sports day @ Mirambika

Badminton finals

A test of fire

watching the action

Images of my school: Mirambika...

And can anyone guess

why no one is inside the school ??

MBK vs Shikshantar

Even though we practiced hard for about 2 weeks

& we had a great team spirit going

i was kind of nervous in the morning

also those guys looked tall & big...

finally its 8.30 am

the whistle is blown.. & the match starts

before we could blink

our lynch pin in attack, Karan strikes

then again & again it just rained goals

after a while it didn't matter what the scoreline was

Shikshantar was pulverised

final score 13 -2 ....

or something like that

They seem relieved to leave the field.....

sorry guys,

we were just too good today

Walk like an Egyptian........ & a Thanx giving day

Every person is unique

You may never be a king

But no matter how far

Just reach for your star,

Dreams have ways of coming true

You may be astonished at the things you can do

Whatever others say

may you make it

come true someday......

Another year has chugged past

At this years annual day, with immense help from Kirti didi we performed a play "Walk like an Egyptian". We rehearsed the play for a week, it was fun........

Now we have a weeks break........ i get a chance to go to Bombay to be with my folks.

Till then.....

adios !!

MBK vs MIS

A tough football match

MBK vs MIS

In the end we lost 2 - 1

but we gave it our all !!

31st Jan 2010

Thanx every one for coming !!

Off to Kechala, Koraput district, Orissa .........

We are off to village Kechala, Koraput district in Orissa for our annual school trip.

Looks like it is going to be a good 40 hour journey, first part of the journey starts from Hazrat Nizamuddin station at 8.40 am in Samta Express, which goes through Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur & we get down at Rayagada at 15.00 hrs tomorrow. Then another short train journey & then another short bus journey, then finally another by ferry to reach an island called Kechla !! Phew !!

There are 37 of us plus 4 teachers, we come back only "next year" on the 8th of Jan.

So it is Happy New Year to you all & wish you the best in 2010 !!

Adios amigos

Welcome to Mirambika's 28th birthday !!

Today is the 28th birthday of my school !!

'Guess there will be some good stuff to eat

'though we have to make some drinks like limbo paani & mango milkshake which is going to be awesome!!!!

many of the classes were performing plays and stuff like that but this time our class was asking some riddles to the audience and also telling them where things in school used to be.

Like me and my friend did about where the library used to be before, and other students did many other things like that.

More importantly, We had no classes & it was a free day and a lot of fun!!

Happy Birthday Mirambika!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good bye Peace group !!

Another year is over for me at Mirambika. For two years we had Baren bhaiya as our class teacher, now we will have some one else.

Peace group so far has been my best year in Mirambika, thanx to Brainy (Baren bhaiya) & to all my other teachers & my dear friends

During our Annual day we sang Incomplete, by Back Street Boys

Empty spaces fill me up with holes
Distant faces with no place left to go
Without you within me I can't find no rest
Where I’m going is anybody’s guess
I tried to go on like I never knew you
I’m awake but my world is half asleep
I pray for this heart to be unbroken
But without you all I’m going to be is incomplete
Voices tell me I should carry on
But I am swimming in an ocean all aloneBaby, my baby
It’s written on your face
You still wonder if we made a big mistake
I tried to go on like I never knew you
I’m awake but my world is half asleep
I pray for this heart to be unbroken
But without you all I’m going to be is incomplete
I don’t mean to drag it on, but I can’t seem to let you go
I don’t wanna make you face this world aloneI wanna let you go (alone)
I tried to go on like I never knew you
I’m awake but my world is half asleep
I pray for this heart to be unbroken
But without you all I’m going to be is incomplete

Thanx Brainy & a song for you !!

Birds in Mirambika Campus

In school we are in the process of making a book about trees in our campus. We also decided to make a list of birds in our campus.

