Admission

We (parents+kid) were called for an "interaction" session with the principal of Suncity World
School, Gurgaon last week, after being shortlisted out of the written exam we appeared for. It turned into an "interview" session literally, which leaves me totally pissed off in addition to the bad behaviour we were getting right from the reception onwards. The final result will be out on 1 Oct, Suncity was never our choice anyway, so let me publish my experience and opinion, as an individual, in an open forum, with no malice but merely as a critique of the attitude and procedures.

Firstly, the school is in complete violation of the RTE Act (which practically every other school is following this year) by being judgmental in the parent "interaction". Section 13 (1) of the RTE Act reads, “No school or person shall, while admitting a child, ...subject the child or his or her parents or guardian to any screening procedure.” This is exactly what the Principal was doing, and I had to react to it the moment I realise that this is getting to be a one-way "interview" as against a two-way "interaction"

The Principal asked first as to what vision we had for our childs education. We replied clearly, which seemed to satisfy her. She then asks how we think this school's approach will support our vision. To this question, I naturally replied now that you know what we want for our child, its us who would be interested to know from you how the school can help! Afterall, you know the school's approach better than us!

A simple counter-question to understand the schools approach to education directly from the Principal seemed to rather upset the principal. She replied that she had written every word in the brochure herself and there was a Curriculum Desk set up to reply such questions etc, but hte fact is, that doesnt absolve a Principal from explaining verbally during an "interaction", unless ofcourse she was actually taking an "interview", illegaly.

Instead of talking anything about the schools core values, her statement started with the school being backed by the largest media house in India, Zee Television. As far as I am concerned, I dont care if the money comes from Haldiram Bhujiawala or Bata shoe company, as long as its backed by sound core values, a sensitive Principal, experienced teaching staff and good infrastructure. 

In short it was a complete disaster as far as the school is concerned, and though we have been interacting with atleast 10 schools in Gurgaon before choosing one, and I will speak well of most of the schools in some way or the other, I have very little praise for anything that I saw in Suncity after 3 visits to the school. Like the Principal said when I brought up the issue how other schools, during orientation, talk about curriculum and methodology as much as they focus on the infrastructure, "To each its own, you see!".

Admit One

Bravo Governement! I totally support your directive that all nursery admissions are to happen through lottery. No more interviews of kids, no more interviews, written tests of parents, no more hanky pankys. 

Excuse me, Government! The schools are charging anything between Rs 500/- (cost of form) up to Rs 2000/- (Registration fee, to submit the form) from us to participate in these lotteries!

Look at it from another perspective, in the last 2 weeks I have bought Rs 10,000/- worth of lottery tickets! Had I spent it on Sikkim State Lottery, maybe by now I would have been able to send Tiasha to study in Switzerland!

My Space!

Its an interesting feeling to sit and work out of an office that is 100% (I repeat, h-u-n-d-r-e-d p-e-r-c-e-n-t) yours -- well give or take for the fact that its leased with a 2 years event horizon.  

Best Sites to Watch the World Chess Championship 2010

1) www.chessok.com: Go to the Live games section. The site provides instant evaluation through Rybka 4.1, one of the strongest computer chess engines, making it easier for amateurs like us to assess whos really winning or losing. Caveat - chess engines have their strengths and weaknesses too, so dont take them literally in very complicated games.

2) www.chessbomb.com: 2 reasons to be here. Its a Bulgarian site (in English) and has live tie-up with the official site. So updates are fastest. Secondly, it provides analysis using Stockfish (one of the strongest "free" open source chess engines) of atleast 4 possible lines as against just one by Rybka in chessok. The free version however, restricts stockfish thinking depth to 30 secs only, and hence, may not be very accurate in very complicated positions. The chat is lively (though free users can only read and not participate) and very often GMs participate and analyse positions, which is interesting

3) www.chessdom.com: Is a sister site of above. While chessbomb is live updates, chessdom gives you GM analysis. Lately, the GM analyses from chessdom are being displayed in the chessbomb interface too. The one BIG reason I go to this site is its the only one that opens in my Blackberry  when I am on the move, and tells me how the players are faring! (All other live sites are flash-based which doesnt work with either BB or iPhone) 

4) http://www.chessnc.com/en/online/: do not miss this for heavens sake! Live analysis by GM Sergei Shipov, who is one of the bestest chess analysts int he world today. He often talks to Kasparaov while analysing and tidbits coming from the all-time greatest chess player makes this site invaluable if you really want to know what is going on.

5) http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com: The famous WGM chess player belonging to the famous chess playing family runs a blog where she analyses the moves in fairly down-to-earth style. I do visit it every 30 mins to get her opinion, but she often comments retrospectively (after the moves are played) which makes it good for learning chess rather than viewing the game.

6) mms://chess.spnet.net:8080 : Live video of whats happening on-stage. I have been only able to play this in VLC Media Player (download free from the net -- one of the best! Plays practically anything you can throw at it, with the exception of a kitchen sink) and nothing else, for some reason. For the impatient, this could be as exciting as watching your wall paint dry, but for the hardcore fans, andespecially when you sense things are happening towards the end, switch this on.

7) http://www.anand-topalov.com/ : The official official website. There is audio in part English and part Bulgarian, explaining the nuances. GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili talks in English and is loved by some. I hate him.

8) http://www.chessclub.com/chessfm : If you want audio, go here! ICC is one of the premier internet chessclub and they run chessfm radio where two GMs in rotation analyse the ongoing games. Free users cant access the analysis board, but just hearing their opinion gives a good idea of the match situation

9) http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html : GM Ian Rogers is analysing live games in teh "This Week In Chess" site. He is good, but his updates are slow. This is for a post-game visit rather than live viewing

10) http://www.thechessmind.net/ : IM Dennis Monokroussos, a chess instructor, runs this nice blog which updates every 10-15 minutes giving you the analysis and nuances of what happened in the last few minutes

11) http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt : My favourite chess blog with huge active participants. Go there to feel it!

There is ofcourse Nigel Short commenting in www.chessgames.com and sundry famous GMS on www.playchess.com (who are legally at loggerheads with the organisers, but thats another story), but both are paid. I am a regular at chessbase (dont miss their daily reports!) who runs playchess.com (as well as own Fritz, one of the best chess engines) but this time around, they have made their WCC transmission only for paid members.

Enjoy Chess -- trust me, last few days it has been more rivetting than the T20 World Cup!