My First Immersive VR Experience - Reveda Bhatt

Image courtesy readwrite.com

In 2019, almost all of us saw the launch of Chandrayaan 2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre by the Indian Space Research Institute (ISRO) on television on 22nd July to circle the moon and provide information about its surface. Still, we never got to feel it in reality just because we were not there, in that particular place, at that specific time!

But in today’s world, a technology called Virtual Reality, VR for short, has been introduced wherein you can feel what had happened even if you weren’t there then. Initially, VR could be experienced just with headgears at home or, at most, the headgears with the moving chairs at malls. But these days, a technology known as immersive virtual reality is coming into view, yes, the one showing at our school!

We watched the show the day before, and it was really breathtaking. You see the control room’s architecture, the satellite being prepared for the launch, exiting Earth, going into space, the satellite being detached, Lander Vikram landing on the Moon and Pragyan Lunar Rover coming out of the lander and onto the moon’s surface. Then with the help of the controllers in your hands in your real world, you walk solo on the Moon in your virtual world, feeling like when Neil Armstrong became the first one to walk on the moon!

There were moments when the screen went black due to the transition between scenes, and we were literally praying that it should not finish right now, but luckily, it didn’t finish then and crossed the boundary of our expectations up towards the space!

Hoping we all get to cherish moments like this and make the sky our limit!

Thank you! Reveda Bhatt Class 9, The Aryan School reveda0311@gmail.com

Empathy - Rishona Chopra

Empathy is understanding others' feelings and reacting accordingly. It is to feel what they are feeling, to be in their shoes.

We often misunderstand Empathy and Sympathy. Sympathy is when we feel pity for someone, while Empathy is feeling what the other person thinks and helping them out. If your friend won a basketball match, you can understand his feelings and be happy for him and celebrate his happiness. Even if you hate basketball, after being happy for him and by making him happy, you feel good too. This is where Empathy connects with Making Others Happy. 

The above picture shows how two people can connect and understand each other as one. This is all because of Empathy.

Here is a poem I wrote on Empathy:

Empathy is something so strong, 
It senses when something is wrong.

It connects us together,
And we become as calm as the weather!

I know how you feel,
And we can together heal.

I feel your pleasure and pain,
But empathy is a feeling, and it's hard to explain.

Understanding each other's feelings,

makes you look appealing,

it helps you make friends,

and makes fights end!!

It might be a bit difficult,
but it's nothing different.

Everyone should understand it,
at least a little bit!!

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

How sports has helped me to build hope - Arav Agarwal

Playing sports has helped me to build hope. Whenever we are standing on the ground, we have that ray of hope which inspires us to believe and never give up. In life and sports, anything can change at any moment, so hope helps us to keep on going.

I was bowling the last over in one of the practice cricket matches, and the other team needed only 1 run to win in 4 balls. But still, we kept hope and stretched the match to 1 run to win in 1 ball. Though we lost, it was a great learning for my team members about the power of hope and me.

As rightly said that hope means hoping even when things seem hopeless. Sports have taught me to keep hope alive in any situation and have faith and trust. 

Name: Arav Agarwal
Grade: 6A
Billabong High International School, Thane