A short update

I played around with stock photos and Pokemon on Photoshop for Christmas -- thought I should share it with you all. 

Keep well!

Thomas Mann, You Sneak!

Image Courtesy: Google Images
ie. the picture is of a copy
identical to mine, and not of
my actual copy.

I recently finished an anthology of stories by Nobel Laureates, which I received as a token of felicitation from my school for qualifying for NTSE. It had been a while since the last anthology I read before this (another Nobel Laureate one, from Mom), and I found it strangely exhausting, having to read so many stories to finish just one book. I've realized that it is the storyline which grips me, not the desire to finish the book. In the course of finishing the anthology I had some wonderful moments of predicting the outcome of stories, which as always made me feel clever. I had some more moments when I was able to mentally compare the work of an author to something else by them that I'd read before -- it made me feel very well-read.

The most exhausting part, though, was reading Thomas Mann's novella Death In Venice, which takes up nearly half the book's volume. When I started the book, I expected short stories and stories, not novellas -- which took me by surprise when this piece refused to end. Then I remembered that the introduction mentioned it as a novella. So I had to persevere, and to put it frankly, in this case the desire to finish the book was what fuelled me to read through it. Being unexpectedly long, its intellectual challenge (and the requirement of constant Googling to get all the inter-textual references), which I usually consider part of the enjoyment of reading, began to feel like a chore. The central character was arguably the creepiest central character in the whole book. The introduction says that the object of the central character's near-criminal creepiness is inspired by a real person, who I feel sorry for. The novella was good, but by the ending I was too tired to be moved by finer things like subtlety and understatement, which is probably why I didn't enjoy the ending all that much. Once I finished that one novella, I had a surge of false gratification which was cruelly dashed by the sight of the remaining thickness of the book, but I got through it; and I must say, after many full-length novels, an anthology was refreshing.

The last story, like in almost any other anthology or compilation I've ever read, was the most psychologically disturbing and confusing. I've never ever comprehended the closing story of an anthology to my satisfaction, barring the ones prescribed as schoolwork, and this one was no exception: even Google could not help me. The story was Il Tratto di Appelle by Boris Pasternak. The scariest story was John Galsworthy's The Silence, and the most intriguing concept, for me, was in Anatole France's The Red Egg. I was pleasantly surprised by The Musician by Selma Lagerlof, because her The Rattrap is in my school text this year. As always, it felt good to find India's own Rabindranath Tagore on the list -- this book contains his Artist, which I faintly remember reading in the original Bengali a long time ago, somewhere. The most predictable story for me was The Hack Driver by Sinclair Lewis, but only because this kind of story, pioneered by the likes of him, has inspired too many later works and become overdone to the point of being cliched. I can only imagine the ingenuity it took to come up with that without inspiration. Then again, who am I to pick favourites in a long list of Nobel Laureates? Shaw, Tagore, Kipling, Hemingway, Yeats... all the greats, and that's the best thing about an anthology -- at the end of the book, we get to come away touched by the thoughts of not one great author, but many. They leave you stimulated, outraged, emotional, sympathetic, enthused, inspired -- not to mention more knowledgeable and mature. To more anthologies!

On second thoughts, The Hack Driver wasn't the most predictable for me, in the literal sense. The Sardinian Fox, by Grezia Deledda, was in common with the other Nobel Laureate anthology that my mother gifted me, and I clearly remember being very disturbed by it at the time. I still did reread it, and this time it outraged me much less than the last time -- back then when I was younger, the concept had seemed far more dreadful and the twist far more, well, twisted. Whether I should attribute that to maturity and age or prior familiarity with the story, I don't know. I could also attribute it to the desensitization by all the way more outrageous things contained in this book.

Now I'm thinking I should probably re-read that other book sometime. I might find more stories in common, or more stories to be outraged by, which I don't remember because I didn't understand them then. By the way, I'm too tired to give hyperlinks for all the works listed above. Google them if you're interested. Seriously people, do your own work sometimes -- I'll catch up with y'all later.

Back to School, Students' Council, and Small Good Deeds

In less than eight hours from now, I will begin another day of normal school -- the same old 7:45 to 1:50 routine, studying, socializing, Students' Council work, and keeping a lookout for inconspicuous opportunities to affect other people's lives in a positive way.

Since the day I became Head Girl of HSMS, life has been... well, pretty much the same really. Mostly, I go around setting straight things and people that stray, or go askew, or make mistakes, or get hurt, or cause hurt to other things and people that matter -- which I've been doing since last year (and that is just in this one school) and has simply become official and organized now. My day consists of making the most of class hours, and then in the breaks, aside from eating, I try to utilize the time to make a difference in the HSMS experience for my fellow students.

Students in the school tend to think that being Head Girl (or anyone in the Students' Council, but especially a Head) is all about power trips, power walks, power talks, power yelling, power play. The older students do somewhat appreciate the discipline and streamlining we bring to the school, but that is hardly everything. As a leader in my previous school and in this one, I have tried, in every working hour, to inspire goodness in my fellows and juniors -- especially my juniors. I don't know how much I've succeeded, but the journey hitherto has been amazing, and continues to be so. Every day I deal with volumes of troublesome kids and friends who refuse to listen or understand, and sometimes I have to take action to extents that break my heart. But from time to time, there's that kid who comes up and asks me how someone can become the Head Girl or Head Boy, and I tell them about being true to oneself, about sincerity, loyalty, dedication; and also about time management, compartmentalization, innovation and self-discipline. Whenever I can, I try to dispel from the minds of children the image of a leader who is nothing but an authoritarian -- which is difficult to do in a day and age of rebellion against all forms of authority. Having passed through such a rebellious phase myself, I continue to strongly believe that rebellion, in essence, is indicative of free thinking and intelligence: qualities that, if channelized, can make marvellous grown-ups out of children, which is why I, self-punishingly, make those kids, the problem kids, my business.

