New Beginning

New Beginnings…             

Clichéd and Stereotypical ‘New Beginnings’ might sound, but it was the obvious choice for the physical materialisation of The Triangle.  It is also one of the most universally relatable topics.  New Beginnings is something most people do every minute. You begin that particular minute, a new minute in your life, just like a new hour, a new day, a new year, or a new century.

New Beginnings may not be about some particular physical happening that will occur in the future, but more about something within your mind; like a determination could be a New Beginning. A New Beginning of believing and striving to achieve.

New Beginnings are not always about starting  anew, they could well be about giving up something from the past and moving on, away from the old and harmful.

In this very first issue, we bring to you, poems, articles and happenings from Tridha -the regular newsletter contents that will make your reading a better experience, along with artwork that inspires and has as much thought put into it as all of Lady GaGa’s costumes. Expect the regular, while we try to outdo ourselves in bringing the new for you.

Exclusive in this issue is also an interview with the man seen most often and hardly spoken to, the man who seems behind the school, but honestly is the one, along with others holding it up. Yes, Patrick Brillant. In his own words, explaining why he started a place where we all belong now.

While speaking to the Frenchman seems most intriguing an experience and one which will be pondered over for a while, there are other things that come together in this issue, a candid release of dirty-little-secrets of teachers by one amongst themselves, an honest counsel on creating great first impressions and a review of a book, which like all the others is simply brilliant.

And then we come back again, to our theme, New Beginnings. Let this magazine guide and help you to create one of your own, a beginning like no other, a beginning that is truly yours.

Kalansh Gala, Editor

Happiness In Happening

It’s a celebration!

9^th August 2012

Festivity should be synonymous to Tridha, just a few days after celebrating Janmashtami they decided to celebrate Eid. While Janmashtami was celebrated by breaking pots, and yes everyone got a chance, Eid was celebrated with Biryani! Yum! And trust me when I say that it was brilliant All of it!

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A Mixed Bag for the Tridha Football Club.

8^th August 2012

The Tridha Football Club (TFC) won its first match against Atomic Energy (1-0) on the 2^nd of August and moved on to play their second match against AVM Juhu, where despite the match being a draw, TFC lost 4-2 due to penalty shootouts.

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Annual Dance and Music Performance Day

4^th August 2012

Tridha has this continual thing that it has to do something for the arts. Even if it is majorly an art school, it keeps showcasing its wonderful achievements in the arts, and this time it held the very first “Annual Dance and Music Performance day”. With dance performances by classes 8, 9 and 10 and music performances by classes 8, 10, 11, 12 and Amita teacher, the event only added another feather in Tridha’s hat.

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Farm Frenzy for Class 3

July 2012

The Class 3’s of Tridha School went on farm trips to learn about the farmer and his world. The Little Children surely enjoyed a lot and of course learnt twice as much.

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Being The Best You

By Rewa Khare-Sharma

No matter where it is, in school, at a party, in an office or at any other kind of social gathering, being introduced to new people is inevitable. These people, regardless of how you feel towards them, will form an opinion of you, and you of them. The judgments they make are mostly made in the first few seconds of the meeting and tend to be long lasting. Therefore it goes without saying, that first impressions are important.

This ‘first impression’ that one makes, is crucial and plays a massive role in deciding the logistics of the relationship one might have with the other.

For instance, when you meet a new student, the first few things that he or she says to you, decides whether you will want to be friends with them or not.

Similarly, when we grow slightly older and are searching for employment (this might seem ages away, but for a lot of us, it is just a few more years), this first impression we make, is the deciding impression, and all we have is one shot at it. So why not learn to make these first impressions memorable and pleasant? Don’t we all want to leave a good imprint of ourselves in someone’s mind?

Don’t worry; making a good first impression isn’t all that hard, it is actually quite effortless. Just keep a few things in mind, and you're good to go.

Even though part of making a good first impression requires a little bit of fitting in, one must be who they truly are. Do not let go of your individuality because it ispossibly the most noticeable part of the impression you create.So, go out, have fun and don’t forget to be the best you.

