Gib»: 013310115’November 20, 1

Congrats aux

chanseurs!

The French Nightm-gale is a singing competi-

tion sponsored by Alliance

Francaise. DemetraParham and Tara Lowen-

Ault represented AES inthe Junior and Senior

divisions. “They did a

very impressive job." saidhfime hlahlke. Especiallywhen one considers that

they are both Iirst year

French students. “Theyhad superb pronuncia-tion." Tara placed third inher division.

GO FALCONSI i ”f " -AES beginsday two of the -SAISA basketball touma-ment undefeated. Catch the

games today, 2.45 against

AISD; tomorrow at 11 .00

against KAS. 2.45 against

LAS: and the championship

on Sunday at 5.30pm; ~

. Hais»

Spooks, sponges and weddings draw crowds

Anisha Carter reads a palm

at the fortune telling booth.

one of the many activities at

last Saturday's Fall Fiesta. The

haunted house was the most

popular attraction. raising

l2.000 rupees for the senior

class. The Animal Rights

Committee gave away a

puppy. people threw wet

sponges at freshmen, cards

were read. one boy gotmarried 50 times and dozensof girls went away happy with

mehendi on their hands.

AES speakers strong in oral interpretation@y_]u/in Totim

Dozens of students talked

themselves hoarse last Thurs-

day and Friday at AES as theycompeted tor prizes against

each other and Vasant ValleySchool. in the Forensics com-

petition. Categories wereOriginal Oratory. Oral Inter-pretation and Impromptu

Speaking.In the Original Oratory sec-

tion the speakers have to pre-

pare a speech to persuade the

audience about a world issue.

Oral :interpretation is a cat-

egory where students have to

choose any piece of literature

other than from a play. and read

it to the audience. They inter-pret it by using the voice andfacial expressions. They are notallowed to move anything un-

der their shoulders. Im-

promptu is where the

contestants have two choices of

what they speak about. The

topics are usually one word or

proverbs. The contestants don’t

know what it is that they are

talking about until about a

minute or so before their speech,

which lasts for about three to

five minutes.

If the audience reaction wasanything to go by. the amount

of cheering and clapping aftereach speaker showed that the

competition was a huge success.

i; AES WINNERSOral Inte retation

3 1st : Felix Greinerl 2nd : Mayookai Kariyawasam and Farihah. Zaman. 3rd: Tara Lowen-Aultl Original Oratory

2nd: LavanyaAnantharamanImgrompru

i 3rd: Jia-Min VVang

l

Phtot by Johan Ovansjo

Talons’ Post reports on the “highs"

and the lows of minicourses

Sweating up slopesBv_/oban Ovarzqjo

he sun is gazing and we are all dripping wet from sweating.

The guide has been telling us tor tour hours that the bridge isjust around the corner and the guest house fifteen minutes

alter that. We are now passing our 20th corner and there is still no

sign ofDeprayag. Ås we finally reach the town we are at the bottom

ol a mountain and then to make everything “betterll the guide tells us

that the rest-house is about 35 minutes up the hill. As we finally reach

the rest house atter crawling: slowly tor what seems like days, they give

us a Coke and that is probably the best soda we have ever had.

Mr McCand]css then breaks the news that the donkey carrying our

bags {ell into the river and most ot our bags are lost. Everybody takes

it pretty well. maybe because they are all quite tired, so then we decide

to take a holy dip where the two rivers rneet to tonn the Ganges.

home are enthusiastic but atter tieelittg the temperature ofthe water

tnost people turn quite palm. You have to go under water three time~

to wash away your sins bttt it not only does that. it turns most people

blue.

Sitting here thinking about the days of rafting. hiking and doing

strange dances on the beach we kind oflook back with a little bit of

sadness. We all had a great time, although the trekking was sometimes

hard, everybody will miss our days in the wild. When asked about

what were the best things about the trip most people said, “the cook

and the bus driver."

