1) The document describes the author's journey as a teacher who found purpose and meaning through preparing her students for Model United Nations (MUN) competitions. 2) Her students transformed her by instilling confidence and respect, and many went on to prestigious universities while continuing to participate in MUN. 3) The author details taking students from a small boarding school in India to international MUN competitions, overcoming obstacles to give students experiences that opened their minds and had lifelong impacts.

1. The Road Less Travelled…..that has made all the difference
I am here to tell you my story.
My story is about myself. However, in my story I am not the heroine. The main characters of my
story are my children, the joy of my life, my students.
It is a known fact that teachers touch lives of students but my story is about a teacher being
transformed by the sheer hard work, grit and determination of her students.
I created opportunities for myself to become a better person. My story is of my students
transforming me.
My students turned me out to be the Philospher’s stone. My story is about the winds of change
that opened the mind of the little people I taught who in turn taught me valuable lessons in life.
There are diamond mines everywhere but they are useless without having been discovered,
extracted and cut to the pure carats.
Therefore, my story is about the journey of finding myself. I was like thousands of other
teachers. It was with MUN that I found myself and what I am today is a credit to my work with
my students who brought me a lot of confidence, love, affection and most important respect and
recognition.
My story is placed at Pinegrove School, a pvt boarding school tucked between the pine trees in a
very small obscure hill station village of Subathu in Himachal Pradesh, the foothills of the
Shivalik Himalayan range . It is here that I found a home in a school. Here I found a family with
my students.
My story in Pinegrove is about MUN. My story is about my dreams which became a quest and
my young MUNers became my accomplishments.
My story would be incomplete without mentioning my Headmaster Capt. Aj Singh with whom I
understood that good leaders create leadership in others.
My story is about my brat pack who gave me unparalled joy and happiness . Who got me
recognition and respect and cajoled and motivated me to move out of Himachal. They constantly
told me how I was made to work in an international school. They instilled in me the confidence
and faith in my abilities and here I am today working in Dubai and presenting a talk at this
platform. I owe a lot of credit to them.
My story is about Ravyansh who in his first MUN at The Doon School, sat with his jaw hanging
open and totally confused with what was going on and who went on to win the Best Delegate the
next two consecutive years not just at DSMUN but also at London MUN in 2011. He was elected

2. the Head Boy of school in his senior most yr and is presently suddenly Aeronautical Engineering
at Univ of Manchester.
My story is about Ananya who I remember was all of 13 yrs when I first took her to national
MUN . She would always come to the research sessions with her school Atlas and would quickly
flip through pages to look at the country and its location what we were discussing. That Atlas
went with her to the conferences the next yr too. She too went on to win many awards at national
and the international MUN and presently is studying at the Univ of Edinburgh.
My story is about Sungmin who is studying Engineering in his first yr at KAIST , South Korea.
My story is about Tarun who drove me up the wall with his constant refusal to follow any
instructions I gave and gave me quite many ranting and raving moments with the team and then
would very coolly quip; “ Miss, why so much negativity” I could just roll my eyes and count to
10 to cool down , yet wrote me a beautiful sentimental mail after he left school about how I had
touched and impacted his life and given him something meaningful to do during school years. He
is studying International Law at Pune Univ and travels to Papaua New Guniea to train young
school children the finer nuance of MUN.
My story is about Angad who is a walking talking encyclopedia of information and a hacker
worth his salt. A foodie to boot whose any other passion after Math and MUN was food and
eating. He too is studying engineering at Manglore in India.
My story is about being ecstatic to have been given the opportunity and platform to train and
prepare students for Model United Nations. Model UN is a platform which teaches students to
hone on their public speaking skills along with learning social skills, critical thinking and
research skills to discuss international politics and issues deliberating to find solutions to world
problems. Nothing can be more wholesome as an experience for a teenager than to be lobbying
as a diplomat of his country.
It is a story of heartfelt contentment I felt preparing my students for MUN as I had always
wanted to join the UN but was limited by lack of information and guidance and cultural
restrictions of my time.
It is a story of sitting through various committee sessions with my students and feeling
empowered that I was one of the few who knew how the UN function understanding that UN is
not a failed organization. Apart from political decisions or indecisions it is doing a lot of
humanitarian work around the world and nations are grateful for the international Aids that keeps
people warm and well fed.
It is a story that is about humble beginning with Model United Nations at school not knowing
how the whole project functions and going on to win awards at international level. The
preparations that had all of us –the teacher and the students working till the wee hours of the