Flipping Through

The Catcher In The Rye

by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel written by J.D. Salinger, who is a self-proclaimed Holden Caulfield; Holden Caulfield being the protagonist of this book.

When I first picked up a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, the only words that popped into my mind were Plain Jane.It was just a small, two hundred-paged novel with a basic black jacket and its title written on the cover page in a snaky font. The beginning and the ending statements of the book are amazingly lucid and the entire book is pretty inconsequential. And yet, whenever someone asks me the name of my favourite novel, it is always“The Catcher in the Rye.”

The transparent words sprawled over the 192 pages of the book follow a certain Holden Caulfield’s lead as he wanders purposelessly along the cobbled paths of New York City over a span of seemingly endless two days. The novel takes into account his several encounters with friends, strangers, like-minded passersby, who occupy a significant meaning, but cramped space in his life. Over these two days, Holden collides with his demons and attempts to exorcise them, confronts his erratic identity and bizarre thoughts. And even after spun out endeavours, the outcome of these baffling rendezvouses is zilch.

The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield harbours a sanctuary in his mind, which is inhabited by errant ideas and perplexings, much similar to the mind of any other teenager’s. The writer perfectly captures the turmoil that usually takes place inside the mind of a regular teenager. Holden is standing on the edge of an end, at the peak of a dawn and high above the valley of beginning, but he doesn’t want to take a step forward. Caulfield, in the book, is soon about to start a new episode in his life, and he feels absolutely barren about bidding farewell to the previous chapter and equally fallow about the one to follow. But what makes this book so great is the sabotage of a cliché, and the admission of the fact that it is fine to feel that way. It is fine to endure stretches of self-inflicted alienation and aimlessness. This book, ideal for adolescents, is the kind of book which makes you challenge your motives and meaning and helps you discover a discreet yet empowering being inside of you. Inside each one of you. It helps you question and deal with the unfoldings of life and makes the realization dawn upon you that an erring; lost Holden Caulfield is what we need. What we need is a catcher in the rye, and this mind-blowing masterpiece compels you to search for one inside you.

Happy reading!

Arushi Ganju

Existence Explained

The Era of Stars

By Kirtana Padmakumar

For most kids who have grown up in a concrete jungle like Mumbai, sighting a star is in itself a phenomenon. Not falling into a pothole while doing so is nothing short of a miracle! Pollution, smog, and tall, hemmed-in buildings all contribute to the fact that most kids in this city haven’t been able to locate a star!! Which explains the bright young kid who, when asked to name a few stars, happily said, “Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan….and….oh, Aamir!”

For a long time, even I didn’t know what a star looked like. There had been numerous occasions in which my mother, sitting on the terrace in my grandparents’ house in Bangalore, would call out to me, “Come and look at the stars, they’re so beautiful!” And I, watching TV in the living room, would wonder, ‘How could stars be more interesting than Jerry clobbering Tom?’

The first time I saw hundreds of stars in the sky (a couple of years ago in Kutch), my jaw dropped. I had never seen ANYTHING so beautiful. Suddenly what I had learnt about star-formation didn’t seem so boring. For the benefit of those who don’t know about it, here’s how stars came about…

A long, long, long time ago, hanging in the middle of nowhere, was a minuscule dot, brighter, hotter and denser than anyone could possibly imagine. This dot gradually became hotter and brighter and denser until it exploded [picture your ideal mad scientist going KABOOM], shooting matter into space within one trillion trillionth of a second. Scientists have very creatively named this event the Big Bang.

In the beginning, the universe was a dark, expanding space. There was no light because the first stars hadn’t been formed yet. The first stars were created when the universe was around one hundred and fifty million years old. These stars are made up of only the first few elements made during the Big Bang (hydrogen and helium). Heavier elements were made when these stars exploded. Just imagine, the gold earring you are wearing came from an exploding star!!!

