A NATURE-AL DAY!

The twenty ninth of November was a very dry and uninteresting day. It just happened to be another school day, I came back home delighted at the thought of the holidays. You start off the day with attending an assembly, that too a House assembly, where you have to listen to your House-Masters, in my case a House-Mistress. She is quite interesting to listen to, especially because of the Hindi slang words she uses between her speeches.

I had to attempt a quiz next, it was all about U.A.E. I mustn't have got more than two marks out of twenty five! It was difficult, for many. The only good thing about that was that we missed the Hindi period! Amazing! Periods slipped by, Biology teacher bored us with her lecture about asexual and sexual reproduction in plants and bisexual flowers and the phyla Porifera and Coelenterata. I mean who wants to mug up names such as Platyhelminthes or Euplectelea! It is not even English! Our Chemistry teacher however lightened our day by rapping definitions and formulae. Even though she speaks quite fast, you still get to understand her!

The next day was a rainy day, some people must have thought about going out in the lovely weather, while some people would have stayed at home, while some people like me would curse the rain for coming when the holidays started and not when school was still on. However, it was pretty amazing to go out for breakfast! Getting wet in the rain was fun and refreshing. The best thing was that the rain in Sharjah didn't make the city dirty like the rain in Bombay. Instead it made the city beautiful. A place called Rolla was an exception, you'd puke seeing the bird droppings being carried away by water.

After breakfast my mother somehow pleaded with my father to take her for a movie which she wanted to watch,  and we got tickets for the nine thirty show. For curious readers, the movie is a Hindi Movie called 'Talaash'. Being a rainy day we were able to get our tickets fast.

Sharjah did look beautiful, but what was bad was the strong smell of tobacco. People were smoking all over the streets, especially because it was a rainy day. The smell of tobacco was so strong, it was like I was the one who was smoking!

My mom and I had the feeling that we were going home and our next outing will be at nine when we would have to leave to watch the movie. But my father surprised us by taking a completely different turn from a signal, we knew we weren't heading home. We thought he was possibly taking us for a drive. We were right, but only partially! It wasn't just any drive, it was a drive to Kalba! Kalba was a place located in Sharjah, but it was far from the city. It was closer to Fujairah. The journey to the place was amazing. The starting was a bit boring, because we were still in the city. There was nothing to see, but schools (including my school), industrial areas, etc. Then the drive got charged up.

Kalba wasn't the actual beauty, it were the places which came before it. There were beautiful hills and hillocks. There were beautiful flowers, and for once I didn't have to study about them. The amazing part was that my father hardly had to step on the gas, as the vehicle moved by itself, even when he wasn't accelerating at all! It reminded me of Oman. The roads and the roadside were amazing. I was surprised that I saw no land animal! How was that possible? There should have been a mountain goat or yaks or donkeys! But no there weren't any! Maybe no goats or yaks, but definitely lots of crows, that was something rare in the U.A.E.

My father had been here before, but I was in India at that time, with my cousins! One of my cousins is happily having fun in London, so no sad feelings for her, but the other is in Tamil Nadu, doing something he refers to as "slogging my ass off!" All sad feelings there. I don't think I saw as much as my dad did when he first came to Kalba, but it is better than seeing absolutely nothing!

We had something you could call lunch, but it was only lunch-ish; from a cafeteria. It was only a burger and a drink and few French fries (sarcastically). Lunch or brunch or snacks or whatever you call it wasn't that fun, it was a wee bit boring. We just wanted to get out of there. We ate quickly and then left. My father said we would take the Fujairah route to go back! We thought it would be interesting, but it turned out to be the vice versa!

It turned out to be a bore! Nothing to see, no big beauties. You could see quite a lot of cop vehicles as two days later it'd be the National Day, the forty-first and the police had to be prepared. All the citizens and residents of the U.A.E decorated their vehicles and got ready to party during the second of December. H.H Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sent every single mobile owner a message wishing them a happy and prosperous National Day.

 The day came to an end after we watched the movie. No reviews from my side.

 Sleeping wasn't difficult that day. You just had to ignore the faint sound the fan created while it rotated, that was simple because the cool breeze that was also created by the fan put me off to my slumber.
 I had a plethora of entertainment that day! A pleasant surprise and a day to cherish!

Hasta la Vista,
K 

COUPLE OF UNEXPECTED SUCCESSES!

Well, looking at the title you can predict what you are going to read in this post. Success, a very strong word, successes, even stronger! I'm not writing about a kind of success, that would change your life in a big way, maybe a small way, but not big. The best part is along with the successive successes, I got to bunk skip, a lot of school periods! What could be more fun than escaping from the boring and uncreative, claws of studies. Who wants to learn things, especially when teachers teach them like they were meant to be boring, and they are here to either make you fall asleep, or bang your head on a table.

Being a part of the Literary Club is completely fun, being the Secretary actually takes the fun away, maybe not in bulk, but yes, a bit of it. The teacher in charge begins to start knowing you, your friends start getting a wee bit jealous, but since they are boys, you tend to consider yourself lucky. Boys are plain obnoxious, they take most of the blame, if its a girl, the one standing next to her is evidently unlucky. In fact I've had a lot of experience when I was younger. Never can forget things like that. Trust me sweet girls aren't sweet, if they aren't sweet, then you definitely mingle with them, same thing with males. Never trust the sweet! I only trust the word sweet, when the sweet thing is edible.

The day the teacher in charge of the so-called Literary Club (I am going to abbreviate it to L.C, for my convenience) announced that six boys will have to turn up on Sunday only to skip school, the whole crowd turned jubilant, and everyone wanted to turn up, but unfortunately, it was only for the students of ninth grade so the tenth graders were heart-broken. We were supposed to go to Indian High School, Dubai, as a poet by the name Imtiaz Dharker was to turn up. There was also an award for the best two questions posed to her. Six boys were selected including me, and their e-mail IDs were taken so that details about the poet could be given. I knew I was going to have a busy weekend.

I sat in front of my desktop for an hour or two thinking about the stupid questions I'd ask her on Sunday. It was not a very good thinking period, as all my thoughts weren't assembled, and like all writers, she was too complicated in person. In fact the first thing that struck my mind was that she was a divorcee'. The thing was I was not the media to ask her questions which are irrelevant and personal. Her poems weren't that very inspiring, it had sense of a lot of thoughtfulness and less natural flavours, which made it a bit boring. Sitting in front of a machine, which wouldn't allow me to access any of her work without paying, I had no hopes of making a question. In fact the only work I read was the one I was able to see through the e-mail that was sent to me. I mean who calls a television an idiot box isn't a desktop idiot enough! You can at least access a lot of things after buying a television. It is just not the same with a computer. Can't access anything good without money.

My mother helped me a bit, but her thoughts were more scattered than mine. It was so scattered I hardly could understand a word she said, in the end we were able to frame three questions, but the thing was I had to choose one from the three. Hard job.

On Sunday the day had come to wear a blazer on your uniform and look smart, like you have just graduated from college and you are going for a job interview. In the bus I felt really stuffy with the blazer and our driver just liked it without the air-conditioner. I did have a minor headache, but it never really took effect. The bus was really quiet that day for some reason. I could hardly hear anybody talking, it felt odd and you could say irrelevant, especially looking at the people in the bus.

In school all the six boys who were asked to visit the poet, first visited the ninth grade supervisor, left their bags in the supervisor's room and were prepared to leave with pens and pencils and a notebook, which nobody really used. The teacher in charge of the L.C, couldn't come as there were no substitute teachers and she couldn't leave school, so an art teacher accompanied us, and he did so with great delight.

Our bus was small, but because of the small number, I was able to bag a free seat, all to myself, how wonderful could that be! My classmate was sitting right behind me, and he was talking all about how idiotic the session was going to be, he wasn't much interested, he was more of a guy who'd love to bunk. "This session is going to be boring and its going to suck." he said. I replied with the look that said 'let's see'. The trip was kind of boring, especially because everybody was just talking. Burj Khalifa, a small man-made lake with flamingos and ducks weren't new beauty to us.

Reaching a foreign school is always exciting, but visiting a one which is better then your own school is depressing! My classmate was so furious, that he would have screamed if our art teacher wasn't there with us. We asked for directions and finally reached the auditorium, wherein the show was going to be conducted. It was more like theatre, with a balcony and all. The chairs were fixed to the ground and were immobile. We found out that we were too early, and this time our art teacher was furious. He blamed the school authorities for our early arrival. However we entertained, rather depressed ourselves more by visiting the neatly painted and neatly arranged library, and were astonished by the collection of books they had. They had Cubicle Rooms, wherein students could discuss studies related stuff privately.

We spent most of our time going through various magazines and books. Then the time came for the session itself!

