August 16

Friends, Romans, countrymen,
Lend me your ears.
—Act III, Scene 2, Julius Caesar
Luckily, the four team members of the World Unity Education Department(WUED) did not have to make a similar appeal before the 154 students from 12 campuses of the City Montessori School(CMS) when they gathered at the CMS Gomti Nagar auditorium for the 6th session of Sunday Seminar on August 16, 2009. A drizzle was on while the students filled in the attendance sheets.

The session got into motion when Mr Raza Hasnain Naqvi, Chief Coordinator, Sunday Seminar, rose up to the occasion to give important instructions regarding the sessions being organized by the institution. He reminded the students of the Very Important Habit he had taught to the students of throwing rubbish in the dustbin. The students were also reminded of the three important words, mind, voice and lead. These sum up the three essential qualities of a world citizen as a perfect world citizen who should think for others, voice his opinion eloquently, and should show the way to others because he knows a lot of things that others don’t.

Next, the students were asked to enumerate the qualities of a world citizen. The students gave out at least a hundred qualities of a virtuous world citizen. These included smart, intelligent, caring, wonderful, helpful, sharing, punctual, honest, law abiding, patient and eloquent. The presentation ended with the question whether these qualities are of a world citizen or a Sunday Seminar attendee.

The attendees were next asked by Ms Priyanka Bharadwaj, WUED to fold a paper with their eyes closed and tear it into pieces. They were then asked to open their eyes and look at each other’s papers: the results were, of course, different. A world citizen must realise that although we live in a world governed by the same God, we are different and unique in our own particular ways. Every seed that we plant does not germinate into a plant because of the inherent deficiencies and individual differences between seeds. Likewise, not every child develops into a worthy world citizen because of differences. As a world citizen, we must be conscious of the differences that are there between us despite us living in the world as a big family with different languages, cultures, etcetera. Students with different languages and cultures are brought together by the Children’s International Summer Village Camp to analyse the common goal of all cultures, peace.

The next presentation was on eating habits in France and Spain. Mr Raza began by arranging the spoon, knife and fork on the table. In Spain and France, you are not supposed to sit on the chair till you are asked to. It is considered a part of bad manners if your elbows are found on the table, but in Spain and France, your wrists should always be over the table.

Quite a few students joined the rush to deposits slips with their names, etcetra in a box for election for the singing contest. Mansi Ganglani, class VIIIE, CMS Chowk Campus volunteered to maintain the records for the contest while Vaishali Rawat, class IXF, and Pauravi Shrivastava, class IX E, CMS Kanpur Road Campus, and Sidhant Kandpal, class IXA, CMS Mahanagar Campus III were appointed as judges being the senior most students in the gathering. The stage was vibrant with sounds of music while the presentation was on. It proved to be quite a tough competition as Shraddha, class IXC, CMS Kanpur Road Campus and Tanya, VII C, CMS Gomti Nagar Campus were called on stage for a second presentation.


The prize winners got outdoor plants imported from Kolkata as prizes. Abhishek Negi, class IXA, CMS Kanpur Road Campus bagged the first prize, while Shraddha, class IXC, CMS Kanpur Road Campus got the second prize. Tanya, class VIIB, CMS Gomti Nagar Campus walked away with the first prize. Mr Atul Mishra, Sunday Seminar Coordinator, CMS Gomti Nagar Campus honoured the students by giving away the prizes.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville and the gaming CD, Monster Truck Madness were kept apart as prizes. Sunday Giveaway could have been a big fraud, but the students confessed that they had put more than one slip with their names. Boys put their slips on a newspaper while girls put slips with their names in a jar. Shashank, VIID, CMS Indira Nagar Campus got Moby Dick, Kirti Verma, CMS RDSO Campus walked away with the CD, several names came out of the lot made by the boys for the distribution of some key chains from Cochin. Small camel bone fishes were the objects in question when the lot made by the boys and the girls were mixed. Kirti Vardan confessed to putting in 40 slips, and Siddhartha, Class VIH, confessed to contributing 25 slips with their names. They had probably learnt some lessons from probability before it was taught in the class.