Woodstock School Winter 2015

The Tiger

The Tiger1

Activity Week fills Wood-stock students lives’ with adventure. For some of us Activity Week experiences are once in a lifetime ex-periences, and for others these experiences devel-op into lifelong passions.

Shar Mathias, grade 11, went on the eleventh grade advanced hike. Her favorite parts were being away from school and getting to know everyone in her group.

On the last night of Shar’s activity week, her group camped at the same place as the tenth grad-ers, who had gone on the Rupin Supin trek. Mathi-as’s group got permission from their chaperones to frighten the tenth graders as much as they pleased.

So they made a really detailed plan on how to scare the tenth graders, although in the end this plan didn’t really work out. The first to be kidnapped was Kavi Ahuja, grade 10, then they stole all the tenth gradera flashlights.

Later they also took Ba-hir Zahine and Kabish Shrestha, both grade 10,

and stole the tenth grader’s shoes. The eleventh graders held the three tenth graders as hostages and demanded

chocolate, in the begin-ning, but apparently the tenth graders didn’t have any chocolate, so instead they asked for trail mix.

After this incredible heist, Mathias’s group received ap-proximately seven or eight bags of trail mix. Instead of the hostages asking to be re-leased, they stayed with the eleventh graders, and drank all of their hot chocolate.

Mathias said, “We didn’t get any chocolate, which was our main mission, but we did get [a lot] of trail mix.”

When asked about the point of Activity Week, Mathias said that Activity

Week is about learn-ing about the environ-ment, appreciating the place we live in, and ap-plying stuff we learn in school to real life situations.

Kiara Kanwar, grade 10, went on a trek to Changsheel. Kiara said, that they had a very se-

vere hailstorm, and they also found a few, inter-esting animal skeletons.

Kanwar thought, that

Activity Week, especially for tenth graders, was an emotional and physical test, because they really had to push themselves and be out of their comfort zone. Activity Week taught us how to work together as a group and help each other.

Charis Crider, grade 10, explained that Activity Week is an experience out of the Woodstock bubble.

Prasiddhi Shrestha, grade 10, believed that Activity Week is all about having an experience and to get away from our hectic lives.

Swati Sidhu, Outdoor Environmental Educator, said “Activity Week is an opportunity, once every year, when we all get out-doors, learn about our surroundings, and devel-op a sense of connection and comfort with them.”

She also said that going on Activity Week has many benefits, such as “It devel-ops good muscle reflexes, makes us relaxed, improves mind-body coordina-tion, enhances creativity, makes the recovery from diseases or injuries faster, and the benefits go on.”

She continued by saying, “during the Activity Week this year, I noticed that stu-dents overcame such chal-lenges by coming up with alternate ways to spend their time which they would have otherwise spent with devices, and also enjoyed it.”

“It is a time to learn about our own abilities and weaknesses and re-spect the same in others.”

The Mysteries of Lost Trail Mix and Stolen Shoesby - Avanya Joab

One of the many things Woodstock takes pride in is its extensive oppor-tunities that is offered to students known as the PASSAGE program.

Out of the many PAS-SAGE activities that Woodstock provides only seven PASSAGE activi-ties’ reviews are provided below. You may or may not have chosen the best club.

K-Pop: We all know what K-Pop is and honestly we all secretly love it. Whether it’s BigBang’s new album (which took forever to re-lease), or EXID’s popular single “Up and Down”, we hear the music and find our-selves moving to the catchy beat. This club does exactly

the same; it requires you to dance along to the latest Korean releases whether you like it or not. The group

is lead by the one and only Jiyeon “Jonnie” Jeon, with a total of seven members

including Karma Shi Chen, an eleventh grader who goes to the club to show moral support and express

his vast love for K-Stuff. The club even performs at large events such as Win

Mumby, winning the hearts of the audience every time. Jiyeon tells the club’s mem-bers, “Don’t worry if you

can’t dance. Dance isn’t about dancing, it’s about expressing yourself.” And

what better way is there to express yourself than through K-Pop (while still being welcome even if you can’t dance)? Considering its trendiness, leniency, and Korean cuteness, this club scores about a 7/10 on Ke-zia’s Passage Review Scale.

Rock Climbing: Have you ever thought about rock climbing as a boring and annoying activity or some-thing that we’re just forced to do in PE? Well you have never been so wrong. Ever since the rock climbing room was introduced to Woodstock along with the Win Mumby Gymnasium, Continued on Page 5.

A Rough Guide to PASSAGEby - Keizia Deskit Paljor

Editorial

The Tiger 2

The new Nepali constitu-tion has brought nothing if not turmoil and con-frontation with the Indian government. The concern of the Indian government lies in the lack of repre-sentation of the Madhesi people. The Madhesi peo-ple from the Terai region of Nepal (who have close ties with India) make up 30% of the population feel severely underrepresented in the new Constitution.

The Indian government

responded to the constitu-tional changes with an “un-official” blockade of goods on its side of the border, in an effort to show its un-happiness. The blockade, which is now into its sec-ond month, has severely restricted the amount of fuel and essential supplies reaching the country from India. Nepal relies heavily on India for a substantial proportion of its imports.