The poet was a woman who looked normal, not too fat, not too thin. She definitely wasn't very good with speeches and also really bad at entertaining others with her own poems! The starting of her session was so boring that even our art teacher slept off! It only picked up in the end and because of that it turned out to be an okay session. Then came the time for the thing everyone was waiting for, questions!

I was the second one to ask the question and the poet replied by appreciating my question and also a very long answer which just came through my left ear and went out through the right one. Many others got a chance to ask their question, even my classmate's question was appreciated.

In the end the two best questions were mine and one other girl's from Indian High School. We got a poetry book signed by her, mine was called Leaving Fingerprints. My classmate also got a book, he got a book since the judge liked his question, but she didn't want two people of the same school to take home a prize. So she gave him a free book. We left the foreign school not too happy, not too depressed. When  I reached school, everyone was happy that out of nineteen schools, our school got the prizes. This is my first success!

The next day, the talk about the Secretary of the L.C winning a prize had lightened, I was happy that of three questions I was able to choose the best. That day everybody was asked to write an essay on the topic What Children's Day Mean To Me, I wrote it delightedly as thoughts were pouring through my head. I submitted my paper, and I got to know that the best two will be selected from each class, and the winners will be provided a prize.

Two days later, there was a special assembly, for Children's Day and our poor teachers managed to organise something just less than decent. At first our physical education teacher shocked us by singing a song! He sang delightedly with all the cheering! There was a game of Charades, which only a few of our class representatives were able to participate in. You wouldn't want to know how dumb it was.

Our teachers literally shocked us by singing a song together. The thing was it didn't go completely according to plan. Some teachers were hiding behind other teachers, some of the male teachers were happily dancing! Some of them were absolutely clueless! Some of them were just glaring at the lyrics, through their spectacles which almost touched their nostrils! The program was almost over after that, with only the prizes of the essay competition to be given.

As the title of the post talks about successes, you'll know that I am one of these winners. Not a lot of gap between two completely different successes, what a week!

Hasta la Vista,
K 

THE THOUGHTS THAT BETRAYED!

 This is what thinking too much during exams can do!

He put his pen down to think of the answer,

But instead his mind wandered somewhere else.

He wasn't too kiddish to think of elves, 

But he was definitely not thinking of the answer!

Mirror mirror on the wall! Which is the coolest of them all?

Facebook or twitter?

What is more bitter?

Bitter gourd or the shopping mall?

Who is more strong?

Jackie Chan or Jet Li?

Or is it Bruce Lee?

It'll be safer to stick to King Kong!

He sat and thought about everything but work!
The question before him, the answer sheet, blank!

He thought of his father in the bank,

And even his mother at work!

The exam was over!

He still didn't answer the question!
And that was a whole incomplete section!

He submitted his paper, but his head he lowered! 

Good luck with exams, don't wander off! 

Hasta la Vista,

K

THE GREAT BATTLE FOR THE TELEVISION!

Just in case you're fighting for the television remote with your parents or parent, just forget about it. Don't even think of arguing, it's not going to work at all, especially when both you and your parents or parent are on vacation. They always manage to over-power you some way or the other, after all, how can they be called our parents, if they aren't able to do a simple thing like over-powering us and getting a television remote. In fact you must always have a back-up plan, like a laptop or a computer, or something related to gaming or it could even be just a book! I'm telling you, no parent is going to fight with you for a game or even a book actually! Our parents are even more modern than us, no books, only television. Even if they want to read the book, they'll either feel lazy to snatch the book from you after seeing you glued to the book, or they'll just be happy to see you reading. But this experience is a bit different. 

Well, it was mid-August and it was the monsoon season in India, even though it never really rained heavily. It was drizzling and we weren't in plans of doing something interesting, even if we went out. So outing was crossed from our list. I had a PSP, which was apparently out of charge, and I had no choice but to watch T.V. I thought of watching The Expendables, again, but my mother came in the way and changed the channel to some other channel which had some old Hindi song playing. I didn't bother at first, I just started encapsulating my mind into my game, even though my PlayStation was charging, I was too bored to care about 'not playing while the thing is charging'. It was practice which made me so oblivious to the fact that my mother enjoys, while, even though I was enjoying, I had to stick to one kind of entertainment!

My mother suddenly turned up the volume, just because she liked a song. I got infuriated as I wasn't able to listen to what was going on my game. "The song sucks, why don't you turn down the volume."
"Don't you have a more decent word to show your hatred towards the song?" my mother said indignantly.
"Who uses decent words to describe hatred?"
"I do"
"Yeah right, I know. If you get angry, the whole world will come to an end."
"Shut up!"
"See! Now who is using indecent language?"
"'Shut up' isn't that indecent."
"O'course it is, especially when it comes to people so decent like you." I pulled her leg.
"A'right, just be quiet for sometime."
"Turn down the volume."
"No! I won't!"
"Then I shan't keep quiet either."
"You will, as soon as you get glued to that violent game of your again."
"I need the volume turned down for that, and violence is modernity, and it is leisure and liberty, just like the city in the game."
"Do you really think, Toni Cipriani, going all round the city killing innocent people is liberty?"
"You don't get it do you? I'm talking about leisure for me, not those animated pedestrians!"
"Yeah so get back to leisure, my leisure is this song."
"Well, I am not asking you to turn the thing off, just turn down the volume."
"Oh God! Fine."
"Thank Goodness!"

She turned down the volume and continued listening to the song in a lower volume. I turned off my machine and asked my mom to pass me the remote, because I wanted to see if there was anything interesting for me to watch. "No! Play your dumb game."
"Just let me see, if there is anything interesting."
"These songs are interesting enough for me."
"But, not for me."
"I don't care!"
"I do"
"Toni Cipriani, must be getting bored, get him someone to kill!"
"He has killed about seventy people today, that's enough!"
"Then go help your grandmother."
"In what, cooking? Something I don't know?"
"Yeah! Go ahead learn something!"
"I have enough subjects to learn, I don't need Home Science coming in my way."
"Like you learn other subjects. Now, let me listen to the song.Shhhh!"
"For God's sake let me just see what's going on in other channels."
"You'll find something to watch, then I won't be able to listen to these songs!"
"What if that interests you?"
"It won't! Now be quiet!"
My mom and I fought for ages. Then my grandmother came in. "Keep that interesting serial!"
And we all fought together!

Hasta la Vista,
K

THE GROUP PROJECTS!

Summer vacations are truly disgusting when it comes to the amount of homework you have. It is irritating and at times irrelevant. The most disgusting part is the group projects. How could anyone give group projects during summer vacations? I didn't even know where all my so called group members were. What were the teachers thinking? It isn't possible to have a group discussion, when the group members are scattered all around the world. In fact that would mean, no phone calls. Then there is another problem, half of them don't have internet at their particular destinations, that means no e-mails! In fact the other problem with these vexing projects are that some members believe in only enjoying the vacations. Homework will be done a day before the school re-opens. Some over-smart members don't want to do anything. Call them, they'll just wait until you give up trying to call. E-mail them, they'll ignore. Try to make them understand, they'll just keep distracting you by yawning. Sometimes you just wish that Grand Theft Auto were to be real. You'd just have barge into their houses threaten them and then walk out and go home, the cops won't bother at all.

My friend, Joe and I, were planning to meet one day and we met at his home. There was another friend of mine who accompanied us for the discussion. After several hours of discussing and doing all the planning, I was asked to call up the members and give them their roles in the play(project). It was all like a movie, I was the Producer and the Asst. Director, Joe was the Director, but he never really managed to get the camera angles right, and the other group members were the actors. The next day, I called the main actor, Russell Crowe, he had just gotten up from his beauty sleep, I left him for later. Then I called up Christain Bale, he noted down some points. Then I had to call the villain, Mark Strong, he mistook this movie for another one. After all, he plays villain in all of them. Then I had to call Leonardo DiCaprio for a cameo.

Next week it was time to see if the actors had done their homework. Russell Crowe was up to the mark as usual, he did his work. Christain Bale was too busy promoting 'The Dark Knight Rises', that he completely forgot about the work he had to do. As for Mark Strong, he must have been utterly confused, he didn't even pick up my call. Leonardo DiCaprio, did his work even before the deadline, either ways as I said short role.

The best part was, I had only one week in the U.A.E, before I left for India, and in India, I'd have no internet in my maternal grandmother's house. I would be stranded, no way to do anything related to these dumb projects. I tried to contact Joe, but the Director's phone was out of range or something. Where had he gone? To the foothills of the Himalayas, to discuss the rating of the movie with cousins, so that no other Director can eavesdrop. In the end, the movie(project) came to a long halt.

