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Introduction to the Edition The New year brings in new challenges and numerous resolutions must have been made as well. 2015 was a great start to the GIIS students after a month long winter break. We were glad to hear that our previous newsletter was received well and we hope to make this newsletter more engrossing for our readers. We have

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MIRZA AND BOPANNA

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SPORTS

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GIIS ANNUAL DAY

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included a variety of topics such as football to books which will have our students wanting for more!

Under the guidance of our teachers-mentors, Ms. Deepa Das and Ms. Shivalik Pathania, the board has set about diligently to bridge the gap between the student body and the council, as well as provide information to the parents and students of GIIS. This is the third newsletter we have released for the year and the second since the official appointment of the board.

We hope you enjoy this edition of the newsletter, which has been revamped specially for the audience, to cater to the different groups of readers, and to make reading the newsletter a more engaging and enthralling experience. Be sure to look out for the next newsletter!

-Keerthana Kandasamy

DESIGN BY NITHIN BALASUBRAMANIAN

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STEAL THE STARS Lights Camera Action! It all felt like we were part of a movie. We all were on the floor but our eyes were on the stars shining and shimmering bright in the darkness. Claps and whistles never died, camera flashes were ready to capture every moment of the musical drama and stage lights focused on every aspect of the performance put up by the talented

students, making the show all the more incredible. The hall became another

universe engulfed by the emotions coloured by the souls

of all the young stars.

It’s true that the stars cannot shine without the darkness

and that was the highlight of my character named Chandni.

Her world was flooded with challenges and uncomfortable

premonition of fear that pervaded her senses. Fear of society. Fear of their mockery. Fear of not being able to steal the stars. It was a challenge that had to be mastered so that a world of an insecure, young girl who attempts to rise above her fears and make her dreams a reality could be created. A reality in which she dances to live, dances to breathe, dances to be free and dances to be herself.

My journey as an actor began with an audition for the dream role, Chandni. Frightening thoughts started to race through my mind as I saw the others perform. I wasn’t very confident with what I thought I would perform.

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However, just a few seconds before I put myself out there, an incident from my past that I could relate to the story of Chandni clicked my mind. One of the things about acting is that it allows you to live other people’s lives or your own past. It is important to feel whatever art form you are working in clearly and hence see it clearly. With this thought I just decided to pour myself out there in front of the judges without worrying of what the result would be. As I stared at the judges whispering, I made a cage of my hands by touching my fingertips. But then all of a sudden I heard “the main role is going to be Palak” and my emotions wove into their words as upon a loom. I was stunned and speechless. I searched hard for words to say but they failed me and tears of joy and happiness gushed down from my pair of eyes.

I knew that it would be a challenge to mould myself into the girl that everyone expected to see. But I was not alone in this journey because my teachers and

friends guided and helped me to visualise my character as she would appear in every part of the musical. As said by Neil Patrick Harris, “Sometimes you can have the smallest role in the smallest production and still have a big impact.” This was a very important fact that I only came to realise during my journey. It was the unity of all the characters on the stage that made “STEAL THE STARS” a very remarkable performance. I hope that this performance was equally inspiring for others as it was for me.

-Palak Sharma

IB YR 1 C

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GIIS ANNUAL DAY 2014-2015

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Tennis doubles specialists specialists

Mirza and Bopanna visit GIIS

On 3rd December, students of our school were given the privilege of ace tennis players Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna. The Indian doubles team conducted a tennis coaching clinic for students from the 3 GIIS campuses and as part of the GIIS Leadership Lecture Series offered fruitful advice on achieving our dreams, as exemplified by them.

There are very few instances when we get to see great singles players being mauled so brutally and this has been the case when doubles team Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray, placed 2nd and 6th respectively on the Tennis doubles specialists specialists Mirza and Bopanna visit GIIS

Current International Tennis F e d e r a t i o n ( I T F ) s i n g l e s rankings, faced the doubles

specialists Mirza and Bopanna. Sharapova and Murray were defeated 6-1 and the Indian duo proved that it is not necessary for two great singles players to make a good doubles team.

Students were thrilled as anticipation filled the air in the tennis court awaiting the arrival of the tennis stars. Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna showed up and were welcomed by enthusiastic tennis players from across the school’s 4 campuses (including GIIS Malaysia) that had gathered at Queenstown for this special event. The tennis duo went on to interact with the students for a while and briefed them on the working of their tennis clinic. The tennis clinic began and continued for approximately 20 minutes. At the end of the clinic, Sania Mirza pointed out our best tennis player, Rishab Namashivaya, as being a prospective professional tennis player. He was all smiles getting a chance to meet the two guest coaches up front. The

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rest of the students too were then invited to the net as Mirza and Bopanna interacted with them from the other side of the net. The students looked on enthusiastically during the interactive session and were slightly upset when the session ended.

