When It All Began - Anvesha Rana

We don’t have to be great to start, but we need to start to be great. All of us must have been a beginner at some point in our lives, on the sports field or on the dance stage. Every person who has achieved success today would have been a beginner once, so allow yourself to be a beginner, for no one starts off being excellent, and it is the critiques that shape our character, not the praise. 

In school life, co-curricular activities are just as important as academics. I loved to dance in the cultural arts but was not really good at it. However, during the pandemic, I tried different forms of dance and today, dancing is something that occurs naturally to me. Another activity that I was a beginner at once was writing, but after joining the reading club program, my thoughts changed direction, and I just couldn’t contain them anymore, so I had to write! Practice makes a man perfect; the more I wrote, the better I became!

When I was a new student at school, I found it hard to follow the rules - standing in line, not talking, asking for permission - it was all different. I learnt very early in life that the golden rule everyone should follow is Equality. 

Equality in mind and body; Equality in harmony with the soul; Equality in speech and action; and Equality in life are what we should aim for. Just like the students of Tomoe treated their janitor wonderfully, we should respect everyone for whatever they do, be it small or big, be it quick or slow, and we should treat others the way we wish to be treated. 

Live by the Golden Rule, for it is not stringent but only robust, 

It is Equality. 

Anvesha Rana,

Grade 10-B,

Gyanshree School

Totto-Chan - Anvesha Rana

I wish I could be a little more like her, 

for Totto-Chan would be a true dreamer, 

Her incidents can make you laugh out loud, 

and her innocence can create love around. 

Totto-Chan is so much fun, 

      She can pass through barbed wires without a grunt, 

  She makes up her own crazy games, 

and plays them without any aims. 

I have never seen another like her, 

So sensitive and empathetic, 

and yet so succumb. 

She can make anyone a friend, 

from Takashi to Yasuaki-Chan, 

all of them are mates. 

Totto-Chan is truly a gem, 

living the way she loves to, 

by sliding down a cesspool, 

or standing in the sand for a

time too long!

I wish I could be a little more like her!

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School

Learning: The Fun Way - Anvesha Rana

At Tomoe Gakuen, the students could study the subjects at their own pace. Unlike regular schools where children have fixed periods for different topics. At Tomoe, one could start by doing their favourite subject and then somehow manage to do the ones they dislike; this was learning the fun way. Independent decisions made the children ready for real life. 

Another aspect of Totto Chan's new school was that lunch was unique. Everyone was supposed to bring something from the ocean and the hills to meet the essential nutrition requirement. Also, if the child only had something from the sea or something from the sea, then the headmaster's wife would dole out the other. So all kids at Tomoe Gakuen always ate Something from the ocean and something from the hills. 

The Headmaster was a distinctive individual; he always encouraged the children to chew their food well and respect it. He would often test the students' culinary knowledge by asking them about the place from where their food belongs: The hills or the sea? 

This was all the fun at Tomoe Gakuen, but the best part was probably the School Walks. After lunch, all the kids would walk in the open with their teacher in the midst. Everyone would think of it as leisure time, but these walks were actually memorable lessons in science, history and biology.

This is Learning the Fun Way, which is at Tomoe Gakuen but is even at My Good School, where Learning is Fun and Fun is Learning! 

Anvesha Rana, 
Grade 10-B, 
Gyanshree School

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window - Amaira Bhati

                                                                 

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is from Japan. She was born in 1933 and is 88 years old. She wrote Totto-chan in 1982. On May First, we started reading the book. This story is about a little girl named Totto-chan, who is strong-willed yet kind-hearted, compassionate yet unwavering in principle. Totto used to go to a school where she had a strict teacher, and the teacher often observed her very carefully. Totto-chan always used to shut her desk; she would bang it with a big noise. Totto never used to sit on her chair; she would stand near the window every time her teacher was teaching. One day her teacher held an activity of making the flag of Japan and the teacher kept roaming around the class looking at her students' drawings, but when she saw Totto-chan’s drawing, she was very disappointed. Totto had made her flag in many colours, she made strokes and flinches around the flag, and her flag was so big that she drew some flinches on the table. It took them some severe trouble to rub it off. 

Another day Totto-chan went out of the window and started talking to someone. When her teacher leaned out to see who she was talking to, the teacher caught her talking to birds who were making their nests. Her teacher was so frustrated by Totto's behaviour that she held a meeting with her mother, and the teacher told everything about Totto-chan’s mischief. The teacher told her mother that she didn't want to make a nuisance out of her class, so she had to expel Totto-chan from the school. 

Totto-chan’s mother didn’t tell her anything about being expelled from school. She told Totto that she would be going to another school, which would be even more fun. So they went off to a new city, a new school, and a new beginning. Toto was so excited about going to her new school by train. She sat quietly on the train, but when the ticket collector came and asked Totto-chan for her ticket instead of handing in the ticket, questions had now popped up in her inquisitive mind, but the ticket collector snatched the ticket away from her. Totto-chan’s mother was very worried about Totto’s admission. Her mother took her hand and said that they couldn't be late because ahead of them, the gate of a small school was gradually coming into view in the distance.

Amaira Bhati,

Grade 3 - F,

Gyanshree school

Totto-chan - Anvesha Rana

 

On the first day of May 2022, we started reading the book Totto-chan, the little girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. This book is based on actual events, and the real-life Totto-chan is today a celebrated television actress in Japan. During World War 2 in Tokyo, a different school with railroad cars as classrooms was opened by an extraordinary man Sosaku Kobayashi, the founder and headmaster of the place. The school followed other teaching and learning methods; consequently, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi wanted to tell everyone about this place through her book 'Totto-chan'. 

The characters that we have met till now are Totto-chan, her mother, her teacher and the stationmaster. Totto-chan is a young, chirpy girl who is full of life. She is bursting with curiosity and an eagerness to learn. Totto-chan is different from most other kids who want to just lead a simple life, whereas Totto-chan is never out of options about who she wants to become. Still, her lovable personality is always supported by her mother. Totto-chan's mother is a calm and composed lady who lets Totto-chan be who she truly is and wants her daughter to always be happy. Totto-chan gets expelled from her school, and her mother doesn't tell her about this since she doesn't want to alter Totto-chan's confidence. 

The teacher at Totto-chan's previous school was a young, focused and practical lady though she was rigid in her terms and observed Totto-chan only as a pest in her class. Totto-chan and her mother met the stationmaster collecting tickets; he was a considerate and helpful fellow. He proposed that Totto-chan could work with his son since both wanted to work at the station.

The author of this book is a Japanese actress, voice actress, World Wide Fund for Nature advisor, and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She is well known for her charitable works and is considered one of the first Japanese celebrities to achieve international recognition.

If I ever have a book about myself like Totto-chan, I would want it to be an autobiography because only I am aware of many things about my life. Also, certain personal aspects need to be added to a book. So, I would love to have an autobiography about myself. 

Anvesha Rana, 
X-B, 
Gyanshree School

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi - Rishona Chopra

 

Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window is an autobiographical memoir written by Japanese television personality and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. The book was published originally as 窓ぎわのトットちゃん in 1981 and became an "instant bestseller" in Japan. - Wikipedia

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School