In India, I was completely lost. No contact with any of the group members. In the end when I travelled to Kerala, I got to use my uncle's laptop. Joe had sent me an e-mail, and replied to it. After that I kept checking my inbox for his reply and got nothing to date. Sometimes Joe is even more weird than the insects in Kerala. God alone knows what he is up to at times. The weirdness is applicable to his moods as well. One moment he is happy the very next he'll be growling at someone for no reason. Besides he's very good at changing his mood from angry to happy as well. It is like he is wearing a woollen sweater, when it is cold, he gets happy as the sweater keeps him warm, when it is hot, he starts getting all stuffy, and he gets infuriated.

One thing about Kerala the time I went was that, it rained less. It was more sunny than rainy. It was always stuffy, because either it would be too hot or too humid. This made me more vexed with Joe. Why couldn't he send me a short and sweet reply rather than sitting there and doing nothing? What was wrong with him?  I didn't bother much about Joe after I came back to Bombay, either ways I had no internet connection. I was like a cat on a tree trying to get down or you could say a cow upstairs, trying to get down. All these group members were useless, especially when it came to projects.

Bombay was completely boring, in fact it was only my PlayStation which kept me from crushing everything I see due to boredom. I was hopeless and helpless, apparently nothing to do. The movie was still in its first scene, never moving, no matter how much time had passed after making the first scene. It was like aestivation, we were sleeping during the summer. How very interesting for human beings!

After I came back from India, in a completely horrible and boring flight, I thought I'd get to work. I called Joe, and what a amazing news I got. He was in India! So another few days of waiting for the Director to report. For the next few days I bothered only about the individual projects and nothing else. If I kept waiting then I'd surely have to wait for another millennium. So it is better to do something than nothing.

Hasta la Vista,
K



 

THE BEAUTY OF WHITE!

Grass, wheat and sugarcane is what I see,

Strawberries and lemon is what I smell.

Whispering, murmuring and snoring I hear,

Bored, bored and bored is what I feel.

Grass, wheat or sugarcane, what could it be?

I think when I look down, and then I hear a bell.

Oh! It's just my partner! Nothing to fear!

My partner just waiting for a midday meal.

The bell was actually not a bell,

In fact it was just the chain he wore.

I look down and see only blue and white,

What a big bore!

The wing of the machine suddenly fell,

And my sides were touching the walls, and therefore,

I looked down with all my might,

I saw blue and white and swore!

I tried to sleep,

But what a failure!

As I wasn't a sleepy person,

And the others around me, doubtlessly were!

I saw white shapes of Newton and sheep,

And even a man shouting at a liar.

Some even looked like Alex Ferguson!

And some looked like a muscular hare!

Why didn't I observe this before?

I'd have been able to free myself from the shackles of boredom.

Well, what an idiot I am, 

For still trying to find grass, wheat and sugarcane!

Hasta la Vista, 

K  



THE FIRST WEEK OF SUMMER VACATIONS!

My summer vacations for the year 2012 started on the 28th of June, which was a Thursday. My cousin who finished her final year in college came over with her parents and my paternal grandmother. My cousin and my paternal grandmother decided to stay at my house for a week. My aunt and uncle stayed for two days as they had work on Sunday and they had to leave for India on Monday.

I actually had school on the 28th of June, but it was only half of the normal school timing. I received a good news early in the morning. My House Master called me over to his office and looked at me and smiled. He told me I had been selected by default for the Sports' Day. I was delighted! He asked me to train during the vacations and I replied gladly with a 'yes'. After all my ex-physical education teacher had given me a list of workouts that had to be performed during the vacations. I left my House Master's office delighted.

Two days before the delighting 28th June 2012, there was a Literary Club meeting. The teacher decided that the selection for the Literary Club secretary, who is to be the Literary Club President the next year, would be done. The candidates were the members who were in the ninth grade. Tenth grade was not involved as eleventh grade wasn't included in the Literary Club, hence they wouldn't be able to become President the next year. There wasn't a grade lower than ninth grade involved in the Club, so there was no question of them participating. The candidates had to make and impress others with their speech. I, being a candidate was nervous and sweaty. I made my speech in a short time, and the only thing left was to learn it.

The first person who was asked to speak was a friend of mine. He spoke well and I thought that he was the first competitor of mine. The person who came in second was nervous and unfocused, he said the speech in a very haywire manner, and everyone knew he had no hope of becoming a secretary. The third person was me! I wasn't as nervous as before, but my nerves were tingling and my legs were shaking a bit. As I came to the end of my speech, my legs started to shake more. It became noticeable. I somehow managed to ignore my discouraging legs and moved on with the speech and said a heartless 'thank you' . Of course in a speech the 'thank you'  is just to be formal, it actually has no meaning, especially when you're nervous.

I've spoken grandly and I've also been appreciated for many of my speeches, but I've never ever won a reward in a competition for speaking and that made this secretary selection much more difficult. The biggest obstacle was a candidate who had won the third place for the school's 'pick and talk' competition. It was inter-house, but I was never in his place. These thoughts made me feel uneasy and unconvinced. By the end of the meeting it was still not decided who'd be the secretary.

It was the last period before the summer holiday began and it was a free period. After being permitted by my teacher, I went searching for my ex-physical education teacher, just to inform him about my meeting with my House Master. However, I failed to find him. On the way I saw the teacher who was in charge of the Literary Club, however, she didn't see me. I was heading back to class when my Writers' Club partner, stopped and asked me whether I had seen the teacher in charge of the Literary Club, as he had to submit a report to her. I gave him the exact location where she was standing last when I saw her and headed back to the class. While I was nearing my class, the Literary Club in charge teacher was heading to the class she had to be in. I stopped her and told her that a student was searching for her to submit a report. She smiled and completely changed the topic,
"You are the secretary."
"Yeah" I said casually as it didn't click my mind that 'I was the secretary!'
Then I thought over it in a second and changed my reply, "Really?!"
"Yes!" the teacher told me.
I was delighted as two very exciting news had encapsulated my mind that day. I headed back to class a happy teenager.

My Writers' Club partner entered my class and asked for me, I immediately stood up and went to him. He told me that his report wasn't approved by the teacher. He also told me that the teacher asked me to write the report, as I was the secretary. I sighed as I knew that my duties had already begun even before I was introduced to the Literary Club as secretary. In the end I decided to enjoy my free period and make the report at home and send it to her via e-mail.

School had closed for summer break at last. We boarded our buses. On reaching home I immediately started writing the report and sent it to the teacher. I could say that one by fourth of the holiday homework done! I accessed my school website and took a print out of the holiday homework files, looking at the amount of homework, I decided that the report was only one by sixth of my holiday homework. The rest of the day went in wasting time rather than spending it.

At 22:45, that day, however, I started doing something constructive, I watched the Euro 2012 semi-final between Italy and Germany. Very constructive indeed. I was not really supporting anyone as I am a loyal Spain supporter. All I wanted was Spain to win, whether they face Germany or Italy. However, I expected Germany to win as they played well in the group stages and also in the quarter finals. That didn't happen, however. My relatives entered just in time to see the penalty that Ozil struck. It was a beauty of a shot! I slept quite late that night, which is quite obvious when you are watching a football match at night and also attending to your relatives.

The next morning I had absolutely nothing to do as I wasn't planning on doing my irritating, unreasonable and hair-tearing holiday homework. It was for the weeks to come, as far as I cared. My cousin and I did a great deal of talking that day. Nothing much happened and the day ended.

The next day my aunt and uncle left. It was a boring day and truly uninteresting. That night me and my cousin being highly nocturnal creatures, were lying in bed and talking about various things that was highly unreasonable. After all we were just chatting as we weren't feeling sleepy, and we had to do something or we would just bore ourselves to death.

Next day I got up a bit early for a holiday. I had to go to my friend's place to discuss about our project and also to curse our holiday homework! Of course there was 'the having fun' reason as well! I entered my friend's house after a long walk. My friend Joe, was kind enough to give me water after looking at my perspiring face. I thanked him and we headed into his living room to get to work. We actually started with having fun. The radio was turned on and my friend Joe was busy pestering my other friend who had turned up for helping us by doing his part in the project as well, by asking him to download a game into his laptop. An hour went in doing that. Then we decided to divide our work and allot it to the eight members in our group. It was done in great pace. To tell you the truth it only took fifteen minutes! After that we were busy designing the first slide of our presentation. That took quite a lot of time.

After all this designing business, it was back to fun mode. Joe was finally able to play the game which had finished downloading and he was doing so delightedly. After sometime, it was time for me to leave, and I left enthusiastically, as I had gained all the energy that I had lost while walking to Joe's house.

I reached home and it was time for lunch. I ate to my heart's content and I was confined in a room busy doing my Literary Club work, which is a secret. By evening I had completed that. Now, there was only one more thing to do before I closed my shop, and started lazying around. I had to train myself for the Sports' Day. I went to the park with my cousin.

My cousin was absolutely jobless, in the park. She sat in one corner and did nothing, but staring at the cute kids who were playing in the park. I started with jogging for ten minutes and then did quite a few exercises. Then I had to run slowly for exactly thirty minutes before I did crunches and then I winded up the session and headed back home.

