Award

2009 15 and Under: 2nd place

Team

PRIYAKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

debarghaKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

ASHIRRKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

abdulKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

RimiKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

AkhilKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

Age Range

15 & under

Coaches

SAPTARSHI MAJUMDERKendriya Vidyalaya Project Sewak, Dimapur, Nagaland, India

Audience

All ages

Language

English

Team Collaboration

The members complemented and supplemented each other's strengths and weakness. The team consisted of six members; Debargo, Ashir, Abdul, Rimi, Akhil and Priya. All of them do not belong to the same Class. Debargo and Ashir are one year junior to the other members. Therefore, Debargo and Ashir reviewed the Class VII English books and Abdul, Rimi, Akhil and Priya reviewed the Class VIII English books. Abdul is the team leader. He helped others in making banners, animation and also in changing the font colour. Ashir had some problems while performing in the skit. The seniors taught him the right way to perform. Then Ashir did not know how to make a good power point presentation. Abdul taught him that. Rimi wrote and directed the skit. Since Priya had little experience of working in Thinkquest, Rimi taught Priya how to use the various ThinkQuest tools for the narrative pages. Rimi had earlier met the novelist Rimi B Chatterjee. So, she used her acquaintance with the novelist to arrange an interview with her. Rimi also scheduled an appointment with the manager of Oxford Bookstore. Abdul and Akhil coordinated the bookstall survey outside Dimapur. Rimi provided the transportation during the survey in Dimapur. Priya and Ashir could not come after school hours, or on holidays but still they did their work at home and kept pace with the others. Debargo wrote in a very systematic way; and he was the first to upload and that set a good example to the other members. Ashir had a problem with regard to uploading the power point presentation because his computer has Windows 2007. Abdul helped him with regard to that. In the end I must say that everybody worked hard, more so because the members, especially, Rimi, Abdul and Akhil played an active role in the School Annual Function which was organised in just seven days time on 29th and 30th of April. One day Abdul even skipped his lunch in order to learn animation. In the month of April most of his holidays, Abdul had spent working on the project. He led by example and constantly motivated Akhil to finish his work on time. Rimi also worked very hard and never complained. The seniors set a very good example for the juniors; and the team completed the project before the deadline, also in less than one month's time. The project is not an individual effort but a collective effort. They learned from each other and in the end proved that unity is indeed strength; and unity makes even a seemingly difficult work easy.

Team Diversity

The team was indeed a diverse team. Ashir and Debargo are almost one year younger then the remaining four members. Abdul is Muslim while the other members are Hindu. Debargo, Abdul and Priya are Bengali. Rimi is Nepali. Ashir is from Central India and Akhil is from the mountains of North India. Priya and Akhil are from the army background while the others are from civilian background. Rimi's father is a surveyor, Akhil's father is an agricultural scientist, Debargo's father works in a bank and Abdul's father is a business man. So, the team members come from different cultural, religious and socio-economic background and this instead of creating divisions enhanced their performance. They found each other interesting and in their attempt to know each other better they went out of the way to help each other. Abdul and Akhil formed a sub-team within the team, and so did Rimi and Priya. Debargo and Ashir had some conflicts in the beginning but that proved fruitful because once Debargo was copying from Wikipedia and Ashir noticed, asking him not to do that bringing the matter to the notice of others. Ashir and Priya could not take part in the after school hours outdoor activities and field trips because of their army background and because of the resulting security concerns engendered by the volatile political situation in Nagaland. Further, Priya did not have a PC, or an internet cafe near her home. As a result, her participation was minimal. However, the other members did not complain and Rimi constantly helped her. Some of the members could not afford a PC and internet connection. Those members who had computers with internet connection at home helped those who do not have computer at home. One thing that augmented their cohesiveness is the fact that other than Priya all the team members have siblings and none of them were introverts. Priya is somewhat of an introvert but the buoyancy of the remaining team members carried her along and inspite of being the weakest link in the chain she played her role quite well and the chain did not break as the others were always willing to give her a helping hand. Coming from different linguistic background also helped as knowledge of local language proved an advantage while doing the bookstall survey. To conclude, it should be pointed out that all the members are Kendriya Vidyalaya students and therefore, they very well know how to cut across differences and work as a team, to work as an Indian.