I spend a few days trying to take snaps of all the birds which live in & around Mirambika. The list is an impressive 50 plus varieties !!
1. House sparrow

2. Indian Mynah

3. Blue Rock Pigeon

4. Large Grey Babbler

5. Red Vented Bulbul

6. Rose Ringed Parakeet

7. Collared/Ring Dove

8. Brown Dove

9. Indian Robin

10. Hoopoe

11. Red Wattled Lapwing

12. Purple Sun bird

13. Magpie Robin

14. Pied Mynah

15. Brahminy Mynah

16. Koel

17. Tailor Bird

18. Ashy Wren Warbler

19. Indian Wren Warbler

20. Roufous Wren Warbler

21. Franklin Wren Warbler

22. Copper smith

23. Green Barbet

24. Brown Rock Chat

25. Tree Pie

26. House Swift

27. Black Kite

28. Green Bee Eater

29. Wagtail

30. White Breasted King Fisher

31. Shikra

32. Peacock/fowl

33. Black Drongo

43. Red Whiskered Bulbul

44. Spotted Owlet

45. White Eye

46. Grey Horn bill

47. Green Pigeon

48. Golden Backed Woodpecker

49. Yellow Fronted Woodpecker

50. Grey Partridge

51. Common Hawk Cuckoo

52. Golden oriole

53. Cattle Egret

54. Red Breasted Fly Catcher

55. Black Red Start

56. Lesser White Throat

57. Small Minivet

58. White Throated Munia

School trip+Mountains+Friends+Snow = FUN Unplugged. Our visit to Camp Himalayan.

It all started at Old Delhi railway station, though we had to wait an hour or so because the train was late but we could wait. There was enough to talk about (what was going to happen next and after that and so on). Anyway the train came at 12 in the night then we got on, said bye to our parents and eagerly waited for the train to start. It was hard to sleep with the excitement but I finally did in the end.................

Next day morning, i had to get up in a hurry and be ready at the train door and all of us had to be quick because it was like 2 minutes for 24 of us and baggage to get of a train! Anyway so we managed to get off at Kiratpur and got into the car for a 8-10 hour journey up into the mountains. The ride was very nice but long!!!!!!

When we reached Tirthan valley at around 4:00 and soon settled into our tents. After tea everyone was walking around the river that was next door but it was already starting to get cold. We had dinner and then took a small trek in the dark. When i came back I got into my tent and sleeping bag and went to sleep. It was cold in the night at a lowest 1.3 C. I was shivering ...................

Next day we had breakfast and the cars took our bags and we trekked 4 kilometres toCamp Himalayan

This was our final destination where we would stay the next 3 nights. We met Sumit uncle , the co-owner of Camp Himalayan.

The rest of the day we settled into our cottages, had lunch and they also had a small lounge so we were playing monopoly the whole time. In the night we had a bonfire and had soup and played atlas till dinner time. Dinner was really really yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next morning we went to JALORI PASS !!!!! On the way to Jalori pass we stopped at a place called Gyaghi and saw Sumit uncles house and also played with his huge Alsatian dog Badshah. Then after that we got into the cars and carried on to Jalori pass.

We did see snow over there but the snow wouldn't compact into a snowball but it was a slope so it was fun sliding down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the same day after 1 hour of playing we got into the cars and went to Banjara Retreat to have lunch.....

After lunch we went to a rock that was 10 metres high and we did rappelling there. Rappelling was fun and quite cool. In the evening we went back to Camp Himalayan. We had dinner and went to sleep......................

The next day we again went to Jalori pass but this time we trekked higher to 11,000 ft & there we found knee deep snow and it was amazing and somehow this snow we could compact and make into SNOW BALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were playing snowball fights like you couldn't imagine. It was awesome!!!!

We trekked back and had lunch at a dhaba at Jalori pass & then returned to Camp Himalayan. Later in the night we had a party.

First we had to write any question and answer. Then we had to write about our trip & then came the best part we divided ourselves into bands with chits and then we had to act as if we were in a concert with music playing behind us and the theme was the song Socha Hai from Rock On !!!!!!

It was real awesome fun and then for dinner there was yummy Chinese food. Then later after dinner we went to the lounge and had a fun activity. You remember we had to write any question and answer; well now we were randomly given the papers and we and it was like this..... One person said the question in his paper and the other said the answer written whatever it maybe it was really funny & anyway after that we went to sleep..........................

The next morning we had breakfast and sadly we had to leave.

