Vibes 2010, Great Success!

The Fest went very well, and the rock band Fossils rocked the stage, though I couldn't stay to watch it as I don't live in Kolkata and had to return. I worked and enjoyed much more than last year. I made friends with many fellow Coordinators and Ex-Coordinators whom I was hitherto distanced from. I anchored part of the band event, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some seniors appreciated the fact that I was anchoring on what was only my second time at Vibes.
Among other things, I was on duty to stay with the judges for debate and MusicKazaam, and I also had duties at the Quiz prelims. I enjoyed carrying coffee to the judges and getting Brendan MacCarthaigh's autograph. He runs an NGO to help students, called Serve, and writes a column of the same name on The Statesman Voices. I'm a big fan of his, and I was overjoyed when our editor Ms. Gopali Bandopadhyay introduced me to him. I also obtained the autographs of the regular Sarekya hosts, RJs Rakesh & Pragya, which I was too nervous to approach them for last year. I also enjoyed flashing about my card a lot more, and somehow I got a lot more respect from outsiders, must have learnt to carry myself better!
As a bonus, our school (Carmel Convent High) WON the dance event! WON WON WON! YAY! I really can't believe it.
The band event was won by Calcutta Girls High, who had an unconventional band and made great music out of buckets, flowerpots, cartons, bottles filled with grains, a basketball and even their own cheeks. Husena Dhariwala was selected to be the Best Co-ordinator this year, and Shreya Mallika Dutta was the Best Writer. A coordinator, Rohan, won the Best Actor award in the Drama event. Coord Tirna was runner-up in Extempore, Best Speaker on Debate, Winner on Gallery Photographs AND runner-up in T-shirt Painting.
The Coordinators' T-shirt was fabulous this time. It was black, and bore Vibes 2010 in front, and The Statesman Voices at the back! Logo and all!
You will read the event reporting and all the details if you're reading The Statesman Voices this Thursday, ie. 2nd Dec, 2010. Or, you can follow the link above.
On the second day we took group photos on the stage, one with the present coordinators in it, and the others with everyone: present Coords, the attending Exes, our editor, distribution manager, everyone. You'll see it in the paper too! Some Coords took photos on their own cameras too. Avro took it there itself on stage. Srishti, my schoolmate, took it later backstage, and though all the Coords weren't there, Gopali ma'am and Suman Sir joined us in that one.
Though I lost my favourite pen and the chicken on the first day's lunch was undercooked, it didn't matter much. I was feeling horrible when I had to come away. I said my goodbyes to everyone, shook hands, people expressed regrets that I wasn't on Facebook, and I knew that I had made my place in the Voices family. I felt elated: at my second Vibes, I felt the Voices spirit seeping in completely; it's overwhelming, enveloping, it's the best thing in the world and I wish it would go on for ever. But yes, it'll come back next year. And the next and the next yet... !
Aschhe bochhor abaar hobe! Vibes ROCKS!!!! Voices ROCKS! WE CO-ORDINATORS ROCK!!!

From My Watchlist --Lie To Me

Lie To Me is premiering on Indian television, at 10 pm on Mon-Fri on Star World. The first two seasons are being shown in succession. It is centred around Dr. Cal Lightman, who is originally English and through extensive research has learnt to read human expressions and draw conclusions from them almost flawlessly. He runs a D.C.-based firm, called The Lightman Group, of deception experts, with Dr. Gillian Foster, a skilled psychologist, as his business partner and prime associate. An important employee of the firm is a young Ivy Leaguer called Eli Loker, who, in addition to taking part in the firm's investigative commissions, also runs their research lab on human behaviour. Ria Torres, a former TSA recruit with an exceptional record of 97% correct arrests, was picked up by Lightman & Foster from her airport job when they came to know of her natural talent for spotting lies. The rest of the firm consists of all kinds of professionals, from software operators to accountants, who usually do not get more importance than the required unnamed appearances.
The firm usually assists different levels of law enforcement, orgnisations, and even individuals, in completing investigations and solving various kinds of problems that involve deception and human psychology.
Lightman as a person borders on an anti-hero personality, as he does not care for the law when it comes in the way of the truth. We see suggestions of a rather shady past he seems to have had, and his personal life is evidently no smooth rink, with a problematic ex-wife who doesn't approve of his way of studying her always, and different women, with none of whom does it ever work out. Dr. Foster went through a divorce in the course of the show after she found out her reporter husband to be leading a double life as a drug addict. She too has been seen with different men since then, and till date none of those, too, have ever looked promising. There seems to be some sparks between the two of them, but we've not seen anything conclusive yet. I, for one, am all for it.
Lightman shares a sweet relationship with his daughter Emily, a 16-year-old, who has her share of a high-schooler's troubles. She is quite patronizing on him at times, and at other times she gets into trouble trying to lie to her dad. Not much is known about Loker's private life, except for the occasional date. It is known though, that Torres faced physical abuse from her father in her younger years, and she had to get a plastic surgery done on her nose to fix an injury inflicted by him. She has a half-sister, who was reconciled with her in a recent episode, and with her assistance is back into the mainstream from juvenile detention.
There is also FBI agent Benjamin Reynolds, who is their resident agent and has to assist them on all law enforcement cases as part of the firm's retainer contract with the FBI.
The personal lives of the experts and their families and friends are often interweaved with the cases, and many cases come to the Group through them; these are usually those cases where the Group acts without a specific client and without expecting profit, though they usually are rewarded handsomely when they solve these cases.
The show is a bit slower compared to most crime fiction, however most of the one-hour episodes deal with two parallel cases, and it quite compensates for the lack in pace. The show has immense potential, as the scientific methods that the Group is shown to follow are applicable in real life.
I personally have learnt a pretty amount of face-reading from the show, and it helps in daily life. Also, the show is different from others, as it deals with a third party, non-government group of people who assist American law.
In the photo above, from left to right, Foster, Lightman, Loker and Torres.

