Boys' High School & College
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Alfresco is the Inter-school cultural festival organised by Boys' High School & College on its own campus. The imbibing of cultural traits among students is an essential component of education in Boys' High School. Culture includes all forms of fine art music, art, poetry, painting, dance, etc. It also reflects the society we live in.

'Alfresco', literally means 'in open or fresh air'. The freshness or rather openness of Alfresco lies in the cultural interaction of our students with those from the other educational institutions. 'Alfresco' 2006 was a three-day cultural affair, the participating schools being Girls' High School (GHS) and College, St. John's Academy (SJA), Crosthwaite Girls' College (CGC), Air Force school (AFS), Bamrauli, St Fidelis College (SFC), Lucknow, and, of course, our very own, Boys' High school and College (BHS). At the very outset, it was made clear that winning was not everything but healthy participation mattered a lot.

So the morning of September 27, 2006 saw scores of enthusiastic students gather in the Boys' High School campus to celebrate cu1ture and the spirit of healthy competition. The show began with a grand opening ceremony when our Principal, Mr. C. V. Innes walked into the Flynn Hall with the chief guest for the occasion, Prof . B. N. Asthana, former vice-chancellor of the Kanpur University. The College Captain, Arjun Menon extended a warm welcome to all and thereafter, left the stage to Raman Mishra, our Master of Ceremonies (MC).

As the chief guest, Prof B. N. Asthana, lighted the inaugural lamp, Mr C. V. Innes, in a brief and short speech, welcomed the chief guest, teachers and students and declared the meet open.

The competitions slated for the first day were English Debate, English Elocution, Football and Basketball match.

Debate: The topic for the debate was “Reservation promotes a progress.” This being a current burning issue interested the students and teachers alike. Speakers both for and against the motion presented their arguments forcefully while the interjections were clearly and intelligently answered. Mohit Nayar of BHS, speaking against the motion, was adjudged the best speaker for the debate. Deepika Dubey of GHS was the second best, Gourabh Mukherjee of BHS was the third best.

Elocution: Politicians have mastered it, team leaders are incomplete without it. It is the art of eloquent speaking—elocution.To test their reading skills they first had to read from an unseen passage and then had to recite their own prepared speeches. The selection of the speeches was varied and brilliant. It was a closely contested affair in which finally Anshul Agarwel of BHS humbled his opponents to win the first prize.

Basketball: The opening game of the basketball tournament was played between BHS and AFS. Displaying exceptional talent, BHS emerged victorious.

Day 2 of the competition took off with quiz, solo singing, group song and, of course, the sporting events, swimming, football and basketball.

Quiz: The stage was set for the battle of grey cells on the second day of the three-day competition. Every single point was fiercely fought for as the teams cruised through the elimination rounds of the quiz conducted efficiently by our ex-student, Mohit Nanda. Each team comprised two students. The quiz was held in rounds which included the traditional oral questions as well as the question with audio-visual clues. Diverse in categories and varied in difficulty levels, the quiz emerged an interesting game show which included the audience also as an active participant. SFC emerged clear winners scoring 95 points, GHS with 80 points were the runners-up.

Solo singing & group singing: The sombre atmosphere of the quiz was replaced now by the melodious atmosphere of music. The participants struck the right notes and impressed all with their soulful renditions.

Solo singing was a colourful event. The participants stirred up magic in the atmosphere with beautiful melodious tracks. There was a tie for the first place between Ishan Girish Wazalwar of BHS and Mohd Ahsan Siddiqui of SJA with 235 points each.

The group singing event was an equally mesmerising affair. While BHS emerged winners with 249 points, SFC were a close runners-up, followed by GHS with 228 points.

Swimming: The finals of the swimming competition was held on Day 2. The star swimmer of BHS, Rajul Singh, won the gold in the 100m freestyle, followed by Leon Chung of SFC in the second position and Vaibhav Chitransh of BHS in the third place.

Football: The second day match of the Football tournament was played between BHS and AFS. This was another keenly contested match in which the first - half score was again 0-0. But in the 68th minute of the game, Sanjeev Singh of the host team scored the all important goal to clinch the match for the hosts.

The final day of the three-day event arrived, and to make it a memorable day, there were some wonderful moments lined up for the day—JAM, Face Painting and Collage.

JAM: Just a Minute—an interesting concept of speaking extempore on any given topic for Just a Minute without hesitation, without repetition and without grammatical errors but definitely with factual errors. It was a test of the Gift of the Gab. The chairperson, Mr Shyamal Narain invented humorous topics. Moments of embarrassrnent end exultation awaited the contestants. It was actually non-stop laughter and entertainment for the audience. After two rounds, Barkha Basu of SFC totted up the maximum points to champion the event in style. Shubham Dang of BHS finished in the second spot.

