Sharpening The Saw - Tenzin Jambey

"Sharpening The Saw" can be beautifully defined as preparing a person or trying to bring a change in one's mind and attitude. Some so many people have contributed a lot to get a change, a development in me. 

Now when I think about my past and try to remember the people who have contributed their efforts to develop me, then the picture of my family and the faces of all the teachers come into my mind whose efforts were brilliant but, at the same time, my hearts says that there is a significant effort made by the family of Pestalozzi and My Good School which is also helping me to bring a change, a development within me. 

Here in Pestalozzi, we are provided with all kinds of niceties, and a high level of education is offered to us. This place where I live is known as a hostel by almost everyone, even at my best friend's home or my father and mother's. Still, they are unaware that this place feels more like a home than a hostel, and sometimes I feel like I don't want to leave this place, but as we know, everything has an end. 

Living with people from different regions of India and some from other places of Nepal with their own language, customs, and beliefs helps me understand their traditions and beautiful culture. Our friendship bond is powerful, and we are always there to help and assist each other regarding work or studies. Friends teach each other many things, including sound and bad habits, and it's a sour truth of friendship, but it is in our hands, and it's our choice whether we take bad morals or suitable lessons. 

In the case of our friendship bond, we teach each other only those acceptable to the person; our bond is so strong that we come to know about the other person's thoughts. My roommates are very good at creating motivational quotes, and their words and views help me to keep moving when I am broken. Some of their quotes are:

" The business graph never goes in a straight line at some point. It has to divert ".

"Rome was not built in a day, but it can be destroyed in a second". 

"The bad thing is time flies, but the good thing is I am the pilot". 

"Failing is a good sign to make a difference in you".

Sometimes I feel lucky to be with such good friends, namely Nawang, Norsang, Aati, Passang, Sandip and Nishan, who try to develop me and always help me.

The office staff put a lot of effort and hard work into developing every child of Pestalozzi. Cheme la Ma'am, the Director of Pestalozzi, always try harder and harder to keep us on track, and she becomes strict with us just for our own benefit; she always uses the most suitable examples to make us understand things in the best way. Upasna Ma'am is found wandering around the campus to meet every child and communicate with them to discover the troubles children face. I remember she once came to me also when I having issues.

The eyes of Shelja Ma'am would pop out one day as she spends a lot of time near the screen. The reason behind this is she is concerned about every child's future. By looking at the students' names and their obtained subjects, she is busy seeking colleges and universities for children's further studies. Anudev sir, Rakesh Sir and Rahul Sir, the three handsome men, also contribute a lot to assisting every child with any queries, and they'll be found busy the whole day as their business calls on.

My charming and lovely House Mother, Minaxi Ma'am, is often misunderstood by many people as a student. When I saw her for the first time, I thought she might be our age, and I was surprised to know that she was serving us as a house mother. I thought, " Yeh madam kya house mother karegi ". Her outlook is like a student, but she is a wonderful multi-talented woman. Even after pursuing a master's in Micro Biology, she considered joining an NGO. She helped us out with almost everything thing and especially with our studies. I was shocked when I learned she knew everything about us, including our naughty and decent actions. Every day has been a learning day since she joined Pestalozzi and served as a House Mother. I never knew that "pakorde" is called fritters in English. She is always there to help us with everything, and I see a significant improvement in my studies and other activities, which is 60% because of her motivation. When I came  3rd in class, she was happier than anyone else, even more optimistic than me. I know our bond is strong, but sometimes we really eat each other's mind, and mostly I am one to irritate her, because of which she gets angry.

There is a saying, "Where two utensils are kept together, then ultimately would become one". I don't feel she is my Ma'am, but I think of her as more like my older sister. My mind prevents me from touching her as my mother because she is young to be a mother, and people might get a heart attack when I start calling her mummy because she looks like a student.

