The ATL Marathon is the Atal Innovation Mission’s (AIM) flagship national innova- tion challenge, where schools identify community problems of their choice and develop innovative solutions in the form of working prototypes.

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It’s not just a place where you get to learn Einstein’s Theory
of Relativity. It’s also a place where you can think beyond
the classroom. Hence we say, SCHOOL IS COOL
SCHOOL IS COOL
03
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
LAND; YOURS OR MINE?
THE WAR MONGERS’ DILEMMA
W
e’ve been hearing it from
all over; the brutal bomb-
ings, the terrifyingly un-
precedented missiles, innocent
hostages, and the overall convo-
luted sensation regarding the
whole predicament. In case you
haven’t guessed, this depicts the
Israel-Hamas conflict, which has a
bloody history ever since the forma-
tion of Israel. Boiled down, this is
a clash for territory using religion.
Never underestimate religion in
politics since humans tend to group
with people with similar beliefs for
better or worse. Here, the struggle
is between the Palestinian militant
group, Hamas, and the Israelis.
The unexpected attack began
by the Hamas, launching 2500-7000
missiles over the border of the Gaza
Strip on the 7th of October 2023.
And on the 8th the Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
declared war on Hamas under ter-
rorism. A little geography lesson
on this: Israel is flanked by 2 chunks
of land, the smaller one on the left
being the Gaza Strip and the larger
one on the right being the West
Bank. These two areas of land are
Palestine. The Hamas oversees
Gaza and Israel mostly oversees the
West Bank. Some pockets of land
in the West Bank belong to the Fa-
tah. This is the current splitting of
the countries. This rivalry dates
back to 2000 BCE.
The Hamas were provoked by
Israelis raiding the Al-Aqsa
mosque, a religious shrine for the
Arabs in Palestine, with armed se-
curity
. When enquired they say that
the attack is the response to dec-
ades of treating Gaza like an open-
air prison. Also, there is a claim
that Israelis were exploiting Pales-
tinians. In 2006, an election was
held in Palestine when the Hamas
won and another voting session was
never held. To add on, the Hamas
leadership felt the need to act since
diplomatic ties between Arab na-
tions and Israel were threatening
to get stronger. The prominence of
the Palestinian issue for Arab lead-
ers was further weakened by this
process.
The Arab-Israeli conflict would
have changed if a normalization
agreement between the two coun-
tries had been reached, which may
have eliminated the already slim
odds of a two-state solution. Hamas
included this in its calculations.
This group destroyed the barrier
between Israel and the Gaza Strip,
took Israeli military officers and
ordinary civilians’ hostage, and
committed mass murder. In re-
sponse, Israel has vowed to take
serious action and cut off water,
electricity, and oil supply
.
This leaves innocent Gaza citi-
zens to be displaced and homeless
as Israel launches missile after mis-
sile. Plus, the people cannot seek
refuge since the border is blocked
and the people cannot leave Gaza
without Israel’s permission, which
few people get. So it would be safe
to say that the Hamas does not rep-
resent the Palestinians in Gaza.
Furthermore, another astounding
revelation would be the massive
failure of Israel’s intelligence force.
This attack was planned, with
the Hamas cornering Israel
through land and air military op-
erations as well as disturbing the
Iron Dome. Surely one of the
strongest intelligence forces in the
world would be able to see all this
coming? The reason they failed
would be the traditional Israeli ar-
rogance that we are strong and we
have the strongest army in the
world with the best technology
. We
built this barrier which costs bil-
lions of dollars, and therefore we
are secure.
The second reason is the pri-
orities of this government because
this government deliberately ex-
pended all its troops in the West
Bank to guard all the settlers and
the settlements and the southern
front was left quite abandoned’ ac-
cording to Gideon Levy, a Haaretz
columnist. Additionally, the infa-
mous iron dome over Israel, de-
ployed in 2011, was overwhelmed
with the missiles launched. The
sheer number of missiles launched
confused the systems operating the
dome.
But currently, the dome now
does its job of intercepting mis-
siles. Gaza is a poor ter-
ritory; the question
seems obvious as to
where the Hamas is get-
ting funds to run this
large-scale operation.
