories of unknown’s and books about life lessons, that are inspiring. This habit of me makes me question of everything I’m doing and makes me question almost everything that is their in the universe. I love doing things practically rather than just doing it theoretically. I enjoy the life lessons I learn through my own experiences i come across each and everyday. This has made me more reflective towards my own-self to lead a better life. I believe that the most important thing to do in every phase of your life is to bring joy to your own-self. This will definitely make you enjoy your life and to be happy is all that matters. Talking about all this, I think it makes me a more positive and confident person and I appreciate this quality of mine. Also at times after long working hours at school from studying, it becomes difficult for me to do anything else that I enjoy doing. So, I take-off a day on sunday and enjoy everything I love doing like cycling, eating good food, spending time with friends etc.

 

At the end, I really want to do something for my own country India, that I love the most. Not just by a small NGO but by bringing all the NGO’s together and making it a big organization where all of them work towards the same vision. This way I can and I will make sure that at least one sector of education is improving drastically by changing the lives of thousands of people in a positive way. This is what I love so I know if i can be successful, I can also make my ideas and thoughts to be realistic in the future.

 

Every child is an ARTIST – Picasso

Creative mela is an event which is a school initiative and is held every year on Gandhi Jayanti to mark the occasion of the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the “Father of the Nation”. This year the opportunity was given to students to organize the event and I was selected as the only event coordinator for the entire event.

Creative Mela is to witness and experience the most exciting hands-on workshops plus this year it was much more fun and perhaps even better than the last year as there were more hands-on activities for all to participate in through workshops.

 

     

(Art piece created by students)

There were seven learning outcomes that I achieved from this activity. The key outcome was my indulgence in issues of global importance. Education is a global issue, which encloses the creed for joy, especially for the juvenile children. Education is the most important one can use to change the world. Therefore, I decided to engage in a global issue providing the children with a platform to learn art and value it.

Secondly, I could identify my own strengths and develop areas for growth. I always loved organizing events. My strength is in being always the leader of the group and in directing the team towards the right decision and choices. But, through this event I learned that time management is a very crucial part. It was very difficult for me to simultaneously cope up with studies and the event work. But, through this I learned that we should give priority to things that more important right now, so putting first things first.  

The third and fourth learning outcome that I achieved was, it was a challenge for me to organize such a huge event being the only event director. I was assigned this position one month before the event. But, due to some miscommunication with the school management I couldn’t start preparing for it from the start. I had to rush in the last week of the event to complete all the work. To make my job easier, I had asked for some help by sending invites to student to volunteer for the event. Unfortunately, I got only 10-15 volunteers for on the day event work. They couldn’t help me with the planning, so I got really upset. Later, I went to one of our event management faculty for some help. She said send an invite to all the teachers too, they may come on the day to take workshops but won’t be able to help you plan things. So, the major challenge that I faced was I had to collect all the names of 1600 students by taking their three preferences and allotting them a workshop of their own choice.  So I had to go to each grade and each section to take the names. I utilized the time of my free slots in school and went to take the preferences. But, at times most of teachers didn’t allow me to enter the class as they said the students would get disturbed. So I had to book appointments with them according to their timings and my timings. To make it a win-win situation for both of us I decided to come early and take preferences of the PYP students. This saved me from not missing my regular classes of academics plus made me utilize the time efficiently.

        

 

 

The entire area planned according to the activities.

The fifth learning outcome was, I worked collaboratively with others. Through this event I learned that it is very important to have a team that can help you make the event succeed. I was working with a team of almost 40-50 people, inclusive of all the student and teacher volunteers. It was fun working with them, because I had allocated them workshops of their own interests, so that they can make new innovations and take interest in making the child have wisdom and make learning full of fun. However, coordinating with the volunteers was a tough job. I had asked them to send me a plan of what they will teach the kids and what all materials will they need. But, few volunteers didn’t make a plan nor send the list. So, I kept sending them a reminder to complete all the necessary work. At the end, before 2-3 days I had arranged for a meeting with all the volunteers to explain and brief them about the on the day job. But, few volunteers didn’t turn up. So it became difficult for me to explain them on the day of the event, plus because two volunteers didn’t turn up for the event, I had to take the workshop and I had to plan something on the spot. However, without the volunteers, this event wasn’t possible, as they were the most essential part of the event. Coordinating with peers who were participating in the activity, gave me a glimpse into what managing a large crowd is like. Moreover, many groups of children came and went, so we had to simultaneously conduct the activity and bid our goodbyes to those who had already completed their share of the workshop.

                  

Students engaged in different activities.

The sixth learning was I showed commitment towards my job. Truly saying, I had put 200% of effort to make this event a success. I had worked for it days and till late night to complete all the tasks. Additionally, I was motivated by always reading the inspirational quotes that said “don’t give up and keep trying” as hard work pays off. This helped me work hard for the entire activity to make the event possible.  

Lastly, I considered the ethical implications of my actions. There was one unethical decision that I had made. When I had taken three preferences of children I didn’t give the 1st and 2nd preference to few kids, as there was no space in some workshops. So this was unfair to kids who didn’t get their interest workshops even after giving preferences whilst few kids got their 1st or 2nd preference workshops.  Additionally, my actions provided the children a memory on which they could dwell for the rest of their lives. Plus, my hard work proved to be a potential inspiration for the juniors and the teachers of my school to organize such an event. This could also promote them to engage in random acts of kindness.

This event was successful and I enjoyed a lot. It still brings a smile on my face when I recall the smiles on the face of those children. The moment of sheer happiness just by providing opportunities and free space. I learnt a lot from this activity and for me this was purely worth it. I will cherish these memories for my entire life.