Celebrating our multi-cultural community
May 2014 Issue
The mission of this cultural newsletter is to celebrate the wide variety of cultures represented at CIS. In this issue we look at the wonderful country of India!
India
Public Holidays in 2014 January 14 - Makar Sakranti / Id-E-Milad January 26 - Republic Day February 27 - Maha Shivratri March 17 - Holi April 13 - Mahavir Jayanthi April 18 - Good Friday May 01 - May Day May 14 - Buddha Purnima July 29 - Id-Ul-Fitr August 15 - Independence Day August 18 - Krishna Janmastami August 29 - Ganesh Chaturthi October 02 - Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi October 03 - Vijaya Dashami October 06 - Bakri Id October 23 - Diwali November 04 - Muharram November 06 - Guru Nanak Jayanthi December 25 - Christmas
Painted Elephants
Monkeys!
Village house
Beautiful India!
Taj Mahal
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Inside this issue Indian places in Copenhagen, Meet a CIS teacher. Meet your Classmates, Popular Landmarks and Animals Meet CIS students Meet a CIS family and a CIS teacher Popular games in India and popular recipes Meet another CIS student and Fun Facts Meet CIS students Meet some CIS families and a CIS staff member Meet CIS students CIS Celebrates Indian Culture
We are from India! 1
Indian/Asian Grocery Stores Sweet Palace
Moghul Store
Vesterbrogade 107 B
Vesterbrogade 108
1620 Copenhagen V
1620 Copenhagen V
Tel: +45 33 22 35 63
(Near Sweet Palace) Tel: +45 33 22 84 99
Central Station)
2200 Copenhagen N
Tel: +45 33 22 71 88
Tel: +45 35 39 53 77
1608 Copenhagen V
1608 Copenhagen V
Tlf.: +45 33 13 10 10
Tlf.: +45 70 70 20 20
Kardemomme
Reverdilsgade 6 Nørrebrogade 60
Jernbanegade 5
Tlf.: +45 35 43 43 73
(Nearer from Vigerslev St.)
(Behind Copenhagen
Jernbanegade 5
2100 Copenhagen Ø
2500 Valby
Dhadra Food Store
Guru (takeaway)
Willemoesgade 75
Frugtmarkedet 19
1701, Copenhagen V
Indian Taj Restaurant
Kashmir (Østerbro)
Double Diamond
Afghan Stores
Indian Restaurants
Maglemosevej 1 2900 Hellerup Tlf.: +45 70 20 10 48
The Chander Family
Deep Vesterbrogade 89 1620 Copenhagen V Tlf.: +45 35 39 38 38 Maharaja Restaurant Strandboulevarden 67 2100 Copenhagen Ø Tlf.: +45 35 43 71 73
Namaste! My name is Anu Chander. In 2007, my two daughters and I, came to Copenhagen from New Delhi, India accompanying my husband, Sunil on his diplomatic posting in United Nations here. Our older daughter, Sonali is a CIS alumnus 2009, presently doing her masters degree at Copenhagen Business School and very happy to be studying at such a prestigious Danish institution. Our younger daughter, Sunaina is in Grade 7. When she started school, she could speak only Hindi (our mother tongue) but being in an international school like CIS, she is now fluent in English, Danish and Spanish. She is a keen dancer and has given many performances in Irish and Bollywood dance. Over the years, I have started liking the cold weather in Copenhagen though I prefer the mild summer here. In India, the summers are terribly hot, and it gets cooler only when the rainy season arrives. So we visit our families back home during the Christmas holidays when it is winter and the weather is much cooler. Although I like shopping in Denmark, I find it very expensive compared to India, where street shopping is so much fun and inexpensive. India is known for its delicious cuisine and spices all over the world. Though there are quite a number of good Indian restaurants in Copenhagen, being a vegetarian, I prefer to cook my meals fresh at home. Our daily meals comprises of vegetables, dal (lentils, beans), roti (bread), and rice, accompanied by salad, yoghurt and pickle. I miss celebrating festivals in India. To make sure that we teach Indian traditions and values to our children, we celebrate Diwali (festival of lights), Navratri(nine day festival), Holi (festival of colours) with the other Indian community members in Denmark and dress up in our best bright coloured clothes and eat traditional food. Copenhagen is a very vibrant city with lovely people and I love the Danish bike culture here. I enjoy visiting the local bakeries for some delicious Danish pastries and enjoy going to the beautiful parks and lakes for a walk. Though I am proud to be an Indian, I like living in Denmark where I have made many friends here. We are happy to be living in such a beautiful country, which has become home to us now.
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Nikhil
Arya
Nikhil was born in Chennai, but he comes from India. His favorite thing to do in India is to play out side. Nikhil’s favorite food from India is Dosa. His favorite festival is New Years. Tamil is the language that he speaks in his home. For Nikhil the hardest part of moving away from India is that he has to take care of his little sisters.