When a star explodes as a supernova it creates a cloud of cosmic dust around it called a nebula. In this nebula, many more stars begin to form. So, as you can see, over a period of many years, more stars emerged, bathing the universe in light. Then these stars began to gravitate toward each other, forming a closely knit group of stars called a Galaxy. Billions and billions of these galaxies were made, like the one we live in - the Milky Way galaxy (which houses around 100 million stars).

Imagine what the world would have been like without stars. No light, no Earth, no astronomy classes, nothing. Scary thought, isn’t it? Believe it or not, if stars never came into existence, we probably wouldn’t be here either. Everything that our body is made up of came from stars. Stars have made us what we are. We are a part of the Stelliferous Era... the era filled with stars...and the very thought of that fills me with wonder.

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Sir Isaac Newton

By Edward Barretto

Does he sound familiar? Yes, he is the one who explored the reaches of the Sciences to define Gravity and form the laws of motion. His laws might be difficult to understand in his word, but in simple language, they are indeed very interesting.

Law of Universal gravitation

There is a gravitational force acting between any two objects in the universe. There is a gravitational force between you and Earth. There is also a gravitational force between you and the Sun, between you and all the other planets, and between you and the people sitting next to you. Why do we fall down towards Earth rather than towards the Sun, another planet, or the people next to us?

The force of gravity between us and Earth is larger than the force from any of these other objects.

The force of gravity between two objects depends on the masses of the two objects and the distance between the centres of the two objects.

Laws of Motion

Anything is going to remain still, unless there is force used upon it to make it move. Also, the force has to be proportionate to the mass of the object. For Example, greater force would be required to push a car than to push a pencil.

To every action there is always opposed and equal reaction, which means that if any action is performed there will be a reaction to it, which will oppose the action, such as when you push the table, the table would not go flying away, because it would be reacting against your force and action.

Of course, Newton did not come up with these laws overnight, he had to question and think. Everyone must know the story of how Newton discovered the Law Of Gravitation,“apparently an apple fell on him, whilst asleep under a tree” and this made him wonder why it fell on him and not go towards the sky. What he really did was question simple things that are taken for granted and imagine if you and me start questioning things that really bother us, perhaps we could discover something for mankind.

But I definitely do not mean, start pestering your teachers and family over simple things, do what he did, think for yourself and if at all, take help.

Strokes Of Art

Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginning’s End

Painting by Himani Ruparelia, Class XII

This picture signifies a sunset. A sunset is a beautiful and colourful scenery. It basically says that another day is over and tomorrow will be new day full of joy, sorrow and surprises. Another day, another begging to correct our mistakes from the past.

-Anvee (class 7)

I really like roses because they are beautiful that's why I drew it. The rose bud symbolises new beginning as it shows that it’s going to bloom into a huge beautiful rose, and glitter in the suns gaze as an amazing new flower. "

-Rajvi (class 9)

Painting by Raj Khemkar, Class 10

Proteins, Muscles and a whole lot of Determination

Basketball – A Beginning

By Hriday Bhatia

Basketball started out in a way that most other sports would not have. The story goes that a Physical Education teacher wanted his kids to play, but since it was raining outside he could not arrange for anything but a dustbin on top of a door. So he invented the game of putting the ball into the dustbin. Thus basketball was created.

Now, the problem with dustbin, as can be imagined, was that the ball had to be manually removed every time it went in and that obviously became a task. So, the lower part was cut out and the ball fell down again to be played with.

There were a lot of other changes also made, such as the ball was changed from brown in colour to orange, for better visibility and that the basket became a hoop with a net hanging underneath.

Through ups and downs and a lot of changes basketball has come a long way. Since its origin in 1891, to presently being an Olympic sport, basketball is a young sport that has fame the world over.

Facts:

Sports is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

The most played sports are:

1. Football 2. Cricket 3.Tennis

Wind-chimes and Heart Beats

When?

