August 28, 2015

From the Desk of your PCA Team .....

Being in India, this weekend is a big weekend in a religious context.  There are three festivals that hold value in the Indian subcontinent this weekend.

Raksha Bandan

In the Northern states of India will celebrate Raksha Bandan.  "[This] is a Hindu festival that celebrates the love and duty between brothers and sisters; the festival is also popularly used to celebrate any brother-sister relationship between men and women who are not relatives or biologically unrelated.¹ "  Sisters will tie a bracelet, called a Rakhi on their brother's right hand.  The rakhi is a symbol of moral and emotional protection by the sister for her brother.  She is his "inner voice" to guide her brother in times of need.  She cannot protect her brother in any other manner, as she is not the breadwinner.  Brothers will give their sisters a gift, which can be some token monies or a dress or any other items they choose. The gift is a symbol of the brother promising his sister to protect his sister and her family in their bad monetary times.

Onam in Kerela

Onam is a Hindu festival celebrated in a state festival celebrated in Kerela, which is for four days which starts from Onam Eve (Uthradom) to the 3rd Onam day.  There are two stories behind Onam. The first is that it is the homecoming of the mythical King Mahabali, who is considered the King of the Malayalee people.

The story goes that the beautiful state of Kerala was the capital of the Asura (demon) king, Bali. However, he was very religious, was respectful to priests and performed Vedic Aswamedha ritual to enlarge his kingdom and like his grandfather (Prahlada), was one of the greatest devotees of Lord Vishnu on Earth as he sacrificed his kingdom for the Lord. The king was greatly respected in his kingdom and was considered to be wise, judicious and extremely generous. It is said that Kerala witnessed its golden era in the reign of King Bali. Everybody in his kingdom was very happy, there was no discrimination on the basis of caste or class. There was neither crime, nor corruption. People did not even lock their doors, as there were no thieves in that kingdom. There was no poverty, sorrow or disease in the reign of King Bali and everybody was happy and content. Banan was the only son of Bali.  However, because he was a Daitya (descendant of Diti), he was viewed by the Devas as unsafe. Otherwise, as the Vamana Purana reads, the rule of Mahabali was righteous.

Onam celebrations are marked in Thrikkakara, a place 10 km from Kochi (Cochin). Thrikkakara is said to have been the capital of the mighty King Mahabali. A temple with a deity of Thrikkakara Appan or Vamanamurthy who is Lord Vishnu himself in disguise is also located at this place.
This fascinating legend is artistically depicted at the Suchindram Temple in Kanyakumari district, where Lord Shiva is believed to have slain Banasura, the evil child of the holy Mahabali.
Onam is observed by all Malayalees as the return of the pious Mahabali to Kerala. Colorful aquatic festivals (e.g., boat races) are held on this occasion on the banks of the river Pampa.The celebration occurs all over Kerala and in the Malayalee diaspora. Mahabali is worshipped even in Tulunadu which consists of coastal region of Karnataka and northern Kerala. There are many pad-danas or folk songs which describe Mahabali and his deeds. Even today, during Diwali people go to their field and call Bali Chakravarthi. It is said that Bali will come and rule this world again if some conditions are fulfilled, which are impossible in real world. ²

Varalakshmi Vratam

Varalakshmi Vrata is a festival to propitiate the goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, one of the Hindu Trinity. Varalakshmi is one who grants boons (Varam). It is an important pooja performed by many women in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and North Tamil Nadu. The Hindu festival going by the name 'Vara Lakshmi Vrata' is celebrated on the Second Friday or the Friday before full moon day - Poornima in the month of Śravaṇā, also called Śawan in Hindi and Aadi in Tamil which corresponds to the English months of July–August.