The Hamas openly an-
nounced that Iran is
supplying $100 million
annually to run the op-
eration. This also raises
the question of the relationships
Israel has with other countries
such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, the
United States and India. Saudi and
Iran compete for dominance in re-
ligion and monopolization in glob-
al trade (also influence in regional
politics). This sums up the Cold
War status of the Middle East. So,
it comes as a surprise to know that
Iran was the second country to rec-
ognize Israel as a country
. But that
happened under a US-influenced
leader, and now, after his overthrow,
the new president shows support
for the Hamas.
The Saudis stopped supporting
the Hamas once they formed ties
with Iran. Saudi Arabia has never
had any diplomatic relations with
Israel. The United States organized
the signing of the Abraham Ac-
cords in 2020, a peace treaty, by Is-
rael, UAE, and Bahrain. There was
also the plan to sign a deal with
Saudi and Israel.
All this would lead to those
countries becoming more powerful,
which is bad news for Iran. Thus
they fund the Hamas. Now, where
does India lie in this conflict? Well,
ever since the Palestine showed
open support to Pakistan, India’s
previously good ties with Palestine
were lost. Moreover, Israel supplied
weapons to India, helping in multi-
ple wars between India and Paki-
stan while Palestine supported
Pakistan. Another important rea-
son would be that India is firmly
against terrorism.
Because of all these reasons
India supports Israel. Recently, In-
dia refused a request by Palestine
to have one of their embassies here.
Operation Ajay was launched on
the 12th to retrieve almost 18000
Indian citizens in Israel those who
were willing to evacuate. So, how
will this affect India and the world
economically? The last time some-
thing of this scale happened in Is-
rael, was in 1953, the price of oil
increased to nations supporting
Israel, leading to a global shortage.
This could also happen now if
the Arab nations get involved in
this conflict and block ma-
jor sea oil export routes.
This is bad for India since
we import most of our oil
from the Arab nations.
Also, this war could lead to
worldwide recessions and
hamper economic growth.
VIDYARAMBHAM CELEBRATED AT SVVS
ENRICHING CREATIVITY AT IT’S BEST
A
ccording to Hindu tradi-
tion, Vijayadasami is
observed as the day of
”Vidyarambham”, the begin-
ning of learning. As Couplet
392, from Thirukkural says
“Ennenpa Enai Ezhuththenpa
Ivvirantum Kannenpa Vaazh
umUyirkku.”Lettersandnum-
bers are the two eyes of man.
To welcome the tiny tots into
the world of letters and num-
bers, Vidyarambam Ceremony
was held in Sri Vinayaga Vid-
hyalayaSchoolon24thOctober
2023, the day of Vijayadasami .
TheVidhyarambamceremo-
nybeganwiththelightingof the
traditional lamp by the Admin-
istrative Officer, Nirmala Devi.
Special Pooja was performed to
GoddessSaraswatibytheProgi-
tharonthatday.TheschoolCor-
respondent,Somasundaram,led
the ceremony by initiating the
first student to write their first
letter.
The students, dressed in
colourful attire along with
their parents wrote their first
alphabet on paddy, symboliz-
ing the initiation into the
world of learning. The joy and
pride on the faces of parents
were heartwarming, as they
witnessed their children take
their first steps in the world
of learning. The Principal,
Sarlin delivered an inspiring
speech, emphasizing the im-
portance of education and the
role of Vidhyarambam in
shaping the future of our stu-
dents. The kids enjoyed play-
ing with Building Blocks, Puz-
zles, Toys and etc. The new
curriculum for 9th and 11th
graders were introduced that
day to provide a holistic and
culturally rich educational
experience. Sweets were dis-
tributed to the students, teach-
ers and parents. Vidhyaram-
bam marked a significant
milestone in their educational
journey
.
‘C
ompetitions are con-
ducted to bring out
brilliant ideas and in-
novations & to gain a great
learning experience for all’.
KalamEducationCentrehost-
ed State Level Competitions
forChildren’sDayinSriGopal
Naidu Children’s School re-
cently
. The successful event
sawtheactiveparticipationof
665 students in different cate-
gories to express their views
in different events such as
Handwriting, Colouring ,
Drawing&EssayWriting.The
young minds prepared zeal-
ously to excel in their respec-
tiveeventsandexhibitedtheir
creativity and unbridled im-
agination through their little
fingers and the palette of col-
ours with great passion and
enthusiasm.