The lack of oil coming into the country has created a near-standstill in the coun-

try. Most major industry have been affected. Tourism has come to a halt, as hotels and restaurants are unable to cook over firewood. Long queues have been formed all over the country, as peo-ple wait to get fuel. Schools are shutting down, hospi-tals are turning people away because of a lack of drugs.

While the Indian gov-ernment blames protest-ers along the borders for the shutdown, in reality it is manipulating the Nepali government for its own in-

terests. India fears that an unstable Terai will have a spillover effect, especially on its border states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. India is simply exerting in power in the region by micromanag-ing Nepal’s internal affairs.

Nepal has responded to India’s intervention by warming up to its other powerful neighbour, Chi-na. However, as China is India’s top trading part-ner, neither neighbour will jeopardize their economic relations over Nepal. Ad-

ditionally, the geogra-phy of the region restricts China from being able to replace India as a trading partner in the long term.

The only solution to the problem will be for the two nations to come to an agreement. India needs to stop exerting its dominance over the smaller, less pow-erful nation. And Nepal, while the underdog, needs to take the problems of it’s own people more seriously.

We all have tendency to give countries the traits of people. The UK is ‘friends’ with Australia. Mongo-lia’s ‘neighbour’ is China. It’s only natural- we un-derstand the world by making it seem like us.

But sometimes you need to take a step back. Gov-ernments aren’t people. Governments are many people and they do things as part of a strategy, a way to promote themselves. So should governments have consciences? Should we ex-pect them to have empathy rather than making a point?

When it comes to is-sues that really strike close

to home, like the virtual trade embargo that India is imposing on Nepal at the moment, it’s hard to know.

For those people that don’t read the news, here are the facts. Since Nepal’s new constitution came into effect on 20th September, trade between India and Nepal has significantly re-duced. The new treaty has split up minorities into several different states (a maneuver known as gerry-mandering). These minori-ties are the plains people of Nepal, who tradition-ally have close ties to India. Since India surrounds Ne-pal on three sides (and the Himalayas form the fourth

side), most of Nepal’s im-ports come from India. One particular resource that is now in shortage in Nepal, causing lots of problems, is fuel. Recently, China prom-ised Nepal to give some of it’s fuel. Nepal is claiming that the trade restrictions are an embargo, while India is denying these allegations.

Embargos are noth-ing new. In 1935, when Italy was brutally attack-ing Ethiopia, there were some trade restrictions placed on it by countries including the UK. Without waging war, embargoes or blockades are a way for a country to protest the ac-tions of another country.

As mentioned earlier, countries aren’t people. To some extent, they can do whatever they want. So does the reason be-hind the trade restric-tions on Nepal matter?

Sure, some people are suffering without anything to cook or travel with, but if that’s not you, then why should you care? Countries, like India, aren’t people. They don’t have to be respon-sible for persons outside of their domain. They don’t have to be compassionate.

Sometimes they might help other countries, sure, but then it’s to help them-selves look good. Of course, there isn’t anyone who

would rather have a war than a trade embargo, but restrictions on trade cause suffering of another kind.

I’m not saying that it’s right for India to not let trade happen with Nepal. It just makes sense to me that governments do things that people wouldn’t. Govern-ments think about them-selves, and their nation first, and they aren’t obli-gated to care. People are ob-ligated to care. And if you feel compassion for people in Nepal (or Baghdad, or Japan, or Kenya, or France or Syria or or or or) this year, then it’s your respon-sibility to do something.

Editorial: People First Politics Second

Jobs!! Jobs are so impor-tant, no matter how big or small they are, they still earn people a living. A lot of people have had part time jobs when they were in high school, including the teachers here at Wood-stock, and some have even had hilarious incidents and pretty unusual colleagues “I had many part time jobs during my HS days, ranging from being dish washer/ prep cook, host and a server to being performer at wed-dings and parties,” said Am-itavo Roy, strings teacher.

When asked if he ever had any crazy bosses, he said, “Yes, my dish washing su-pervisor was on the meds to

put it mildly.” He had some very funny incidents as well, “Yeah, was given a 50 dollars tips to play a funer-al hymn at a wedding, the generous person was the ex-husband of the bride.” You go ex-husband! Ex husband:100000!! Bride:0

Tim Percevecz, art teach-er, had a paper route and was a bank teller. He had some pretty weird colleagues, “If having a colleague who be-lieved that there were aliens living underground that dictated much of what the world did, then yes, I had a weird colleague.” he said. I, personally would love to work with a colleague who believed in aliens, wouldn’t you? It’d be hilarious.

He’s also had some fussy and difficult clients. “I had a job that moved artwork between museums, galler-ies and private clients. [...]One client that wanted his work packed on the con-dition that nothing, at all touched it. We had a dif-ficult time explaining to him that gravity just makes that request impossible.”