By Vishnupriya Jampa

Everyone loves music, whether it is birds, humans, you, me and even Aliens – because it is believed that music was heard even on the rings of Saturn. Everybody loves music. Despite, everyone loving music, like different people, we all listen to different kinds of music, whether it is Rock, Hindustani, Western Classical, Pop, Reggae, Techno, each one has their own choice and that is what makes music so special. It is a universally diverse thing that brings together yet, divides the entire UNIVERSE. But how did this begin? Or was there any beginning at all?

Music could have started in hundreds of ways. If you think of music as communication, perhaps it started with all creatures, including humans. Even today, music is referred to as the Universal Language. Or if you think of music as sound, then of course it began before anything, maybe it began with time.

What is music? We all know that it involves rhythm and sounds and notes and pitch and so many other aspects. Rhythm if considered as most important, then do you not have music all around you? The repetitive whirr of the fan, the rhythmic beating of your heart, the click of a clock or in nature the buzz of the bee, the continual galloping of the horse, rhythm and music exists everywhere.

Then, how exactly did humans start making music, perhaps by trying to send messages by blowing inside hollow pieces of woods or banging things together and later perhaps progressed to use it as entertainment. Eventually, string instruments were created from bits of vine or animal gut. Drums were, perhaps, advanced using animal skins.

But just like how music is subjective, so is the theory of how it came about, to you it could have existed since millions of years before humans, to some it was the child that all humans bore together.

Interview: Patrick Brillant

Interview: Patrick Brillant

Steiner schools were first started to help educate the children of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Priya Nandu and Trisha Salvi interview Patrick Brillant on how our school came about, what made him believe in Steiner and more…

What is Steiner Education to you?

Steiner education is education that adds meaning to learning. Whatever we teach becomes meaningful to students and teachers. When they can establish a link between what they learn and what they see. It is relevant to their age and their mental development.

Did you ever think of starting a school? How did you start Tridha?

When I was around the age of 16/17 my friends and I criticized the education system and talked about “ideal education system”, but I forgot about that entirely. I had never expected myself to open a German based Steiner school in Mumbai. It was only after I was married, had my first child and had to send her to school that I realized that there were no schools that encouraged children to think for themselves. So, I did research for material that was appropriate to the education I thought was ideal and I settled for the Steiner method.

In 1996, in Mumbai there were no Steiner schools and so with the help of my friend Aban Bana, I tried setting workshops and eventually a school. The workshops were very accomplishing and so we decided to start a school, which we feel has the best curriculum for art. With a lot of help and hard work, we opened our own Steiner School in Mumbai.

What do you think about our school as a Steiner school? How is it progressing?

Well, we are one of the top schools and if you ask me to judge our school, I will always judge it knowing that it is never fully developed. There are always improvements and progress to be made, making it better as time passes. Here at Tridha, we are constantly creating a personal understanding of Steiner. Definitely the outcome is pretty positive; our school is a good experience for people who want to attend Steiner schools abroad. But as I said nothing is perfect, it always has to be worked upon otherwise in terms of success I feel we are quite good.

The most important thing that one should always keep in mind is that the greatest success of Tridha will always be its students. We are very thankful to the parents and teachers who helped us reach here and have always been a step towards success for the progress of Tridha”.

Why did you decide to name the school Tridha?

(Points to hands, head and heart and laughs) Tridha means the “The Threefold Path”. Honestly it was not something I had in mind, I was with all of the co-founders of the school and I had a Hindi-English dictionary with me, after brainstorming for really long, I opened the dictionary and the first thing I saw was “Tridha” and there, it was already chosen.

Apart from relief, what was your feeling after moving to the new building? Were there any negative feelings?

It feels beautiful. Interestingly, there is a lot more work, expectations have also increased, but the dominant emotion is obviously relief.

Many people did feel sad about leaving the old building, which everyone, including myself, was attached to, but it feels good to come here.

What is your favourite part of the school building?

The main staircase or the physics lab.

What is the major goal of Tridha?

Tridha is to create a space where young people can be relieved of parental, cultural or societal pressure, a place to dream, to live, to wish, to be comfortable with themselves.

The people behind Tridha were dreamers, they were believers. We aim for the children to live with their dream intact.

