BEGINNING OF THINGS!

Two years ago I was possessed by the sudden urge to produce my skills in computer text for people to relish the intellectuality of my very juicy flavours. When providing my art to school magazines, which I still ensue to do so became a cliché as there were many whose only art that got published was copying.  

The previous year when an article which was in close proximity to mine was highly conspicuous only because it was a direct imitation of the English song ‘Hall of Fame’ and still nobody realised that vexation had encapsulated me, I doubted continuing my trust towards this thick group of paper. 

Since nothing abated my anger more than an adolescence’s urge to take everything on a lighter note, I brought to a teacher’s notice about the unawareness of the higher authorities and how naive and ignorant they were, in a rather humorous manner.

Maybe the event occurred a year after the beginning of my virtual writing, but what I provided was the strongest example.

Blogging, as is the common term, allowed my satisfactory yearly writing to turn into a daily or at least a monthly routine if not more.

At the start, the fear of unsuccessfulness did consume my confidence and exploit my inner fear which must’ve exposed me as a poltroon, but it didn’t suppress my thoughts let alone my skills.

“Your writing sucks!” must’ve rung in my ears in many voices, yet I continued, only by naming my fear ‘irrational’!

I wrote the first sentence, and then I couldn’t stop or get up from my seat, just like a lazy ass confined to a sofa. Only I wasn’t lazy, at least then.

I was relieved when I was done. But I realised I couldn’t close my shop just then. The reason being every friend, countrymen, Romans and non-Romans had to lend me their eyes (exaggeration). After enlightening half a hundred homo sapiens about my latest experiment, I was contented for the day. But the urge again possessed me and I began again!

Hasta la Vista,

K

THE DARE-DEVIL!

He accepted the hospital,

He accepted the doctor's recital.

But he took an oath of violence,

and required no guidance.

He was in an asylum,

hence knew how to play dumb.

The doctor's interest in baseball,

was his biggest flaw!

He took the bat,

and made the doctor's head flat.

He escaped the electric maze,

and also everybody's gaze.

He came out in the morning,

but He came out frowning.

There was nobody there,

that was rare!

He had to keep his oath, hence he looked at the sun,

and He took out a stolen gun.

He took the shot,

but it didn't harm even a moth!

At the end of the shot,

He ended his wrath.

He was cold,

yet bold.

Everyone was happy,

But they were too snappy.

because all that He had done,

about it, they could not keep mum.

The asylum walls had all His work,

and in these very walls He would still lurk.

He is there,

and that would never be rare!

Hasta la Vista,

K

TUTIONS: AN ILLUSION

To everybody, who has suffered in the hands of tutions,

What on Earth are tutions?

Are they going to help us get the Padma Bhushan?

Is it going to help me walk through the 'Hall of Fame'?

Or is nobody going to give a damn about my name?

Parents say it is for practice,

but of course, that is just parental tactics.

We slog for two or three or even more hours,

but parents and teachers ask us to rote learn for four more hours.

Parents ask you to study for a particular time everyday,

but when we mention 'tutions' to get studies out of the way,

"That isn't studying," they'd say,

"That is just extra help for some days."

Is it schooling? Nope.

Is it studying? Nope.

Is it even a ray of hope,

to climb the studies rope?

So why do we waste our time,

on something that is worth less than thyme?

This question is being asked from the Pacific to the Atlantic,

but is always suppressed by parental tactic.

Hasta la Vista,

K

VACATIONING!

 "Hurrah! Summer vacations are here, leisure, fun and entertainment!" I'll be damned if I'd be saying that. I wouldn't exaggerate and say the above sentence as my vacations are as good as a study leave, but yes, you could call me lucky as I am not setting my foot outside the United Arab Emirates and hence I have a lot of time to have fun as well as do my work simultaneously. Another advantage is that I only have one group project. Either ways let me take you through my first week of vacationing.