3. morning. The many hours of constructive work bullied out of students under either threats or the
motivational power of lasagna and chocolate cake with unlimited supply of black coffee and
green tea. Yes! We had South Korean Sungmin Choi with us. Remember? What a plate of
Lasagna will not get for you. Just last yr I had a lovely mail from Sungmin who was travelling
through Barcelona and remembered me while his family ordered lasagna in a restaurant there.
Simple joys of life.
It is also the story that brought humility to the whole team . It brought home to the privileged
students of a rich pvt school that how secure, cocooned and comfortable we were in our little
world while at that very moment there were women and children being shot down in the town of
Allepo or the children who were fighting no body’s war as child soldiers in central Africa and
more close to my heart the virgin girls in certain parts of Africa and south East Asia being
subjected to the horrendous practice of female genital mutilation. I remember a session where
we were researching on humanitarian aid to Haiti, Ravyansh came across a document holding
very graphic pictures of mutilated decaying maggot ridden bodies of people killed during civil
war in Haiti. . We had to shut down the screen and we sat very quiet for a few minutes unable to
voice anything moved to our very core.
This story is also about introducing MUN to a small school in the agricultural heartland of
Haryana in Northern India who did not know what UN is and also students who had never
travelled with their family and ever lived in a hotel.
My story is about my journey from Himachal to Haryana to Dubai. A sea change in terms of
work culture and culture as a whole. It would be truly like the Movie Crocodile Dandy.
However, I am not from the outback actually. Owing to my years as a sportsman and my
husband’s transferrable job, I have been fortunate to travel to the length and breadth of my
country and abroad. There is a story here too but that will have to be for another time.
My story most amazingly is also about walking across the hallowed corridors of the United
Nations HQ at New York attending the UN4MUN workshop and being certified a UN4MUN
trainer if I may call myself one. It was with great difficulty I controlled myself from doing
cartwheels and making sounds of whooping joy while sneaking in to the UNGA and UNSC for
photo ops.
Ultimately, my story is about gender equity and creating equal opportunities for my girls at my
present school of employment. This story is about Rohini Baburaj, Surumi Khalid, Rimsh Haji,
Vandana Nandakumar, Alish Joseph, Pooja Baburaj and Fiza Fathima. My bravehearts who
broke the proverbial mold and stepped out of their security blanket to experience the brilliant and
overwhelming world of MUN.
For the first time in the history of the school since its 38 yrs in Dubai, a team of girls travelled
for the first time out of school for Co Ed event to participate in Bhavan Vidyalaya MUN in

4. Chandigarh. India. We until the last day before travel did not know whether the team was going
or not. After great difficulty and badgering authorities with the single minded determination of
not accepting NO for an answer got me what I wanted.
Recently a small gp of girls went to NASA. A small step for the world but a giant leap for my
girls.
This part of the story is about fulfilling my students’ expectations out of me. It is a huge burden
to carry and Inshallah, deliver I will. Journey is well begun……
With experience sought at BVCMUN, my girls today are busy preparing for the first edition of
Inter school NIMSMUN’16. I am immensely proud of them. It is an ex in leadership at that
young an age. Rohini Baburaj today is the Head girl elected with a whopping 96 % vote margin.
And because the visible impact of participating in MUN has been so great in the lives of my girls
that it does become like an Idea worth Sharing.
Ladies and gentlemen, I say, Keep calm and Do Model UN.