Video Conference in Hindi/Urdu language on the topic, ‘COMMUNITY, FAITH & VALUES’.
The fourth V.C. held on the topic, ‘Community, Faith and Values’ between the Hr Sec Girls school at Kangan in Kashmir and Podar World School, Sherkhi, Vadodara in Gujarat, India, was in every respect a documentary of sixty minutes on the rich confluence of all cultures, spearheaded by future generation in striving to build a world of ’harmonious existence.’ The V.C. started at 11:20 a.m. with the Technical Assistant for Global Generation in India, Mr Sandeep greeting the students of both the schools and listing out the rules to carry out an unhindered Skype session. Then the same was repeated by Ms Sandhya, the Technical Assistant from the side of the partner school in Kashmir.
The first question posed by Ms Sandhya was,’ What do you like about your community and what changes would you like to bring in your community?’ It was responded by a student of Podar World School, Sherkhi. She greeted the students , ‘A very Good Afternoon ‘ in Hindi followed by ‘Podar Pranam’and then responded that, she does take pride in her community where one could see ,’Unity in Diversity,’and if at all there is any lacunae, it is due to the lack of awareness about the significance of Education. Hence as a responsible citizen, her main goal in life would be to promote education as much as she can to realize the goals of the scheme, ’Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.’ The students from Kangan school, listed out a few things like,’ their governmental program against illegal drug trafficking, opening of reformatory centers for drug addicts, feeling of brotherhood in their community etc. as a few governmental measures and attributes that had influenced them a lot. To exemplify each of these programs and attributes they even shared their personal experiences. Then both the groups talked about certain programs started by NGO’s to promote marriages of young girls with very poor economic background, measures taken to put an end to ‘Child Labour’, ‘Child marriages’, ‘Female infanticide’, and for promoting ’Women Empowerment’ etc. Having shared almost for 30 minutes about their community, their belief and what they valued, it was time for raising ‘Questions on what each have got to learn from one another through the video conferencing. To the question posed by Ms Sandhya, ’What is the influence of your religion on you’?, the students of Kangan school talked in volumes about their Islam religion, the five’ Prayer time’ in a day and about some tenets from Quran, while the students of Podar World School, talked of following the religion of ‘Humanity’ though they live in a country of diverse religions. They said that their belief teach them to respect one another and to uphold the sense of ‘hospitality’ or ‘Athithi Devo Bhava.’
As the last quarter of the V.C. was to reflect upon what they got to learn, the students from Govt Hr. Sec School in Kangan, were quite elated to have a heart to heart talk with the students of Podar World School, as they found them very friendly and quite eloquent in Hindi speech. The students of Podar World School on the other hand shared that just like their state being known for the heaven on earth, they have realized after the brief encounter that the inhabitants too of the state are equally beautiful in all respects.