Al Ain one of the most famous oasis in U.A.E, one of the most active oasis in the U.A.E, was my home for the first week of my amazing study leave. My uncle and aunt along with my cousin and my paternal grandmother had come to pick me up. Our closest family friend had come too! My cousin and I took the rear seat in the seven-seat car and since it was long drive to Al Ain we really had problems with our legs as we both were tall and the rear seat was damn cramped. But we somehow managed to adjust till we reached our destination. We had our electronics to keep us from kicking each other for place. 

The next day was a rather dry one until my two other cousins had come in for the week too! And both being feminine; were very lively. Especially the smaller who could bring the roof down even faster than an opera singer. She was the highlight of the week, she kept us busy. By busy I mean, busy shouting at her. She was quite stubborn and she was nine, so you could imagine our plight. But it was fun having to do something other than playing games on some kind of electrical instrument which happened to be our only form of entertainment. 

One of the most important trips that week was the trip to Papa John's. As soon as the food was set on the table, everybody veraciously grabbed the food and stuffed it down their throat. The food was great and our stomachs were filled so what was better than a good night sleep. On reaching home everybody casually brushed their teeth, changed into something a bit looser and got prepared to go to sleep. But my cousins and I had to put our bed as we were sleeping on mattresses on the floor. This is where my nine year old cousin made us active again.

"Why the hell are you messing around with that thing get your rear over here and help us!" my cousin who was busy adjusting his pillow said, "You'll spoil the freaking thing, it was made with great difficulty by my sister, you'll get the glitter out you maniac!"

"No!" the nine year old replied. Somehow my cousin cooled down and the nine year old was saved.

I was infuriated that I had to do most of the work and was more vexed when my cousin who did nothing but look at a glittery door sign put her head through my shoulders. However I held my tongue, woke her up and asked her to sleep properly.

One thing I felt sad about is the other female cousin who was apparently my age, who got up early in the morning in the first two days to do Mathematics. She was depressed while doing it. I knew I wouldn't care to do anything if I were to be given the same thing for those days. I don't do school work outside my home. However my aunt was irritated at this and told her not to do it. She stopped doing it for the rest of the week.

The last day of my stay at Al Ain was not very interesting until we got into the car and started playing games, and that was not until 21:30. We headed for Sharjah and only stopped for dinner in Dubai. We had plenty of time for games, but we soon grew a bit bored as we were in the Iron Age, and who can live without electronics in this age. When we reached Sharjah I knew that my holidays were as good as over.  It was time to be surrounded with all kinds of books, and not interesting ones (that has to be specified). 

I won a week from studies and was able to relax. But they were multitude days to come for studying. I may have won a battle, but studies won the war. 

Hasta la Vista,

K

WRITER'S BLOCK!

According to the dictionary a writer’s block is defined as a temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing. But, we common people don’t wait to go deep into psychology, we rather know about a writer’s block when we see a writer throw papers in to the dustbin.  We also commonly see them these days when an English exam is on!

There are multitudinous ways by which writers deal with this kind of block, one of the path which is most treaded on is forgetting about the piece of writing altogether. Another vexing and uninteresting method is when the writer ensues with his work with an irrational ending after a good start. A more experienced and clever writer would rather start all over again.

Now-a-days writers are so unplanned and undecided that some of them stop to think for forty five minutes straight after each and every paragraph. Why do you think it takes longer to write an English paper than any other subject paper? 

You’ll be surprised to know how aggressive writers can get when they have the writer’s block. They usually harass their friends to help them. The most common dialogues writers say to their friends are: “Get something out of that brain and help me!” “Why can’t you think of something, there must be something hidden somewhere, give me anything!”

I’ll tell you, you’d never want to be in front of a writer having writer’s block; they can be as erratic as the Indian monsoon season. One of the thousand reasons you need to stay away from such writers is that even if you tell them something to help, they’ll disagree with you and come up with dialogues like; “You are just an augmentation to the block in my head!” Writers don’t go easy on you.