Christopher Rhatigan, social studies teacher, had some interesting jobs as well. “First job I had, I was a bus boy at an Italian Res-taurant and then I worked for a record shop,” He had a super grumpy boss who just hated everyone. “When I worked at the record shop, I worked for this lady ‘Sally’

who was, she was like not used to working with other people because [...] and we just didn’t get along well. She was always, like, really angry with me if I’d screw up any little thing and whenev-er I would talk to a custom-er, she would just [...] push me aside and talk to them because she didn’t like how I handled that so I didn’t last the record shop very long,” Wow, that grumpy lady could obviously use some pizza to make her happy.

He even had some dis-gusting, “bloody” inci-dents at work. “When I was working at the Italian Res-taurant, one of my respon-sibilities was to cut bread up and put it on the tables

for people and so one time I was cutting bread with a pretty sharp knife and I cut my finger. [...] I didn’t think it was that bad at the time and so I put a bandage on it and went back to cutting bread and I put the bread in the basket and was walk-ing out to bring it to the customers and this wait-ress I worked with started screaming and it was weird. I was like ‘What’s wrong?’ and I looked down and there was blood like all over the bread and my finger just kept bleeding and so I even-tually just had to go to the hospital,” First of all, EW!! Second of all, OUCH!!

Teacher Jobs:Bloody Bread and Priceless Paintings by - Taarini Gupta

Editorial: Governments Don’t Need To Have Feelings

by - Sara Krishnan

by - Sahnti Mathais

For the entire Wood-stock community, the passing of the Lyre tree was the end of a living memo-ry. In a manner of speak-ing, the Lyre Tree has wit-nessed some of the biggest transitions in the history of Woodstock and even in the history of India.

Ashish Peters, grade 11, (who has been at Wood-stock for fifteen years,) reminisces, “Wearing the Condors and Lyre tree on my sports jersey gave me a sense of responsibility to win. The tree has been here ever since I have.”

Principal Dr. Jonathan Long, told us that the tree

has evolved from a logo to a symbol. The Lyre tree was a metaphor for many, symbolizing a perfect, well rounded education.

The Lyre tree was made into a symbol in 1954 and ever since, it has been the face of the school. Prin-cipal Doctor Jonathan Long said, “I think the Lyre tree is a connection with our past. The tree has been in some of the old-est photos we have and it is a metaphor that in-spires us into the future.”

The Lyre tree had died due to old age and natu-ral causes. On August 6, 2015, the entire Wood-

stock community was sad-dened by the news that the tree would be cut down.

In a ceremony, Long expressed what the tree meant for the school and ex- students. Students went down to the foot of the tree and laid flow-ers at the base of the tree.

The passing of the Lyre Tree even hit teachers hard. Ed Beavan, history teacher, said that he’s “sad-dened by the demise of the tree and [he] hopes that a new one will be planted.”

News

The Tiger3

The Mussoorie Writ-ers Festival is a celebration of rock climbers, surfers, paragliders, and, of course, writers. The festival hopes to provide a chance for people to see the outdoors and their environmental surroundings in a differ-ent way. Dhiren Paliwal said “I enjoyed this festival because it was informa-tive about the outdoors and was quite enjoyable”.

Steve Alter, the Hanifl Center, and Marta Lofesser arranged the festival. This time the people who were to share their unique expe-

riences with us were going on a tour around the world and that has come to Wood-

stock for the first time. This festival had many ses-sions for children, teachers

and visitors. They talked about overcoming fear and obstacles, teamwork,

friendship and storytelling in the mountains. They’ve have done many unique things, and they inspired many of the students.Like Jonathan Long says, we all have a different lens, and we see the world differently. That’s what the participants shared with us, which some people found fascinating. The sessions might have been long but it was a privi-lege for us to witness such amazing stories and activi-ties that have taken place. The outdoors are more special than we think of them, and a lot can be done there if we appreciate it.

by - Anahita BalujaDifferent Lens of The Mountain

Edgehill has been a part of myriad lives, serving faithfully as junior dorm in years before and senior dorm last year. The rustic feel of Old Dorm exudes a certain old world charm that comes through in the atmosphere at Edgehill.

Even with all these quali-ties, Edgehill is no longer a student resident. Instead, there are plans to convert it into staff apartments in an effort to provide ac-cessible housing to the glut of staff in the school.

Shikhar Dhingra, a long time student who lived in Edgehill during his initial

years at Woodstock says “Edgehill has a very cozy, warm atmosphere, even though I disliked the ex-perience”. Another griz-zled veteran of Woodstock, Dev Nalwa, grade 12, said “It was the dorm where my childhood years were spent and where lasting friendships were made”.

While students look at the dorm with some spite, they mostly admit that the ambience is nice. An interview with San-jeev Puri,COO, made the fate of Edgehill clear.

When asked about it’s fu-ture, Puri gave an agenda which is clear and deter-

mined by the many ad-ministrative factors at play. He gave a clear reason as to why Edgehill was being re-purposed to become a staff residence. “The decision to use Edgehill for staff hous-ing was made squarely due to the huge gap between demand for staff homes and the limited supply we have.”

