We should NOT FORGET

         The thing about distractions is that they are mortal. Sometimes they have long life, sometimes they last for a very small period of time. 

           The girl who was struggling to survive after the heinous assault which rocked the smug foundations of Indian society, whose each breath was a ripple of hope for the Indian nation, finally succumbed to her injuries. The not-so-subtle diversionary tactic has backfired on the government. So much for giving her, 'all the help she needs'.

             But no, it isn't over yet. Not by a loooong shot. Nothing can appease the livid nation now, not even if the entire Indian cricket team retired together.

             Although the girl has moved on to a better place, the flame that her trauma had ignited still burns in all our hearts and the light from this fire illuminates all the the government has been skating over for years. This is it. A harsh, painful wake-up call. There is no turning back now.
It is time for change; Time for everyone to wake up and smell the stench and actually DO something rather than just sit and shake heads at 'today's generation'.  

         The best part is some people are actually putting the blame on the girl. Apparently getting brutally gang-raped and tortured was her fault as she had been out after 9 pm with a friend and had probably dressed provocatively. 

          These infuriating, baseless and utterly moronic reasonings indicate just how hard it will be to bring about a change in our society.  The ultimate root of the alarming elevation in the number of rape cases comes down to how children are raised and what values are taught to them during their childhood days. They should be brought up in such a way that intermingling between girls and boys will be considered normal. The misogyny that flares deep within Indian culture should be   be extinguished and male and female should be considered as equals.

        While our so-called leaders hasten to somehow gloss over this sticky situation and wait for the public fury to die down as it usually does as Time marches forward, it is perhaps best that, however embarrassing, disgusting and gory the incident may be, we should NOT FORGET. It'll do good for it to hover in the mind of India as a harsh yet strong reminder of the battle for survival of a girl, no, of all girls, who had had a whole life ahead and who had wanted to live. We deserve to live with dignity too.

Morning blues

Disclaimer: The characters, events and places portrayed in this post are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely coincidental. None of the matter in this post is to be copied in any way. No ideas are allowed to be stolen from here. If I see any such practice, dire consequences will ensue.

---

I pulled my blanket over my head; it was cold in my room and as any cold adolescent, I felt very lazy.
Abruptly, I felt something on my stomach and heard it squawk. Talon, my ‘I-won't-let master-loaf-around’ phoenix. I rolled over in an attempt to get him off, but he seemed to understand my intentions, and in spite, he clawed off my blanket, and jabbed at my head like a woodpecker.
"Ouch!" I pushed him off my bed. "Did it really require that!?" But Talon merely perched proudly on the head end of my bed, and ruffled his feathers.
I slid my legs off the bed and yawned, moving my long, uncombed hair to my back. "Fine, I'm up!"
I opened the window to let the haughty bird out, closed it after him, pulled down the blinds, and habitually knocked on the wall behind my table. No, I wasn't on plate 639 anymore; no longer in a small room, living next door to her. I was at home-where I should have been living since I was eight, but had only been doing so for about a month.
Their memories had been retrieved, and my parents had brought us to our new home. Though this was what we had been fighting so hard for, I still couldn't stomach the fact that it was all over; that I wouldn't have to use my bow and arrows anymore, that we had reached our goal, and parted, never to hear from each other ever again.
I pulled on my jacket, and lit up the fireplace.
"Mark!" it was my sister- Jasmine's voice. "Mother says you should come out quickly and go to bath."
"Alright." I replied, "I'm coming."
A different sight greeted me when I walked out of my room. Mother was dressed up in special attire, and so were Father and Jasmine! "Mark, cousin Aiden's old suit is already in the bathroom. Now be a dear and take a quick bath." Mother then rushed off somewhere else. Then, it hit me. "Father, does this mean that Grandmother and Grandfather are coming?"
"Yes" he answered, "Don't forget, we are to be at our neatest and on our best behaviour when they arrive.’Aven' is what you will be called. Now do hurry to bath and call if you need help with the clothes."
I rushed with my bath as I was told to. Grandmother and Grandfather were the most highly respected in our family, and had been reigning over Plate 371 for several decades. I had only seen them once before- on my uncle's wedding back when I was five. Every member of the family had to wear special attire, and looked like grown-ups and kids going to the same school. Grandmother looked very kind, though I didn't get to spend any time with her. Grandfather looked strict, and scary. Throughout the time, I was cowering behind Mother, hugging her legs, also in that dress code.

I stepped out of the bathtub, and started getting dry. I wondered what Grandfather and grandmother would think of us. I was still a shy person; would they be alright with that? I hoped so.

The clothes I was to wear looked princely, and probably were. The shoes looked uncomfortable, and had long laces. I managed to get all but the latter on, and had to ask for help. I tied my hair, as neatly as possible, and looked at myself in the mirror. “Dashing.” I laughed, as I picked up the shoes and walked outside to a chair.
“Father! How am I to tie these laces?” I called, practicing that politeness which I had to show them when they came.
He came, helped me out and then left again to help Mother get things ready.

“Aven and Azalea, Don't forget.” Mother reminded us. “Could both of you stand outside to wait for them?”

I gulped. “Y-yes Mother.” Jasmine-I mean, Azalea, and I walked carefully outside, and waited in the courtyard.