Face Painting & Collage: A riot of colours was that these off-stage event was all about. The topic for the event was 'On the verge of extinction'. Each team comprised two participants. While the face painters livened up their colourful creations with the soul of their thoughts, the co1lage-makers said it all with tit-bits of scrap and paper. The results were undoubtedly outstanding. Eminent artists, Mr Abhinav Gupta and Mr. Nikhar Sagar were the judges for the competition. In the face-painting category, Arnit Mishra and Mohd Sharfbin Parvez of BHS were the winners while in collage, AFS bagged the first prize.

Basketball: In the girls category, the final match of the tournament was played between SFC end GHS. Father Wilson

Andrade, Principal of SFC was the chief guest for the occasion. SFC emerged champions in this exciting match. In the boys' category, BHS and SJA faced each other for the final. BHS emerged the champions.

Football: The football final match between BHS and SJA drew the three-day event to a close. BHS emerged the champions in football.

As all good things must come to end so also did the curtain come down on Alfresco 2006. The prize distribution ceremony was held in the evening on the final day in the august presence of all the Principals and the chief guest, Brig. B. S. Gill.

The winners received their medals and trophies from the chief guest amidst loud cheers and applauses. Our Principal, Mr C. V. Innes lauded the efforts of the participants and the boys who helped in organizing the function,

An entertaining cultural performance put up by students of BHS, GHS followed the prize distribution, after which a grand dinner awaited all.

 

Debate:
First—Mohit Nayar, Gourabh Mukherjee, BHS; Second—Deepika Dubey, Garima Singh, GHS; Third—Ashish Singh, Ahsan Siddiqui, SJA; and
Best Speakar—Mohit Nayar, BHS;
Elocution:
First—Anshul Agarwal, BHS; Second—Akansha Shukla, SFC; and
Third—Ambika Sinha, SJA;
Quiz:
First—Bilal Ahmad Kidwai, Ujjwal Kumar, SFC; Second—Ridhima Kandru, Aditi Manohar, GHS; and Third—Prashant, Vikram, AFS
Solo Singing:
First—Ishan Girish Wazalwar, Anitesh John Saunders, Antariksha, Jabez Ruben Sethna, Kushal Verma, Swithin Lawrence, Aman De'Camp, Zevio Jude Rodrigues, BHS; Second—Divyansh Chandra, Saumya Agarwal, Ayusha Bose, Anuj Hatwal, Faraz Ahmad, Varun, Harsh, Nishal, SFC; and Third—Yashika Rodney, Swechchha Kesarwani, Stuti Bisen, Aradhana Mukherjee, PoonamVerma, Emanshi Singh, Hera Rehman, Arpita Raj, GHS;
JAM:
First—Barkha Basu, SFC;
Second—Shubham Dang, BHS; and
Third—Deepika Dubey, GHS;
Face Painting:
First—Mohd. Sharf Bin Parvez, Mudit Mishra, BHS; Second—Richa, Kalpana, AFS; and
Third—Anisha J. Simon, Debashree Banerjee, GHS;
Collage:
First—Neha Seth, Anshu Verma, AFS;
Second—Ankit K. Gupta, Rahul Jain, BHS; and
Third—Tanya Seth, Swati Haryan, GHS

Trophy:

Cultural Winner: BHS (60 points); and Runner-up: SFC (30 points).

Swimming (Boys)
50m Freestyle: First—Sean Tanu Dwijendra, BHS; and Second—Rajul Singh, BHS;
100m Freestyle: First—Rajul Singh, BHS; and Second—Leon Chung, SFC;
50m Butterfly: First—Sean Tanu Dwijendra, BHS; and Second—Shashank Shekhar Saxena, BHS;
50m Back Stroke: First—Vaibhav Chitransh, BHS; and Second—Anagat Tripathi, BHS;
50m Breast Stroke: First—Rajul Singh, BHS; and Second—Naveen Chandra, BHS

Swimming Trophy (Boys):

Winner: BHS; and Runner-up: SFC

Swimming (Girls)
100m Freestyle: First—Taruna Nishad, GHS; and Second—Mamta Yadav, GHS;
50m Breast Stroke: First—Shubhangi Tripathi, GHS; and Second—Mamta Yadav, GHS;
50m Back Stroke: First—Sadaf Gul, CGC; and Second—Taruna Nishad, GHS;
50m Butterfly: First—Taruna Nishad, GHS; and Second—Shubhangi Tripathi, GHS;
50m Freestyle: First—Taruna Nishad, GHS; and Second—Amita Nishad, CGC;
4x50m Freestyle Relay:
First—Taruna Nishad, Shubhangi Tripathi, Mamta Yadav, Arpita Bhargava, GHS; and Second—Amita Nishad, Sadaf Gul, Ritu Nishad, Anjali Yadav, CGC

Swimming Trophy (Girls):

Winner: GHS; and Runner-up: CGC

Basketball (Boys):

First—BHS; and Second—SJA

Basketball Trophy (Boys):

Winner—BHS; and Runner-up—SJA

Basketball (Girls):

First—SFC; and Second—GHS

Basketball Trophy (Girls):

Winner—SFC; and Runner-up—GHS

Football:

First—BHS; and Second—SJA

Football Trophy:

Winner—BHS; and Runner-up—SJA