Dipsites attend The Planet Harmnony Exchange Program
6 students from our school went for the Planet Harmony Exchange Program this year accompanied by a teacher. The program was a life-time experience where the students got the opportunity to gain tremendous experience of various sorts. Planet Harmony is a project that intends to help students from conflict areas build around themselves an environment conducive to amity, integrity and development. It intends to bring the students of the disturbed areas to Delhi and provide them an opportunity to live, share space and form buddies with students of the NCR (National Capital Region), Delhi.
6 of our class X students, along with a teacher went on this project for about 10 days. Their travel was sponsored by Indigo airlines which is a partner of the Planet Harmony. The students stayed with their buddies in Delhi for a period of 4 days. It was amazing and heart-warming to see the students of our school gel up with their buddies in Delhi. Right from the airport, they met all as if they had known each other since forever. During their stay in Delhi the students and their buddies enjoyed and spent some quality time together, creating strong bonds of friendship and affection. They went for movies, shopping, sight-seeing, etc.
On 1st June our students, along with their buddies, travelled from Delhi to Rishikesh where they were expected to be a part of the Snow Leopard Adventure Camp. In the camp, our students were not the only ones but there was a wonderful crowd of around 50 students and teachers from different states in India such as Manipur, Chattisgarh, etc. All the participants present there were hosted by the Planet Harmony team and the Snow Leopard Adventure Camp staff. It was a privilege to meet Mr. Bajaj and his family, the owner of the Snow Leopard Adventure Camp and the mind behind the whole concept of Planet Harmony. The hosts and the facilitators in the camp were very warm to all and set a perfect example of service to humanity by building bridges between students of different cultures and regions. They successfully brought together all these different cultures and united them into one- the culture of humanity. A lot of activities and sessions were performed with the students over a brief period of 5 days in the camp. The students learnt to respect and love each other while they lived in tents and shared space and spent time with each other. The camp was quite a thrilling experience where all the participants got the opportunity to go for river rafting and zip-lining across the mighty Ganga. Apart from that, other activities like trekking, rock-climbing, a trip to the beach, making sand castles, cleanliness drive, etc. were also performed with great zeal and enthusiasm. The students also performed their cultural dances on the cultural night and got the opportunity to cook a dish from their regional cuisines. It was a delight to watch the students of different backgrounds and cultures become a close-knit family within this short period of five days. The students in the end made a promise to take the spirit of this program forward and work on a project in which they can affect the life of people in some good way in their own states.
The students finally left back for Delhi on 5th June and stayed there with their host families. Then on the 6th of June all the participants of the exchange program received the honour to meet the Vice-President of our country, Mr. Hamid Ansari in his official residence. The Vice- President interacted with all the students and appreciated the efforts of the Planet Harmony Team for bringing together the young people of our nation and creating unity in them. All the participants were humbled by the warmth and concern shared by our Vice-President and enjoyed the evening tea-party hosted by his staff. The students were also lucky enough to get the chance to meet the President of Ingigo airlines, Mr. Amitabh Ghosh in his Indigo head-office in Delhi. His team had hosted a lunch party for all the participants and it was a delight to hear him interact with the students and share his inspiring words of wisdom with all. On 7th June our students flew back to Kashmir after bidding a tearful adieu to their new found friends in Delhi.