After ten minutes, Mother and Father joined us.
“Be careful, kids.” Father warned. “They’ll just appear out of nowhere.”
Out of nowhere indeed, a grand horse-cart trotting to our doorstep wasn't very obvious, was it?”

x--------------x

This has been lying in the drafts for a long, long time, so I thought I'd just give it a shot and publish it.
I hope you like it :)

Introducing Diversity

     Us mortals being the result of our creators pallete,have been endowed with a plethora  of abilities and weaknesses.The former may or may not enjoy the privilege of being unexampled .If it is the case there exists
a wide scope to garner appreciation.But more often than not the complementary situation prevails.With the incidence of similiar abilities being of accentuating prevalence,ones acheivments are starved of its sole incentive to evolve and develop.Since procuring the assent of ones fellow being has always been the sole motive of the human behaviourism,the absence of it berefts the individual of the imperative motivation.
     And hence the exigency to evolve and change arises,if your current crop of abilities fail to impress or is of
no practical implication by all means innovate.Us humans are a result of millions of years of evolution,our DNA is armed with that ability to adapt.Many may combat my meditations up to this point and may allege

my disloyalty to personal individuality.But to these people I  suggest or rather question ,are you like everybody else?What indeed is the point of being a mere cell in a body,or a unit in a mob?What is the point of existence in mediocrity if you cant stand out?The annals of history offer room not to those who imitate but rather to those who initiate  revolution.Be different DONT blend with the trends!

Celebrating Onam

High-spirited people of Kerala celebrate Onam with happiness. The festival is celebrated for a period of ten days, starting from the first day Atham and continuing till tenth and the biggest day called Thiru Onam.
Celebrations of the first day are marked by intricate floral carpets called Pookalam. More flowers of different colours are added to this pookalam on each passing day. Onam is a ten day festival starting from atham to thiruvonam.On thiruvonam people get up at four o'clock in the morning,cleaning up the house,take an early bath and then go to the temple.
Onam is the greatest festival in Kerala.It is the time for harvest.Children eagerly wait for the festival as it is the time they get new clothes and toys as their uncles,aunts grandmother,grandfather and cousins come together to celebrate this traditional festival.
Onam is celebrated on the first day of malayalam calender called chingam.It is celebrated due to an old legend. According to this legend Lord Vishnu took his fifth avatar as vaamana and appeared in the kingdom of king mahabali and sent him to nether land.Lord Vishnu appeared as a dwarf brahmin came to Mahabali after his morning prayers and asked him for boons.He asked for as much land that could be covered with three steps.The king agreed.Suddenly vaamana incresed in size.With one step he covered the whole sky.With the second step he covered the whole earth.Then he asked for place to put his next step.The king realised that he was no ordinary boy.He asked vaamana to put his third step on his head.Lord Vishnu was pleased with him and granted him a boon.He said that he would want to visit Kerala ever year.This homecoming of King Mahabali is celebrated as onam.
Vibrant and joyous festival of Onam is celebrated with lot of happiness in the state of Kerala. Spirit of harmony and brotherhood prevails in the state all throughout the ten days of Onam.  People of all caste, communities and religions actively participate with same excitement. This enthusiasm was the cause of onam being the national festival of Kerala.

Today I wish all my friends a very very joyful onam. May god bless all of us today.Happy Onam...........

A Drawing of Gandhiji

Here is a drawing of Gandhiji on the green board at the school lobby for Independence Day. Can you tell me why he is facing the other way? What do you think is the message of this drawing? Write your answer in the comment box. The student who gives the best answer/message/reflection will be given a gift. ;) 

CWRDM – A water world of its own

CWRDM – A water world of its own

By Sandra Satheesh
Class X B

9^th July is one such day which the students of Std X batch 2012-13 will never forget. We had our first outdoor trip – a study tour to the Centre for Water Resource Development and Management (CWRDM).

We entered the gate and to my right, I could see the famous Kerala School of Mathematics. The CWRDM was a large green and white building and the entire place was filled with greenery. One could point out the glass building tilted “S. Vasudev Block” which consisted of the library too. When we were walking down the slope and on the way we saw the isotope hydrology division, medicinal garden under the National Horticulture Mission, experimental plot of list metric studies, etc. Then, we reached our first site of rainwater harvesting, under construction. It had a concrete layer at the bottom covered with plastic sheets on top of it. Capacity is 1 lakh litre. There was also a fence for protection. White patches were made to plaster cracks caused by the effect of sunlight.

Our next destination was the Water Heritage Museum. The in-charge, Mr. Prasannakumar gave us a lecture and then, we stepped in.

The museum was filled with beautiful structures describing the methods of rainwater harvesting from the ancient times. We also saw a small film created by CWRDM on its efforts at Lakshadweep.

Soon, we climbed back to the old slope after visiting the rain shed and water wheel. Passing through a vast ground, we entered the “P Kumaraswamy Block”. The first room we went to was the section of hydrochemistry where the employees taught us how they check water quality and how distilled water is brought out.

After that, we visited the microbiology lab where we saw how germs were maintained and we also saw how the laminar air flow chamber worked. Our final site was the open-air, meteorological observatory where we saw many types of equipment to check water level, to check humidity and I also got to see the Stevenson’s Screen, a mechanism to measure temperature.