Varalakshmi Vrata is performed by married woman for the well being of all the family members, especially husband, to get progeny etc. It is believed that worshiping Goddess Varalakshmi on this day is equivalent to worshiping Ashtalaksmi – the eight goddesses of Wealth, Earth, Learning, Love, Fame, Peace, Pleasure, and Strength. Because of the popularity in some states of India, it is declared as an optional official holiday in India. ³

Apart from the festivals this weekend, the week was relatively light in the school, but busier in the community.  This week was our second UN Planning meeting.  As we draw closer to the date, I request our community members to please join in to assist.  You can work with the country that you want to represent, or else, assist many of the other countries where there is less families.  Thus, we need auxiliary assistants.  If you are able to give your time, please email us at pca@aisch.org.   Notes from our UN Day planning meetings are on the side pages of this blog.  Please do take a read as to what things are being planned for the event by our wonderful Country Coordinators. 

In the community events, we do hope you were able to visit Tryst Cafe for the OWC Flea Market this past Thursday.  To those who were able to join, the OWC gave a great big thanks! They were able to raise nearly Rs.30,000+ from the flea market.  They will be able to purchase much needed provisions for the charities they support.  Much much thanks for all of AISC community's support.  

Next week will be filled with a flurry of activities.  Look forward to the next month having a new set of cooking demonstrations at different locations around the city which will be reasonable priced.  We will be trying different cuisines from around the world, so do look forward to joining us on these excursion.  

Have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to a wonderful week next week.  And then..... US Labor Day holidays!  

Signing off this week....


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New Discounts

Nando's Restaurants - 10% off with a cover of Rs.1000 +
- Phoenix Mall 
- Cathedral Road

Design Hotel, Phoenix Mall, Velachery 
a) Breakfast from 7:30-10:30 a.m. daily - Net Rs.500/each 
b) Morning Tea - from 11:00 - 12:00 a.m. - Net 200/each ***
c) Lunch - from 12:00 - 3:00 p.m. - Net 900/each **
d) Afternoon Tea - from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. - Net 200/each ***
e) Dinner - from 7:00 - onwards - Net 1200/each **

**Lunch and Dinner's have to be scheduled in advance by two days, with a set menu. Menus vary based on guest choices. 

*** Plain coffee and tea service with light cookies for snack. Additional snacks are chargeable at Net 75/snack.

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Upcoming Events

20/21 Learning Dialogue

Last week was a busy for the 20th Anniversary! We ate cake and sang "Happy Birthday" on the 18th, the whole school took the 20 photo on the 20th and the Gallery Walk, Wishing and Memory Tree, and Then and Now were up at the Picnic. 

Our next 20th Anniversary event, the 20/21 Learning Dialogue, will be on Thursday, September 3 from 5:30-7:00pm in the Hall of Light. Doors will open at 5:00pm.

As a 20 year old learning organization, we want to continue to explore trends, issues, stories, conversations, and topics that are relevant to our community. We want to look ahead to the next 20 years. 

To help us do this, we will have a series of dialogues that are open to parents, alumni, MS/HS students and faculty.

We will be discussing what it means to be successful in a rapidly changing world.

We will be having a blended format that will include a panel, world café, and whole group sharing. 


If you have any questions, please contact the Director of Advancement, Kirsten Welbes at wkirsten@aisch.org.  

From our Librarians

World Language Book Preview!

Date and Time: September 1st, 10:00-4:30

Location: ES/MS CIC and HS CIC

We have a lot of great new books in other languages for pleasure reading and content support. We've added lots of new languages this year also, including: Greek, Thai, Turkish, and more! Come browse and see what we have on display!

Language Book Committee Start-Ups!

Date and Time: September 1st, 4:00-4:30

Location: Inner Courtyard Conference Room (near the nurse's office)

Are you interested in increasing books in your language in the CIC? Kids love finding books in their home language! Come find out ideas and tips from two language groups who have formed teams to increase their collection.

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Open Positions

There are still open positions on the PCA.  We are looking for energetic persons whose goal is to enrich the lives of their kids through parent sponsored activities. We have open positions for Vice President on the Executive Team.