I Arya is a boy in second grade. He’s from India, but he was born in Denmark. So basically he lived his whole life in Denmark. Arya misses the food from India. When Arya goes to India, the favorite thing for him to do is to play. His favorite Indian food is samosa. Arya’s favorite festival is Holi. ’Ap kya kar re ho’ means ’What are you doing?’.
Anshik Anshik is from India, and he misses his friends in India. He is in Kindergarten. Anskik likes to play video games back in his home country. He loves strawberry cream. Yum! Tiger in Hindi is Bagha. He loves playing!
We are from India!
Popular Landmarks and Animals in India You might have heard that Indian cows freely roam Indian streets, and it is true! The cow has been a symbol of wealth since ancient days. Hindus think that Indian cows are important, and they are allowed to walk on the city's streets. Hindus respect the cow and connect it to the Mother Earth.
It is important to note that the Taj Mahal was built in 22 years. You might be surprised to know that 20.000 workers built it. One special part of this landmark is it is made with Islamic architecture. This landmark is important because it was built for the wife of Shah Jahan in 1631-1653. It is built of pure marble and had semi precious stones. It is a symbol of love, and was built as a tomb by the Emperor for his wife after she died. 1
Logeth is a boy in Pre-K. Logheth is from India. He misses his grandparents in India.
Logheth
His favorite food is pasta. Logheth’s favorite season is summer.
Sramana
Angelina
Sramana was born in India. She misses the sunny days in her country. Her favorite food is chicken. Sramana likes all the Indian holidays. The favorite part of living in Denmark for Sramana is the weather.
Angelina is a second grader. She was born in India. She misses her mom’s family. Angelina's favorite food is rice. Her favorite part of living in Denmark is her friends. Angelina's favorite way of spending her summer holiday is to be at the beach.
This boy’s name is Samil. He is from India and was born in Dubai. Samil misses his friends in India and his school. Samil goes to India every one and an a half years, and he likes to play with his sister and with his second brother. Samil's favorite food is chicken curry. Samil's favorite Indian festival is Holi .
Samil
Dwaj
Dwaj is from India, but he was born in USA. He misses his friends from India. He goes like twice in a year to India. His favorite Indian food is naan. His favorite festival is holi. ’Food’ in Indian is ’Khana’ .
His name is Arjun. He was born in the U.S., but he is Indian. In india he really likes the food. His favorite festival is the Diwali. Arjun wants to teach a word in his language to everyone: panni = water. He really likes his friends in Denmark. Now he is gonna teach you a phrase Tu Aahta = you are.
Arjun
Vasanth
This boy is named Vasanth. He was born in India. He misses his dog and the food in India.
Vasanth goes to India every long holiday. His favorite food from his culture is bringf. His favorite festival is the Diwali. One of the words he knows (in his language) is fanntr - water. He really misses his friends in India. 4
Hi, I am Sapna. I am consultant speech therapist here at CIS. ¨
Sapna
My husband Vijay and I moved to Denmark in 2008. It was because of my husband’s job. He works for Oticon, a Danish hearing aid company. The first thing that struck me when I got here was how organized and quiet this country was. Coming from India we are used to a lot of people and hustle, bustle. However we have learnt to love it here. We do miss the amazing choice of eat outs and variety of shopping that can be done in India. However we like that fact that Denmark is so peaceful and safe. We have a little boy named Siddarth, who is 2.6 years. He was born here and loves it here. We travel to India once a year and enjoy our time with the family.
Hi, my name is Maitreyee. I have lived in Copenhagen for nearly 5 years now, with my husband Kanti and our daughter Sohini, who is graduating from CIS this year. We are originally from the eastern coast of India but Sohini grew up in Delhi as a child. When she was 7 years, we moved to Bonn (Germany) first, then to Geneva (Switzerland) and from there to Copenhagen in 2009.
The Kumar Family
In the past 5 years, Sohini has made many friends in CIS. They came from all over the world and some of her friends have also left Copenhagen to live in other countries. As a result, she now has friends in all over the world from Malaysia to Russia to the United States. She also has learned French and German and a little bit Danish. Although Sohini has studied and grown up in the multicultural environment of CIS, we maintain Indian cultural values at home. We speak Bengali, our mother tongue, at home and celebrate Indian festivals with our friends and neighbours. India is a country of sunshine and hot climate, so the cold weather of Denmark can be difficult for Indians. Although we lived in Germany and Switzerland before, the Danish cold was colder than we expected. But we have now got used to the winter and enjoy the long and sunny summer days here. When it’s sunny, we love going for long walks along the seashore or in the parks, or for a ride in Tivoli! During the summer we stay here and try to visit different places in Denmark. During the winter we visit India to enjoy the mild winter there! We visit our families and friends in India as often as we can, typically once in 2 years. We show them pictures and videos of life in Denmark and they are mesmerized to hear about the Danish culture, the famous Danish architecture and design, and the Little Mermaid. What makes it interesting for them is how different Denmark is from India, and it is not only in climate. Copenhagen is not as crowded or noisy as any Indian place, even small towns and villages. It’s one of the world’s most environmentfriendly cities and also one of the most beautiful, with nicely designed buildings and landmarks. Life is here very comfortable and peaceful and the standard of living is very high. In contrast, life in India is more rushed, but it is also much colourful...unlike in Denmark.