S a n i a M i r z a a n d R o h a n Bopanna migrated to the Queenstown auditorium to fulfil the other half of their visit – the GIIS Leadership Lecture Series. The crowd erupted in loud cheers and applause as the guests entered the auditorium. They were greeted with the traditional lamp-lighting ceremony and then invited to the stage to inaugurate the session. Both the guests spoke with empathy as according to their knowledge too, most Indians are orientated with academic-centric careers and don’t exactly look at sports as a career option very open-mindedly. Sania Mirza spoke of her experience with family members telling her “don’t play out in the sun for too long else your skin will get tanned and it will be tough for us to find a boy for you!” and advised the audience not to chew upon such thoughts and to just ‘go for it’ without letting such words affect us (Sania Mirza has successfully found a ‘boy’ and has been married to him for the past four years). Mirza and Bopanna went on to answer a few questions put up by students present in the auditorium as well as in campuses in India, Malaysia and Japan. Two students from each campus students went on stage to get tennis balls signed by Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna to extend the day’s memory to each of the campuses that attended the event. As always, the event concluded with a bouquet of flowers presented to the guests and a group photograph on stage with the people that made the day’s happenings successful.

Having India’s ace tennis players at our school was an experience never to forget, especially for those that follow and/or play the sport.

- Pooja Swarup

IB year 1 B

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Can you judge a book by its cover?

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

- Sidney Sheldon

In the modern world, the pace of life is such that one rarely has any time to spare for a thought, or an idea, or something truly unconventional. At the start of the 2014 session, a competition was held across each grade as a small booster for the mind. The competition, ‘Can you judge a book by its cover?’ did indeed help to broaden our minds and also served as a fun activity to begin with at the start of our session.

It was conducted by our school librarian, Ms Sheetal during our library class. We were given the opening line of a book, whose title was left in limbo. My classmates and I all had different opinions about the genre of the book; they were completely divergent, ranging from romantic classics to murder stories.

Our imagination really did start to run when we were asked to write a short story based the opening line of the unknown book. All odd and unique sorts of stories popped up from the single, common sentence that was given to us. I decided to turn my fictitious story into a supernatural thriller, for which I won second place in grade 9.

Other participants included:

Participants

Name Class

Chinmay Jolhe 8IG( C)Devika Menon 8AKushal 8IG(B)Radhika venkatramani 8B

Reshma Rajeev 8CSanchan Das 9IG(B)Swarangi Mehta 8IG(A)

Taniya Kulkarni 8A

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The competition was placed a reminder in all of our minds, telling us that imagination has no boundaries and the capability of the mind is truly abounding.

Simran Sokhi

9 IGCSE B

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MOVIE REVIEWS

The Maze Runner1

Rating: 9.0/10.0

The movie ‘The Maze Runner’ is truly a wonderful movie worth watching, especially for those who haven’t read the book. Magnificent screenplay and cinematography classify it as a sort of eye candy for its depiction of natural beauty, however the thrilling action packed fight scenes classify it to the thriller or rather the mystery genre for its strong story line. The music is overall quite effective in enhancing the onscreen actions, and although scarce, emotional melodrama is used to add to the suspense, and the protagonist’s determination to break out of the maze.

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And now for a plot synopsis. One man wakes up in a forest called ‘A glade’ which is actually the centre of a maze. The man (played by Dylan O’Brien) wakes up with Amnesia, knowing only his name the next day. He and other characters fight to break out of the maze, which is guarded by fierce creatures known as ‘Grievers’ by the other dwellers of the Glade. Soon a lady protagonist (played by Kaya Scodelario) named Teresa joins the group, and together they fight the relentless attacks of the Griever’s to escape the maze, only to realise that the world is under an apocalypse. A poignant cliffhanger at the end of the movie leaves audiences on the edge of their seats, aithing for a sequel.

Overall, with all factors considered, this movie deserves a reasonable 9.0 out of 10, despite the popular movie review website imdb.com giving it a 7.1 out of 10. Nevertheless, this movie is a must watch, unless you are someone who can’t handle suspense. In which case read the books!

-Sriniketh

IB YR 1 A

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Sportsday

heats

With Sports Day being round the corner, the tryouts for all the races for classes 9-12 were conducted on December 1st . It was a bright day and the Queenstown stadium was filled with students from all participating classes. There was a buzz of excitement in the air. The athletes were all geared up, warming up near the start line, while their friends and classmates were in the stands, cheering them on. The events held on that day were the 100m dash, the 200m dash, long jump and the long distance races, 400m and 1500m. Each race took place house wise with boys going first followed by girls. House patriotism was truly evident amongst the students and open friendly rivalries, with memebers of each house trying to surpass the other house memebrs.

The races began with the 100m and moved on to the 200m, these were the races that were most hyped about. They were fast and had everyone's attention. The long distance races took some time and got interesting in the last few meters when the athletes began to sprint. New records were made when a few girls crossed the boundary for boys as well and beat quite a few of them, that's right, girl power!