“Woodstock continues to rent many properties around the hillside to house its staff. Many Woodstock owned staff homes are ex-tremely old and are in a des-perate need for repair and upgrade. In addition, strict government regulations in Mussoorie prohibit us from

building new homes. Fac-ing these constraints, and given the large area that Edgehill offers, we decided to move forward with it be-ing a potential option for us to construct staff homes.”

When asked whether this was a temporary move, he said, “The redevelopment of Edgehill aligns with our longer term vision. This is not a temporary move” Yet, Puri was insistent on including Edgehill’s rich history in the renovation.

Discussing the planning for the property to work with Edgehill’s storied his-tory, he said, “The redevel-opment of Edgehill will not

happen immediately. We are very well aware of the fact that Edgehill has an impor-tant place in Woodstock’s history, and would certain-ly be sensitive to this fact.” “Our planning for the prop-erty will involve a careful consideration aimed at re-taining its heritage façade and exterior, while mak-ing major internal modi-fications to the interior of the building, which now has severe issues. While the immediate plan is to convert Edgehill into staff housing, there is always a possibility that it may be used as a dorm again!”

What’s Happening With Edgehill?by - Chaitanya Prashant

The Death Of A Woodstock Symbolby - Meher Datta

The Tiger 4

NewsMUN Delegates HoneTheir Skills

This academic school year students who want-ed to participate in MUN were required to attend a Mock conference in order to get accepted into Wood-stock Schools annual MUN.

Model United Nations, or MUN for short, is an event for students to experience a formal conference and have organized debates. It is an event where students receive a country and pre-pare a position for a topic on where their given country stands on a particular issue.

Woodstock school has

hosted MUN for many years but last year the school was not happy with the results. Students were unprepared and there was a lot of confusion. Stu-dents from other schools that had come to take part in this event, as delegates, were correcting the chairs.

Sara Krishnan said that the school did not see any good outcome from this event, instead they thought of it as an expenditure that was not necessary. They decided that Woodstock was not going to host MUN again. Several students went to the Wood-

stock school board and re-quested that they receive one last chance for Wood-stock students to prove themselves worthy of MUN.Thus was formed Mock MUN. Mock MUN was a chance to prove the students who wanted to participate in MUN and the Chairs and Delegates got a feel of what it will be like in the real thing.

Principal Dr.Jonathan Long said that Mock MUN occurred because they wanted to raise the standard of the debate. Then, later he compared it to a sport by saying it is like a try out for

a sport. He also said that last year it was good but it could be better, if the students were a little bit more seri-ous, and put in a bit more ef-fort it could be really good. He said that “It is a fantas-tic idea for Woodstock.”

Noor Khosla, grade 11 said that the upcoming MUN is going to be very serious and well organized. She also mentioned that the students did fairly all right.

Adam Wunker, MUN ad-visor said that overall Mock MUN was very good and he was pleased with the out-come. He also said that in

the past there were issues with the quality of the per-formance of the students. For the future he expects there to be an improve-ment in caliber and more focus because less people would be attending MUN. The twenty minutes that I attended Mock MUN were informing. Some students were well prepared and or-ganized, others had no idea what was going on. Some students went against their own point and other stu-dents were correcting them. Mock MUN is changing the way Woodstock hosts MUN.

by - Tanya Sandhu

Centre For ImaginationThe Centre for Imagina-

tion (CFI) will be a build-ing that will be used to hold activities and experiments that students wish to con-duct. It will be a centre in which students can further explore their talents and in-terests. Amy Seefeldt, Dean of Academics, said Wood-stock does a good job in preparing students for jobs and opportunities, but over the years young people of-ten struggle to find direc-tion. Since Woodstock is quite isolated with no op-portunities, the centre for imagination will help stu-dents find new paths, do their own research, work

with experts from outside, prepare their roles in the future, receive proper expo-sure, and find where they fit.

The centre is part of Woodstock’s 2020 vision. The 2020 vision consists of Four Pillars which serve as the foundation for the fu-ture of Woodstock. Since the 2020 vision was ap-proved by the Board on September 2011, strong philosophical, pedagogical, and organisational foun-dations have been put in place for it to take place.

The purpose of Wood-stock’s Centre for Imagina-tion is to explore ways for young peop`le to find their place in the world of the fu-

ture. The centre’s aim is to create a warm, stimulating environment full of activ-ity that invites new ideas. Students and teachers can share ideas and progress on research at facilitated, weekly events. They would also be able to visit the centre anytime that they wish during school hours.

By effectively sharing stories and weaving a well-connected network around the world, the Centre for Imagination inspires not only Woodstock but also the wider worldwide com-munity. The Centre also acts as an incubator, or green-house. The Greenhouse Ef-fect is a metaphor for how

the Centre for Imagination will incubate new ideas just as greenhouses do with fragile plants. Woodstock also hopes its exceptional science program through the CFI, as it will serve as an experimental ground where they can see what will work best for the classes.