My cousin and I, were utmost delighted when my mother asked us to have our dinner at McDonalds and have our dessert at Baskin Robins! The trip to the mall was only for my sister and I. I took a pleasant shower and changed my sweaty clothes and headed to the mall. After ordering two meals, which consisted of two Spicy McChicken, two regular Cokes and two regular fries, we found a place to sit and eat peacefully. We were busy talking nonsensical things as usual. After a hearty meal, we headed for dessert. The ice-creams were pleasant and very delighting as it was a humid summer.

On reaching home I couldn't wait for the clock to strike 22:45, for the finals of the Euro 2012. I was rather excited. The match started and I was really busy figuring out what Spain should do to win. Well, my strategies didn't quite work a lot as Spain had other interesting strategies to win the game. My cousin was busy watching the T.V series 'Coupling'  on her laptop, as she was only interested in the goals and also the men she found handsome and cute. After the match my cousin and I still had enough energy to have a nice nonsensical chat before going off to sleep.

The next day I was busy doing nothing. I just kept irritating my cousin and she kept irritating me. A tit for tat kind of a thing. We also watched two movies that day and as usual I went for my training session, but this time, sans my lazy cousin.
The next two days went in watching movies. I also managed to do a bit of holiday homework. On Thursday that was exactly on the week after the beginning of my delightful vacations. I had absolutely left no stone untouched. From entertainment to a bit of studies as well, from internet to the park, from movies to football matches, everything was done to perfection! On this very day I also want to wish a grand 'Happy Birthday' to my blog which took place three days ago.

Hasta la Vista,
K

THE INSPECTION!

The school went berserk during the inspections. The bulletin boards had to have something on it. The students needed to be told how to behave, during the regular school assemblies and the teachers had to be more careful as to not make mistakes while teaching. I'm talking about a year and few months ago when our school was visited by some happy-looking inspectors.

Almost all of them were British, and they were always kind and gentle, but God alone knows what mistakes they spotted in our school. Before these inspections, many periods were wasted on preparing the bulletin boards and making the class more than just presentable. All the desks and chairs were kept more neatly than ever by the caretakers. The books in the library also looked more presentable than usual. The school also took the initiative to re-paint the walls which had their paints worn off. Even the washrooms were more clean and less smelly.

The inspections had begun atlast and everyone was awaiting the results. The first day of inspections, no inspector inspected the classes I was sitting in. When I entered the school bus I heard the news from my friends about their experience while sitting in a class that was being inspected. Many said that nothing really happened, the inspectors just walked in gave a smile when they were wished, and sat on the chair that was provided to them. While leaving they said a formal thank you and left the class.

The next day, the same result, no one inspected the classes I was sitting in. I wasn't that glad, but it was good that no one was keeping a keen eye on me, while I was in class. Whenever you met an inspector in the school corridors, they would just smile and walk away, even if you didn't wish them. Every assembly was more organized than usual and the person speaking on stage made sure that every word of his was clear and his pronunciation was impeccable. That day there was no much news from my friends in the bus either.

The third day, I was in the library, I wasn't concentrating on anything but the book I was reading. I don't quite remember the book, but I took my eyes of the book to relieve the strain the words in the book caused. Then all of a sudden I noticed an inspector looking at me. She smiled, and I smiled back as I was too dumbfounded to wish. I was so shocked, I hardly knew how I smiled. The inspector left the library in haste however.

The last period was my English period, my friends and I were waiting for the teacher to enter the class. I was busy staring at the book I borrowed from the library, and before I knew it, second time in a row, an inspector came in front of my eyes. All my classmates were standing, and they were looking at me in shock, because I wasn't doing the same. "Shit!", I said when I stood up. Then I closed my mouth with my hands as I knew that word was inappropiate to use in front of an inspector. I knew the frail woman had heard it, but she said or did nothing!

"What is the meaning of apartheid?", asked the teacher, as we were having a lesson on Nelson Mandela. One of my friends raised his hands and said the exact definition that was given in the textbook. 'Separateness from others because of skin colour or race'. Like this the questioning session went on, and I took active participation, the teacher trusted me in giving the correct answer more than anyone else. For obvious reasons.

The bell rang and it was time to board the bus, we said a formal 'thank you' to the inspector and she replied the same. Before she went, however, she smiled at me in a mocking way and winked. I knew she had heard what I said.

Hasta la Vista,
K

THE LITERARY CLUB!

It was a normal school day and I was expected to stay back after school, for the 'Literary Club' selections. This particular club was divided into four parts:- The Orators' Club, The Writers' Club, The Book Club and lastly The Actors' Club. I attended 'The Writers' Club' selections. I ate my lunch in haste and headed to the room where the particular selection was going on.

It wasn't a pleasant feeling. First of all, I had to miss my athletic selection. My House Master was disappointed when told him that the 'Literary Club' selection was on the same day, but I decided that it would be better to miss the athletics selection as I knew I was better in writing.

Secondly, it was the fear of not getting selected. I didn't know what was to be done, and neither did I know how good the other writers were. Despite that I held the urge to run away. One of the English teacher entered the classroom we were sitting in. She asked all the club members except for the The Writers' Club members to head to their respective classes. Two of my friends, rather classmates were there for the selections too. They never contributed much in writing for the school magazine or anything like that, neither were they appreciated for their writing, so I really didn't know what they were doing there. I knew they were just passing their valuable time.

The teacher after looking at the number of students, asked us to write a short story in about an hour. A lot of time, that I knew, the only problem was that I was never successful in my story writing. Besides the only time I wrote a complete story was when my fifth grade English teacher asked me write a story, that to when I was in fifth grade. Story writing then was comparatively easier, as you could write about talking animals and monstrous pirates, but now I needed a moral. The story had to be sensible. How was I, a person who had never written a successful story, going to write a story?

I kept thinking and thinking, I stared and the walls which looked so dull. I saw my friends scratching their heads and biting their nails(abominable). I kept drinking water till I was out of it. I saw the ink on the wall which had dried up. Except for the indignant roars of the athletes outside, it was quiet! I needed to pay more attention to what I was doing. Why couldn't I concentrate? Then I wrote a heading, which I simply wrote because I had no story. 'The Best Man Known' it read. Then suddenly an idea struck me!

I know an idea can change your life, but is it necessary that it should change your life in a good way? No one ever mentioned that. My idea however, changed my life in a way every person expects it to, the good way! At last I got that story I wanted! Why the hell think about Euclid's postulates or Newton's laws of motion for a story? Especially when you've a school life, especially when you've knowledge about the modern school life, especially when you know all the moral things(even though you don't actually follow them)that you have been taught at school!

'One class was making almost all the noise in the school. It literally reached every corridor. Their subject teacher was absent.', I wrote the first few lines. Then I continued until I found a suitable ending and wrote it down. I was done! My masterpiece was finished at last! I submitted to the teacher who had talked to us earlier. She kept it in her folder for thorough reading later.

I took my water bottle to the cooler which was right next to the classroom we sat in. I read the above notice which read 'WATER IS PRECIOUS, DO NOT WASTE IT'. I was thinking why they didn't put any exclamation mark in the end. However, I left it to the higher authorities of the school to think about it. Besides, the exclamation mark would only make it catchy, nothing else! After filling my bottle to the brim, I took a sip of cold water. My throat felt good even though I was writing all that while and not speaking. I was thinking what the orators were doing, in the end I came to know they had to make their own speech and speak it out for a minute.

They had said that they would announce the results the coming Sunday and I happily boarded the bus which took me home. At home, I knew it was time to enjoy as it was a Thursday. So I did what nature expected of me. I went to play cricket with my friends and then I came back home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Two days later, the results were still not announced, I didn't bother to ask the teacher about the results, but I was still anxious. Not knowing the results made me think that I wasn't selected. It was a very distracting and unconvincing feeling that made me want to read the mind of the teacher who was doing the selections. After a few days, the result still hadn't come, but the feeling had somehow forgotten me or it could've been the vice versa.

On 29 May 2012, I finally got the results and surprisingly I was in! However, it wasn't an event. The teacher entered my Social Studies class and called out my classmate's and my name. We walked to her and she told us that my friend had been selected for  The Actors' Club and I had been selected for the The Writers' Club. She also told us that we had to attend a meeting the very next day, after school!

Excited as ever, the next day I attended the meeting with great delight. She told us to keep few things as a secret, so I won't be mentioning everything. However, I would tell you about the website she told us to make, rather she told another boy to make. We kept discussing about that, and we also discussed about the ways we could advertise our website. It is not yet ready, but it will be ready soon! After that we were asked to attend the inaugural of the 'Debating Society' which was a new club in our school. Quite a few people including our school principal spoke about the 'Debating Society' and its aims. I listened to everything keenly.