All in all, it was a great day for both the participants and the cheering crowd, and everyone is looking forward with great anticipation for the upcoming sports day. The true sportsmanship in the GIIS students was once again displayed during the sports day tryouts.

- Siddhi Raman

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Sports Day heats

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English clubs gear up for massive winter spending -

World’s most lauded player making the world’s biggest

mistake? English clubs gear up for massive winter spending - World’s most lauded player making the world’s biggest mistake?

January is traditionally a crucial period in a club's season, with the transfer market opening for a month to enable teams to improve what they have or ship out unwanted players. It has been only 8 days since the transfer window reopened but teams have been quick to place their bids. Let’s take a look at how this window will turn out for England’s top sides and their top transfer target. Also we have a closer look at Chelsea and their surprise target, Messi.

Premier League Round Up

Manchester City have already hit the ground running with persistent rumours of a £25 million deal with Swansea for star striker Wilfried Bony. The Ivory Coast striker has already scored 9 goals this season and can surely add to the citizen’s firepower though it is difficult to see where he will play

once Sergio Aguero, E d i n D z e k o a n d Stevan Jovetic are all fit. Could this spell the end for Dzeko’s Man City career? L o o k s l i k e t h e following week will provide us with all the answers. The l i k e l i h o o d o f a

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transfer to Eastlands – 90%

Manchester United are in desperate need of a defender. Despite their need for pace and a quality midfielder, the Red Devils aim to bolster their defence this transfer window by submitting a bid for Borrusia Dortmund skipper Mats Hummels. The German international could make a move to the Manchester side as Dortmund are currently ranked second last in the German Bundesliga and it’s hard to see manager Jurgen Klopp keeping onto their main man if an improved offer of at least £40 million is made. The possibility of a move to Old Trafford – 50%

The most bizarre rumour so far is the recent report of four time ballon d’or winner, Lionel Messi attempting to make a switch to Chelsea once they match his buyout clause of £200 million. There are a lot of aspects to consider when dealing w i t h a t r a n s f e r rumour this massive. First of all, Messi could be utilising Chelsea’s genuine i n t e r e s t i n a n attempt to increase his weekly wage. B a r c e l o n a a r e a l r e a d y f a c i n g a p e r i o d o f s e v e r e instability. By the C a t a l a n s h i g h standards, a year without a trophy is a pretty pathetic year and on top of that director of football Andoni Zubizarreta was fired earlier this week. Club legend Carles Puyol also head for the exit door but this was not the least of the clubs trouble. With a transfer ban for the year of 2015 and the manager Luis Enrique’s place in jeopardy, this would be the perfect opportunity for Messi to gain more in his

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weekly paycheck as the last thing Barcelona need is another legend walking out the door.

Secondly, Chelsea’s ability to match his buyout clause seems to be a mystery especially with the Financial FairPlay rules in progress. £200 million would make Messi the world’s most expensive player, more than twice of what Gareth Bale, the previous record holder was worth. For a player who is 27 and has never been tested outside Spain in club football, such an astronomical amount is nothing short of bizarre. Another baffling thing, Messi is a great technical player but unlike the Spanish La Liga, the English Premier League is more physical and often smaller players do not make the cut as they get dominated on the pitch. While it would definitely be interesting to see Messi cope with the pressure, there is a great chance that he would not live up to even half of his price tag. Besides, Jose Mourinho is known to play with big forwards and buying Messi would be something we don’t expect the special one to do but in the end he is the special one and Messi is a special player, who knows whether the Chelsea rumor is just a tactic or a possible destination for the little magician. Chance of a shift to the bridge – 35%

Liverpool aim to secure the signing of Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri. However, French outlet L'Equipe claims that Roberto Mancini's Inter Milan have submitted an improved offer of £15million for Shaqiri's services, with Bayern likely to accept. Liverpool sit rather low on the premier league table and are in desperate need of players to make an impact directly into the first team so it would be unsurprising to watch the Red’s step up their interest. The chances of a switch to Anfield – 65%

An interesting piece of news arrived earlier in London, West Bromwich have replied to Tottenham’s enquiry of Saido Berahino with an exchange for Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend moving the other way. This transfer would surely benefit both clubs but Spurs have to make a stance here, do they really need Berahino despite of Harry Kane’s excellent form this season? In any way, it seems unlikely that Spurs would let the duo of Lennon and Townsend leave just for an addition boost of strike force. The prospect of an exchange at the White Hart Lane – 30%

-Nikhil M

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IB Yr 1 A

So how was that?

We hope that our second newsletter has been as promising you, our wonderful readers have expected it to be. Our school has scaled great heights and we are looking forward to winning more laurels in Singapore and abroad. In our attempts to make it more engaging, we hope you have seen changes in our second publication since our first as we have taken into consideration the feedback we received for our first newsletter. We are always open to more suggestions to improve our publications and make it exceptional.

Well that’s all folks!!!!

Signing off ,

Ajeya Mantri

Our last edition for this year will be out soon. So please do not miss it.

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