Some people like me follow the policy of writing is better than not writing at all. In fact writing about a writer’s block is way better than being furious with yourself for not writing at all. 

Writers are delighted when ideas just pop into their mind, but that moment is short-lived, because soon they find out that they have nothing to write about it at all. No planning leads to such situations. Then they brag about it for long time just because an idea struck them and they weren’t able to pen it down like it is the end of the world or something.

One other way which a writer goes past his block is by making no sense at all. He just writes big words just to confuse the readers, so they think he has written something great just because the work is very wordy. Readers feel that the writer is Shakespeare just because of those big words. 

Writers, one thing they forget to do is stay calm when their thoughts are blocked. They get panic-stricken.  They forget that the reason for the block could be the topic they’ve chosen. Imagine if J.K. Rowling wrote Julius Caesar and Shakespeare wrote Harry Potter! The two stories would be completely different form the original version as the writers have different styles of writing. Pick the right topic. Something you know about or are interested in researching about. 

The other day I was trying to write something and the block in my brain didn’t seem to leave me. My friend was sitting beside me, so I asked him, “Have any ideas?” My counterpart looked at me drowsily and said, “Ideas? For that thing you’re writing?” Then he gave out a big yawn. I was furious, and then I gave him the glare, the glare which would stay etched in his memory, the glare that would terrorise him when he would think about it, the writer’s glare!

Hasta la Vista,

K

MR. PRESIDENT

What would be better than roaming about school with a badge saying that you are the President of a certain Club pinned to your shirt. It is amazing. You get all the attention in the world and people keep staring (sometimes glaring)  at your chest where the badge is located. It feels like you are one in a million. You are the one who has that badge pinned to your shirt, you are the damn lucky person who got the position. Teachers think you are studious just because of that badge. The best part is, the badge doesn't call you the member of the Club, it calls you the President!

This happened to me yesterday. In school we had an inauguration ceremony for the five Clubs in the school namely: The Literary Club, The Debating Society, The Quiz Club, The Music Club and the Arts Club. The Music and the Arts Club were new editions. The Presidents and the Secretaries of each of these Clubs were all ready with their blazers on and uniforms tucked in and ties in proper positions. They all happily entered the auditorium with great expectations from the ceremony.

The ceremony didn't seem to disappoint us, it started off with the reports which had to be read out by the previous year's Secretaries and I was one of them. With a lot of pride I stepped on stage to give my best.

Before I go on any further we need to know what happened before the ceremony, before a plethora of ecstatic things happened on stage. Firstly, the ceremony was after school so everyone participating in the ceremony or students who were invited to watch it were asked to stay back. When the rest of the students were dispersing to their buses or cars we were busy enjoy ourselves by chit-chatting and eating our lunch.
"Mr. President, going to get your badge today, shining and all huh." one of my friends commented.
"Well, maybe I am." I replied
"Good luck with the report, don't read it out like a dou-" my friend was about to complete, but was interrupted by the entry of our Supervisor. He looked at me and smiled, due to the blazer which I was wearing, he understood that I was going to get a badge. By this time the Secretary of the Literary Club who was selected by the teacher in charge and I, came in with his blazer on.
"All set?" our Supervisor asked.
I wanted to say 'Hell yeah', but what came out is-
"Yes!" the Secretary replied the same.

After confirming the time we had to be present in the auditorium from the teacher I went back to class to chillax a bit. After all I didn't have to mug up my report. Just read and speak like a damn orator.

The auditorium was full of activities when I arrived there and these activities were stuff like connecting the laptop to the projector, keeping everything ready for the function, mic testing etc. Everyone was busy hurrying up and after ten minutes of standing in a place I was given a place to sit. I was confined to that seat for most of the ceremony. I was holding a file in my hand which contained my report. After sometime when all the senior staff reached the venue the function began.

