Fun and games, victory and defeat…students of Hariyana Vidya Mandir celebrated their annual sports over two days at the field adjacent to their BA Block campus. 

The first day was for the senior school and the first event was march-past. Students of the four houses — Blue, Orange, Red and Green — paraded, led by the student council. They also took an oath where they pledged to be better human beings.

Then came colourful dances. Students performed Rajasthani folk dance to the song Ghoomar from Padmavat and Bengal’s raibeshe dance to Dhitang dhitang bole. Martial arts students displayed karate moves and wielded the nunchaku and stick. There was yoga too. “While physical activities keep our bodies and minds active, self-defence is also very important now-a-days,” said Geeta Sharma, the sports and yoga teacher.

Apart from 100m, 200m and 400m flat race, there were relay races, skipping races and shot puts. “I am a member of the state basketball team but no matter how many awards one wins outside, winning in the school is always special,” said Shreyas Guha of Class X, who came first in shot put.

Adrija Ghosh was all smiles as she received the individual champions trophy for 2018. “I’ve won several prizes over the last five years in sports, march-past, debate but I badly wanted this award,” said the Class XII student. “Every year, I would watch seniors winning it and today I finally achieved it myself.”

Birds, lawyers, superheroes

Day II had the juniors — from lower KG to Class V — taking part.  The tots looked cute performing their rhyme drills in colourful costumes and pompoms. “Kids now-a-days are very smart. They learnt all the steps in just 10 days and performed beautifully today,” said Rina Jaluka, class teacher of lower KG.

It was also a special moment for the parents. “We had no clue what our son would be performing as he had declared ‘tomader barite dekhabo na’,”laughed Bholanath Dutta, father of five-year-old Bedanto. “But he was great and all credit goes to his teachers.”

Besides the regular races, there were also some fun ones. Some races had kids rushing to get ready for office, packing their bags for school, running with a chocolate in hand or jumping and picking up bananas. “I had to put books, a pencil box and tiffin box inside a bag and run in the ‘pack my bag race’,” said Md. Laarayb Ahmed of Class II, who stood first in it. “It was easy as I do it at home too. Only this time, I won a prize for it!”

Older students had a fancy dress competition. The theme for Class III was birds, for IV it was superheros and for Class V it was professions. “I love macaws. They are such beautiful and colourful birds,” said Rittika Dey, who won the contest dressed as one. Her outfit had feathers all over and she wore a beak and a feathery cap too.

Asmita Chakraborty won the prize for dressing up as a lawyer in black and white. “Lawyers are smart and powerful and I want to become one in real life too,” she said.

And finally, it was time for the overall winning house to be declared. Green house won the champion’s trophy and Blue house won the award for best march-past. “I am so happy Green house won and more so as I was able to contribute in the win,” said Preetha Mondol of Class X, who came first in the flat race and second in shot put.

“Kids today are under a lot of pressure and their play time is getting reduced day by day. But more than 2,000 students participated in our sports day this year which shows that they are still interested in the field. We try our best to support them,” said principal Nandini Sen.