Happenings

IHS Celebrates Ganesh Chathurthi

IHS celebrated Ganesh Chathurthi on 18th September by having a special assembly in the morning. An animation video on Lord Ganesha, titled Khubera’s Feast was played in the assembly, but the beautiful thing was that the voice over was done by the workshop participants! When the students heard their own voices in the animation video, their joy knew no bounds. It was certainly an unforgettable experience.

Voice Over Workshop with Ms. Prachi Sathi

Some of the middle school students got the opportunity to attend a voiceover workshop with a guest artist Ms. Prachi Save Saathi. It happened for 2hours every day for three days starting 15th of September. Ms. Saathi is a Mumbai-based award-winning Indian dancer, actress, and voice-dubbing actress. Also a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, she is the official Hindi dubbing voice for the Disney character, Minnie Mouse. There are many other famous characters that she has done voice-over roles such as Dennis Mitchell from Dennis the Menace, George Little from Stuart Little, Emily Elizabeth Howard from Clifford the Big Red Dog and Clifford’s Puppy Days, Vicky the Robot from Small Wonder, Darby and Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, Lagoona Blue from Monster High, and even Alice from Alice in Wonderland, both Live Action and animated. Ms.Saathi has also dubbed for Jaden Smith in the hindi version of Karate Kid and a character named Max for a program titled Pokémon for Cartoon Network .

The students started off the workshop with a lot of breathing exercises. They learnt diverse techniques of speaking with high and low pitches, different volumes and expressing emotions through voice. They played a gamut of fun games during the workshop. In the end, they shed their inhibitions and were able to speak with a little more confidence than when they came in on the first day. The students also did a live recording of a short animated video on Lord Ganesha. Each student had a paragraph to speak and it was an exhilarating experience for them when they had to record and re-record multiple times because a word was not pronounced or emoted properly.

Some students share:

I had a really good time doing exercises and recording my voice. I never knew it would be that good. I did different kinds of voices and expressions which I never thought I could do. I felt like having the workshop going on for another week or two. It was the best workshop I’ve ever attended. My friends and I would walk to the dining hall chatting about it, “The workshop is awesome!” All I can say is that I had an awesome, amazing, wonderful and the best time in this workshop. – Karishma.

This is the second time I’m attending a voice over workshop. It was fun learning exercises to improve my voice so that it’s loud and clear enough. It was a bit hard for me to dub the voice of Minnie Mouse because it was really high. It’s my first time dubbing for a video and I was excited about it. – Mythri.

I enjoyed the voice over workshop. I’ve learnt many things like modulating my voice, talking in different pitches, throwing my voice so it is heard well. I can use these techniques during drama, speech and many more. – Natarajan.

Teacher’s Day at IHS

September 5th marks an exciting day of the year for teachers at Isha Home School. Many look forward to having roughly twelve hours to themselves as senior students take up the reins of house parenting, teaching classes and other organisational activities. It’s also a day for appreciating efforts and acknowledging talents on both sides. Students revel in giving teachers next impossible test questions and performance tasks and teachers go along with the fun and spirit of the affair. The highlight is the cultural program which culminates the celebration. This year, the program featured live music, dancing, original advertisements, a Just A Minute (JAM) speaking contest, and several creative skits including a modern day version of Sita’s abduction from the Ramanaya and a Bollywood twist to Draupadi’s swayamvara. The ad that stood out was a hair-fall ad which students cleverly created using the theme song from the James Bond movie, Skyfall. Some teachers learned the “Hoedown Throwdown” dance and enthusiastically dressed up in Western outfits for their performance. The evening also included a rap competition full of dancing and “attitude”. The students concluded with a “dub-smash” where they superimposed movie dialogue over teachers enactments of scenes. The result was a hilarious ending to a great day.