Stuck at home...again

I'm writing this post on the 8th of september (that sounds lame). I've been feeling guilty for a while for not updating my blog and I don't have much to do, so here's an update from my end.

Let's start with the title of this post. Why am I home? Oh, the epidemics currently travelling in the city of Delhi decided to pick on a student of 11th class. One who gets frantic if she has to miss school, doesn't like covering up missed work and is worried about half yearly exams on Monday. Just her luck. Here's how it started (and in case you don't feel like reading a sick diary, feel free to skip to the end):

• My diary says that the symptoms started on the...30th. The day started off with a bodyache, headache and temperature. Of course, my family insisted I stay home and after a lot of protest, I had to agree. I did feel guilty as I knew that I might miss work, but I optimistically hoped that I wouldn't miss too much. In the meantime, I sat at home, lazily watching a movie on TV while announcements in school (I live right across my school) kept on blaring. I even sat home making up theories for the symptoms: basketball, stress and a heavy school bag 

• On visiting the doctor, I was told (to my horror) that I had viral fever. To add to the experience, the doctor told me to stay home for three days and take about five different medicines every day. Now let me say it straight away: I don't like swallowing medicines. I think it's a deep seated fear of choking. However a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. So I just had to take those coin sized pills. On the bright side though, all symptoms vanished with the first dosage. But I knew perfectly well I wouldn't be allowed to go to school until three days were over.

• I spent the next three days in my words "going up and down the stairs like a restless spirit". Luckily, I also took out time to read a few new books and do a little study as well. I eventually came to the conclusion that I really did need a break from my studies. But I was sure that all the peace of mind I would've gained would vanish once I returned to school. Besides, I was getting a little cranky stuck at home.

• The 2nd (janamashtami) was my last holiday before I returned to school. I returned to school on the 3rd to enquiries from several students wondering why the padaku of the class had vanished for three weekdays. Yes there was work to cover up, but I managed eventually. But that's when the next problem came on...

CONJUNCTIVITIS

And now to end that little story, NOW I'm stuck at home with conjunctivitis a.k.a. eye flu. The red eyes and the swelling started yesterday in school and I'm on leave today. I'm stuck home with red, swollen, itchy, streaming eyes feeling cranky...again, this time along with my whole family. This time I don't have any pills to swallow, but now I have something more menacing - eye drops! Fortunately, I don't have to worry about covering up any work since only revision is going on in the school right now. But still...now I'm stuck at home AGAIN ! So here follows the rant of a little girl who doesn't think she's studied properly for exams. (Disclaimer: Whether she's right or wrong remains to be seen):

I have so many chapters to cover! If I can't even read, how the heavens am I going to prepare? It's Maths on Monday and I haven't practised well enough. It's Political Science on Thursday and I've haven't even read all the chapters. I don't even feel like studying. Great, after all this, I'm preparing to fail? Aaaarrrgghhhh...
End Rant

Ah well. Moving on...

And now, after a very long time, here is not one, but three pieces of 55 fiction:

Old age

She’d gone through myriad experiences: Regretted, celebrated, cherished and fleeting.

She’d felt different things: Fear, happiness, excitement, despair, confusion, admiration, anger, kindness…

And yet she wondered,

Had she achieved her purpose?

She’d made her choices. And she had given her best, she smiled. Life was what she thought it was.

And now it was over.

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A choice

There was too much to do. Why? He had decided before that this was too important. He trusted his past judgment. But how to do it?

He toiled on, thinking about the loss, the pain, the past...

Finally, he screamed, “Enough!”  

And the door slammed behind him.

Why? There was a life to be lived. 

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Inevitable

In his 15 years, he’d never seen it. 

Others were working in the field. No one noticed the cloud climbing the hill. Usually, he would’ve celebrated Indra’s generosity. Not now.

Lives would be lost and destroyed. Great fuss would be caused. But it would cease, and they would be left alone.

The flood came closer…

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Here are links to two great articles I've found:

1. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2538-the-first-step-is-to-start - A great article called "the first step is to start"

2. http://in.news.yahoo.com/columnist/anand_ramachandran/7/a-plan-to-save-the-commonwealth-games - A great satire on our very own Commonwealth games

Got to go, time for the eye drops. Hope I'll get well quickly.
Take care of your health folks, and have a great week!

A poem about poem writing

I wrote this a long time ago when I was sitting in another school. I had gone there for a competition and the enterprising driver who was to drive us back had vanished. So I was sitting bored for quite a while, when I remembered that I'd planned to write a poem like this. Here it is, so do tell me what you think!



A poem about poem writing


There's this thing that I want to do
Which I haven't tried in a while
Though it's something close to my heart
Even attempting it again seems futile

I'm talking about writing a poem
It's one of my favourite arts
Maybe not something formidable
But I'm finding it hard to start!

There are plenty of things I know and see
Lots of thoughts inside of me
But as I sit here is this cool breeze
Which ones to leave and which to seize?