After the inaugural we again came to our meeting room and discussed other things. After the exciting meeting I headed to the bus which would soon take me home, and this time being a Wednesday, it took me to a place where instead of entertaining myself, I'd have to do all my stupid, irrelevant and unnecessary homework!

Hasta la Vista,
K

WHAT A DAY!

I was in seventh grade and my voice was still maturing. As usual I got up in the morning for school, but for a good reason, I wasn't unhappy. It was the last day of school before the summer vacations, and boy, I was glad. I was glad because, the days before the summer vacations are usually more interesting and fun than the actual summer vacations! Many of my so called classmates were already headed to their holiday destinations.

I entered the bus and greeted my driver with my cracky voice. He was surprised I did so, as I never usually greet anyone, even if it is the best day of my life. So you know how much I expected from that day.

The school was almost empty, even the staff room had only a handful of teachers. We had only the first four periods that day due to some occasion, which was unknown to us. The first period was my Hindi class. The teacher, unexpectedly, gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted. My friend had bought Ludo, so atleast there were board games to play, rather than bored games! We had very few pieces, so we decided to play one piece each, rather than four. I was green, my friend Joe was blue, another friend of mine(he doesn't want his named mentioned in my blog, but he would understand if I called him Jaggu.), was yellow and another friend, namely 'mug up' Abhishek was red! I started off well until Mr.Jaggu overtook me by luck(the game is either ways about luck). In the first game I ended up second while Jaggu ended up first. Joe was third and Abhishek was last(Don't ask me how I still remember all this!).

The second game again I was second and surprisingly, Abhishek was first! Jaggu was third followed by Joe. The third game however, I made it to the top spot. Joe followed me receiving his second place, and the third and fourth place was controversial. In the end no one got those two places. Playing all the three games well, I knew luck was on my side for the day!

The second period we continued Ludo, as the Arabic teacher was too busy correcting some books and asking some my classmates, who were jobless to go giving the corrected books to the pupils it belonged to. Me and my friends got bored of Ludo, so we packed up. Instead we started cracking silly jokes that only made the four of us laugh! The Arabic teacher tried to shut us up, but to little effect! After what kind of a person would ask students to stay quiet just before the summer vacations.

The Arabic period went by quickly, as everyone knows when your having fun, time goes by like a cheetah.  Minutes seemed like the speed of light. Well who cares as long as we were having fun! You know how we boys are! When something called as fun starts, it is hard to stop! Jaggu kept telling me that my voice had changed a lot. The idiot wouldn't shut up about it. The third period however, we found something psychotic to do! It was kiddish, but fun! It is called 'Truth or Dare'! It is quite simple. We put a pen amid our desk and rotate it. It will one hundred percent point at someone! The person who the cap of the pen is pointed to, will be in the receiving end, that is the person gets an option, whether he has to say a truth or he prefers a dare! He can only choose truth twice! On the other end that is the pen bottom end, the person gets to ask the question or gets to dare! The question or dare has to be embarrasing!

Seriously, I wouldn't want to mention anything we said or did! It was great fun, but! The game continued for a whole period and luckily the teacher was kind enough to allow the game to continue. The next period was hell! It was our English period, but our teacher had resigned from her job as she had to follow her husband to India and continue her work there, and a replacement was yet to be found. It was a Mathematics teacher who was substituting, he managed to keep us quiet!

He kept asking some questions which only two-three of my classmates succeeded in answering, there was no punishment for not answering, but the period was boring!

At last the period had got over and we got into our half-empty buses. I did nothing much in the bus. When I reached home the first thing I did was, turned on the television. I saw the first part of Iron Man again as there was no much of an option other than that. I also played the only game I had on my PSP.

Later that day, I asked my father if I could get a new game, he replied affirmative. My luck was great that day! What a day!

Hasta la Vista,
K

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN?

"I regret not taking Arts as my career. I would've benefited better.", my mother keeps telling me. She is still depressed about opting for Science in her college years rather than Arts. She is a good speaker which would make her a good TV journalist or an announcer in an airport or so. Instead she has to supervise a bunch of Junior Middle School kids due to her wrong choice. I can't say the choice is completely wrong, but she not a clue about what she was going to do after doing exceptionally well in Chemistry in her college years.

"What do you want a become when you grow up?", a mother asks her four year old boy.
"A policeman!", the kid answers instantly.
"You need to work really hard for that."
"Sure I will."

Ten years later..........

"What are you planning to do after school, young man.", the mother asks her fourteen year old son.
"I've not a clue.", he says indignantly.
"You'd better think about it."
The boy shrugs.

This is the truth of life. No one knows what they are going to do until it is too late. It is like booking tickets for an eight'O clock in the evening flight, at seven fifty nine on the same evening. What would anyone possibly expect? All three hundred tickets available? That'd be high expectations! There's also another side of the story. Adults keep asking us to be punctual about things, especially things like choosing your God forbidden career. I'm telling you the adults cannot make head and tail of punctuality either. It is just like in Lewis Carroll's story, The Hunting of the Snark,

"What's the good of Meracator's North Poles and Equators,

Tropics, Zones and Meridian Lines?" So the Bellman would cry;

and the crew would reply, "They are merely conventional signs."

The adults are just like the crew members, and we kids are the bellman. We keep asking our parents about the need of punctuality, maybe they would give us a big lecture, but their minds are just like the crew members, they just know that such a word exists in the English Dictionary. No one can make head and tail of punctuality. 

Coming back to career, according to our parents and teachers, there's no career without proper attitude, I agree, but again, just a bit! I mean what good is attitude, without knowing what you are going to do? What good is being a good Samaritan, if you do not know what you can do? No one is going to give us a job. Now-a-days, parents are so fast. They first talk about studies, then it is attitude, then about career, they never ever stick to one topic. They confuse you more than you are already, I mean I understand advice, but not bugging. I'm in ninth grade, I've not a clue, about what I'm going to do, maybe it is too late, to not know, but even if I did know, how do I know if I'm making the right choice?

Robert Frost is a great poet, and maybe he faced a lot of difficulties in life, but not everyone is Robert Frost, and neither can anyone, have so much courage as Robert Frost, to take the road that is lush green. Risk taking is a thing only a handful of people can do successfully. What good is taking risk, when it has no benefit?

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

He is really poor,

he wished the adamant butterfly hadn't gone past.

If he had not seen the fool, he would've been sure,

That his vexing boss and demanding daughter would have been his jobless cure!

                                                                                                                    -K

Then there is the butterfly effect! God alone knows whether it really exists. We always wish that when something wrong happens, that it hadn't happened. Then when we think about the butterfly effect, we suddenly change our minds. When we come to think of it, if it hadn't happened most probably, something else would have happened, something BAD! Maybe even worse, so it's good that the past was the past rather than something else. Of course there would be many parents who're in the age group where you get superstitious. They keep telling superstitious and unexplainable things just because it is written in some holy book or some astrologer has said it out. Many who believe such things. We can't change the past, but our parents will even stop us from thinking about changing it.

Many times our parents ask us to be the man or woman of our words! They also compare us to them, by saying that they're the man or woman of their words! Well, how many times have they not taken us out for ice-creams after promising to do so? A hundred times maybe!

This post is dedicated to parents who want their children to prosper! Some tips are:

1. Stop asking your children until their seventeen, about their career.

2. Stop asking them to be punctual all the time(until it is absolutely required, rather than when you feel it is absolutely required).

3. Stop talking about attitude all the time.

4. Stop asking them to be Robert Frost!

5. Stop being too superstitious.

6. Stop being a man or woman of your words!

7. Stop asking them to take the 'Road Not Taken'!

Hasta la Vista,

K



MY ATHLETIC SIDE!

I'm a good athlete according to me and my physical education teacher. Due to that my teacher short-listed me for the under seventeen inter-school category. Every athlete who is short-listed(all the athletes are still short-listed)has to undergo a tiring, but useful training. It takes place everyday after school. The training requires a lot of time to get adapted to and therefore requires utmost attention and hard work. Well, for me, it is 'so far, so good'.

It actually started with a normal physical education class where we were graded for our running skills. I got good grades despite being terribly sick that day. I had a terrible head-ache that I hadn't felt in the morning, before going to school. Even after sensing it, I thought I would stay put in class as I thought that my head-ache would fade away gradually. The school clinic could be used for better things. I refrained from telling any of my friends or teachers about the ache. Even though my head-ache was getting severe, I gathered up courage to follow my friends to the field and get my grading done, at the earliest. I ran well, even though it was only a sixty metre race. The teacher praised me and some other boys in class. He was more than happy to have so many choices in his athletic club. Little did he know that all the boys apart from me had to be present in other coaching activities, that would therefore reduce his team members.