We then thanked our guide, Mr. Unnikrishna Varyar, and came back to school. Thanks to Fr. John, our teachers, especially Ms. Gigi Thomas and Mr. Zacharias, bus drivers and CWRDM!

“May the water from wells give us prosperity.
May the stored water give us prosperity.
May the rain water give us prosperity.

Atharva Veda

The Beautiful Sea

The Beautiful Sea
by Smruthi P. Shaji
Std V B

I often go to the beach where the sea lies calm and quiet. But sometimes it can get angry and would eat everything in greed, which people call Tsunami. Still I like it a lot because of its calm nature.

Even though the sea is having a little bit of greed, its children who are the waves show a lot of respect, which is why they take turns to touch the feet of our beautiful EARTH.

11th so far...

Two months have passed since +1 started for us of the third batch of Devagiri CMI Public school. It's taken some getting used-to, but most of us have found our footing.

Things are different from 10th.

The portions are much (many? gah), the pressure is high, and having just two/three people per bench is boring. The more we think of the past, the more we fear the future. With teachers nagging us about exams, it's hard to live life in the present or to find enjoyment in studying. People with high aspirations asking for what questions come from the portion also pushes all the fun away. People who go to 'TIME' having no time at all, Sundays getting impaled by RAYS or taken by your friendly-neighbourhood Bhabha. It's really not the same as 10th at all.

Let's leave aside the portions and studies for now. What we're concerned about are our friends.

30 people or so changed school. And there isn't a day when we don't remember them. I used not to understand what was there to miss in people, but now I do. We miss their company, their sense of humour, and even if we never talked to them; their presence. There's a difference in the atmosphere from 10th, where someone used to shout out the answer or something randomly, and +1, where that voice has gone silent. Where there was that one girl we always wanted to talk to, sitting in the sidelines (or under the spotlight), and where she isn't here anymore, and she never will be. We miss you guys. We miss you a lot.

Aside from that, being divided into commerce, Comp.Science and Bio/Maths makes it hard to start conversations. People in commerce can't understand what's so funny about perforating peoples' cathodes, and drawing similarities between Kingdom porifera and Spongebob Squarepants.

The strict discipline we're supposed to keep for the sake of the reputation of our school, the Bio records, the growing crime rates around the city, Pranab Mukherjee is President... Oh wait, that's not related. Well anyway, things are complicated. It sometimes makes me feel like an older person who has to trudge their feet to office, work in a lonely cubicle and come back exhausted at the end of the day.

So, kiddies. Want to talk to someone, talk to them. Want to do something fun and completely unrelated to school, do it. Don't become old people who are reaching out for that top salary this year. Do it later. Don't moan about how much better 8th standard was. Enjoy yourselves right now.

And THEN you can become old. :D

Wandering Continents by Carol Tresa of IX B

SEMINAR REVIEW

by Carol Tresa of Std. IX B

 

TOPIC: PLATE TECTONICS

Date: 7th July 2012

Resource Person: 
Mr.Unnikkrishnan Warrier
Scientist, CWRDM

WANDERING CONTINENTS

On July 07^th, Mr. Unnikrishnan Warrier, a scientist from CWRDM, conducted a class on Plate Tectonics. The class started with the Continental Drift Hypothesis of 1970 by Dr. Alfred Wegenar who was a German Climatologist and Geophysician. He wrote a book called “Origin of Continents and Oceans” in 1915 which by 1970 had evolved into a revolution in Geosciences called - ‘The Theory of Plate Tectonics’. 

 A Theory has evidence while a hypothesis is proved to only some extent. The class was about how a hypothesis became a Theory. The Hypothesis stated that about 200 million years ago, a super continent called PANGAEA, Latin for all Lands, started breaking and drifting to different positions. The ocean that was there was Panthalassa which named after the Greek God of the sea. The first sea that formed after the division was Tethys.

A great debate took place then. Wegenar said that there was similarity between the coastlines on opposite sides of the South Atlantic. But it was put down by the fact that shorelines were modified by erosion. Another point was that fossils of animals such as Mesosaurus, Lystrosaurus and Glossopteris were found in places that had so many kilometers of sea in between the land that these animals could not have travelled long distances. This was opposed by the fact that there were lots of sea channels through which animals could have migrated.

Wegenar believed that the centripetal force caused the continents to move away, but he was not able to answer why they did not move in the same direction as they should and also why the radius of the earth remained same even after a lot of shifting. Thus, it remained a hypothesis.

Some people continued to prove the hypothesis. They found that the Atlantic Ocean had a ridge in the middle of the ocean floor where there was a lot of volcanic activity. They found that the age of rock increased as they moved towards the coastlines from the ridge. They found that the seafloor spreaded out and named it sea floor spreading. But why it happened was not answered. Interior of the earth consists of crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. The density is different for all these layers. Continents have a composition – SIAL (Silica and Aluminium), while oceans have SIMA (Silica and Magnesium). When certain waves were passed through the interior of the earth, it was found that the upper mantle is like a paste and also elastic.Thus, there came the Lithosphere (crust and upper mantle) and Asthinosphere (lower mantle). It was also found that the earth was made up of different plates that consisted of both solid crust and ocean floor. Plates are divided as Major (Eurasian plate), and Minor (Arabian plate) and Micro (Madagascar) based on their size. In a major plate, there may be many minor and micro plates. Movement in a plate is the activity along the plate borders like:

1. Convergent or destructive boundary – the area where twp plates come close and collide, where crust is destroyed and islands form. Eg:  Pacific Ocean where there are lots of islands.