A forced tour of Ankita's brain

I am going crazy with excitement. Vibes is here again, we're gearing up to go.
I'm getting mad as the power went off when my favourite TV show was about to start.
I'm happy as I'm close to having finished reading all the Sherlock Holmes novels (4) and short stories (56).
I'm worried that you guys will stone me for jabbering like this.
I'm hoping you won't.
I think you will.
I'm laughing at myself and my post.
That about sums up my feelings for now. Peace out. The power came back on.

Wallpaper Update

My last three wallpapers that I made on my own; may not be very good but I enjoy doing it.

First Grownup-ish poem

This was written, like many others, behind an exam question paper. In Grade 5. I surprised myself with this, I sounded so grown up compared to my age and previous poems.
============================================

Time

I’m not really writing this poem…

My words just fall into rhyme

As I look back and see the footprints

In the sands of time.

So many people have gone by,

So much knowledge they’ve sought,

So much they have ‘known’

And so much they have ‘taught’…

But we really didn’t learn anything,

                I know not why—

The leaves of the trees seem to say

As the wind blows by,

“Some day we shall learn

As the years go by.”

So many questions have been answered

And many more asked;

We have searched high and low

But truth still remains masked…

We haven’t gained anything really,

                I know not why—

The oceans seem to say

And the waves seem to cry,

“One day we shall gain a lot

As the years go by.”

I have flown in the sky with the birds,

Burrowed in the ground with the mice,

Sung in the meadows with the cowherds;

It was all so smooth and nice…

But now things do not seem so fine,

                I know not why.

I can just say

With a deep sigh,

“Things shall be fine again in future

As the years go by.”

I’m not really writing this poem…

My words just fall into rhyme

As I look forward to leaving my own footprints

In the sands of time.

============================================
It evidently wasn't out of line, as people who read it quite liked it.

Deletion

I deleted my other blog. Wasn't working well and I don't have time. If anyone liked it, tell me. Maybe I'll put it back.

Vibes 2010

As regular readers might know, I'm a student co-ordinator of a newspaper supplement managed entirely by people like me (kids from Grades 7-12), except for a few adults involved and the ex-coordinators who pop in to help. For those who don't know, the newspaper is one of the leading dailies here --The Statesman. And the supplement in question comes on Thursday, it's called Voices. We Voices Coordinators meet at the Statesman House in Kolkata regularly, though living outside Kolkata I don't manage to attend all of them. Anyway, there's an inter-school fest organised by Voices every year, called Vibes, and it's the oldest in Kolkata and all around. It always spans a weekend, and we coordinators have extra fun-- we not only bring our schools to take part and enjoy the events, but we also organise stuff, get free lunch, flash our cards around and feel important. Actually, we ARE important there. We run the show. Snigger, snigger. The event details for this year are here. I'll try to put up a picture of the poster, as the coloured and fancy stuff is not up on the website.
If anyone reading this is in a school that can possibly participate, please keep your eyes on The Statesman next late October. Keeping your eyes on this blog is an alternative to the above, of course, but you won't see the nice colourful stuff here. Adios!

I'm back

I had a horrible time, with my PC acting up yet again. Same problem. This time however, we found a new repair guy who fixed it wonderfully. The previous guy evidently didn't know his job and was just a blah blah. He did more damage to my dear old PC than good. Ekram (or is it Akram?) is far better at it. And he doesn't show off, and answers questions politely. Mom said that now onwards he's going to be our computer guy. A good one at last. By the way, he was suggested by an acquaintance--the lady who runs the place where I took Java classes. I'm relieved. Now I can go back to proper communication, gaming, blogging and fanfiction. Ah.

Now I'll try to start something. Just... give me some time. Peace.