If you are interested, please do give us an email at pca@aisch.org.  To see all open positions, please see the side bar link of PCA Volunteers.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raksha_Bandhan
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varalakshmi_Vratam

August 21, 2015

From the Desk of your PCA Team .....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AISC!!!  We are 20 years young!  We had our birthday this past Tuesday!  I don’t know if you everyone saw the 900+ persons gathered on the field to take photo of the Enlarged 20!! Such an exciting year to be here at the school!

The week also has been a busy, busy week!  We have had a City Trip to GRT, a Technology Training and the New Parent Coffee.  A theme in all of these, and I copy Andrew in this, Anthropology.  We studied the local culture in the City Trip.  We studied our School culture in the Tech Training and we talked about the multiple cultures around us in the New Parent Coffee.

The PCA City Tour was attended by nearly 40 people who toured four floors of GRT’s Thanga Nagai (meaning GRT’s gold jewelry shop).  We started the morning with a welcome from the GRT team and quickly proceeded to the Ethnic jewelry.  Pieces ranged from typical bridal jewelry to the temple jewelry that Tamil Nadu is known for.  We went from there to the second floor, of silver items. These included puja items, marcasite bangles and gemstone sets, to toe rings, and to anklets to name a few.   Each piece has a reason for buying.  The biggest reason for purchases of these items, apart from adorning the women in your family, it was a savings for the family.  If times were bad, then these items could be sold and cash could be gotten immediately to help the family.   If you are interested in seeing all the pictures of the GRT Tour, click on this sentence.   We ended the tour with being pampered at the GRT Radisson Blu at the airport for lunch.  We had a brief cooking demonstration from their Executive chef on how to do salt cooking in their signature restaurant Salt.  To see all the pictures for the lunch, clickon this sentence.

The next day, was a busy day with Tech Training.  If you would like to see the presentation that Kevin Crouch had gone over in the training, please click here.  As we are an electronic friendly campus, we went through our Student Information System, Skyward,  which houses our student grades and our contact information.  We covered Moodle, which is our Learning Management System, which is a manner by which homework and class information is passed to grade 5-12 students; Essentially a hybrid classroom model. For the younger than 5th grade students, Kevin went through Edmoto. A high impact session to learn about how the school sends out information to all of us.

The afternoon was an informational meeting for Grade Level Reps for the upcoming year.  Much of the work that the Reps will be doing is to facilitate information.  They will be working directly with the Principals and the PCA to deliver information about principal meetings.  When the Arts department has ticket selling requests, or there are numerous events such as the R.I.S.E. Events, the PCA Grade Level Reps sending out emails to inform parents.  For the ES area, Classroom parents will be doing what they have traditionally done.  Most parents, work under the direction of the teacher to organize social events for the kids.  Many parents can organize reading sessions and invite other parents to come for the event.  Traditionally, most room parents are known best to organize the themed room parties.  We look forward to all the parents working together to make this a memorable school year.

This morning we began the weekend with our New Parent Coffee.  Andrew, was quite eloquent and appropriate in stating that when one moves as an expat, it becomes an experience. We need to let the experience become us, not try to fit the experience to us.  If we do this, we will have memories for our lifetime.  If you would like to see the presentation from the morning, please click here.

Tomorrow kicks off the Welcome Back Throwback Picnic starting at 1p.m.   It should be great with food, activities for the kids to do and just fun in the Chennai sun!  Stating that, make sure to hydrate often, bring a hat if you can, and lots of suntan lotion.  It should be a wonderful event. 

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Signing off for this week….

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Open Positions

There are still open positions on the PCA.  We are looking for energetic persons whose goal is to enrich the lives of their kids through parent sponsored activities. We have open positions for Vice President and Treasurer on the Executive Team.

If you are interested, please do give us an email at pca@aisch.org.  To see all open positions, please see the side bar link of PCA Volunteers.