2. Divergent or constructive boundary – the area where two plates move apart and mid-ocean ridges form. This was misunderstood as ‘ocean floor spreading’. Eg: -  Atlantic Ocean where there are no islands.

3. Transform or conservative boundary – the area where two plates slide past in opposite directions to form transform faults. Eg: - San Andrea’s fault.

It was also found that equal amount of earth’s crust is destroyed and constructed, so the radius remains same. Plumes are the cyclic motions inside the earth that carry the plates. This is how the Himalayas were formed. They are young mountains. Indian plate was taken to the North North-East and collided with the Eurasian plate. The Tethys Sea was elevated and its sediments formed the Himalayas. Tethys was deeper in the North, so Himalayan Mountains are highest in the northern side. This can be proved because fossils of sea animals and limestone- which only forms in water- are found in the Himalayas. It is still building higher by 1cm/year. The plateau was formed due to an outbreak of the plume that carried the Indian plate. The Gangetic plains were formed due to weathering of sediments on the mountains. The Tethys sea water went South South-West to Pakistan. It is said that Tethys sea water flowed as the River Saraswati, but it is having lot of controversies. We saw how the continents have moved over different periods like Triassic period, Jurassic period and Cretaceous period.

Earthquake is a release of energy. The circum Pacific belt is prone to earthquakes. Tsunami is the after effect of a sub-marine earthquake. It is called ‘Harbour waves’ in Japan as it does not affect any ships that are sailing in mid-ocean. It affects ships in the harbours. Tsunami waves have ‘crust’ and ‘truff’. When a crust hits the coast first, there is huge increase in water level without notice. When a truff comes first, the sea will withdraw and hit back, a lot stronger. 

The factors to find out if two continents were together are geographical continuity, ethological continuity, structural continuity and chronological continuity. Earthquakes have compressional waves, i.e. primary waves that are a very big threat to buildings, and secondary waves. Buildings are sometimes placed on ‘concrete balls’. That is an engineering technique to prevent damages due to earthquakes. The requirements for emergencies are:

* Co-operation

* Proper civilian defense

* Mutual understanding

* Infrastructural development

* Practice

We must also have general knowledge as on what to do in time of an earthquake. We must be in an open space during an earthquake. We must also have everything like cupboards and clocks attached to the walls. We also learnt that local time is very important as its absence will cause less usage of man power.                                                                                          

MUWCI- My new home.

The Mahindra United World College of India (MUWCI) , Village Paud, Pune.

This is the beautiful place where I'm going next for my +1 and +2.
A 175 acre campus surrounded by towering hills, MUWCI is a sort of pre-college where students from all over the world come to study in a wonderful, global environment.
The syllabus taught there is the IB, or the International Baccalaureate (a mouthful, I know).  
 
The wonderful thing about MUWCI is the amount of freedom and choices they let you take. The subjects are not just narrowed down into certain streams of a specific set.
You have to take six subjects, one each from a group. The groups are:

1.Language(English, French, Spanish, Hindi, etc.)
2.Second language( More literature focused)
3.Individuals and societies(basically, humanities.)
4.Experimental Sciences(Bio, Phy, Chem, etc.)
5.Mathematics(There are different levels of maths that you can opt for too.)
6.The Arts(Music, theatre, dance, etc.)

Not to mention the people you'll be meeting there. People from more than 60 countries will be joining you there, and will also be your roommates in the two years to come.
You're expected to undertake in community engagement, which is a necessary part of academic life there. You'll also be hiking and trekking around the mountains and studying the biodiversity there. And since it's very hot there, with lots of shrubs and bushes, the surrounding areas catch fire very easily, and the students are assigned the task to put those fires out. Even if they are writing an exam, the students are excused and  they are rushed out of the classrooms so that they can put on their safety gear and go to the rescue!
Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Well that's my school/college. It's an exciting place to be with loads of opportunities.
But there's one more fact too.

In order to get into MUWCI, you must fill in an application and send it to them.
But it's not just your average, application that asks you for your birth date and merit certificates and grades.  They ask you some soul-searching questions. And these questions change every year.

For eg:
Describe the philosophy of your life in not less than 20 words.
Find a picture or a poem or an anecdote that can describe your philosophy. Share it with us.
If you had five minutes face to face with a world leader, whom would you choose and why? What would you discuss with that person?

These are the questions that I had to answer. And they were challenging, but in the end, I had fun.

MUWCI is a place for people who like to be creative and free, for those who do not want to be restricted by the barriers in their society. It is a place where regular discussions on Global Affairs take place, a place where you will engage in community work daily, a place where you are expected to live like a citizen of the world.

The classes start by August, and you are given a month's time to try out the subjects that you like and can change them if you wish during that period.