I look out the window
I see the tree tops and the birds
I leaves fly and clouds pass by
I see a fresh and many coloured earth

I look out the door
The street lamps stand still and cars move on
Feelings of hope, dejection, joy and sadness travel the roads
Carrying things or travelling without, people walk on

I look around me
Things I can feel but not touch exist
Air, breeze, smells, love, hate, yells
Invisible as they are, they touch me

I look in my mind
It's thoughts, ideas and plans I find
Facts, knowledge and my daily grind
With logic, judgement and their kind

I look in my heart
Emotions, morals and ethics play a part
While higher thoughts and fantastic hopes scheme
To fuel my life and dreams

What shall I choose to create?
What can I write that will be great?
With so many things everywhere
I hope wealth of experience and things to express will give rise to another poem to share

  

                                                                      - Charu 

Random writing

This was a random piece I wrote last Saturday when I was in school with friends. It was raining nicely and my friends were busy laughing, chattering and clicking pics. I decided to try writing something. I didn't like it much at the time, but when I read it later, I decided to post it. What do you think?








thousands of drops fall. They live a short life falling and splashing away. Together they create a continuous flow and pattern. Seeping into ground and fanning out, small pools are their last tribute before moving on. Small as they are, we hear some of them but with our silence, they can't hear us. Laughter rings out, but the drops dance on. In continuous columns, they splash down, unknowing, unmindful, uncaring of our random chatter. The ground is their stage and the sky sends them forth, watching and leaving to train others. They don't care for human boundaries, what walls, doors and words we throw their way. they come and go as they wish, doing what their ancestors did, until they're reborn to try again.

A quick post...

Just a very quick post to put up two new poems I found. Let me know what you think!




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The panther - By Rainer Maria Rilke




His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly--. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone. 

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Autumn song - By Sarojini Naidu



Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
   The sunset hangs on a cloud;
A golden storm of glittering sheaves,
Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,
   The wild wind blows in a cloud.

Hark to a voice that is calling
   To my heart in the voice of the wind:
My heart is weary and sad and alone,
For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone,
   And why should I stay behind? 

Surprises

This post is overdue. I'll explain why it's overdue in a future post, but since this post has been requested, I'll deal with it first.

This is about an event that happened on the 21st. There was an inter house debate in school. The topic was "Commonwealth Games not for the common man". Each house had two speakers, for and against, and one interjector. I was the interjector, which meant I could ask any of the speakers a question after they had finished. This also meant that I had to know both sides of the argument since my job was only to ask a good question, not to take sides. I'd known about this debate for a while but I hadn't prepared anything (reason again in a forthcoming post). So on the morning, I reached the auditorium thinking that I would just have to think up something on the spot.

It was there that I realised that the person who was supposed to one of the speakers from our house wasn't there. Some frantic running around over, I realised that he really was absent and now my house, Tagore, was a speaker short.

I sat with the other interjectors, ridiculously hoping that someone from Tagore would volunteer when the compere would announce that Tagore was short. When the speaker's name was announced, I explained that he  was absent. To my horror, the compere asked the interjector to come up instead. The alternative was Tagore would be disqualified. So I went up in a state of confusion, scolding myself for not preparing and telling my self that I had absolutely no chance in front of the other debaters who had actually prepared something. By God's grace, I had to speak for the side I actually believed in (let's not start a debate, but it was for the motion). I don't recall what I said verbatim, but I started by saying that I'd been caught off guard just like the people of India (and because I realised that the mike wasn't working when I first began speaking). I said that this was like preparing for a final exam in one day, what should've been done in ten years was being done in 6 months, public money was being wasted, even the work already accomplished was very unstable and would not last long or give any long term benefits. I think I paused, questioned, repeated things, gesticulated, talked to ceiling and who knows what else. All this time, the memory of my first debate (also inter house) kept looming in my mind. I'd  gotten stage fright by staring at the judge, forgotten everything and somehow managed to cover it up by speaking whatever I remembered extempore. I'd been very upset afterwards. This time, I have no idea how I muddled through and as I couldn't see any reaction while speaking, good or bad, I was a bit worried. But I somehow managed to finish well and left the stage to applause. To my great surprise afterwards, I was actually placed second! Even more surprising (to me) was the amount of appreciation I got. I've never been commended, praised, congratulated and appreciated this much in my life.Students from classes 9 through 12 were congratulating me on all sides. Students I hadn't talked to in ages and even those whom I didn't know were praising me as if I'd broken a world record. I was even congratulated warmly by friends and teachers who hadn't been there! And to believe that they were all congratulating me for something I hadn't even prepared for! The best part about this was that it was a private victory. I received a public victory in something which I actually felt I had done well. Satisfying indeed and certainly making me feel very very happy. And this happy state and the congratulations lasted for three more days :)

Luck, talent or whatever it was, clicked :) ...

P.S. For anyone who's wondering, my speakers still aren't fixed :(