Mr. Simon Taufel visits Vasant Valley School
21st November, 2019

"Excellence must be continuous; you cannot be excellent part-time. If you are, you will get part-time results." Reiterating these words emphatically to the intently listening students was Mr. Simon Taufel, the world-renowned Australian umpire, who held an interactive Q&A session in the Vasant Manch. As soon as we welcomed Mr. Taufel into school, we were surprised by his knowledge of Hindi pleasantries, and also somewhat amused when he replied to us in Hindi. Greeted with a round of applause by the students, he immediately started the session and got down to answering questions from the budding students. Though we were hesitant to ask questions at first, once we heard Mr. Taufel speak and understood what he had to offer, the questions started flowing. Topics such as his umpiring experiences, life lessons, cricket laws and values were discussed, and Mr. Taufel imparted as much knowledge as he could to us through his answers. His humorous and casual tone attracted our attention, and his humility and understanding earned our respect. All his experiences were weaved around lessons we could learn such as handling pressure, being compassionate, respectful, and the best 'you' you can be. His advice of giving your hundred percent in whatever you do and seizing the day was in tune with our school motto, 'Excellence In Deed', and he referenced incidents from his recently written book 'Finding the Gaps', which exemplified this. After a fruitful interaction, Mr. Taufel signed copies of his book for the school library and offered some last bits of advice to Mr. Seth and us. We were grateful to have such an honourable person speak to us, and thanked him profusely for his visit to Vasant Valley.