If you have heard about the CFI before or are read-ing about it for the first time right now think-ing, ‘Who will it benefit?’ The answer to is: you. Yes, you. Not only will the stu-dents be benefited from the CFI’s new facilities, but the teachers will too; they will be able to do their own research in the CFI.

The Centre for Imagina-tion will be at Tafton, which will be renovated for this very purpose. The renova-tion will hopefully start by July 2016 and end in March 2017. Although the build-ing itself won’t be complet-ed, the program will start by next year during the Fes-tival of Ideas in the Mayme-ster. Woodstock hopes to provide the interdiscipli-nary project for all of UY as a part of this program. All in all, the Center for Imagi-nation will be an exciting project to look forward to.

On September 27th, the sun, the earth and the moon lined up in a row to present a spectacular light show for the people look-ing at the unique lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse was special for two reasons.

First, the moon was a supermoon, which means that it was on its closest ap-proach to Earth. Second, this lunar eclipse was a su-permoon eclipse and the last of the tetrad, a term for four consecutive to-tal lunar eclipses, which last happened in 1982 and will not happen until 2033.

The lunar eclipse im-pressed many people

around the world as it passed the shadow of Earth and put on a blood red color. But why does the moon appear red when it passes the Earth’s shadow? I asked Mike Pesavento, who heads the Astronomy club. He said “the moon ap-pears red because of the sun rays that passes through the atmosphere of the Earth and gets refracted.”

When light gets refracted, the red light, which refracts the most out of the sev-en colors in the colour of white, refracts towards the umbra, the complete dark space behind the Earth where no light reaches. During a lunar eclipse, the

part of the moon which is in the umbra appears red be-cause of the refracted light.

One misconception about this lunar eclipse was it’s name: Blood Moon. The term is never used in the scientific community but was rather first intro-duced in the book Four Blood Moons by John Ha-gee, which calls the super moon lunar eclipse the Blood Moon that proph-esies the end of the world, since it coincides with sig-nificant Jewish festivals.

This should not be a sur-prise since the Jewish cal-endar is based on the lu-nar calendar. Whether the blood moon signifies

the end of the world as we know it will be deter-mined by the future, but meanwhile stargazers can

marvel in the astronomical event of the Leonid meteor shower on 17 November.

Rise and Fall Of The Blood Moonby - Dhruv Prasad

by - Kezia Deskit Paljor

The Tiger5

News

Continued from page 1climbers have gathered

around in this room to spend their leisure time climbing in peace. We had the honour to interview tone of the most enthusias-tic climbers of Woodstock School, Shrea Neil Peter.

Although Peter joined Woodstock only last year in 11th grade, he has re-mained a faithful member of this club, also engaging in activities such as hiking in his other pastimes. He has never tried climbing before and with a little en-couragement from Digam-bar Lal (AKA Titu), he decided to try it out. Soon he became extremely pas-sionate about it and started spending more and more time in the climbing room.

Andrew Hepworth, Head of Outdoor Educa-tion is in charge of this club but Peter has become the climbing director this year. The climbing room is open everyday and eve-ryone is welcome. Peter

says he enjoys climbing because “It the chance to challenge myself everyday and get out of my comfort zone and have fun and teach juniors to climb and be safe.” An underrated ac-tivity that sound so much fun deserves about a 7/10.

Knitting Club: If you’re ever thinking becoming a grandmother early, look no further because you have found the perfect club. No, but seriously, this club counts as a CARE ac-tivity and teaches you how to knit. Club leader Devika Nautiyal says, “I really en-joy teaching people how to knit because it’s a skill that I have fully developed.” Knitting baby hats is no easy job so do not be de-ceived because it does re-quire a lot of patience and skill. Nautiyal also encour-ages students to join this club because knitting isn’t only for old ladies. Meet-ing on Friday every week, Knitting Club is a club that counts as a CARE activity,

and with a passionate lead-er like Nautiyal, it is some-thing everyone should experience. This club deserves about a 7.5/10.

Pizzeria: Teaching cal-culus is not the only thing Zachary Conrad is good at; if you’ve been here longer than a month, you know that Conrad makes pizzas too. “This club has been running for 3 years and we have never not sold out all our pizzas.” Conrad says proudly. Devashish Pa-hadi the student leader of this club said he’s in love with this club and he re-ally enjoys making pizza’s and teaching new mem-bers how to make pizzas. Conrad said “Passage is all about learning something new.” A plain margarita pizza costs about Rs. 200 and if you want one with more topping it’ll cost you about Rs. 300 because Conrad’s love and hard work does not come cheap. If you want to learn how to make pizzas or just simply

be there to eat them, this is the club for you. The pizze-ria should be given an 8/10 with its clever concept and emphasis on good flavor.

