In May 2012, His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, The Duke of York visited DAIS as part of his visit to India to mark Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee at the throne and to strengthen the growing relationship between India and the UK. The Duke interacted with students of different age-groups and discussed with the senior students their higher education plans and experiences of participating in the various international youth programs like Round Square, MUN, international exchanges and adventure trips. In his address The Duke acknowledged the school’s emphasis on all-round development of children saying.

"there is much more to being a human being and understanding the human condition"

"It seems to me from what I have learnt and heard today, the school is well on its way to be able to deliver world class citizens, not just for India but for the whole globe"

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The South African Cultural Exchange:

From Mumbai to Johannesburg

India and South Africa are two nations joint to the hip by history and diversity. Both nations are emerging world economies with a strong youth population and similar growth scales.

This year, the students of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School welcomed 22 South African students from Johannesburg and had a socio-cultural exchange program with them at the school. It was an interesting clash of a variety of lifestyles and ethnicities.

Our school's vision and its mission is to make us globally aware as well as retain our cultural identity. We decided to have a quick icebreaker session. We spoke about Mahatma Gandhi and the roots of Civil Disobedience being planted in South Africa and its political linkages to India via BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa)- one of the most upcoming eco-political alliances in the world which has become a group of developing nations with increasing influence in the world

We then had a very interesting Q&A session where they displayed their very robust knowledge about India, questioning a lot of aspects of our culture which we seem to look over or ignore. These are poignant points such as the congestion and lack of road safety, the existing poverty and civil disparity and the effect of Global warming on Mumbai. I was very impressed with their respect for India and their new adulation for the country and its people. It was the first time I saw such an emphatic acceptance of a culture which most of the students from South Africa spoke to me about as we showed them our school’s classroom and impressive infrastructure. They were very captivated, especially, with the artwork on display in our art room and the new Centre of Performing Arts, where we performed a few culturally rich, Hindi songs from Bollywood films such as “Paheli”.

From talking about Sports and Mafia on the football pitch to learning the true meaning of Yoga from Miss Shilpa to my little Tabla performance, it was really an honour to host such open minded students.

As one of my new South African friend's says "Its quite a lekker place, quite a jol"*

*Jol = Afrikaans for a party / Lekker= Afrikaans slang for Good

- Bhuvam Patel