Nowadays, I can focus on my studies and other activities too, but once, I was also a very distracted child and never got full marks in any subjects; many thoughts came into my mind. When I was in class 6th, it was a nightmare going to school as I had no friends nor was I doing good in my studies. While returning from school, I would sit at the window seat and look at the environment, and strange thoughts filled my mind. I used to think I was useless. I was wasting Pestalozzi's resources, I am wasting the food, the books in my bag, the uniform that I wore and the fuel of the bus, and at last, a lot of money and reason behind doing not well in academics, and because of my rude behaviour and attitude that I had, at that time I hardly had a smile on my face but, from now onwards I would never get to see these days as the family of Pestalozzi and My Good School are sharpening me. They have become the tool of sharpening when I am a saw. 

My Good School, or The Sunday Good School, is a good learning platform that helps me think beyond my limitations of thinking abilities. It's not only the school's name which is good but also the morals and lessons taught here are excellent and fun. By being regular in classes and because of writing my reflection continuously, I can understand things in a better way. I also thought how Good School would change me and develop my writing, reading and speaking skills, but now I know. I can now reflect on my actions and think deeply about them because I have no limitations on writing, like in school, we write an essay of 350 words, and I am allowed to put my thoughts on a piece of paper as many words as I wish too. 

When I sit to write a reflection, I automatically forget all other work, and my hands continue until I finish writing. My Good School is really 'Sharpening the Saw' for me and bringing a vast development in me, it would be great if more students joined My Good School, but I feel like the current strength we have is better than better as we are starting with a small step by taking that small step ideally.

Here are the pictures of the people who are my sharpeners! 

Upasna Ma'am, Chemela Ma'am and Shelja Ma'am

Rakesh Sir

Rahul Sir

Anudev Sir 

Minaxi Ma'am

मित्रता - यशराज शर्मा

किसी ने सही कहा है कि सच्चे दोस्त वे होते हैं जो आपके साथ बुरी और अच्छी परिस्तिथियों में खड़े रहे और आपके जीवन के हर मोड़ हर कदम पर आपकी सहायता करते हैं l 

हमारे जीवन में हमारे कई मित्र होते है और आगे भी होंगे। कुछ बहुत सहायता करने वाले या कुछ जिनको ज्यादा करना अच्छा नहीं लगता। लेकिन हमारे जीवन में जब भी कोई एक अच्छा, विश्वसनीय मित्र मिले तो हमे उसका भी आदर करना चाहिए जिससे हम भी उससे कुछ सीख पाए और अच्छे संबंध रख पाएँ, यह सब बाते लिख कर मेरे मन में मुझे अपने एक बहुत पुराने दोस्त की याद आई उसका नाम है आयुतांश। आपको उसके बारे में थोड़ा कुछ बताता हूँ ।

 

जब मैं कक्षा ३ में था तब मैने ज्ञानश्री में दाखिला लिया था। मुझे याद है मेरी कक्षा थी '३ स'l  एक दिन मैं स्कूल के मैदान में फुटबॉल खेल रहा था जब मेरा पैर मुड़ गया और मैं ज़मीन पर गिर कर गुलाटी मार गया। तब वो मेरे पास आया और मुझे उठाने के लिए हाथ बढ़ाया , मैं उसकी सहायता से उठा और हम दोनों उस क्षण से बहुत अच्छे मित्र बन गए । तबसे हम हमेशा साथ में फुटबॉल खेलते थे और हमेशा एक ही टीम में होते,हम दोनों एक दूसरे की गृहकार्य में भी मदद किया करते थे, वे हमारे लिए बहुत मज़े से भरा समय हुआ करता था। 

लेकिन जब हम छट्टी कक्षा में पहुँचे , एक दिन उसने मुझे बताया कि उसके पिताजी का जम्मू में तबादला हो गया है और वह अब स्कूल छोड़ कर जम्मू जाएगा। वो दिन हम दोनों के लिए बिलकुल ख़ुशी का दिन नहीं था। उसके जाने के बाद भी हम बहुत समय तक संपर्क में रहे लेकिन अब हम दोनों कई महीनो से बात नहीं हुई है। मुझे कभी कभी उसकी बहुत याद भी आती है। 

काश वो समय वापस आ जाये…और हम फिर सी वही पल जी सकें। 

यशराज शर्मा 

कक्षा ८ - ड 

ज्ञानश्री विद्यालय 

Swami and Friends - Anvesha Rana

Swami loves being amiable to everyone, especially to his best friends. He loves Somu for his geniality, Sankar for his intelligence, The Pea for his connection, Mani for his strength and Rajam for his personality. Swami is a fun-loving boy; his friends mean the world to him. Often friendships are a two-way street; if one of the givers in a bond of friendship stops contributing, this bond can also break. 