That day, I came home and puked, I seriously don't know why, as I had no stomach-ache. No one was at home, so I checked my temperature by myself and found out that I had fever. I contacted my dad, who contacted my mom, who took me to the doctor, despite my refusal. In the end it turned out to be only a minor fever. So much for going to the doctor.

The year I joined ninth grade, my ex-physical education teacher came to tell us about the coaching. He told me to take it very seriously. I knew I had to take it seriously, but just for the sake of reminding, you know how the human mind functions, full of thoughts and memory. It is so complicated. Besides,

'How will there be mystery?

How will there be science?

If everything said and done in history,

Is known to mankind!

                                                                                -adapted from a poem by K
                                                      himself 

The first day of the coaching, I missed due to my prefect interview, which turned out to be a flop. My so called House Master fired me with questions I failed to answer quickly and properly. I wished I had been called instead of my friend earlier, who was asked questions, I was prepared to answer in a jiffy. My ex- P.E(physical education)teacher was annoyed, but he wasn't enraged. He excused me for the day. After all, he had to!

The next day however, I didn't fail to attend my coaching class. It took some time to start, as the coaching teachers waited for a while so that we could rest and conserve our energy. After it started though, there was no stopping. He made us jog around a football(soccer)field five times, so that we were warmed up. I was a beginner then and therefore, I struggled a bit. I've got used to it now, but now and then are two completely different stories. My shin ached the most, but yet I tried to ensue. The best part was that I had forgotten my sports shoes. I tried to drag away my thoughts, but alas, the warm up was all about concentrating. The pain came up to my thighs later. After the completion of the five rounds, we were asked to stride. It means that, we should run with sixty percent speed on one side of the field and walk on the other. After two rounds of striding, guess what!

"Please do not sit or drink water, form a semi-circle!", my ex-P.E teacher shouted, and we obeyed. He was planning to make us do some stretching and rotating exercises. He kept showing us the exercises, and also told us the number of times it had to be repeated. We did as we were told. The exercises were pretty easy to perform, but it was hard to focus with the leg-ache. Our arms were aching too, due to its continous movement. After the so called rotating exercises, in which we were supposed to rotate our legs and hands from here to there he asked to stride once more. This time only on one side of the field. After walking back, we were asked to do the stretching exercises. All the exercises were like dance movements. We were asked to stretch and touch our toes and so on.

It was a relief when he asked us to take a sip of water and move around, so that we don't get to complete rest mode and make our aches worse than it is. Some boys dis-obeyed and drank water as if they were seeing it for the first time. I had no problems, as I wasn't a great fan of water, whether thirsty or not.

Next he asked us to do some knee-driving exercises, first on the spot, and then by moving from one place to another. It would be hard to describe, but we had to lift one knee up stretch the other leg, and keep shifting the leg. It was more tiring as our chest could hardly suck in air because of the speed, and also our chest was involved in the exercise, as it kept contracting and relaxing during the exercise. We were breathing anaerobically then. This anaerobic respiration lasted for more than five minutes. It took lots of time to catch our breath.

He asked to repeat the exercise three to four times. After the tiring exercise, we were asked to come close to the school bus area entrance stairs. He made us do something called as step up(definitely not street dance). We were supposed to climb up and down one particular step with both our feet. That is one foot up and the other foot down and then both the feet up and the other foot down and so on. We were asked to do it at maximum pace. After repeating it once again, we were asked to do split jumps on the stairs itself. We repeated that twice. 

Then he asked us to do the abdominals(or the crunchs)twenty five times. Then the push-ups also the same number of times. After the procedure, we were asked to walk around the football field for three rounds and then wind up. During the long walk, the pain in our legs started becoming less and the pain in the thighs ceased to exist. This time I could do a bit of day dreaming and I kept thinking about the amount of homework I had to do after getting home. I was enraged to know that there were lots. As usual, I'm always unlucky.

Hasta la Vista,

K 

FIVE DAYS IN A FILTHY TRAIN!

I was in Kerala. 'God's own country' as they say it. The greenery was just beautiful. It was amazing. There were all kinds of trees and rare plants. The touch-me-not was amusing and delicate. Six years and seven months ago, I was just seven years old. I loved the beauty, but definitely hated the creepy crawlies which came along with it. Even grasshoppers used to frighten me. Bees were common, and I just hated them. I have never got stung by one, but their legs and wings were as scary as jumping from Burj Khalifa. They looked like professional killers.

It was the monsoon season in India. All states except Tamil Nadu were affected by these heavy rains. I had to travel(with parents of course)to Bombay. My father wanted to travel by a train and we followed his choice. We arrived at the station quite early. We waited for thirty minutes before the train arrived. It usually took only a day and a half by train to reach Bombay. I was glad that I didn't have to sit in a filthy train for more than a day. Well, of course, the scenery outside the windows of the train is beautiful, the inside was the big problem. The station especially was full of rats and lizards, my mother's worst enemies. The lizards were busy searching for flies to eat, which was there in abundance.

We entered the train casually. My father lifted all the bags to the seats we occupied. He wouldn't expect a woman or a seven year old boy to lift it for him. At last we arrived at our seats. My great uncle joined us for this journey too. The air-conditioning hadn't started yet as the train was yet to be joined to the engine. We were sweating terribly. After what seemed like an hour, the train finally started moving.

In the train there was nothing much to do, but read a book or stare out of a window. I did both. Of course, I didn't read Stephen King or Eoin Colfer then. I stuck to Enid Blyton's short stories. I liked one story about a brother and sister who had to take a bus home. There was an old lady who couldn't enter the bus as there was only one seat remaining. The brother decided to give up the bus for the old lady and go walking to his house. In the end his family doctor, found him walking and gave him a lift home. The sister was surprised to see the brother home early. After she understood what had happened she gave him a packet of chocolate, which she said was given by that old lady who was grateful to him. I enjoyed Blyton's stories. I also enjoyed sitting by the window and watching outside. The scenery was amazing.

Early morning the next day, we were at Goa, a state in the South. Due to the rain, the train stopped there for quite sometime. The tracks were filled with water. I was fast asleep, as I didn't believe in getting up early, until and unless there was school. In the morning we were still at Goa and train staff were roaming around with breakfast. I had good(not great)meal. I am a great fan of banana fries which is a traditional Keralite dish. That was one thing that I would never miss while I was in the South. I drank my cup of coffee and waited for the train to move. After sometime the station master or whatever you call him, came to us and announced that due to the floods, the train  would be going back to Kerala and coming by a separate route. Everyone was unhappy. Nobody wanted to stay in the filthy train for more than a day. My father was an exception. We definitely couldn't take a bath as the train had no proper shower room. We were stinking due to the dampness and the unhygienic maintenance of the train. The train went reverse in full speed and people could hardly stand on their feet. It stopped at no station in between and we were heading straight to Kerala.

I brushed my teeth with great difficulty because of the pace the train was moving in. I could barely stand and it was hard to turn on the tap and wash the brush and then wash your mouth. It was vexing. Finally I was able get back to my seat. I observed the scenery outside and knew that we were heading back to Kerala due to the greenery. I frowned. I was bored, so I went for a stroll, despite the speed of the train. I saw some frowns on the faces of the people in other seats. I came to one seat where there was a man, wearing a sumptous watch. He had a baby in his lap. He was playing with the baby. The baby's mother was sitting right beside him. She was playing with the baby too. The baby, I noticed was a girl. She was five-six months old. She was happily laughing at her father's and mother's funny faces. Looking at their faces, I couldn't help but chuckle. The father caught my sight. I began to leave, but he stopped me by greeting me. I greeted him in return.

My great uncle came searching for me. By the time I was happily talking to the baby's father and mother. My uncle greeted them and they did the same. Do not talk to strangers was a not a big rule in a train. Especially with a man who has a family. My uncle asked me to go get his watch and also summon my father while I was at it. The baby's father and my uncle were deep in conversation by the time I got there with my father. My father wasn't much of speaker, like me. He always waited for somebody else to start the conversation. The baby was fast a sleep in her mother's lap. I walked away and left the adults to their conversation.

I got back to my Enid Blyton book. After sometime it was time for lunch. My uncle and father were still busy in their conversation. My mother was busy laying out the plates. After sometime my father and great uncle arrived. After a quick meal I got back to my book. It only had about a hundred pages, but I was a slow reader then. After a good read I went to join the baby and her family. They greeted me with delight. The baby was awake. She was playing and chewing on her toys. Her mother kept stopping her from chewing her toys, but she, as all babies, was adamant. Her father kept asking me questions about my school. He also asked me how I found it in the Middle East. I replied that I found it to be pleasant.

