Celebrating 200th Post:Young INTACH Explorer adventure
This is our 200th Post today:
As we would have loved to add a special touch to this 200th Post, we have one of our very celebrated writers from the Young Talents Zone, Mr.Aditya K, to add his experience again in beautiful words. To make this more special, we requested Mr.Aditya to share two of his most recent learning experiences and he did.
Reconnect: Part 1:
Young Intach
ReConnect’s First Expedition
The five members of Mumbai’s first Heritage Club, ReConnect, and our mentor Mrs. Gaynor strolled over to the main gate of the school, intently waiting for the Jeep that would drive us through our first expedition. We all hopped in, sorting out our stationery while the car rolled through the dug-up roads of Juhu, heading directly for Bandra. We crossed archaic buildings like the Mithibhai College, the coarse waters of the Juhu beach, the Talao Lake, St. Joseph Convent from 1803, St. Peters Church, St. Stephens Church and finally our destination, Mt. Mary. Mount Mary was a basilica, meaning it contained relics of a great person. This basilica is extremely famous in Mumbai, and has a huge fair in September to celebrate the birthday of Mary.
The members of ReConnect marched to the entrance of the basilica, where we noticed the heavy Portuguese influence on the construction. We noticed the silence of each footstep rebounding off the high arches that formed the dazzling ceiling, intense with bright designs like the walls which portrayed the life of Jesus in vivid colours. The tall statue of Mary stood amidst vibrant flowers looking down on the benches.
After noting down facts, we leaped back into the vehicle in awe. We rode into St. Andrews, where we got a jolt to find graves dating back to 1908, piled out in the entrance like paving stones.
After taking down& closely observing the features of the church, we rode back to school.
Going on this one trip has increased my knowledge on the heritage of Mumbai and the history behind it by acres. It has been a great learning experience.
Love Mumbai!
Thank you
Aditya K
Reconnect: Part2:
Five heartbeats boomed across the MPH as the remaining students of the audience marched in. Could they hear these heartbeats? The five of us who were crouched backstage could definitely hear them. We waited in anticipation for Mr. Craig to finally announce us on to stage.
We five members of the ReConnect (Heritage Club) were prepared to do a magnificent assembly with two grade 11 students. After everyone hushed down, the presentation started in full swing.
We were introduced one by one and the information began to be let out, little by little. Our topic for the assembly was World Mother Language Day, which takes place on February 21st. Our main concerns were about languages going extinct and how to prevent that. Each of the members walked over to the spotlight and presented a given topic about Mother Languages.
My topic was the death of an 82 year old lady in the Andaman Islands. But it was not just the death of a human but also the death of the language Bo, of which she was the sole speaker. Now even languages are endangered; not just our animals. ReConnect revived and presented the numbers 1-10 in Bo. This was followed by every one of us presenting a short speech in our mother tongue.
The assembly ended with an intense debate about whether it is better to learn and preserve your Mother Tongue or the universal language, English. As it turned out, both of them are important, as you should communicate with everyone in a mutual language and maintain your mother tongue. I am certain that everyone left the assembly hall soaked with information!
However, this assembly was the second event of ReConnect that week- the first one will be remembered by most of the women staff in Middle School. Since it was International Women’s day on Monday (18th March), we members of ReConnect went handing out roses to all the females we encountered in the school and received numerous You made my day!’s from them.
These events have made us in ReConnect more confident in approaching people, as well as given us more information.
Thank You.
Aditya K
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