.m f , .fy

u

ii

Probably beingiithere was better than getting

2 .

Photo by MsWillson

1)‘

No whiners amongst Victoria Lain.Tyler Herman.Tara Dow. Chloe

The wonderful wildernessby Brooke Gibbon;

quiet guest house out in the rniddle olinowhere is

where we spend most otour time. You can alwayfs

hear the running river that lies beside the leaf ~

coloured building. and the occasional bird call. lt all seem~

prettv ttortttai until we realise how we have to get across the

river. A small

[O YWVO IrCC*

the river. and

with n.

attached to

one by one.

pulled aeros»

sionally there

in pulling and

and see the

ing `beneath

“lt all seemspretty normai

until we realizehow we have toget across the

river."

cable is attached

on either side ol'

a metal trame

wooden bottom is

the cable. Slowly,

each person is

the river. Occa-would be a pause

you look down

raging river flow-

vou.

VVe spend three days in tents beside the guest house

in an apple orchard in the Seerai Valley. lt is wartn on the

hikes. but it gets as cold as seven degrees Celsius at night be»

cause at tltis camp we are at 50001661. On Tuesday we leave

for the second camp at 9000 treet. Here it is too cold to sleep

in tents and we take shelter in a small three- roomed house.

We spend our days hiking in the warm sunshine. and our

nights eating. playing cards and humorous games that the

Willsons think up. and trying to keep warm.

Prodzmvi I/J? H ig/J Sc/Joo/ Publications ilagt»

r

‘V

or. Malika Anand, Brooke Gibbons._loon-Wan Kim and David Matra

Gu arat: state of dru addicts/{V Nina Müller i

hen l hear that Gujarat is a dry state,l think

that cigarettes and Coffee are going to be

ahottt the only existing addictive things there.

lt ts x\rob;1bL\'ca<\'l<\ imagine how surprised l atn when l

i hear that the mid tttett in the viliages consume liairly large

` amounts ot opiuttt every night. First l take it more as ajoke.

But one evening about .5-0 people front a village close to our

camp come hy and perform some stunts and traditional

games. One very old tnan is introduced as the man who

consumes the tnost opiutn in the village. He is in a very good

ntood anti aiwttys laughing when he fails to perform a suc-

cesstitl stunt. lt is olwiotis that he already has had some

opium that nighnjusl like all the other old men who seem to

he very happy.

Apart from the fact that opium is a part of daily life,Gujarat is also interesting in other ways. Old traditions still

exist in the viliages. Children get married when they are only

a lev; months old. untouehables have separated facilities from

the touchaliies. wotnett have to eat atter the men, and a po~

liceniatt cannot enter a village without the permission ofthe

head ot the village. 'l he villages are cut off from “civilisatiottfi

the government has no power there and cannot do anything

against traditions that break the law. ltis amazing to see how

all these traditions survive although carh village is provided

with a tiottpie otiteievisiotts.

t

"The best thing about the Chamba Valley trip weref the huge mountains. In our camp - situated at a2 height of 2200 meters - we had fantastic views (we

did see snow covered mountain peaks, which madeMaria glad!), clear airand cold nights. '

And I have never seen so many shooting stars Abefore as l saw there". ‘ t

By Anna Langmbac/J

“lt was the only trip with no guys on itWe didn'tthink it would be too much fun, but it turned out to

be quite all right. BinsarValley, Kumaon.was an iamazingly beautiful place; the Himalayas, the tall

pine trees,and the fresh unpolluted air...just» beautiful."

By Arzjali Mitra

._,.7 ~

I

ojoqd

.——...._

ttminM :H

A..