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Popular Games from India Carrom board
There are supposed to be no more than 2-4 people and there are two teams. 1 carrom board has a total of 18 pieces (9 white & 9 black), 1 red Queen, and 1 striker. Place the carrom pieces (all 19) within the circle in the middle of the carrom board. Place your carrom striker between the two striking lines (baseline) of your sides. You may also place your striker within the two circles situated at either side. The goal of the game is to be the first to get the maximum points by putting the black and white strikers along with the queen into the pockets.
Cricket
Cricket is a team sport for two teams of eleven players each. A formal game of cricket can last anything from an afternoon to several days. Although the game play and rules are very different, the basic concept of cricket is similar to that of baseball. Teams bat in successive innings and attempt to score runs, while the opposing team fields and attempts to bring an end to the batting team's innings. After each team has batted an equal number of innings (either one or two, depending on conditions chosen before the game), the team with the most runs wins.
Popular Food from India Lassi is a popular, traditional drink from India. They use lassi in performing religious rituals. Lassi is served with milk and topped with a thin layer of clotted cream. Lassis are enjoyed chilled as a hot-weather refreshment, mostly taken with lunch.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped mango (peeled and stone removed)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassi
4 teaspoons sugar, to taste A dash of ground cardamom (optional)
Mango Lassi
METHOD Put mango, yogurt, milk, sugar and cardamom into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, then pour into individual glasses, and serve. Can sprinkle with a little cardamom. The lassi can be kept refrigerated for up to 24 hours. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/mango_lassi/ Kheer is a South Asian rice pudding made by boiling rice, broken wheat, or vermicelli with milk and sugar; it is flavoured with cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashew nuts, pistachios or almonds. It is typically served during a meal or as a dessert. [wikipedia]
Kheer
People have been eating this for 2000 years, or start eating this 2,000 years ago. 6
Meet another CIS student Sunaina
Sunaina was born in Jaipur, Rajasthan in India. She came to Copenhagen when she was 7 years old.
She misses her grandparents and family who are in India. Her favourite food is Paneer Tikka. Her favourite festival is Holi, which is full of fun as you throw coloured water on each other. She likes watching Bollywood movies and enjoys dancing and doing art. She finds that in Denmark you see very few people whereas India is very crowded. She will like to teach a word in Hindi, Dhanyavaad which means thank you.
Interesting Facts about India  
Mahatma Gandhi is famous for the important part he played in gaining India's independence. The capital City is New Delhi, while the most populated city is Mumbai. Other major ciries include Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. (Source: http://www.roughguides.com/article/interesting-facts-about-india/)
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Pratya
She was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. She has also lived in Delhi and Gurgaun. Pratya misses the food, of course, the festivals and the language, Hindi. She tries to visit yearly, but on average she visits once every two years. To reunite with family; her grandmother orders her favorite dishes that she knows she enjoys, so she can look forward to that every visit. One tradition she enjoys when she visits her home country is the festival called Raksha Bandhan. Every year she takes part in the tradition of placing a bracelet around her male cousin's wrist to celebrate this festival, and she also receives gifts from the male cousins in my family.
The first time she left India was to move to Singapore. She was young and thought of the move as an adventure. Once she reached Singapore, she started to miss her grandparents and cousins since she used to spend every weekend with them. In Singapore, practically everyone was Indian at her international school. She could speak in Hindi even though she was learning her subjects in English. In Denmark, the international school is really international. At first she was a bit intimidated and felt left out, but then she adapted to the changes and felt much more accepted.
Ram is from the southeastern states of Orissa and Andra Pradesh. He misses being able to look out the window and see the funny monkeys scrambling around outside. He goes back to India every winter vacation, so he spends Christmas and New Years there. His favorite thing to do is to go to his friend’s house and play a relaxing game of carrom while talking. His favorite food is Dal Makhani because it is very filling and creamy. Ram’s favorite holiday is Diwali (festival of lights) because he turns on all of the lights in the house and places candles around outside in fancy designs. One word in his language that he would like to teach everyone is "Pakshii" (let out extra air for the 'h' sound), the word means "bird". The hardest part of moving to Denmark was finding the whole range of foods and spices that were available before. / that you have to walk a distance to get anywhere without car. One thing that is different in India is definitely the weather. In all parts of India except for the northern regions, it is hot or warm most of the year. There is a monsoon season, where it rains like crazy, but in summer it gets hot enough to melt you.