The mic ahead of me, every bodies eyes on me, the Gods from heaven looked down at me and the devils from hell looked at me from their hot and inconspicuous place. There was nothing that distinguished me from the audience but the blazer I was wearing. Yet, I was on stage with the paper in front of me and the rest weren't. I made sure the mic was working and then I began. I began with great confidence and then my mouth went on like I had no control of it. My voice modulated itself, my mouth paused when it had to and started again when it had to. All I could see was the words in front of me and the school Principal nodding his head. Whether nodding was because he was accepting something I said or was it just to say he was listening and understanding I wasn't sure. There was only one thing I was sure of; I gave it my best.

After my report, the former Secretaries of the two other Clubs gave their speeches. The Music Club and the Arts Club had no report as they never existed the previous year. Like that it was time to get the badges. We went on stage and stood there until our turn came to receive the badge. The Principal gave a short speech before we received our badges.

The Headmaster was the lucky one who got to pin the badge on my blazer. He came up took the badge in his hands and while pinning it  asked me a question-
"President of the Literary Club," he said 'What are your plans for this year?"
I thought only for a fraction of a second as I couldn't mention any particular activity which I could talk about so I found the easiest way to escape the situation-
"Lots sir!"
The Headmaster was dumbfounded, it wasn't the answer he wanted yet it was an answer. He proceeded with pinning the other badges.


Then came the Music Club's energetic display. The band played four to five songs and then they gave a ecstatic ending with the guitar and drums. It was altogether an awesome display.

Later, we had a skit performed by my Club and it was quite humourous and the acting was amazing. The skit was from the original 'Villa for Sale' drama by Sacha Guitry. English textbooks do help in such cases. The skit was liked by all including me. The only problem was that they were speaking through hand mics and that made it a bit irritating because the words sometimes weren't heard properly.

After the great skit was the debate and it was the most boring part of the function as it was always one sided and beginning from the first proposition we understood that the opposition had won this one. That was the final event and then all of us headed towards the bus saying good-bye to the school.

The next day, it was day of badge admiration. Everyone had to take a look at that thing on my chest. And they all said the same thing-"Mr. President!"

Hasta La Vista,
K

  

 

CHEMISTRY!

This poem of mine was quite appreciated in school, so I thought that I'd share it with you all. It is one of the most tricky poems I have written as it took me more than an hour and a half to make the whole thing! It is also quite small after such a long time of thinking as it was for the class bulletin board in school.
Here's how it goes:-

Chemistry is all about chemicals,

And there is not a moment that is dull.

There are loads of things we see in the world,

But chemicals exist even in every plant arising from the same whorl.

Chemical reactions,

Are always in action.

Most of these reactions are inconspicuous,

But some of them for our eyes are hazardous.

We always think that chemicals are dangerous,

But without them there would be nothing, contemptuous or joyous.

Chemistry can tell us about anything in our vicinity,

The subject deals with things far away and also in close proximity.

Why do we use chemicals for irrational violence?

When it shows a lot of benevolence,

It is a substitute of itself,

And everything we have in ourselves.

We should learn to use chemicals wisely,

And not injudiciously or slyly.

Using chemicals irresponsibly can be very destructive,

But learning it for a good cause is very constructive.

Hasta la Vista,

K

SERENDIPITIES!

I never believe in serendipities,

because it has never happened to me.

I don't think they exist, these accidental discoveries.

If you share my thoughts, I definitely want to meet thee.

It is just mere exaggeration,

scientists just want to be famous in their nation.

And something worth to mention,

all of them have plans, just like a working mason.

If they fail in their experiments,

even if there is a small dent,

the dent they'll have to mend,

even if it means delay in paying their house rent.

So the poltroon scientists keep it a secret,

so later they don't have to regret.

It will be easier to be less vexed and forget,

the failures that they met.

If their experiment works out great,

to tell it out they won't wait.

But if people ask them why it was secretive,

the word 'serendipity' will be active.

To people who believe in serendipities,

                                                        Please try to change my mind if you can. You are welcome to, but you'll have to prove yourselves. I have wondered if such things existed. If they do, and you've seen it or if it has ever happened to you, please inform me. If you are one of my teachers, then you are lucky because I may trust you without any proof. One more thing, NO MATHEMATICAL PROOFS! 