This is their site:http://www.uwcmahindracollege.org/

I thank Sheela Ma'am and Anniamma Ma'am for giving me a lot of support to follow this path. They were the ones who had to write a recommendation for me and I'm pretty sure they did a good job!
I thank Fr. John for giving me a lot of opportunities to write and I thank him for introducing me before an entire audience as " a boy with lots of talent". It gave me a lot of confidence and will continue to do so in the future years of my life.
I also thank all of my teachers in Devagiri who taught me and passed me their knowledge with ingenuity and brilliance.
Finally, I thank my wonderful friends in Devagiri whom I will miss very much. Their pranks and jokes have tickled me a lot, and the time I spent with them is unforgettable.

If anyone has any doubts regarding the College and/or how to apply, please ask them in the comment box below, adn I will be very happy to help. More people need to know about MUWCI, because the time that you spend there will mould you into an all-rounded person.

Thank you for reading this post.
Here's a video of a day spent at MUWCI:

Congratulations to the newly elected leaders!!!

Winners all the way...
CONGRATULATIONS!!!


School Chairperson: Aswin Chandran
Std XI  B- Computer - Maths



Vice Chairperson: Amitha Govindraj
Std XI A- Bio - Maths



School Leader: Nahil Najeeb Kassim
Std IX A



Assistant School Leader: Ayra Jamshad
Std IX A

Things have changed so much since then...
Back then, I was the quiet little kid, the one who just studied and got marks, did homework on time, had a decent handwriting, and never really did much for the school as a whole.
But now. I'm not so quiet anymore, I don't study as much, don't always do my homework, have a famously-bad handwriting, and volunteer for every program which the school holds.

I've grown older, I've changed school, and I've seen a completely different side of life. I left behind that past, as if all a dream.
But now as I see the batch photo of my previous school's current 10th, I see what I left behind.
But I don't regret it. I've got green grass on this side too. I'd like to think of it as greener, but well...it isn't, is it? And I see a lot of nice flowers on this side, so it's a pretty nice place too.

The Badminton Game

I often play badminton with my brother and his friends. Sometimes we play at the night. When we play at night noone will be there except my brother and me. It would be really nice to play but by the time you return home you feel like someone is tearing your muscles apart. It will still be refreshing and you feel like playing it again and again.

Once we were playing as usual at night, when my mind wandered of somewhere. I wasn't really concentrating but still playing. I was lost in toughts, Somethings I didn't even want to think about. Somethings I didn't even know. It happens to everyone you'll be concentrating on something really badly when something turns up and your mind just literally gets out of your control. This once, I was trying to convert life into a badminton game. Weird but yes I was trying to do it.

The little thing  just flies into your court and however you hit it, however hard you hit it, it must go across the net. but sometimes you hit it too hard. Sometimes you just don't get to hit it. Sometimes you hit it too slowly. But there will be a time when you hit it perfectly fine.

Just like a badminton game, situations fly into your life and you will be supposed to hit it out of your life. And just like the game, sometimes you'll be too hard that it goes out of the court and your opponent gains a point and most importantly you don't. Sometimes you hit too slowly that it remains in your court which is supposedly your life and again you lose a point. When you hit it perfectly fine the person doesn't get to hit it back and you gain a point. I don't I have to tell you how that is related to a normal person's life.

You can relate everything in your life with many things that you do everyday like I did in here. Observe what is happening around you. Watch. Maybe, you can live better life that way. I don't know.....maybe..Stop reading the blog and think for a while. :-)

Ms. Lini was awarded as World's Best Teacher

     Today was a wonderful day for Ms. Lini. You know why? Of course you don't!  I would like to tell you that Ms. Lini was taken by surprise for being awarded as World's Best Teacher by students of class VII A. 

     The students had planned for today's awarding ceremony without their class teacher's knowledge. It seemed that they sought Fr. John's permission to conduct this ceremony & had coordinated with him secretly. Very smart & daring, weren't they?

     During the 7th period, they gathered at the Home Theatre and a few students went to get Fr. John and Fr. Johny for the function. Believe it or not, Niharika & Jacob were the comperers and they did a wonderful job. So, folks, we have two good comperers on the rise. Congratulations to the two of you. (Anjana & Sachin, these young folks will soon take your place & will surely take the stage by storm. You might want to give them some tips. ;))


Here are some photos for you:


Ms. Lini receiving her certificate from Fr. John & Fr. Johny.



That green file contains some "love" letters for Ms. Lini.
Sorry, I didn't get to read them, so I won't be able to tell you what the letters say.





Click on the certificate to have a better view of it.



CONGRATULATIONS, MS. LINI!

Great Job, class VII A!

The Dial

The space is white.

The walls are silent observers of the tug of repulsion between the floor and the ceiling. They too are white.

You blink an eye, and the space is black.
Blink again, and the space is white.

An unblinking eye can untangle the chaos in the calm façade. It can sense out where the center of the space is, and heads there. Reaching there, it stares down.
Down, not up.
And there, levitated by the chaos, is a dial of black volcanic rock. The dial glints in the invisible light, and the eye can see the facets time has cut on it. It ticks tranquility, and the needles are prancing against the tick of time. Brace yourself, for they are fast ticking towards Carnage.

Suddenly, you sense a disturbance in the white air. The space is sending out ripples of it towards you, and you steel yourself as the waves lash in. Your mind conjures wild images of earthly irritants, but the storm approaching is far more unnatural.
Nothing. You feel nothing.

