The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sabiha Mahmud Sumi

Kodaikanal International School, a Multicultural Christian School situated down south in Tamil Nadu, a state in India. Unlike many other schools, Kodaikanal International School has a wide range of different events in which its students can show off their talents and contribute to the schools achievements. KIS conducts a lot of fun, interesting, competitive, cultural and exciting activities for the students that go to this school. This creates a huge opportunity for interaction of different societies, cultures and traditions through the wide variety of students it holds.

One of the major events that take place in KIS every year is the KIS field day. This is an all school program where students can participate in a variety of different track and field events. There are three different houses in which a student is placed in once they join the school; orange, blue and white. During field day, it is then up to the students to compete against one another and gain points for their house. The house that ends up with the most points then wins the field day. It starts off with a competition called pentathlon, this is an event when the contestant takes part in five different field day events; hurdles, shot-put, high-jump, long-jump and a sprinting event (the distance they cover depends on what age group the participant is from and their sex). After pentathlon, the field day takes place. At the beginning of this occasion, there is a huge procession in which students assemble in their different houses and march out of the school gates and into bendy field, a playing field in which all of the events take place. The students are lead out by first the school band followed by the cheerleaders, then the house that won the previous year followed by the house that came second and then the last house trails along. Once we reach the field, the program begins with our elite members of our school introducing the guests of the event. After which the torch bearers, the captains of the previous year's winning house, runs a lap around the field with a torch (a wooden stick lit with fire) and lights the bigger torch, similar to the Olympics. This is followed by the swearing of the oath by all captains and co-captains of the different houses. Then the different team members lead their own houses into unique cheers showing team spirit and diversity. The introductory program is concluded with the school song and this leads us into the different track and field events for the day. Students participate with a lot of team spirit and many of them go onto breaking the school records even. This spectacular occasion finishes the day after, with the re-lays. Teams and divisions combine to create different groups for the final event, the re-lays. This is the high-light of all the events that occur in the field day. The field day is ended with a delicious lunch served traditionally on banana leaves to the students who sit around in a semi-circle around the field. This is followed by the giving away the awards and certificates to the winners of the different events.

Religions and cultures are well respected and honored at our school. Occasions such as the Easter, Eid, Diwali, Holi, India's Independence and Republic Days and even Christmas, are well organized and celebrated in joyous manners. Easter, a very common and popular Christian holiday, celebrates the rising of Jesus from the dead. Easter is a part of the Holy week which is a whole week that is devoted to the major events leading up to Jesus death and re-birth. This holiday is observed by Kodi students in going around to different stations hung up around the school, and praying or singing hymns for God. The Saturday after is a normal day and Easter Sunday is meant to be a very blissful day since Jesus had rose from the dead on that particular day. The Easter Sunday is started off by first going to an early sunrise service held at St. Peters Church. This is followed by a delicious Easter Breakfast held at the Principal's house. After which, the confirmation or baptism is followed for some of the students who wish to be confirmed or baptized. This is followed by a worship service at our school Chapel. Some activities for that day include Easter egg hunt and egg painting for students who are aged younger. Easter is not the only Christian event that is celebrated. Even though we are not there for Christmas, we still celebrate it at our school. At the end of the first semester we have a Christmas Banquet that helps revive the Holiday spirit within the students. Traditional Hindu Indian festivals are also celebrated in our school. Festivals such as Diwali and Holi are celebrated in a tremendously festive way at our school. Fireworks, colors, costumes, dances, songs, are all part of our show and enjoyed by all in our community. Independence and Republic days are also celebrated at our school. A morning assembly is held and many participants perform dances and other interesting shows. Ramzan and Eid-ul-Fitr, a very important festival for all Muslims, is well observed in Kodi School as well. All Muslim students are served with a package of food the night before so that the he or she is able to eat before sunrise for their fasting event. On the day of Eid, Muslim boys are allowed to go to the Kodai mosque where a special prayer is held in the morning of Eid. All students have a half day holiday to respect the importance of this special day. All festive occasions such as these major ones are very well respected and honored community and they are enjoyed with various activities which result in a very well mixture of students and their cultures and traditions.

An occasion that is most waited by students in KIS is the Kodai Open. This is a major competitive season for all students. Students from many schools in and around kodai participate in such an event. In the first semester the Kodai Open introduces inter-school Basketball tournaments, and in the second semester are the inter-school Soccer tournaments. The Basketball tournaments are open for all girls and boys teams from different schools and colleges. Whereas the Soccer tournaments are open for only boys teams from different schools and colleges. KIS has 6 basketball teams, three girls teams - the inters, the seniors and the super seniors, and three boys teams - the inters, the seniors and the super seniors. There are 3 soccer teams, the inters and seniors and the super senior teams. The fair competitions are played with a lot of integrity and team spirit by all the students. And that is what stands out most about this occasion.

In conclusion, such a boarding school has a lot of facilities that make it unique and the way it is. The interaction between cultures and traditions is one thing that is crucial for a child's growth and development. Their understanding and knowledge of the world is so much more from interacting with mates rather than sitting in a humanities classroom learning about the ways people do interact. It is always said, better done than said, which is something that this school respects and develops day by day, giving me the purpose of writing and holding up such an issue to all citizens. Children not only need education, but interaction between themselves so they get to know what the lives of others are and how they deal with it. It gives them a chance to be practical and to put their education in good use.

[The writer is a Bangladeshi student of grade 10 at Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu, India]