By evening, the train had reached Kerala to change its engine. I sighed to see Kerala again. Not that it was unpleasant, it was just that the train journey was longer. I thought that, my friends would be enjoying their summer vacation, while I'm sitting in this damn train full of adults. The only two people who weren't adults were me and the baby. Of course I could play a bit with the baby, which I did, but apart from that I had no clue about what I was going to do. My book was nearing the end, and the scenery would be blinded due to the night. The evening was getting darker and darker and we were supposed to be in Bombay, if it weren't to be that stupid rain. One good advantage was that, I never had to drink milk. I don't hate milk, but I love coffee. I drank two cups of coffee that evening. The evening was warm in Kerala. It was humid, but it didn't seem like it was going to rain heavily. The evening passed into the void and then came night.

Dinner was nothing great. I gulped it down my throat and went to visit the only kid in the compartment apart from me. She was sucking her thumb. I kept making silly faces to make her laugh and she did it without any qualms. She finally got tired and her mother put her off to sleep. The lullaby she hummed to her kid, showed all her affection towards her girl. I went hopping from one place to another, back to my seat. I was forced to brush by my mother and I did it quickly. I slept peacefully till morning.

The third day of my train journey had just begun. I woke up after several calls from my parents and uncle. The train had slowed down and that was a bad sign. It meant it would reach Bombay more slowly. I brushed my teeth with great pace, but carefully. I ate a healthy breakfast. We were at Andhra Pradesh. Miles to go, before reaching Bombay. We had to cover Karnataka still. The day went by slowly. I spent my time reading, hopping around and having fun with the baby. I had known her name, but now I forgot. The day was not as memorable as the first one.

The fourth day, and we were above Krishna river which would mean that we were nearing Karnataka. After we reached Karnataka, the train increased its speed again. The Karnataka journey was short as we only had to cover a bit of it, before we reached Maharastra, where Bombay is located. By evening we were in Maharastra and we were sure, by morning we would reach Bombay.

Next day, we were stuck at a place called Daund. It took us a while before we were able to move. We got down at Daund station and got a nice hot tea. It was afternoon by the time we moved from Daund, and we headed to Pune. The train kept entering tunnels which were completely dark. I enjoyed the ride. By late evening, about eight'O clock, we reached Pune. The station master said that the train would go to its shed there and it would continue its journey towards Bombay the next day. No one, not even my father could stand one more day in the train, so we decided to get down at Pune and call my father's younger cousin brother to come and collect us by road.

In the end we said goodbye to the baby and her parents and waited in the station until my uncle came to collect us. I sat drinking Sprite and chewing gum. It was a long ride from Bombay to Pune, so it took some time for my uncle to arrive. In India the speed limit is a bit low, so it took even more time for my uncle to arrive. He arrived by twelve midnight with his driver friend. We sat in the car and drove to Bombay.

In the car there was some boring Hindi movie going on. I went to sleep immediately. By six in the morning, we reached Bombay, at last. I lazily woke up to breathe the Bombay air. It smelled bad. So did I. I went home and took a bath immediately. It was a lovely five days of unhygienic living. Now, wasn't it?

Hasta la Vista,
K

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE AND AFTER THE FIRST FOUR DAYS OF NINTH GRADE!

I had passed eighth grade with flying colours(pleased to know). Examination the most tensing period of our lives had come to an end(I know there were still more to come, but still). Eighth grade had finally come to end and firstly I had no choice, but to bid goodbye to the senior middle school department and all the teachers who had taught me well! I had written a poem for two of my special teachers and of course they know who they are. In fact they are regular readers of my blog. Mrs.Laxmi Nandakumar and Mrs.Jessy Paulose, thank you again for helping me out and may both of you have a good life ahead. Farewell.

Secondly, I have to say farewell to one of my classmate named Vignesh, who has left school. We weren't close friends, but we were good friends. Those are all good memories. After the scary exams I was finally able to take breath. It felt good. It was like I was cramped in a room full of books, that too, school books. I would have found my school library which has no books at all(what I mean is that it has no good books)way better. After all, after the exams I was all alone in the afternoon, as parents were at work, and I had no siblings. I thought it would be great fun.

Either ways as my luck is mostly bad, the thought lasted for only few hours, as I was busted the very first day of my holiday for not cleaning my bookshelf at the earliest. Well, the first week was bad and boring. There was nothing to do, but hum music to oneself or to roam around aimlessly. There was nothing to watch on television, nothing to read in the bookshelf, and I was damn bored with the video games I had. Due to this boredom I couldn't blog at all that week. I was totally out of concentration.

In the end I took my tennis ball and started bouncing it around. According to my mother it was a fool thing to do(like she knew what was happening). The next week, however I was able to buy two new and interesting books which kept me glued to it. I wouldn't be mentioning the books, as it is popular and I wouldn't want my relatives to read what I read if at all they read this blog or if at all they haven't seen it.

That week went in reading books, and again I couldn't blog. The next week at last I could blog after quite sometime. I was proud that I could come up with something. I was also a bit unhappy as I lost flow in between due to phone calls from parents and all that.

Ninth grade was just around the corner. Books to be bought, uniforms to altered, what a stupid way to start the first week before school. Go down to the tailor, get the pants altered, go to the book store buy the books, and oh, mommy forgot, you have to buy milk, curd, vegetables, snacks........and that would be about it. Also I had to be sure to bring hundred dirhams change! It was a hell of a week I tell you. It was long week, because apart from going to the tailor and giving the pants that needed to be altered, I had to receive it as well. On the way you had to look at the Emarati kids, who as always, had attitude problems, and they of course had that 'thou shalt die' look on their faces. They maybe fierce looking, but trust me, they are just plain scooby-doos and shaggys from inside.

The day before the first day of ninth grade I had packed all my books and had gone for the movie 'The Hunger Games', which turned out to be boring in the end. The romantic way they ended it, was boring. I had gone with my cousin brother whom I have mentioned mostly in my post 'Two Hours and Forty Minutes', and also my cousin sister whom I have mentioned in my post 'Being the Only Child'. The elder one of course, not the trouble-maker. My sister seemed to enjoy the movie(girlzzzz!)and my brother like me hated the ending, but he also said it was better than the book which the author turned into a mega love story.

The next day school started as usual. I got up early in the morning and brushed my teeth as slow as I could. After my daily chores, I dressed my self in the new uniform (which had a horrible colour combination). I left home for the bus. The bus came, I entered. After a long journey we reached school. I entered my class, and greeted my friends. Joe was present as usual. Our time-tables were handed over and soon the periods began.

Hindi, my second language, almost left me crying. As a matter of fact it almost left me crying after two whole years(I'm not an emotional person, and I definitely don't care if Romeo gets Juliet or not). Too much it was, I looked at Joe with a sad expression and he looked at me in the same way. The other subjects were equally challenging. There is too much homework and I don't know how I'm blogging right now. I'd  be an idiot to even blink my eyes in class. A hell lot of work to do. With that I have my Mathematics tuition. Two whole hours and sometimes even more. The textbooks were heavy(arrrrgh! I can feel the pain). My back would have gone for a toss, if I would have had those textbooks on my back for more than fifteen minutes.

Some teachers started scaring us with the things that will happen during the board exam and all in the first day itself! Some teachers, luckily, decided to console us rather than scare us. Some did both. I knew in the back of mind that ninth grade is going to be like trying to kill Hulk in an instant. Well all did not go well or as expected, but what to do, life is hard. After all it is the twenty first century(sigh! Why?!). I'm okay with it as long as I have something called as free will!

Hasta la Vista,
K

EAT AT JOE'S!

It was a normal April morning. As usual, I got up early for school. After a ten kilometre or so bus ride, we arrived at  the school. Being a third grader, I didn't roam about and went straight to the class. What could possibly happen on a normal day? Meet friends, learn whatever the teachers teach. Playabout during recess, and of course be careful not to get into trouble. Where would a child from third grade know that it was going to be a memorable day in the child's life? Not even an adult would have known. Where would he know that he's going to meet a friend who will be with him for the next few years. Well this day was like that.

The science teacher smiled at me looking at my notebook, "Sweet work! Boy. You just need to work on your hand writing and diagrams a bit."
"I'll do that alright.",I replied quickly.
I'm not a person who likes a sweet conversation, especially with a teacher. The teacher was lucky to get four words as an answer, because it is usually just a single word, mostly 'okay'. After sometime, a peon entered the class knocking at the door. The teacher walked to the peon. They had a brief conversation. After the conversation, the teacher turned to the class(the students)and told us that a new friend(as she said it)was going to join us that day. Since the class was a mixed class, with boys and girls(boys and girls got separated when I went to fourth grade). The girls wanted their 'Prince Charming'(as usual, they get bored of the boys in the  class pretty quickly).

Well, the girls did get their prince, but not what they expected of him. A tall, frail boy, who's afraid of dead rats and black cats(he still is), shaggy hair, very cramped shoulders(that has changed), big face and brown skin. He stepped in, delighted and astonished by the roar of the class(if you're a student you'll understand why we roared). The teacher held his arm and said with pleasure(she loved talking),"This is Joe! He's going to be with you guys for...............I don't know how much time, but I'm sure you'll help him out and.......you know take care of  him while he's new to the school."
Sure, sure! We'll feed him bottled milk while he's still new,I thought to myself.