You blink, and the white air stills itself.
The dial is still alive, and the needles are still ticking down. A wary eye will know to hide, because they are ticking towards Cataclysm.
You feel it whipping you about before you can see it. High-velocity winds rage at you, and you feel trapped in a war you do not know of. The ceiling has sent a vortex down at the floor, but the floor and ceiling are there no more.

As the vortex spirals down past you, it holds you prisoner. You are forced to watch the visions stream by, distorted by the spiralling. The visions are like pulsing tendons, the vortex drawing its strength from each of them. Stretched faces, unrealized acquisitions, monochrome dreams – they all whiz past the blinking eye. The vortex grows stronger as you watch. With each blink, another second spirals down.
The faces are crying, some aghast, some euphoric. The dreams are like deserted construction sites, the rubble and pillars clumped together in an unlikely pair. But everything dematerializes. Everything spirals down towards the dial.

The eye winces as the vortex reaches the dial, but the dial is alive. It is the power, and it forces the vortex into submission. The filaments of the vortex flicker out like carefully lit notes in a symphony, and they are all strung loose. The dial does not render them free, for the vortex is intact at its head. The space witnesses an eerie picture – A lone figure stands stranded among the blinking filaments, and at its foot, the dial holds the reigns to it all.

You blink an eye, and the filaments are gone. The walls would have you know, that the last thing they saw before dissipating themselves, was the dial guzzling the filaments into it.

A ripple emanates from within the dial, and for a moment of stunned disbelief you see liquid on the dial surface. And reflected there, you see yourself. You see all the things your naïve heart had desired, and you see everything that was denied to you. The dial shows you their faces, their smug arrogance. It shows you what was, and what never was. The dial is the power.

You blink an eye, and the surface of the dial freezes over. There are the needles, ticking down. You can’t see where they’re headed now. The dial does not deem you worthy. Insipid thoughts fill you up, as you’re forced to relive every moment of regret, of indecision, of despair. The needles are ticking, and blatant lies are pouring out of their mouths into your world.

An unwavering eye sees nothing. It sees stillness. It sees completion. It sees eons of emptiness.

But you are not the eye. You cannot survive in the presence of the dial. For it will incarcerate every object you hold dear. To the dial, all but itself is trite.

So you close your eyes, and the space is no more. You do not blink.

The mundane trinkets of life await you for when you wake. There will be papers to be filed, men to be bought, fragility to be destroyed and seconds to be killed.

The automatons are waiting for you. You must walk amidst the millions of them that throng the world your reality inhabits, and you must distort your thinking to aid theirs. You must not waver; you must submit.

But don’t blink. The space will reel you in, and the dial will wreck your sanity.

Never Give Up!

NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

          My dear friends, I chose this title for my article because I have a real life experience which I would like to share with you in connection to this. Maybe it can inspire you.

          I came to this school for Std VII. Even though it was difficult for me to cope up with the new surroundings I managed to flow with others. For the first Annual Day that I witnessed in this school, I saw my friends and everybody else participating in one or the other events. They took part in dances, dramas, songs…. But I thought of joining in some other different program.

          I had a very small experience in compering when I was in 4^th STD.  I had compered for the Grand Finale in the annual day celebration of my previous school.  So, I planned to compere at DCMIPS.

          There was a screening for comperers and I was selected as one of the comperers for the annual day celebrations.

          I was happy that I was given the chance to compere. I had a partner and we both went and asked the teacher assigned for each event on how to go about compering in the program. The teachers gave us a long list of instructions. Among the instructions, Pradeep sirs’s instruction was terrible. He asked us to present the matter in different moods.

          Everything was set. I practiced many times from home. On the day of the event, I got a small slip of paper from a boy who was a member of our compering team. It was written, “Sabith, this is the only part that you have got to comper for today’s function”. I asked him, “Then what about the previous ones?” He told me that those were given to someone else and then he left. I opened the slip given to me and I saw two lines scribbled in that. The two lines were: “Wow, that was an amazing performance! Ladies and gentlemen, please give them a warm, round of applause once again”.

          I was really out of my senses for some time; I felt like crumpling the paper up and just leave the premises. But then, I thought that if I'd go they would make someone else to read that and I won’t be able to read at least those lines. I stood calm 'till my part was over. After saying my two precious lines, I left the place immediately!

          The whole day I was thinking about the ‘hours’ that I spent practicing that bloody stuff. I wanted to get another chance to compere and show my real talent. After that incident whenever any program came, I would go in search of opportunities to compere.

           Now when I reached 8th std... I again went and tried my luck in compering for any event during the annual day. The concerned teacher told me, “Ok! You can come but there is a screening session which you have to undergo.”

           I agreed to attend it. Since I didn’t hear any news regarding the screening till the previous day of the program, I approached the teacher and enquired.

          She told me,  “The screening was over and the students have already been taken.”

          Another mental shock for me! As a protest against this, I didn’t attend the 3-day annual day celebration.

          After this second incident, I swore upon God and prayed before him that, I wont leave this school until I fixed my indelible mark in compering.

          Now I am in 9^th.  God bless, that this time our principal father asked the  9^th STD students to host the Children’s Day celebrations. This was a great time for me to make use of the opportunity. I compered for the whole program from the start till the end. 