Hasta la Vista,

K

A CLASS PARTY?

What is a party? It is when people come together and have fun. On December 20th 2012, our school organised a party (rather permitted us to organise a party). Everybody came in casual clothes, wearing all branded stuff, bringing expensive electronics to school, bringing truckloads of food etc. I was the best person to show up, as I didn't even bring a bag! No food, no electronics, only clothes and a bus card, which had to scanned by the bus driver with a bar code reader!

I never really wanted to show up, as I had had a headache, but that headache was always there in the morning from when I fell ill, the week before. It only stopped after I started sleeping till ten in the morning during the vacation which started the day after this party. I thought there would be nothing to do at home, so I went for the party. My partner in the bus was astonished to see me without a bag. "What the hell! How come you didn't bring anything?" I just told him that I never really thought of buying anything.

School was completely different that day, with the music in full volume, everybody thinking about fun rather than about homework or tests. People also started eating junk early in the morning. The party was to start at eight thirty, we had to arrange all the tables and chairs in such a way that, there was a lot of place in the middle to do stuff. But in our case, the party started at seven thirty! The thing was, it began an hour before the suggested time, but it wasn't a big hit.

The whole day went in people dancing to 'Gangnam Style'. I was the only one who wasn't involved, as I hate dancing or singing. What I meant is, I like songs and dances which are beautiful to o my eyes, but doing it; is damn different! Surprisingly most of the teachers never bothered to even enter the classes, they stood outside and started chatting with each other. There was no partying! Just eating, playing with electronics and at times, getting bored! Nobody cared about doing anything that would interest the whole class, everyone was in their own world!

The only time people got together was when they had to dance to 'Gangnam Style'. Trust me when you read this, they only danced to that song! Three hours of having fun, was three hours of one freaking song! I totally started hating the song after that day.

Describing the party is quite hard because nothing happened! All I remember is people either sitting and playing video games or eating when 'Gangnam Style' was not on. I was so dead bored. In the end, I had to start playing video games! GTA: LCS, Assasins Creed: Bloodline were games I had play due to the so called party! I thought that I should've stayed home, if I had to play games on a sumptuous PlayStation Portable.

Food was not a problem. Everything from chips to cool drinks to pizza to doughnuts to pastries were available! You even had your veggies on the pizza and fruits on the pastry! I ate not really to my heart's content, but enough to keep my stomach from grumbling for food until I reached home. Doughnuts may have been the first thing I ate during the party.

The only thing close to entertaining in the party was when two male teachers came in a danced to yet again 'Gangnam Style', but it was fun to see teachers dancing for a change. My friend and I who were one of those people, who didn't have any kind of electronic items, had to borrow it from others to have fun after the entertaining dance. We were completely helpless and bored! We were so bored that we wouldn't mind one of the teachers coming in and taking over the class. Even Biology didn't seem boring at that stage!

The unfortunate people who didn't come without electronics were sometimes forced to entertain themselves by gossiping about silly things. Things got a bit too naive over there. First time in the history of my parties did I want to get out of one! I could remember the party when I was in seventh, wherein most of the people showed off their talents rather than sitting in front of electronics. Everybody apart from me, of course! Singing and dancing aren't my cup of tea for sure. I was a mere spectator. Nothing more, but it still was fun.

On December 20th 2012, I was again a spectator, but a spectator of the most flop show ever. It must have been the slowest three hour party ever. But at last it came to an end! It was cleaning up time! At least something to do! I did it with great interest, it was way better than sitting in one place without doing anything. I think cleaning the class room was the best thing to be a part of in the party, rest all, don't get me started. This is just a bit of the boring things I had to go through, the other things are not very describable!

Going home was a relief, at least there were two weeks of winter holidays, and mostly enjoying it was the plan!

Hasta la Vista,
K

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