Something similar happened when Swami became friends with Rajam and unintentionally pushed Somu, Sankar and Samuel out of his life. Still, when Swami realized his mistake, it was too late to correct it. 

We pamper new people and forget the ones whom we have known forever. We often have so many desires that we change friends and relations to fulfil all our wishes. But fulfilling our desires does not lie in completing them but in controlling them. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School

Swami and Friends - Anvesha Rana

However badly Mani would have despised Rajam, he cannot bring the cruelty in his heart to hurt him. On being face-to-face, they apologize to each other and end up being great friends. What scared Mani the most was that if he hurt Rajam, Rajams' spirit would haunt and torture him, so it was best to be friends rather than foes. 

I am not afraid of ghosts or spirits, except at night, whenever I sleep and even if the door is slightly open, I feel as if someone is peeping in, so I permanently close my door before sleeping. Also, I find it really hard to sleep alone after watching a horror movie since the scenes are living in my mind, and I just can't bear to think that there will be a ghost standing there when I turn around!

Swami talks about odds and ends, ups and downs, to his one-of-a-kind grandmother, who just wants to tell him how wonderful his grandfather was. The constant bickering between the two is very usual to others. For me, a conversation with my grandmother is fun. We talk about her times, like how school was then, how the uniform was and how strict the teachers were. She loves to talk about knitting, which is also her favourite activity and then my grandmother likes to ask me about myself. Also, she always cooks my favourite meals whenever I visit her. 

Swami, Rajam and Mani are good friends, but they were impertinent to a fellow helper, and this also ended up in Rajam being offended, but that was alright as it was Rajams' fault in the first place since he was trying to show off. There is a mark difference between show, and show-off; we show everything from our books to clothes to gifts, but we also show off a colossal amount of things like a new watch or some expensive clothes. To show off is to exaggerate the object more than its actual value, and to show is to make others see what you have in its truest and purest form. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School

Someone very important in my life who I’ve lost - Affifa Fatima

On New Year's Eve, 31/12/2020, something horrible happened. 

I had two cats, Chandler and Zoey. Chandler went to my grandma's house for a month. He

used to go out for a walk daily. But one day, he never returned. Everyone went searching for him. But in the end, we found him in the woods. Some wild dogs had attacked him. Chandler was very innocent. It seemed as if I'd lost a piece of me. My other cat Zoey is alive and well, and I wish she never dies.

Afifa Fatima

Class VI

The Doon Girls' School

A friend whom I lost - Gaurangi Rastogi

Date-12th August 2020

Time-1:00 pm 

 

It was a rainy day filled with sadness; I can still feel the moment as it was a changing point in

my life. I lost a friend who gave me happiness while she was in her bad times. A friend who

never spoke anything about her illness. Can you imagine? How does it feel when you lose

your friend whom you grew up with? I can still feel her presence around me. Her name was

Shyra. We always had a kind cultural diversity within us. During my holidays, I still visit the gurdwara and think about her. She wanted to become an author and publish her words. I used to call her Miss. Austen ( Jane Austen). She wanted to enter IFA ‘ International Fashion Academy’ in Paris for Fashion Journalism. She was an aspiring fashion designer and journalist. But, there was a time when we were shocked.

The words I can use to describe her:-

 Happy

 Carefree

 A sister 

 A friend to the needy

I made a mistake: ‘ I abandoned her when she was ill.’

If she can see me, 

Shyra, I am sorry to abandon you.

Gaurangi Rastogi 

Class VII

The Doon Girls’ School