          After the program was over my class teacher came and told me, “English teachers said that you have an ‘Undiscovered Compering Talent’.”

          I boast on that to my friends because that’s the only talent I have got.  If I don’t boast on this one talent that I have, then on what will I boast?

          This year, I was surprised to hear from my English teacher that I was there for compering for the three-day annual day celebrations.

         Whenever I felt dissatisfied with what I did on stage, I would ask the teacher, “How was it?” I asked that each and every time I came down from stage. God bless, that most of the remarks were positive.

          Now finally I am in 10^th.  Most probably the last year of mine in this school. This year we had the All Kerala CMI CBSE School Kalotsav held at our school. I was selected for compering. This time it wasn’t as cool as before. It was a competition in which my partner and I had to work so hard to compete with intellectuals from different parts of Kerala. The most amazing thing was... we won first place! That for me was a great achievement because I didn't want my teacher's name to be spoilt and I didn't want to disappoint my parents as well.

My teacher who selected me for this event told me that there were so many controversies when she selected me for this. It was primarily because of her trust in me that I am selected. I didn't know what those contoversies were but I thought of working so hard so that her name would not be spoilt because of me.

          My intention in writing this experience is to tell you not to give up under any circumstances. I didn't. With continuous effort and hard work, you will achieve whatever you work hard for. Make maximum use of the opportunities given to you. ‘Extract the last drop of essence from the lime’, as the saying goes.

          With this, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the ones who have really helped me to come up to this height. First of all, our principal Fr. John Mannarathara, who gave me a chance to be involved in the Children’s Day celebrations, Ms. Sheela Varghese, Ms. Kairali and last but not the least Ms. Divya Krishna.

Thank you

My experience of the Sancharam 2012

Night 1:

I stepped out of the car, and dashed to the queues which were formed in the lobby of Devagiri CMI Public School. I had come a little late, but luckily hadn't missed it. I joined my friends, and talked a little, excitedly. We were told to keep quiet, and somehow managed, in spite of the anticipation.
Anand sir, as usual, told us a few things to keep in mind.
“For one, It's going to be very cold there, Be sure to have warm clothing.”
“You have asked for big buses, so we've given you big luxury buses.”
“You asked to be seated separately, so that has been done too.”
“You asked me not to come, so I am also not coming.”
The last sentence made us all burst into laughter. We were excited, and ready to go. Except for the few who rushed off to the washrooms at the last moment.
We boarded the bus, marveling at its facilities and size. Many of us went straight to the back, waving goodbye to the adults outside-The parents, a few members of the staff like Ms. Sheela who'd come to see us off, and of course, our principal-Father John, thanks to whom we were able to enjoy ourselves so freely without any restraints.
“Bye Amma!”
“Bye Mom! Bye Dad!”
Abruptly, I was asked, “Hey Amita, what's your mom's name?” But before I could answer, I heard her shout, “Bye Amita's mom!”
The loudest cheer was the "BYE SHEELA MAA'AAM!" which everyone screamed out at full volume. Sheela ma'am turned around and quickly walked away at this.
The bus slowly, but loudly, rolled out of the school, with the sound system already kicking in. The celebration had started, and I feared that my motion sickness might as well. I sat down calmly, as the lights went off and the lasers went on. The music was loud, and the party didn't stop, that is, until around 11 or 12 in the night, when we were shown the horror movie, “Nightmare On Elm Street”. Though, as I'm not a very big fan of horror, I sealed off the world with my music player, and lazily gazed outside. Some people hadn't been able to come, and they were missing this. I closed my eyes, ignoring the screams, and Shilpa diving down onto my lap in fear every now and then. I sighed, and gently stroked her head. A similar thing had happened when I got a tight hug while watching 'The Edge' in the home theatre, but I didn't mind as much.
The movie ended, and everyone was discussing the scenes in it. I took out my earphones, and placed my music player back into my bag. It was 1:00 AM, and far past my bedtime. Before I knew it, I was asleep. But not for long, as the half-asleep, subconscious chatter from behind woke me up. I joined in, since the bus had stopped somewhere (for a reason I do not yet know). And in that half-asleep, uninhibited state, we talked about the strangest of things, like Barney the Dinosaur, celebrities, movies and so on. Such a half-asleep state has always been a time when I am the most free and thoughtless, and as I discovered, I'm not the only one. A few hours later, I gazed outside lazily, and saw frogs hopping around on the road. We were going up a mountain, and abruptly turned into what seemed like a parking.
“We're there?”
“But the boys' bus went on. They missed!”
No, we'd missed. We had to turn around and go a few metres further.
“Guuys, is it cold outside?”
“Touch the glass.”
It seemed cold to me, if not to some other girls. We walked through the cold atmosphere, waited a minute at the reception, and went to our rooms. The first time, we had 23 or so girls assigned to one room. We changed room once, to 15 or so girls, and the turns in the bathroom began. Some needed to change clothes, brush their teeth etc. I spotted an electric kettle, some sugar, or rather, sugar-free and teabags on a plate in the room.
“Who wants black tea?”
I got an answer, and brewed some.
After a while, when we had not much to do, we turned on the television in the room, and surfed the channels a little, till we landed on a movie. “Fired up” What struck me, was how easy it seemed to get a girlfriend, when there are so many sources stating on complex ways to reach the same result.