Badminton: Yes, yes, there is inter school bad-minton too. You might be reading this and thinking, ‘Who even plays badmin-ton?’ but never ever say that in front of Karma Gonjo. Gonjo has been playing badminton for as long as he can remember and he says that he is glad that Woodstock provides such an opportunity for people like him. Prapti Joshi, a senior, was even caught saying that she en-joyed badminton more than basketball. Eera Sarda and Amrita Yeshi have also been part of this program and and Amrita said she has never felt so sporty in her life. Naomi Chang was even kicked out of this club because she did not appear for enough practices. This club is not something to be taken lightly but is a

definite confidence boost-er if you aren’t a sporty person, which is why it should get at least a 6/10

Insanity: According to the popular belief only insane people join this club, because let’s be hon-est. Who works out twice a week (or ever)? Leader of this club Linh Bui says, “They call me lazy when I don’t workout and when I do they say I’m crazy.” This is a great club if getting fit is on your list (cause clear-ly walking up and down to dorms isn’t enough). The newest member of this club, Yejin Son says that she actually enjoys going to the gym and working out and said that “if I can do it anyone can.” Linh encour-ages students of all ages to join this club because “who doesn’t want a hot bod like Haesoo Park.” A 9/10 for the Insanity workout club and if that doesn’t want to make you join this club, I don’t know what will.

On The Other Side Of The Woodstock Kitchen We as students have never

thought about the people who put in their effort to make food for us. There are a lot of different opinions about Woodstock’s food. Have you ever thought about how the chef ’s feel? Ketan Swami, the menu head, and Chef Abdul Rehman, the head chef, were interviewed and asked about how it is to work at Woodstock.

Starting their day at 7 o’clock in the Woodstock kitchen, they work until the staff and students are done eating. When asked about the food both of them re-plied in unity that they are confident about the quality of the food being served to the Woodstock community.

Swami thinks that there is always personal choice which plays a major role in liking the food, there-

fore it is not necessary that everyone likes the food at Woodstock. Rehman also thinks that because Wood-stock is a diverse commu-nity, students don’t always like the food. Therefore to solve this issue genu-ine and honest feedback should be given so that pos-itive changes can be made.

They say that it is a chal-lenging to teach their team different cuisines and to be receptive to changes made in the menu. Swami says that the Woodstock chefs have great ability to grasp different techniques and therefore, they put their best foot forward whenever they make food from dif-ferent cuisines. This is done because Rehman strives to change for the better.

Swami cares for the stu-dents and says that it is his responsibility to ca-

ter to their needs. When asked about the hygiene of the food both of them said that the have always been stunned by the hy-gienic kitchen of Wood-stock and therefore will strive to keep it the same.

Rehman said that they try to make food from the vegetables in season. This ensures that the food is as fresh as possible. Swami explained that vegetables are brought from different parts of India in order to serve good and healthy food to the staff and students.

On a different note, when they were asked about their life outside school, Swami said, “ My family lives in Bombay and I call them weekly” Rehman said that he hardly gets time for his family, because of his long working hours.

Both Swami and Reh-

man wanted to convey the message of not wasting food because they believe that there are millions out-side this community who don’t even get two square meals day. They added that the supporting staff, who

serve food, should be re-spected because they put in a lot of effort to prepare the food for the everyone.

They concluded that their goal is to serve healthy and delicious food to Woodstock.

by - Chahat Kaur

The Tiger TeamEditorsSara Krishnan Shanti Mathais

ReportersShikhar Dhingra Chahat Kaur Anhita Baluja Tsephell Choegyal Chaitanya Prashant Nandani Aggarwal

Taarini Gupta Avanya Joab Tanya SandhuPuruva Chakravarty

PhotographersMathai AbrahamKelzang Daechong Dema

Layout HeadsMathai AbrahamRhys Peter Fernandes

Staff AdvisorChristopher Rhatigan

The Tiger 6

ArtsSinging Dancing and Egging

Antonio’s Art at Woodstock

by - Puruva ChakravartyThis year’s talent show was different compared to the previous ones that have taken place. This year the It was based on the popular American talk show called The Tonight Show. How-ever it was changed a lit-tle. There were games that happened between the acts which made it more inter-esting than usual. This year the talent show was organ-ized by the 11th Graders. Bobby Sharma and Sara Bhatia organised this year’s talent show. When asked if it was hard to organ-

ize everything Sharma said, “It’s never easy to or-ganize such a large event,

but by having everyone work his or her designat-ed job, it became easier.”

This year the theme for Tal-ent Show was the Not So Late Night Show. The theme was based on an American talk show called The To-night Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The show was host-ed by Jonah Kaplan and Noor Khosla, both grade 11. According to some people, this year’s talent show was more enjoyable because of the theme. So how was this year’s talent show different from previous ones? Bhatia said, “The theme of course was liked by many [people], and the games that took place between the acts. Also

having more performanc-es this year made a huge difference.” Talent show this year was entertaining and engaging. Games like smashing the egg on your forehead and singing com-petitions that took place were crowd favourites. When asked which act she liked the best and why, Sangrujungla Jamir, grade 11, said, “I enjoyed watch-ing the K-Pop dance be-cause I like listening to the Big Bang which is a K-Pop band and also because the dance was very engaging”

A phrase on the small yel-low sign plastered outside the MC studio door drew me in: Living Artists Soci-ety. A clever ode to Robin Williams’ 1989 hit, Dead Poet’s Society, this was just one of the many reasons I was intrigued to interview Woodstock’s infamous art-ist in residence, Antonio Puri. With his eccentric spirit and undeniable orig-inality, I had been look-ing forward to discussing Puri’s innermost thoughts and feelings on his much anticipated Varna Project.

