Hi everyone!

And I'm baaaaaaacccccckkkkkk!

Yes, after about two months of staying away, I'm back. I've updated the blog with a new post and a new template. In this last month before the new year, I'll have enough time to update my blog more often. And yes, I probably deserve to be punished anyway.



*Stands up bravely for the virtual storm of tomatoes, potatoes, eggs etc.*


Yeah, I've been EXTREMELY negligent these last few months. (BTW, Anyone miss me?)


And yes, I have been feeling very very guilty too. So moving on. 


Life's been crazy busy these last few months. My reasons for not updating my blog kept changing with time. Here's a condensed list:


1. Procrastination
2. An on-off obsession with productivity, which stopped me from accessing the net for a days at a time
3. Teachers adding lots of unofficial tasks 
4. Trying to build up a chain of posts which would release one after another so I wouldn't have to worry about updating
5. Using my computer time to explore other subjects like writing better, public speaking, music, books, movies etc.
6. Working hard for a chain of inter school competitions 
7. Things in every sphere of life were fast and one day led to another.


But like I said, I'm sorry to all my readers. You guys are the reason I developed some confidence and interest in my writing skills. Thanks for waiting so patiently until this post.


So as a compensation, here's one of my poems. (I wrote it about two months ago) Hope you'll like it! 

Before the sun rose

In this dawn time, things are quite still

Except for the occasional passing car and the delicate calls of early birds

One lone streetlight still shines

Even as the light blue sky and its white moon fade, forgotten

To be replaced by a golden tinge along the horizon

That orange arc far away reminds me that the real sun will rise soon

Leaving but pale memories of these tinges and arcs

And while some have woken to meet the sun

Others slumber, waiting for a different reminder of the new day

As the time passes, I see flocks of birds and more cars

I see trucks, vegetable sellers and newspaper boys

But few people look around, busy in fulfilling the purpose for which they had risen

Except the many folks out for their morning walks

And cute dogs going for their own

So far, the tree leaves have been quite still

They barely even fluttered with the breeze

As if they, the heavy sleepers, the perpetual workers

Were not to be disturbed

I look up once more from my writing

Birds are flying past the blending colours

The soft spectrums of yellow, brown, orange and blue along the horizon

As if they are part of them, painted by an artist

It is silent once more and I’m alone on my balcony

But a bird on the streetlight calls out to me

It comforts me, saying that even in the chaos of humanity

I will find nature and its beauty, if I look

As the sparkling crimson makes me turn to gaze

She flutters away after her friends

And I run in to my studies.

                                  

- Charu

Imagine nature and humanity together...

Well, It's time to go to all the blog posts which I read recently, but didn't comment on. Cheers people!






:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :D Glad to be back ;)

Charu
















(P.S. - I'd like to avoid any copyright complications. This image I used was taken from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Delhi_North_Block.jpg and originally came from the Flickr page here http://www.flickr.com/photos/13527886@N00/369077062/)

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.

-----------------------------------------

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. 

------------------------------------------------

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…

----------------------------------------------- 

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?