How has starting a school and running it affected your life?

I have had to be practical in so many ways to make the decisions of the school, a lot of times I have had to remind myself of the dreams, not to forget it.

The Teacher's Take

By Sadia Chunawala

Being invited to write for the students’ Newsletter can make one quite puzzled. What is it that a student would find interesting to read? If media frenzy was to be followed, then it would have to be an article on Lady GaGa. However, my knowledge in that direction, as well as inclination to do so, ends before it has started.

So what does one write about? I can’t speak about football at any length, nor am I in the loop at all where fashion or recent music is concerned. So that excludes around 98.7% of the readership. That brings me back to the above question!

What I can write about, though, is the common experience of both the student and the teacher world, and that is ‘School’.

(Well, that would be the original intention of an article in a‘school’ newsletter, you say? You would be right. However, digressing is a teacher’s prerogative.)

The combined school experience that I’m talking about would have to be instances from the times that student and teachers interact. Of these, I can shed some light on the teacher side of the story. So if you thought teachers were nasty people, believe me, you don’t even know half of it until you’ve heard what goes on in their mind.

Remember the time you walked past a teacher on the stairwell, or in the corridor and walked right past without a greeting? Well, do not rest assured that she hasn’t noticed it. You can be sure that she has, and has also made a mental note of the disrespect accorded and the student responsible for such an atrocity. On the other hand, students who do greet are not forgotten, after being replied to, despite the teacher’s bored expression. A stronger mental note has been made of the students’ value system. A casual but intended ‘Hi!” holds more value with a teacher than a drawled out “Good Morning”

Then there are those times when a teacher is speaking in class, but just because she happens to be looking in one particular direction you assume that her powerful capacity for viewing from the sides of her vision have been hampered and therefore indulge in whispered conversation. Tsk, tsk. There can really be nothing as annoying as a student’s underestimation of a teacher’s superpowers. For instance, were you aware of a teacher’s extreme capacity for voice recognition, replete with direction orientation, even with her back turned? (For purposes of convenience, I will refer to the teacher in the female gender. And lets face it; the number of male teachers in the school can be counted on the fingers of one hand).

Every teacher likes an intelligent student, but a hard working student is even more endearing.

A teacher can spot false praise, false flattery and false attention from a mile off and would want it to stay at that distance. So make sure you’re genuine (with your ideas and expressions and emotions). It’s an impressive quality.

Teachers always enjoy being conversed with personally. It allows them the space of getting to know students individually. So the next time you stop a teacher to talk to her as you meet her around school, you can be sure she’s liked the chat and is not cursing you for having delayed her for her next class (provided of course, that you hadn’t stopped her to clear your ponderous and weighty doubts).

When you walk into the teacher’s room full of teacher chatter and your entrance elicits immediate silence, you can be certain beyond a sliver of doubt that they’ve been talking about yourclass.

Also, when you find a teacher poring with such concentration into her book that she’s bent over and into it, rest assured that she’s fast asleep.

Teachers are as delighted (or even more so) when holidays are announced.

Teachers yearn for appreciation just as much as students do.

But perhaps, the biggest truth is, that students are a rather important part of a teacher’s life, since she is quite concerned with their achievements (successes and downfalls) and their wellbeing (both physical and emotional) which is what they get up and come to school for, day in and day out.

For Umbrellas Of Nothingness

RECIPE:

Image from Google Images

We all want to be able to make our favourite food, and so we bring to you recipes that can be made simply at home by you and me.

GARLIC BREAD

Ingredients:

6 slices of bread
100 grams butter
4garlic flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly grounded black pepper

Method: Cut each bread slice into two and arrange it on a plate. Place the butter in a saucer and mash it with a fork. Peel the garlic flakes, crush them and mash them along with the butter, salt and pepper. Spread the garlic butter on each bread slice and arrange them in an ovenproof dish or plate. Heat the oven to 200 C (remember to use the oven under adult supervision).Wearing mitts place the dish in the oven. Serve Hot.