He took his place next to another boy(lucky for him). He took out his books from his bag and stared at the teacher as if asking for help. The teacher approached and started explaining to him what had to be done. Then she looked at me and told Joe," He's a clever boy, if you have any problems you could ask him for help. You could take his notes, they're complete. But, I'll warn you, you'll have a hard time figuring out what is written."
"Me!", I shouted.
"Why ever not?"
"Because I've never helped anyone like that. I don't know him. How can I trust him with my books?"
"Don't worry, if at all he doesn't return it, tell me."
"Right!"

That afternoon, after school when I was walking towards the bus that would take me home, I saw Joe coming towards me. He held out an arm and I shook it reluctantly. He pointed towards the bus area and said,
" Could you help me find my bus?"
"Number?", I asked
"What?"
"Your bus number."
"Oh! Bus number sixty one!"
"Well according to me, it should be few buses away from my bus. I can't tell you the number of buses, because not all the buses between my bus and your bus is in use."
"Whoa! What a tongue twister! You must be having good pronounciation for that!"
"Pronunciation!",I corrected.
"I have come from Pune, in Maharastra. We didn't pay much importance to all these things over there. Got to get used to it, you know."
"I understand"
"Okay! Bye, I'll find the bus, see you tomorrow!"
"I'll be seeing you too"
He laughed at that and we went to board our buses.

A few weeks later Joe came to me and told me that he had shifted. He also said that he had to change the bus he was travelling in. On asking which bus, I was surprised to hear that it was my bus! He assured me that we were going to have great lot of fun. I wasn't convinced, but I smiled. I was kind of happy to have one more bus-mate, but I was unsure whether he'd make a good one.

Even with all my doubts, he turned out to be a good friend. He was not just a good friend but a best friend. He also lived quite close to me, and we had great fun playing video games and going to a park next to our place once in a while. One thing we loved was making up stories and acting them out or making our toys the actors. We were good at that. After all we had to be good at that otherwise, what's the fun? We used to amuse each other by making up silly jokes.

I remember once when his mom asked me how he was at school. I was more than just dumbfounded. Joe was embarrassed. I somehow said something and got away with it. I could see the relief in his face when I finished. He wasn't that mischevious in school, but I would have been biting my nails if my mom had asked that question to him, even though I wasn't really mischevious in school either.

My tenth birthday wasn't a grand one, but he was the one who showed up. No one else. It was working day, so you know how busy people are. We went to eat out and also went to the gaming center in a mall. We really didn't do much, but hanging out with friends is completely different from hanging out with family.

Diwali is a festival in India also known as the 'Festival of Lights'. We don't celebrate it as in India because we have only a day as holiday for this particular festival. Joe came to my house some time before this festival in the year 2009. He had shifted a bit farther from my house and I had not seen it. He invited me and my family to his house during the day of Diwali. I looked at my mother who was present there. She shrugged and said,"Why ever not?"

Few days later we were at Joe's house. His mother offered us sweet snacks as goes the tradition. We ate to our heart's content. After that me and Joe had fun playing with some toy airplanes he had bought. Then it was time to take leave. Joe turned to me and said, "Had fun eating at Joe's?"
I smiled.
Even today I cannot forget 'Eatin at Joe's', whenever I see him. We have a completely different definition for fun, but what matters is that we're still together and fun is fun.

Hasta la Vista,
K

THE DAY IT RAINED BAD!

In the UAE it is usual dry, being a desert. It hardly rains. It does rain at times, usually during the month of December and then again in March. For the past two years the rain hasn't gone past a drizzle, so it is hotter and drier.

In this post I recollect an incident that took place a few years ago(five years and three months ago to be precise).

I got up early, reluctantly, it being a working day, oblivious to the fact that it was raining hard and heavily. After brushing my teeth and bathing, I recovered from my drowsiness which encapsulated my mind. I had a very light breakfast, after putting on my uniform and cursing school.
"It is raining. Why go to school?", I asked my mom who smiled, because five years ago I was never reluctant to go to school. I was only reluctant to wake up. She knew that after a while I'd get over with it.

I lifted my school bag and went down to wait for the God forbidden bus, which would come early if you were late and late if you were right on time. It being a rainy day, and there being lot of traffic the bus was as usual LATE! I cursed the bus as I was a sissy back then. I hated waiting! I had to wait for more than an hour before the bus arrived and believe it or not there were plenty more children to pick-up. I was drenched as I did not have an umbrella or rain coat. We don't keep umbrellas at home as it hardly rains and it remains useless. Even if you could use it to protect yourself from the sun, I was not that kind of a person. I love heat. What could be better than a sunny morning?

So, I got into the bus and sat chatting with my friends. We also kept playing hand games which was a trend for us then. It was ten 'O clock and we were still far from school. The bus was supposed to pick me up at six thirty, which was history. The first four periods were long gone and we still were far from school. The best part was, that there were more people to be picked up.

I was bored sitting in the bus, that too cramped on the seat, unable to move from my posture. My muscles were getting sore and I knew I had to get up otherwise I would have been most probably paralysed. So, after warning my friends that I was going to get up, I got up from my seat, stretched my legs and arms and sat again.

The weather was so damp that you could smell water in the confines of a closed and air-conditioned bus. We were lucky to a have a school cardigan as the driver was unwilling to turn off the air-conditioner. There was water seeping through the tiny holes near the window and unluckily I was sitting right next to the window. I was astonished how deep the wheels of the bus had gone under the rainwater as the country's drainage system was excellent yet you didn't have potholes on every road.

The exciting thing I learnt was the slope of the road. The road slopes so even if there were no much of potholes the water comes down to the sides of the roads so that  no much damage is done to the roads.
I also admired the oil on the water which looked colourful due to the water. Even the reflection of the traffic lights looked beautiful.

My friend kept on going about the upcoming winter vacations which he said he would enjoy to the fullest. He kept talking about his dad taking him to tour Burj Al Arab which is a seven star hotel in Dubai. It is famous for its seafood and luxury. To which I replied that Dubai is full of tourist spots.

Rain came down harder and it looked like we would never get to school as it was eleven 'O clock. The teacher who used the bus was kind enough to call the school authorities and ask them to give a holiday. To my and my friends' utter astonishment school declared leave for the day.

The bus dropped us back home and it didn't take much time as we didn't go far. He took a shorter and muddy route to drop us. I rushed into my building as it was raining hard and I didn't have an umbrella. The watchman was kind enough to put a rug just before the steps so that anyone could rub their shoes on it. It was my pleasure to do so as I was amused by it then.

At last I reached home and I was surprised that my parents(they had a holiday too!) weren't surprised to see me. On asking why they replied that the school had called them and told them that that day was a holiday and gladly even the following day was a holiday! That day is got to be the most rocking day of my life!

Hasta la Vista,
K

PS: Note that the recent poll will be put again after few months as I'm disappointed with the number of votes and I'm still undecided. My mother voted twice by mistake thus there is an increase in vote in 'Yes'.

TWO HOURS AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES!

Rakshabandan is an Indian festival wherein a sister ties a band on the brother so that he protects her(he protects her either ways, just in the name of a festival). The brother in return has to buy her a gift. Cousins are involved too.

Last year or five months ago, when I was in India, we had this particular festival coming up. My cousin sister was the one tying the Rakhi or the band for me. I had bought her a gift long ago, but my cousin brother whose Rakhi was also being tied by cousin sister woke up just the day before the festival. Me and my brother were either ways on our way to watch a movie the next day, so we thought we would be there early and we would book the ticket and then hunt for the gift.

The next day we were on our way to the mall and we saw nothing great on the way apart from a pace of donkeys. We reached the place three hours early. We booked our ticket and started our hunt for the gift.

My brother first thought of a key chain. We inspected the store carefully. Then he said, "I think we should check for something better. Don't you?"
"I guess.", I replied.
We then thought of buying her a music CD. We headed to the store and we found nothing she would like!
"Hell!", my brother exclaimed.
"Think of something else.", I said.
"Perfume!"
"Great idea!"
We headed to the store. After fifteen minutes of sniffing like dogs, we understood that we are really bad at choosing perfumes. We are equally bad with cosmetics, so we dropped that idea.

At last my brother thought of something sensible, a card! We knew we could buy her a card along with the gift! After another fifteen minutes of looking at one card after the other, we made up our minds to buy a simple yet beautiful card.

After an hour, when only half an hour was left for the movie, we decided to buy the key chain. We took ten minutes to choose the the key chain and another ten to pay the money after waiting in the queue. We were lucky enough to reach in time for the movie.

The next day when my sister saw the gifts she screamed(just kidding)!

Hasta la Vista,
K