Thursday, February 26, 2009

Sports Day Invite





Dear friend :-)
It is a pleasure to invite you, along with family and friends, to our School Annual Sports Day Celebrations, to be held on Sunday, the 1st March 2009 at our school premises at 4 pm.
Please do come and make our function a grand success :-)
Warm regards
Capt Nandkumar

Monday, February 23, 2009

Tai Chi in Gurukulam

CHENJEN SCHOOL OF TAI-CHI YOGA

What is Tai-Chi ?

Tai-Chi is a slow moving yogic exercise put in forms, looks like a ballet, where the life force or energy circulates throughout the body by way of pathways called meridians. Tai-chi is a physical, mental and spiritual exercise which is slow, circular in nature , continuous, smooth flow of movements like a stream of water which enables to balance oneself and accumulates "Chi Energy" for good health, concentration and divinity.

How it is Different from other Martial Arts?

People unknowingly mistake that slow and soft movements to be feeble and passive attitude, whereas, in reality the movements are dynamic, resilient Tai-chi is comparatively slow ,smooth, continuous, soft, circular flow of energetic forms of movements involving every vital organs as well as the surface skin, affecting and energizing the entire system in a superior way, since unlike other martial arts or exercise which expends energy through exhaustion and depletion of energy levels ,whereas through practice of Tai-chi it helps in generating and storing of energy in the Tantien and develops inner strength. , the attitude is one of confidence and decisiveness

.The universe is known as the Great Tai-chi(macro) and the human body(micro) is called the Small Tai-chi and the process of unification of the macro and micro, Yin and Yang , is the Grand Ultimate . Tai-CHI – The unification of the body , mind and the spirit.

How it is practised?

Tai-chi is practised with the spine kept straight, vertical and erect whist the forms are performed by rotating through circular spiraling movements, its flexibility is increased , the flow of spinal fluid is good , the function of the spinal nerves are unhindered and flow of chi energy can rise up the centre of the spine , through the governing meridian ,the head similar to the awakening of the Chakras in Kundalini Yoga.

Its Benefits

A healthy spine, reduces the likelihood of aging, back problems, prolapsed disc, sciatica, lumbago, nervousness and other related diseases of the vital organs in the human body.

Practice of Tai-chi, people of poor health becomes stronger building self-confidence. People who are hyperactive becomes serene and more at ease with friendly nature. As such Tai-chi training eventually makes one happy, strong , self confident, builds inner strength and harmonious living – Tai-chi is a way of life .

What will I Experience?

Practise of Tai-chi enables one to feel the flow of energy through the pathways in the body called meridians. Any blockage in the meridians causes illness or disease. This free flow of ‘Chi’ energy throughout the body helps in removing the blocks and gives the feeling like a warm electric glow. All sorts aches, pains, physical tension are eased and general well being is maintained. Regular practice of Tai-chi for long years helps in the Chi flowing through the meridians more and more strongly , until you feel that your body is made up entirely of energy and an electro-magnetic force field is building up around the hands and entire body.

Time and When To Practise

The auspicious times are that of dawn and dusk which many claim to be good since one can benefit by absorbing the universal energy from the cosmic changes. But depending from person to person’s daily routine, it can be practiced anytime on any empty stomach. A minimum of fifteen minutes and as long as you are comfortable.

Is Tai-Chi Safe?

Practise Tai-Chi always after consulting a Teacher and make sure that your training is correct and stick on to your levels of training stage by stage. For Tai-Chi is a life times work and its progress is gradual and it takes a long period of time to understand the ultimate meaning of it like that of the awakening of the charkas. It is not about forcing things to happen but training continuous and allow things to happen.

About The Teacher

Martial Arts - Started training in karate from 1974 in Goju-Ryu under Sensei Moses Thilak , Tae-kwon-do under Sensei Sylvester , -Black Belt in Shito-Ryu Karate under Sensi Alan William Dwyer - All India Refree at AIKF , trained in Shorinji -Kempo , Indian Martial Arts – Kalaripytru ,Varman etc., Instructor in Yang-Style Tai-chi under Sensei Selvaraj - Devotee of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda practicing Kriya - Yoga

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Readerbreeder plant






At last i get down to another post.


The Readerbreeder plant is an effort to get the children to relate their growing interest in reading with the growth of the plant.Each leaf is for a book.As these plants grow pretty fast the children will have to do quite a bit of Reading to keep up and somewhere along the line the plant can be transplanted to the school and taken care of there.May it grow into huge bamboo thicket sized plant !


The best part is that the badges for the first level of reading were recieved from the printer(who incidentally refused payment saying " Saar, goodu idea saar, first levelu badgeu my giftu saar")


The two who got through the viva voce are Basha and Soundarya .. Pragadeesh,Dharani, Dhanapriya have already made the grade. It was a tough session and as usual the questioners discussed among themselves to shoot tough questions at the aspiring candidate. Some of the questions:


what kind of clothes were the elves wearing when they came to make the shoes ?


The answer is tattered and torn clothes.


What did Jack bring back the 2nd time he went up the magic beanstalk? Excuse me i forget now what he did bring back but not the children! They are waiting for the sessions and lets see who makes the Bookworm level next sunday. Till then......so long farewell !!!


That reminds me, the idea of showing the children classic films like - Sound of Music, came up and i think as soon as we have an LCD projector we can show good films and have discussions after. Letters mailed from the world over could also be thrown on screen for group viewing and reply.I hope known and unknown viewers of this blog will be soon flooding us with letters and the best video clips of their choice.


Thank you Dr.Vandana for taking us down the letterwriting path.


with regards,


vinu.




Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Dr Sheela's Medical Camp




It has been such a pleasure to see Dr Sheela taking care of our children year after year...

Every child has a medical file updated at school.... Our loving THANKS to you Dr Sheela :-)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Hi all ,
just that and to thank vishal for showing us some amazing collaborative tools on the net. It is certainly going to make a difference. Now from being computer starchy i've become computer savvy! Thanks Vishal.

Much to to say about the storytelling and the reading program that i have christened "Reader Breeder " Will do as soon as i get confirmation from the captain that he reads me.
love,
vinu.

Kids Karate demo

National Karate Championships





Our children won 2 bronze medals in the recently held - "All India Karate Tournament conducted by the “Zanshin Shito Ryu Karate Do India."

Sunday, February 8, 2009

CSS Visits Us



Chennai Social Service

Volunteers and Founder of CSS, Satish made Gurukulam a greener place...

All our kids join me in THANKING you dear CSS :-)

Vishal's visit



Dear All,

This is our first day of blogging :-) and I would like to start with the visit from the man who started off our blogging - Vishal Khushalani

4 years to this day, Vishal last visited our school. He has come back all the way from US and had a pleasant shock...

Kids spoke in "English" :-) :-) They showed him their karate, their dancing, their reading skills and showered him with questions apart from their love :-)