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Upcoming Events

August 25th, 2015 - UN Day Planning meeting - in Breezeway Conference Room, 8:45-9:45 

Look forward to Cooking demonstrations, dinners out, and the next PCA tour to go Parry's (by popular demand).  

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Community Events 

The following week hosts the Overseas Women's Club Flea Market sale at Tryst Cafe.  They are currently working with about seven different charities.  It ranges from orphanages, to old age homes to helping mentally and physically challenged individuals. 

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Jokes Corner

DON'T LAUGH PLEASE!!!

In Japan they invented a machine
that catches thieves; 
They took it out to different countries for a test.
In U.S.A, in 30 minutes, it caught 20 thieves;
UK, in 30 minutes it caught 500 thieves;
Spain, in 20 minutes it caught 25 thieves;
Ghana,in 10 minutes it caught 6,000thieves;
Uganda in 7mins it caught 20,000thieves,
In India , in 5 minutes the machine was stolen.
I told you not to laugh?
If you laughed then share this.






Cockroach Theory

A beautiful speech by Sundar Pichai - an IIT-MIT Alumnus and Global Head Google Chrome:

The cockroach theory for self development

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started screaming out of fear.
With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.  When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.  Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies. I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.  It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life. 

Lessons learnt from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.
I should always respond.
The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.
Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of.
A beautiful way to understand............LIFE.
Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in his Life..
He is HAPPY because his Attitude towards Everything in his Life is Right..!!


Jokes for our younger kids

Q: Why was 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7, 8, 9.

Q: What musical instrument is found in the bathroom?
A: A tuba toothpaste.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Pizza.
Pizza who?
Pizza really great guy!

Q: What do you call cheese that's not yours?
A: Nacho cheese!

Q: What do elves learn in school?
A: The elf-abet.

Q: Why did the boy bring a ladder to school?
A: He wanted to go to high school.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting, squawking parrot.
Interrupting, squawking parr-
SQUAWKKKKKKKKKKK!

Q: Where do pencils go for vacation?
A: Pencil-vania.

Q: Why did the girl smear peanut butter on the road?
A: To go with the traffic jam!

Q: Why do bananas have to put on sunscreen before they go to the beach?
A: Because they might peel!

August 14, 2016

From the Desk of your PCA Team .....

The second week has started and we have begun the marathon.  The first meeting of the PCA occurred this last Tuesday.  Many, many things were covered. Some of the more important points that were covered was discounts in Chennai and Outside of Chennai.  The School has worked with many hotels to procure discounts from 10% up to 25% when you dine or stay at those hotels (some restrictions may apply).  This works out wonderfully when we have guest come in out of town, or we ourselves are travelling for business or pleasure.  Do look on the side links for the discounts for you.   My personal favorite, is setting up lunch for a group and availing the local lunch; I get to go to my favorite places, and pay less!  What fun!

The second main items that is a take away from the Tuesday meeting, there are activities on Campus that Adults can take a part of.  If you are interested in classes on Campus, please see the side tab for Activities for Adults.  Also, we will be partnering with multiple hotels and restaurants to have multiple different types of cooking demonstrations and possible family weekends away.  Look for information upcoming information.

UN is the first major event that we have sponsored as a joint effort from the School and the PCA community.  The first event that occurs is the Parade of Nations on that Day.  This is done by the School.  Each of the 900 some kids parade across the auditorium under the country they wish to represent. They all stand and salute their flag as well as their national anthem.  A very fun and visual manner to celebrate the diverse community of AISC.  Then, the parents take over to have pavilions set up to represent each country.  Each pavilion has possibly an activity, possibly a small snack and a hopeful take away that the child has learned about the country through the activity.  It is a wonderful way for our kids to celebrate multiple activities and food of different countries (a small snack) all in one location.

