Sonia Dogra, Keekli Reporter, 20th August, 2016, Shimla
Two wonderfully crafted evenings were witnessed at Kalibari Hall, where Chapslee School, Shimla presented their Annual Variety Concert. It was an evening of entertainment and deep rooted messages conveyed beautifully by the talented students. The Guest of Honour on 20th was Sanjay Chauhan, Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Shimla and on 21st Lt Gen Raman Dhawan, Chief of Staff, Army Training Command, graced the occasion.
The school report was presented by the Principal, Sudershan Dogra. After a brief introduction about the Guests of Honour, she highlighted the glorious achievements of the school in the bygone year. The students of Chapslee participated in various curricular and extracurricular events in 2016 and brought laurels to the school.
The Class XII CBSE results were outstanding for the school with all seventy three students having passed with good scores. The topper was Sushrut Kuthiala with 93 per cent marks.
At the extracurricular level Aastha Sharma of Class IX stood second in the under 14 category at the Open Athletic Meet for Shimla District.
An Inter School Athletic Meet was held at Chapslee on 22nd May, 2016. The school boys team stood first in the under- 19, 4 x 400 relay and the girls team stood first in the 4 x 200 meter relay.
The school won 93 medals in the Inter School Athletic Meet organised by YES (Youth Enlightening the Society) at St Edwards School from 3-6 June. The best athlete in the Under-16 Boys Category was Atharv Sood and in the girls category Mahima Verma, both from Class X. At the Amit Joshi Inter School Cricket Tournament, held from 8-12 June, The Man of the Match award was won by Shubham Sharma of Class XII.
Aliese Mehta of Class VIII was awarded a cash prize of 10,000 for standing second in the Lekhanand Art Competition held in Chandigarh.
In various competitions organised at Auckland House School, Students of Chapslee came out as star performers. Satvik Suresh of Class XI stood 3rd in creative writing and second in photography. Ekampreet Kaur of Class XII stood 1st in Slogan Writing and Eva Saini of Class VIII was placed 3rd in Fancy Dress.
The young speakers from the school did exceedingly well in the 18th BL Modi International Elocution Competition organised by BCS on 6th August. Adyut Dangwal of Class VI was adjudged the best speaker in the junior division poetry.
The Principal thanked the parents for their constant support in helping the school come up with quality education for their wards.
The evening was then carried forward by the children with a few mesmerizing musical renditions which included a Sufi number, a folk song and the evergreen Una Paloma Blanca, there were some interesting and out of the box acts too. While tiny tots were at their cutest with rhymes and a dance drama about a clever rabbit, the middle school gave some endearing performances in the form of a Naga Dance, a Western Dance and O Henry’s memorable tale “The Gift of the Magi” performed as a one act play.
Be it English elocution or Dohavali, the children were at their confident best, as was rightly pointed out by the chief guest later in his speech. However, it was an evening of messages to society conveyed effectively in the form of two Hindi plays. The themes were drug addiction in youth today and why parents must refrain from passing on their own dreams to their children. Well executed, the plays received much adulation.
The English Play “Box and Cox” performed by Classes XI and XII, held its forte among all programmes and turned out to be a rather hilarious one act performance. That family is of prime importance, was the message conveyed through a dance drama by the senior students. The concert was indeed a variety programme which presented a whole range of different entertainment items.
In his speech, Sanjay Chauhan congratulated the Director, Pranoti Singh, staff and students for a well coordinated effort. Highly impressed with the confidence of the children, he reiterated the messages conveyed this evening and upheld that society must come together to ward off evils such as the drug menace among young children.
Likewise, Lt Gen Raman Dhawan began his address by expressing his earnest desire to go back to school life. He was greatly impressed with the professionalism of the children in various acts and the variety offered by the programme as it took the audience on an entertainment ride ranging from the very difficult Naga Dance to soulful Sufi music. He appealed to the parents to allow their children to be a part of such shows as this, he said, was the gateway to a bright tomorrow along with academics.
Finally, the gala evening came to a close with the vote of thanks by the Head Boy of the school.
Parents and guests were very impressed with the variety programme and lauded the efforts of the school staff who they said worked incessantly towards each event. The school staff and students had put in a month of hard work to make the show a success. According to some parents, it was commendable that each year many students are given an opportunity to participate in various events and learn in the process. They wished the school more power in coming years.