Day 1:

Lini ma'am came into our room, and we were off again, to breakfast.
Half-asleep, weary, a large group of dark-circled zombies climbed through hills surrounded by tea plantations. Finally getting some shuteye in the bus after a nearly sleepless night, some weren't happy about being awoken to stop at at Eravikulam National park. It was nearing noon, and the sun was beating on our heads. We boarded rattling buses, to take us up the mountain. We stopped, and started the walk. I was thirsty and a little tired, but we went on, washing our faces in springwater from a pipe, and seeing a sort of shrine on the way.
In a few minutes, we had reached the limit, beyond which we weren't allowed to go. We saw a tahr, and several signposts with slogans. What surprised us was when it lazily trotted towards the fence between us, and walked along it into a bush.


Next, we were off for lunch, somewhere after Mattupetti dam, in the open air. What I disliked about this wasn't that we had to wait long for it, but that we had to dispose of the plates in the open. After learning not do so from my formal education, it was disheartening to see the teachers themselves doing it without a second thought.
Our next destination was 'Echo point', where, more than sightseeing, we bought souvenirs, like, Rajasthani pens, keychains, printing blocks and so on.
From there, we were off to the hotel to get fresh. But I ended up vomiting on the way, from motion sickness, and couldn't even eat dinner properly. I freshed up a little back at the hotel, and danced a little at the campfire, before having to sit down and rest.

Day 2:

That night saw a well-needed rest, till five AM or so, when we started packing up, and I ate my parcel, in my mind, thanking the angel (Anagha) who'd gotten it for me. We were in better spirits than the night before. And were all ready to go to the houseboats after breakfast.
I remember sitting next to Ms. Anniamma for the bus journey to the houseboats.
We stopped off at a tea shop for the common morning 'chaya', and then set off. The music was started, and we went through Kochi, a land of development, and little patches of grass here and there. There were huge buildings like Emmanuel Silks and a line of popular car showrooms. I was amazed at it all, and my jaw dropped. So this was the 'Kochi' I'd heard so much about. It truly was something!
Soon, we started seeing water, and knew we were there. We walked, from the bus parking, to the houseboats, and walked into one, by stepping on planks. We climbed to the top deck, and had breakfast while the boat set off. We sat or stood here and there, many on the seat at the very front. The water hyachinth covered a lot of the river, and all we could see were villages, and greenery.
But Alas! Soon we were back, and had to go again.

At around 11, we reached a jewish synagogue, (Name). The way there was lined with souvenir shops, which we were supposed to hurry through, though some bought things like pens or a skirt.
Our next stop was St. Francis Church, Kochi, where Vasco Da Gama was first buried. It awed us to think that the church's interiors were over a century old! Next, we found ourselves walking along the Kochi beach to see the Chinese fishing nets, ships and boilers used in ships.

We stopped off at a hotel 'Sagar' on the way, for lunch (The time was 4:00 PM). We had lunch, and waited for a while, in the hotel, and in the bus. We begged Fr. Johnny to let us go straight to Oberon mall instead of visiting Marine Drive on the way. He obliged, and we were off. We were instructed to go in groups, hide our wallets and money, and so on. I formed a group with Nazreen, Niranjana, Anjana and Michalle. We went to the clothes section first, and were shocked at the high prices. We fled to the Bookstore. We bought a few books, for ourselves, and younger siblings. Then, we went around, to the bumper cars, Intel Store, arcade and then to the foodcourt. We ordered a few items, like a milkshake, doughnut, French fries and chicken popcorn, and even a pizza. We started at a normal pace...until Chaithanya burst in and told us that we had only five minutes left. We ate like the cookie monster in Sesame street, tearing the doughnut into parts, getting a brain-freeze from going too fast on the milkshake. We went down the escalators, and out. Some people like Avani and Parvathi were missing, so we had to wait a while before crossing the road and walking to the bus. We hadn't gotten the pizza in time to eat it from the foodcourt, and had brought it packed to eat in the bus. It was good, needless to say. And our spirits were up again. We were happy about the tour, and how it had turned out. Yes. It was almost over. All that awaited us were a dinner at Hotel Runs (Coincidentally the same place we had gone to on the way back, the year before) and a horror movie “The Last Exorcism”.
Anniamma ma'am and I were sitting on the first seat on the left, a triangular vacant seat in front of us. I took a picture of both of us sitting together, as many of us had been doing with our close friends. My legs were cramped up in the little legroom we had, so I put them onto the triangular seat in front. Anniamma ma'am followed suit.
Like the previous movie, I put my earphones in my ears, and listened to music while the movie rolled. I couldn't sleep, and just closed my eyes till it ended. There was far less screaming for this movie, and it was peaceful in the bus. Many of us drifted off to sleep, and before I knew it, we were turning left at the Thondayad Bypass. We were predicted to reach school at 4:00 AM, but it was just around 1:30-2:00. We reached the school gates, and woke everyone up. With our luggage, we went to the Kindergarten building, and to the beds there to sleep for a while. Our tour was over, and we were nothing short of exhausted of energy, and brimming with newly-made memories.