This year’s annual garba fest was an enthralling experience where students from MYP and DP came together to celebrate the festival- navaratri. Navaratri is a festival dedicated to the Divine Feminine, most often associated with Durga Ma and Goddess Parvati. It is celebrated mainly by performing the popular dance form- Garba.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

This year, I got the opportunity to lead the Garba Fest for my peers and it was an enthralling experience. I have always volunteered for various organisations/projects, but this was my very first project that I got to lead in. Since I come from a family with gujarati background, I have always been passionate about garba, which reflected in my commitment towards this project. I was able to be creative and gather unique ideas for the event. However, since I didn’t have much experience with leadership, it did get challenging at times, but with the help of my partners as well as volunteers, we were able to make the event successful.

LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills.

As mentioned above, leading this project was definitely a challenge for me personally due to my lack of experience in the field. However, I didn’t step back from it but continued to work hard and persevere, taking on new challenges as I overcame previous ones.

LO3 – Initiate and plan a CAS experience

Throughout the planning and organisation of the event, we contacted and took help from various teachers as well as staff members. We had to coordinate with the stationary store regarding our requirements for decor, inform them way prior about everything we needed, so that we could start making the decorations as early as possible. Moreover, the transport department also had to be contacted regarding transport routes for the day of the event. Early-ins to the school were organised everyday for about a month before the event.

LO4 – Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience.

This event was a major challenge for me, since we had to invest a major amount of time to it. Since I was a new student, personally the entire IB curriculum and the method of teaching was very new to me. Tackling that along with this project was a challenge I undertook and successfully executed. There were times when I was sleep-deprived and didn’t feel like attending early-ins, but still I showed up for the majority of the days, since I had made a commitment and was not backing off from it at all 🙂

LO5 – Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively.

Our team consisted of around 15 members, including the core committee members. Each of us were unique with our ideas, skills and abilities, leading to a variety of suggestions for various aspects such as decorations, placement for photobooths, banner design etc. Despite such differences, we were all able to effectively communicate and come to a clear conclusion. Each of the team members reflected maturity in their actions, which eventually resulted in the success of the event.

LO6 – Engagement with issues of global significance.

This event consisted of students coming together, embracing the dance form-garba. Students irrespective of their religion or linguistic background joined hands on this day, which majorly helped make the event a success. It highlighted the power of unity and the need to eradicate discrimination or unfairness among people, which is truly a major global issue right now, with people being divided and countries fighting with each other like anything.

LO7 – Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Since childhood, we have been told to cooperate with our friends, our communities and avoid fighting. Also, to show respect to others, no matter their age, gender or race. All of this definitely reflected in the team’s choices and actions. We prevented fights and arguments, by openly communicating each of our needs and creating a space for others to share their opinions and points of view. Moreover, everyone respected each other’s choices, even if they clashed with their own. Everybody kept their ethics and values in mind throughout the event, which made the success even more fulfilling.