So finally we left and after a rather long journey we reached Anandpur Sahib were we went to the huge Gurudwara and then went shopping then we left and went to Nangal Dam Railway Station and got onto Himachal Express to Delhi. We had a nice sleep and finally back to DELHI!!!!!

THE END..............

Pradip Krishen visits Mirambika...........

Our project on trees got a major fillip when the author of Trees of Delhi, Mr Pradip Krishen visited our school.

He was really nice & patient. We went for a walk with him on our campus, he was able to identify all the trees. Infact with one of the trees he had his doubts & all of us appreciated his honesty, when he said he will get back to us with all the details.

Now we are trying to work on making the database we have created of all the trees/ flora in the campus into a compilation. That will be done after the holidays.

As of now i would like to thank Pradip Krishen to have come to our school & spend time with us. It was really wonderful & useful. Also i got him to autograph on my copy of the book Trees of Delhi !!

Thank you...... sir !!

A very interesting three part interview with Pradip Krishen can be read here, here & here

Mirambika campus is more diverse than Yamuna Biodiversity Park

....................But the only thing missing in our campus is a waterbody, but there are more variety of trees in our campus, than YBP.

We started doing a project on trees & i am kind of smitten by it. We are using Trees of Delhi, A field Guide by Pradip Kishen to do our work. Today morning my father was telling me your school bag is getting heavy. Apart from the Trees of Delhi book, it had Asterisk & a couple of novels, apart from the usual note books. We do not have any textbooks in Mirambika.

Using this field guide we are making a list of trees in the Mirambika campus, which by the look of things is much more diverse than the Yamuna biodiversity park which we visited recently as part of our project work.

At the Yamuna biodiversity Park i learned to identify some butterflies like Brown Awl, Grass Yellow, Forget me Not, Striped Tiger, Plain Tiger, Blue Pansy, Yellow Pansy & Peacock Pansy.

Rock On & Farhan Akhtar

I went to see Rock On
The story was awesome
The songs were just too good.
The best part is i am learning the chords now................... yippie
I loved this & this & this

Now this is the gang singing one of the songs from Rock On: na,na,na........ in school. We got everyone singing with us......... But what unfolded afterwards was a horror story. Certain things are better left unsaid...... isn't it !!

Perserverence group, Mirambika.

We sang a song which we composed. We titled it CONFUSION. I played the guitar, while Sagar & Ankit sang. Its the end of the year in school.

We presented a play. Its about Megha, Bansode & the Tenants, who live in Africa Apartments. The Landlord does not allow the tenants to do anything. But its changed by a cloud, she is called Megha. She makes every one happy

Some of our work was brought out through a newsletter.

Our empty classroom......... !!

Untill next year

Adios amigos

my school sports day

Sports day is 2 days in the 1st day the morning i did march past then the marathon was there.

One round was about 700 - 800 metres to i took 4 rounds.

I had breakfast and then went to play the basketball finals for my team in the tournament. We lost 2-0. Then was obstacle race and tug of war. I then had lunch. After lunch i played Novelty games. Then we had the Teachers vs Parents Basket Ball match. Then we went home.

On the second day we had the football tournament 3rd and 4th position match the result was 3-3, so we had a penalty shootout they scored and made it 1-0 then i scored and made it 1-1 but no one else scored and it went to the final round then i scored and made it 2-1 and won.

Then i went for breakfast and then all the children did Trampoline, Ladders, Cycling, Gymnastics and Skipping and we got medals ( Btw every one got it) .

my freind Ankit. Making a save.

me & my friend Sagar

That's me, very happy & delighted at completing the Mini Marathon with my broken hand, 'though it took me 20 mts, last year i had done it in 16 mts

my friend Sagar, making a save.

Mirambika

Some videos about my learning centre, can be seen here.

Its wonderful.

My school mirambika

I learn at Mirambika, it is a free progress school
it is in the campus of Sri AurobindoAshram and
next to Mother's International School.

Around Mirambika there are a lot of trees
and it is very nice. The way they teach is
very nice and very rarely boring.

The school website (which seriously needs to be updated) is http://www.mirambika.org/