“[I] wanted to see if there [was] a way to use art as a vehicle to show the atrocities happening in the world based on skin color discrimination. With a lit-tle bit of Gandhi’s way of advocacy (through non-violence), [and getting] the message loud and clear. Instead of using legal or political tactics- I wanted to use art. I thought to my-self, let me start in the city where Gandhi was born to initiate the project. So I went to Ahmedabad and the first incarnation of Var-na started there.” He said.

“Gandhi encountered a lot of skepticism when he wanted to convey his message. How have oth-ers received your pro-ject- with encourage-ment or the same type of skepticism?” I asked.

He put up a front and replied rather quickly, “You know what- I’m a lit-tle too obsessed with [..] what I need to do, that I really don’t pay attention to what oth-ers think or say. I know what I have to do. And if it reaches into some-body’s con-sciousness and helps them real-ize maybe there is no caste system and we as humans just make [race] up, then I a c h i e v e d my goal.”

Did Puri go as far to say he didn’t believe in race, so much that it was an il-lusion? A perplexing t h o u g h t .

He add-ed, “Race isn’t an illu-sion. Well, yes, race is about one-ness. And when people ask what race I am, I say human. But the way we interpret things- we’ve used it to separate in-

stead of unite [...] Rather than the things that sepa-rate us, I’m looking at the things that bind us.”

Following Puri along the path of individualism, he

emphasized the unique beauty in everyone, “My fight isn’t just for the caste system or for skin discrimi-nation in India- it’s actually

a global phenomenon. No matter which culture I go to they seem to place light-er or fairer skin color at the top of the racial hierarchy and idolize it by bleaching

their skin and whatever oth-er non-sensi-cal means of achievement. Then after all this, they discriminate people. It’s in-humane. And anybody who follows some-thing that is i n h u m a n e shouldn’t be called hu-man beings.”

He contin-ued to touch on racial di-versity and the i m p o r t a n c e of self-iden-tity when I asked how he found work-ing with the Wo o d s t o c k community. “I saw the inter-national com-munity and the openness to my pro-ject, especially

with Jonathan Long to be exceptional. What I found surprising was that it is still sort of a small com-munity and a gossipy one.

Instead of working on this message, they’re more in-terested in gossiping. That’s the part people might not talk about but I think the community could learn to be a little more content with their own lives, more open to accepting ideas, and more inclusive and it will go more with the pro-ject [..] I don’t like the fact [there are] cliques [here]; these ones are a part of the religious club, the this club, the that club, it’s nonsense.”

“But wouldn’t you say these cliques or groups are a natural part of high-school, or any community for that matter?” I asked.

“I’m not limiting my comments about the stu-dents, I’m talking about the staff and everybody else. It’s like a small town community but with that comes these other hang ups. Which I think doesn’t benefit the school at large. They should be a more mindful about separat-ing [..] I’m not sure how much the project will do in terms of people establish-ing cliques based on whom they think they should be associated with. But I think people should learn to be more inclusive. Like the principal is one real great exception- and hopefully others [at Woodstock] will follow that example.”

by - Tsephell Choegyal

CompetitionWin Mumby Arrives Early

How to Get a 4.30 GPA

This year, the Win Mumby tournament shifted from April to November. This was because some many strong players from the team could play the previous year. The changed date surprised many Woodstock students.

Win Mumby started on Tuesday, November 3rd with the Pep Rally which took place in the gymnasi-um. The tournament ended on Friday November 6th.

This was a drastic change for everyone to get used to. However many play-ers, teachers and students had different opinions regarding the switch be-tween the months for Win Mumby Tournament.

The Senior Basketball Team player, Aashish Pe-ters, Grade 11, said that “ It was a good change because many of our players [got] to play in comparison to last year where many strong players couldn’t play be-cause of the over age rule.

We didn’t get much time to practice compared to the amount of time we would get if it were to happen in April however that [was] fine.”

Similarly, Dechen Ten-zing, grade 11, from the Girls Win Mumby team, said that “It’s good that the change was made because many players [got] to play. Also, two Win Mumby tournaments in a year seems odd but it will get

back to normal next year which is good for the teams”

Ajay Mark, Head of Sports, thought that “It [was] a good change and it makes it easier to accom-modate our students from the senior teams. if we were to have Win Mumby in April, we would not be able to have them partici-pate in the tournament be-cause of the overage rule.

I think it is an oppor-tunity for them to par-ticipate as well and play well. It is a good chance for the players to shine.”

From a whole new dif-ferent point of view, Sa-rah Glover, grade 10, said “I am going to play for the first time for the

Win Mumby tournament so I am quite excited yet nervous for the matches.