Thecompetitionheldwas
not just a physical activity
, it
was organized to be an oppor-
tunity to enhance their skills
andtalentsamongthetinytots.
Theparticipantswereappreci-
ated for their active participa-
tion. The winners will be an-
nouncedonChildren’sDayby
the event organizers.
STUDENTS BAG PRIZES IN
‘ALL ROUNDER COMPETITION’
A
n all-rounder competition was conducted at GRN
School. Several students took part in the competi-
tion where the students are categorized as senior
and junior level. They were evaluated based on their
general knowledge score and credential marks in sports,
drawing, spell bee and all extra-curricular activities.
Participation certificate was given to all the students.
Aanya & Harshitha Sri of class V
, Niroopan & Sidhiksha
of class XII were appreciated with the certificate of
achievement. All the students were appreciated for their
enthusiastic participation.
YUVABHARATHIENTERSATL
MARATHONTOPTEAMSLIST
T
heATLMarathonis
theAtalInnovation
Mission’s (AIM)
flagship national innova-
tion challenge, where
schools identify commu-
nity problems of their
choice and develop inno-
vative solutions in the
form of working proto-
types. TheATLMarathon
2022–23 edition was cen-
tred on the G20 theme,
and it saw more than
12,200 innovations from
studentsacrosseverycor-
ner of India—the highest
participation to date.
Yuvabharathi Public
School’s A.Mahathmika
and M.Prakalya, under
the guidance of R. Divya,
STEM teacher, submitted
their project, SmartSan-
isyster, a hybrid hospital
datamanagementsystem
and an automatic door
knob sanitiser that will
come in handy for main-
taining hygiene in hospi-
talsandclinicsthatdonot
havehigh-endtechnology
.
Aftermanyroundsof
evaluation,AIMfinalized
the Top 400 teams of ATL
Marathon 2022-23, which
will become part of the
Student Innovator Pro-
gram (SIP).
SmartSanisyster se-
cured a place in the Top
100 list in India and the
Top 10 in Tamil Nadu and
was recognized as the
only team from Coim-
batore to be listed in the
ATL Marathon 2022–23
winners.
Yuvabharathi se-
cured its place in the ATL
Marathontopperslistsfor
both 2020 and 2021–22,
marking ATL Marathon
2022-23 its third consecu-
tive year of this honour.
FOLLOW YOUR
PASSION ALIGNED
WITH YOUR SKILLSET
H
ow often have you heard the phrase, “Just follow
yourpassion”?Probablytoomanytimes.Itsthetop
advice for many business executives to share with
entrepreneur or new university graduates. Having a pas-
sion is wonderful. It gives life purpose and from the mo-
notony of everyday life. However, not all passions lead to
a successful career. For some, it can carry lifelong debt
and a sense of failure. Following you passion linked with
your skill set and ability to recognize if it will work will
help you successfully pivot in your career. It is possible to
find work or build a business that aligns with your skill
set, still makes you happy working on project and gives
you time off hours to pursue what you’re most passionate
about.
S. M. HASHINI , CLASS VIII, SBIOA PUBLIC SR. SEC SCHOOL
MISUNDERSTOOD
WARRIORS
In honor of National Pit Bull Awareness Day,
Let's gather together, let our voices convey,
A tale of strength, love, and loyalty so true,
For these brave-hearted dogs, we hold in our view.
With eyes that shine bright, and hearts full of grace,
Pit bulls bring joy to each and every space,
Their wagging tails and gentle, loving ways,
Illuminate the darkness, brightening our days.
Misunderstood warriors, they stand tall and proud,
Their spirit unyielding, their hearts beating loud,
They teach us forgiveness, resilience, and trust,
In their warm embrace, we find love's robust.
Let's dispel the myths that surround their name,
For it's not in their breed, but in nurture we claim,
With patience and kindness, they'll flourish and bloom,
Transforming our lives, dispelling the gloom.
National Pit Bull Awareness Day, a time to unite,
To celebrate these dogs, in whom goodness ignites,
Together we'll raise our voices, strong and clear,
Embracing their presence, banishing fear.
So let's honor their spirit, with empathy and care,
Spread the message of love, let compassion be shared,
On this special day, let's pledge to stand tall,
For pit bulls deserve love, respect, and our all.
ASHWIKA MUTHUKUMAR
SRI GOWRI SENTHIL, Class IX
The Indian Public School, Salem