As last year, we are going to have it on International Peace Day.  This week our Country Coordinators began the planning and work for UN Day.  Our meeting was right after the general meeting on Tuesday.  One had to be in the room to hear the wonderful creative ideas our parents are planning for our kids!  This is one of the reasons we love this school.  As we plan, there is multiple ideas and lots of things to be done.  If you are interested, please take a look on the side bar for the tab for UN day to see the minutes from the meeting.  Give an email to pca@aisch.org to let us know your interest, or your country of citizenship.

The Executive Team, ended the week with a meeting with our Administration team to discuss the take aways from our Tuesday meeting.  We had multiple questions and hopes for this year.  Do take on the side link for the UN Meeting by Monday (updates from today's meeting will be posted by then).

As we look back at the week, it was busy, yet fulfilling.  We see the pace of activity beginning to increase as school is getting into full swing.  A wonderful feeling on our part, when we see all that we, the parents are doing for our kids.

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Open Positions

There are still open positions on the PCA.  We are looking for energetic persons whose goal is to enrich the lives of their kids through parent sponsored activities.  If you are interested, please do give us an email at pca@aisch.org.  To see all open positions, please see the side bar link of PCA Volunteers.


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Date to Remember

Do not forget the PCA City Tour this week on Wednesday the 19th Emails will be going out this weekend for sign up.

Also, we have PCA Technology Training on Thursday the 20th and the New Parent Coffee on Friday the 21st.  For those who are returning parents, I would urge you to come for the New Parent Coffee.  Be there as a support for our new parents.  I look forward to seeing you all there on Friday. 

August 7, 2015

Welcome Back!

Form all of us in the PCA, we hope the summer was an excellent one.  For our returning families, we hope each of you had time for friends and family - to "catch-up" and reminisce with each of those near and dear to us.  For our new families, welcome to the AISC community.  We look forward to creating new and lasting memories with each of you.

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Message from the president .....


As we begin the 2015-2016 school calendar year, I want to take a few moments to reflect as to where we have been.  We, as a School began with a figuratively "one-room" school.  And today, we are residing on this lush beautiful, we call home now.  Our community has grown organically, academically and culturally each new year and influx of members.  This year was no less. I state this, as I reflect some words of one of my kids, "Mom, i'm going to miss my best friend. He has moved to Japan. the September holiday, can we go to Japan to visit him."   My son learned about academics last year from his teachers and peers, but he learned culture through his friends.  Because we are in such a rich environment he has learned to love Japan, because of his friend from there.

I wanted to state this to each of our parent new and returning. As you take on this year, take yourselves out of the main stream and learn about the culture around you and the world within the walls of AISC.  We all come from some 30 countries, with each country having a different language and different manner of living. I urge you all to learn about a new country each month of your ten months of school here.   Outside the walls of AISC, I urge each of you to learn a bit about India.  A country whose history dates back over 5000 years.  This land has 18+ different languages with some 180+ dialects of the language.  Each state of this wonderful country is unique from food, to architecture to language.  Though our family originated from India, we have never had the chance to travel India.  When we arrived in Chennai, we took the map of India out and decided to book our holiday's to explore different areas of the country.

In short, what I am saying to you all is really to take the mission of our school and apply it to daily life.  If you have not looked at the mission recently, here it is:

Together we inspire a love of learning, empowering all students with the courage, confidence, creativity and compassion to make their unique contribution in a diverse and dynamic world.

Let us as parents, inspire learning to our children through exploring and learning and appreciating the world around us.  We can make this year an even more memorable one than last year.


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Thank you!

I just wanted to say a word of thanks to all the parents and kids who came on Wednesday to the New Parent Orientation.  The day was a wonderful success with all of your hard work.  I want to personally thank all the children who came with their parents, as you were the stars of the day!  You all were excellent student ambassadors.  Thank you to all the kids. Also, thank you to the parents for bringing them with you.


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Upcoming Events

Within the next week we should have more information on the following:

1) Events and ongoings for parents on campus.
2) Discount around town
3) Useful services around town

Stay tuned........

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Important Dates this month to Remember: