November 1

Poet of nature, thou hast wept to know
That things depart which may never return.
—To Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley
The pleasures of life are evanescent, but 138 students from 12 campuses of the City Montessori School(CMS) did their best to make the 9th Sunday Seminar organized at CMS Gomtinagar Auditorium on November 1, 2009 a memorable one. The day began with Mrs Sangeeta Negi, Assistant Coordinator, Sunday Seminar, recording the attendance of the students who had come to the venue. Spanish super hit songs reverberated across the auditorium while all this was underway.

Mr Raza Hasnain Naqvi, Chief Coordinator, Sunday Seminar, took up the mike and reminded the students of the three key words of the Sunday Seminar: mind, voice and lead. These sessions opens the minds of the students to novel ideas and concepts, these sessions give them a chance to voice their opinions, they also give the students a chance to lead others to a successful life. He also reminded the students of the three words that his best friend, the mike likes: close, slow and clear.

The quest for good photographers yielded three names from among the students: Shipra Shukla, class IX A1, CMS Chowk Campus, Ayush Kumar Yadav, CMS Mahanagar Campus-III, Anuj Srivastava, CMS Anand Nagar Campus. Shipra Shukla was handed the camera for the first half to click snaps of the session.
A battle of words followed this when a debate was organized between some of the students. The topic was: is asking why really important?
The first group included Kshitij Jaiswal, class IX A, CMS Kanpur Road Campus, Sajjal Singh, class IX, CMS Gomtinagar Campus, Saumya Srivastava, and Anushree Mishra, class IX B, CMS Mahanagar Campus-I, Mariyam Zaidi, class IX B, CMS Chowk Campus, Unnati Kala, class VII A, Mahanagar Campus-II, Piyush Singh, class VII B, and Sonali Gupta, class VII A, CMS Anand Nagar.
The topic for the second group was: is world unity possible? The participants included: Arpit Kanu, Nikhil Sharma, Ayush Kumar, Siddhant Kandpal, class IX A, CMS Mahanagar Campus-III, Krishna Kumar, class XI D, CMS Gomtinagar Campus, Ayush Priyansh, class VII A, CMS Mahanagar Campus, Satuam Pratah Shahi, class VII A, CMS Mahanagar Campus-II, Varun Kandhari, class VI A, CMS Anand Nagar Campus.

A rehearsal of the children’s appeal followed all this drama. Students from CMS Mahanagar Campus-I, II and III lined up on the stage to voice the appeal that they had prepared. Issues as global warming, recycling of waste, pollution, deforestation, nuclear weapons, etc dominated the agenda.

Super hit Spanish songs echoed across the auditorium during the break. Anuj Yadav clicked snaps with the camera following this. Saumya Srivastava, class IX B, CMS Mahanagar Campus-I, introduced the newcomers from CMS Indira Nagar Campus to the French expressions that they had learnt in their earlier interaction. Mr Raza gave the Spanish equivalents of these expressions: hi/hello in English would translate as Hola in Spanish, Good Morning as Buenos dias, How are you? As Como esta usted? Fine, and you? A Bien y usted? Very well, thankyou as Muy bien, Gracias, What is your name? as Como Se ilama usted? My name is…as me ilamo, nice to meet you as Mucho gusto, excuse me as Con permiso, Do you speak English? As Habla usted ingles? Yes as Si, No as no, Thankyou as Gracias, you are welcome as De nada, Sir as Senor, madam as Senora, Miss as Senorita, please as por favor, I am sorry as Lo siento, Goodbye as Adios.

Students from CMS Aliganj Campus, CMS Rajendra Nagar Campus, and CMS Chowk Campus gathered on the stage for a rehearsal of the children’s appeal. The topics included illiteracy, global warming, child exploitation, law and order, pollution, CNG, etc. all the students interested in participating in the student’s appeal were instructed to memorise their appeal before coming for the next session of Sunday Seminar on November 8.