Mr. Luukkonen has been training us pretty hard for it so I think we will do good. We have training three times a week to keep us active and strong for the matches against the other schools”

Jonathan Long, Princi-pal of Woodstock School, thinks that “It is a fantas-tic idea” however when he was asked why he replied with “Don’t ask me why it is a fantastic idea though”

From a whole differ-ent perspective, Madina Ibragimova, grade 10 thinks that “Some people think that change is really good because the people

who are 18 or over before April but it clashes with the football season. And also it’s swish-a-thon next semester, so everything is compact. There is nothing happening next trimester.

It’s not that I don’t appre-ciate the switch since I am a basketball player as well, however it doesn’t make much sense to me and makes me wonder what will be happening next trimester”

Most people are however are very excited to support their school when some-thing is happening so when Win Mumby arrives next year students would want to support their teams again.

by - Nandini Aggarwal

by - Shikhar DhinghraHello Woodstock.

Would you like to know how to get a 4.3 GPA? If yes, then this article is for you! Just keep read-ing, and when you are done, you’ll be mentally equipped to earn yourself a 4.3 GPA!

Getting a 4.3 GPA in Woodstock school is a near impossible task. Be-lieve it or not, the num-ber of people who get a 4.3 GPA is much less than the number of juniors who get through the sen-ior line at lunch time. So to make it easier for you to get a 4.3 GPA, I’ve split the process into three

easy steps (with a fourth one for desperate times).

Step1:The first step to get a

4.3 GPA is to take fewer courses. If you take few-er courses, you have less work to do, and more time to do it. Not only does this increase the quality of your work, it also allows you to do more of it. So next se-mester, when you’re sign-ing up for courses, make sure that you only sign up for only one or two. You might not be able to fulfill your graduation re-quirements and have to repeat school a few years

because you took such lit-tle courses, but sacrifices have to be made for a 4.3 GPA.

Step 2:The second step for a

4.3 GPA is to study. Let me make this clear to you; if you study, you will get good grades! Accord-ing to a survey I may have conducted, 99% of the people with 4.3 GPA’s said the secret to their suc-cess is that they study. So go lock yourself in your room, and study. A LOT.

Step 3:Another way to get

the perfect GPA is to

suck up to your teach-ers. Compliment them whenever you can. That new haircut your teacher got? Tell him that it looks nice (even if it doesn’t). You could also buy your teachers stuff. Has your teacher ever mentioned that s/he wants a Lam-borghini? BUY HIM A LAMBORGHINI!!! If your pocket money for the month can’t cover the costs of a $200,000 car, then maybe you can try to bake cookies. Those might be a little bit cheaper.

Step 4:(DISCLAIMER: This

step is only to be used if all else fails, and re-quires some Photoshop skill) So you’ve tried all the other steps and still haven’t managed to get a 4.3 GPA? The only thing you can do now is paste a photo of your grades into Photoshop (or paint), and change all your grades to A+’s. Print the photo out, get it framed, and hang it in your room. Tadaa! Now you have a 4.3 GPA! You can also mail this picture to your friends and family to convince them that you are smart.

Entertainment

The Tiger 8

He Said,She Said

Agony Aunt

What is your/her favourite colour?Amrita: “Pink, Black and Blue” Zaine: “Black”

What is your favourite card/board game?Amrita: “I don’t like board games” Zaine: “Poker”

What is your favourite junk food?Amrita: “French fries” Zaine: “Chocolates”

How long have you been together?Amrita: “3 months” Zaine: “3 months, 8 days”

When is your birthday?Amrita: “14th July” Zaine: “That’s easy, 14th July”

What is your favourite animal?Amrita: “Lion and Tiger” Zaine: “Tigers, basically any cat animal”

What is your favourite Disney movie?Amrita: “Alladin, he’s so hot” Zaine: “Alladin”

What would you do if you were surrounded by a group of monkeys?Amrita: “I’d cry” Zaine: “I’d try to scare them away and then she’d tell me to stop acting cool”

What’s his most irritating habit?Amrita: “He’s always late and he likes annoying me”Zaine: “When she tries to speak in a british accent”

Who’s his favourite football player?Amrita: “The spanish goalkeeper guy, I don’t know his name but I’m pretty sure and Ronaldo I guess.”Zaine: “Casillas ( The Spanish Goal Keeper) ”

Dear Agony Aunt, My question is a mainstream one.

I like a guy. He’s a very cool senior, with a perfect body and sexy hair. I didn’t think I’d even have a small chance to be with him because all the senior girls are very hot, and I’m nothing compared to them. But something amazing happened yesterday; he smiled at me. Does he like me back? Will we ever be together? Please answer.

-Lovestruck

Dear Lovestruck,I understand how you feel. I’ve liked many guys in my younger years too. Try giving him food; that always works. If he still doesn’t feel attracted you, just tell him to say “I love YouTube” really fast. It’ll sound like he’s saying “I love you too”, and that’s the best you’re gonna get darling.

-Aunt

The Tiger9