Jia-Min and Jta-Xin Wang at the Stkh temple. Bare heads weren't allowed

“When first posted, theSeerajVaHey trip stated“No whiners allowed.” Although taken into

consideration, it was not what was expected.We soon found that it certainly was no place for

whiners. Gaining altitude to l2,000 feet andcamping out in three degree weather was

definitely an experience only for those who åcould handle lt." T i , i

' ' i By Tam Dow .i

.... ....,

“We rafted every day and by the end of each rafting-trip our shivering bodies were soaking wet, but the Twarm showers as we arrived at camp felt so good. -

'l felt like a viking' said Mrs Bach. -lt was a real adventure!” i

By Dava Alderfer

Loking beyond...Every Thursday after school,AES “reaches out” beyond itswalls to its neighbors in thejhuggi oo/ony, we/coming theminside the gate for an hour and aha/f ofeducational activities, foodand fun. Anjali Misra ta/ked withtwo of the visitors.....

amta and Gainda burst into

giggles when l asked them

about their married 1iVC.\.

Gainda, 25, her front teeth pierced with

gold, and Mamta, 22. her nose pierced. are

sisters-in-law. Both of them got married

at age 17. Even though they seemed to be

quite tied down after marri age. they looked

really happy.

lylarnta and Gainda who live in the

jhuggi colony. neighboring the school, both

had infants on their laps. Iylamta has only

one daughter, lVlonica, 5 years old. AndGainda, has two children, Sandeep and

Uday, 5 and 3 years old, respectivelyzTheyseemed to be a little frustrated with the

demands of motherhood, as they can't do

anything other than baby sit all the time.Their husbands, who are both office at-

tendants, don't like their wives working.

They don’t even let them go out of the

house for long periode

of time. “ We cant

change it. so we dont

even try." said 1\1amt.:.

They seemed to be

satisfied with every-

thing they have. See-

ing their quality of

life. l was surprised as

to how happy these people could be. All

they did was laugh and giggle as thoughno hardships had ever come their way".

Mamta and Gainda have been coming

to Reach Out for about four years. Theythought that it was a good idea in itselfbut not very efficient. According to them,

the women who have infants to look after

are not admitted into class. “ Then we just

hang around. but its still a change” The

change“We can't

don't even try.”

«.42»;

, V. g ‘å? myeg . .__

Iof

-2

Mamta and Gainda, with their children Monica. Sandeep and Uday.

Juggi people feel that even if they're notreally getting educated here, it's quite an

opportunity and they enjoy being aroundschool.

Reach Out is run by some of the staffand students of the American Embassy

School. EverytThursday from 3.30 onwardsthey supervise kids` games. hair washing.

sewing. women`s ac-

and

crafts. medical aid..

English and arts. ba» -

ketball, etc. The

school has also pro-

vided all of the chil-

dren who go to the

local schools here

with uniforms and some stationery. Theuniforms are made by the tailors in theJuggi, thereby opening another means ofincome for them.

Mr Pojman, the coordinator of Reach

Out beiieves that the strength of the pro-

gram is that it is voluntary and that both

sides benefit from it.“The one-to-one con-

tact is what is important here”

This community service program run

tivities. arts

it, so we

by the American Embassy School, is quitea contrast to the ones that are run by local

schools ofDelhi. For example, in the Con-

vent ofjcsus and Mary and St. Co1umba's

schools a small social service group, con-

sisting of 10 people at the most, goes to a

nearby slum once a week. The only activ-ity is an English speaking course.

Other local schools have joined hands

with NCO; (non-governmental

organisationsl. AES has successfully man-

aged to make Thursdays a day the Jhuggi

people look forward to.

Even though hlamta and Gainda are

not involved in the regular activities. there

is a definite urge to learn. But their obli-

gations and inhibitions don’t let them go

even a step further. Its interesting and in

fact impressive how the twosome got so

involved in the discussion yet maintaineda distance.

I guess living in the ihuggi has made

the two of them street- smart. Even thoughwe know that they have to deal with the

daily problems of surviving in poor condi-

tions their smiles retlect a different storyaltogether.

D»-nn'u,-.u/ [var fh» Hii-h \',~}mn/ Dulw/3,-nn'm1r ,-/11.»;