Ram Panda
Supriti is from India (Bangalore). She misses her friends and culture. She goes to visit her grandparents once a year. Her favorite food is rice. Supriti's favorite holiday is Diwali. Her favorite thing about living in Denmark is the weather. One of the differences between in India and Denmark is that there are less cars here. One word in Indian is namaste.
Supriti
Rian is a boy from India. He misses his family. He likes the mall in India. He loves all the food from India. He says in India it is hot and not in Denmark.
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Rian
Hello, I am Sonali Kale, mother of 2 kids attending CIS-Riya (grade7)and Arjun(grade4). Our family of four moved to Copenhagen from USA due to my husband, Vishwas' work. We have been living here for about 2 yrs and enjoy being part of this international community. We like the outdoors and cannot get enough of some Danish cakes and crepes. Riya loves the independence she has thanks to fabulous public transportation in the city and Arjun can not get enough of Football!
The Kale Family
Originally Vishwas and I are from India. We moved to USA for work about 19 years ago. Our parents live in city of Pune which has great historic palaces and forts in vicinity. Riya and Arjun have seen some of it during their several trips to India visiting grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins. They also enjoy eating varieties of Indian food in restaurants and street corners. Arjun loves to watch and play Cricket there and Riya loves reading local flare of books and go shopping! It is a lot of fun when we get to celebrate festivals and attend weddings there. When away from home we try to meet with other Indian families for festivities, fun and little taste of Homeland.
Hi, My name is Twinkle and we are a family of three, my husband Amit, me and my daughter Manavi. She is in PreK in CIS. We moved to Copenhagen in the summer of 2012 from Delhi, India. It was a big change for Manavi, though not much for us as we have lived in Edinburgh earlier.
The Singh Family
But it's appreciable the way kids adapt and in a short span Manavi made great friends and has got so much used to the new lifestyle. Also, Denmark being such a child friendly country helped. We really like the international community in CIS. Everybody being from different cultures and countries yet, so well connected with each other. The school gives ample opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas that we always feel a part of school's daily affairs, which is so different from our home country. All the cultures are given equal respect in school and we are so happy that Manavi knows so much about other cultures and is excited to tell us about the nationality and cultural details of her friends . So far our stay in Copenhagen has been very pleasant and we look forward to spend a few more years here.
Maryann
Maryann is from india.She misses the sun, the people and the food. She goes to India every 5 years. She loves curry... delicious! She loves the festival of lights. Her favourite part of living in Denmark is the school! 1
Kruthick is a boy from Madurai, India. He likes to eat Dosa and biryani.
Kruthick
His favorite festival is Diwali because he likes to burst crackers. He misses his friends in India and his old school. Kruthick likes to be in school at CIS and playing in the snow.
Aditya is from India and Denmark. The thing he misses about living in his India is his friends. He has gone back around 10 times to India. His favorite thing to do there is play video games. His favorite food in India is rice.
Aditya
His favorite place in Denmark is Legoland, and his favorite food in Denmark is pizza. He doesn’t know what is same between his home country and Denmark!!
She is from India and her name is Rithvika. "Dosa" is her favorite food. She thinks that both Denmark and India are fun places to live!
Rithvika
And she goes home two times a year.
Tarishi
Her name is Tarishi. Tarishi is from India. Tarishi misses her family there.
She goes to India every summer and her favorite thing to go and do in India is go to the zoo and see the peacocks. Her favorite food from India is kheer. The hardest part of moving to Denmark was taking two/three airplanes. Tarishi’s favorite part of living in Denmark is to speak English. The different part of Denmark is that India is very hot and in Denmark there is snow.
Shreyansh
His name is Shreyansh. He was born in Delhi, India. In India, he misses that in the car you don’t need to wear a seatbelt. He goes to India every Christmas and he likes meeting his cousins. His favorite festival is Holi. The hardest part of moving to Denmark is leaving his friends back in India. His favorite part of moving to Denmark is the beaches. The difference between Denmark and India is that in India when there is summer it’s very hot, and in Denmark every person likes a sport like football.
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Culture’s Day at CIS
Bollywood Dance Class
Edited by: Ron Rosenow Teacher Journalist: Anu Chander Student Journalists: Maria Dadu, Lara Gronow, Teun Van de Boer, Francesca Duva, Bruno Martini, Matan Dvir, Frida Niinisto, Toby Schjøler, Pablo Martini, Alisson Bolaños, Yifan Zhang, Gaku Ogawa and Stijn Elzenga. With special thanks to: CIS’s Indian students and parents, Maria Iraci, Sonali Kale and Josephine Watkins from Grade 5 Next Issue: China! If you’re from this country, what would you like to share with the CIS community? 1