Ask any kid who has ever been yelled at by me (individually, that is -- crowd management is a different story), and they will tell you how their first offence has been handled discreetly, and as far away from the public eye as possible. I strongly believe that a calm voice and an explanation, instead of shaming, can go a long way: Mother always explained to me what I did wrong, and so, unlike my classmates, I never resented my mother for a single moment of my life. Annoyed with her, maybe; angry, maybe; disappointed, oh yes all the time: but I never doubted her loyalty to the cause of my betterment, as opposed to what most grown-ups prioritize -- their authority, their pride, their public image and not the child's. Children need that -- they need to trust someone to be truly dedicated to their cause, their life, their hopes and dreams. So when kids act out, I try to apply my mother's methods -- I try to seek the root of their rebellion and do my bit to repair it. Sometimes it is, unfortunately, out of my hands: factors like home conditions and peer groups have influences greater than mine, at times. But at other times, kids have changed because of things I told them, which is a rare beauty in my life given the fact that I, myself, am essentially still a kid. It is cause for great thanksgiving, and a deep satisfaction that many adults never get to experience.

Back in Carmel, there were countless juniors and peers who were brought back to the mainstream of school life after I spoke to them, and they continue to keep in touch and thank me from time to time -- I feel immensely humbled to have touched their lives. There are also children who were always in the mainstream, but lacked confidence or organization, and I could, if not for privacy concerns, name a handful who claim that they learnt those missing skills because of me. One kid told me almost a year back that I changed her life, which is when I first thought of penning this post. My teachers in Carmel have praised me for creating more leaders before I left, and hopefully those leaders have created more. In Hem Sheela, the task is more uphill, given the larger body of students and the shorter time I had here for groundwork. But still, I persist to do leadership differently. The kid from above is in Hem Sheela now, and she reminds me every day of the gift that I must share with all: the gift of integrity, passion and kindness, which I learnt from my mother and some unsung stalwarts in my family and among my teachers.

The things I do differently are simple, really: in fact, by the book, they should not be different but normal. First, aside from doing this for myself (which I don't mind admitting I do), I also do this for others. Specially, I do this for those kids who are invisible and cannot stand up to miscreants and bullies. Sometimes they are too scared to make formal complaints and they come to me, and I coach them in making compact, logical and believable complaints to their teachers, with courage, composure and willpower, which will ensure that their message gets across. Many have reported back to me that they were no longer scared of the authorities, and they managed to approach their teachers and get problems -- bullies, thieves, evil twins -- sorted to their satisfaction.

Second, I go to great lengths to make sure that I'm fair, and that I don't overstep my bounds. People may have cause to complain that I'm cruel, but they will never, ever be able to complain that I'm unfair or against the rules. If I'm cruel, I'm equally cruel to all, as a leader should be. Third, I know when to swallow my pride and get help. My friends sometimes resent me for reporting problems to teachers and getting someone in trouble in the process, but I know when something is out of my league. And so yes, I run to momma. Things get done, don't they? Fourth, I don't do things just to show people who's boss. I don't hit people, I don't curse at people, I don't loudmouth people into submission. The things I yell are logical -- always. Simple, don't you think?

Yet these simple, textbook, rules of leadership are considered unnecessary, ridiculous, outright weird even. Still I try, and I attempt to instil the same in the budding leaders who work under me. I must reiterate here that among all the kids I meet, the few that change positively because of me are the beauty and joy in all of this. They are my fuel, my inspiration, my light. They are the real strong ones, because change is scary, submitting to help is scary, facing your problems is scary, but they have done it. They have learnt confidence, defeated bullies, controlled tempers, quit vices, improved in academics and co-curriculars: and so much more -- which they claim, is all because of something I said to them someday, but is really because they always had inner strength. Granted, ninety percent ignore what I say and move on, but the ten percent is my reward. And friends, I'm not the only one with this gift. Clichéd as it may sound, every person can influence others positively. And if you try, you will feel the same joy that I feel as I write this. I swear, people, at this point if I were speaking to you instead of committing my thoughts to this piece of plastic and glass, chances are I would cry. I would cry out of sheer happiness and gratitude that I have seen things grow and bloom under my touch. It's wonderful, beautiful, transforming!

Which is why, people, I go back to school tomorrow despite the dreariness and the monotony. I go because of the sheer addiction of doing something good, bringing some change, showing people what leadership can be. I go for the hope that when I'm done, the people who went to school with me will not just remember my power walk and ninja plaits and loud voice (though I would love it if they did!), but also my smile, my jokes, my help, my hand on their shoulders in troubled times; and I also go for the hope that all of this will earn me a few, if not many, hands to hold and shoulders to cry on when I will need them. Because that's what we mean when we speak of humanity, don't we, people?

I must mention here a quote that caught my attention because of how perfectly it captures the philosophy behind my style of Students' Council work:

“Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos” -- Cullen Hightower.

Hence, people, I believe in the kind of discipline that fosters the freedom of mind, body and emotion in a way that this freedom is organized and equally distributed -- hence the tough love, hence the rules, hence the power walk.

I will leave you with a plea to wish me (and our Council) luck for restarting work after the Durga Puja holidays (work, unfortunately, will be in suspended animation till then because the junior Council members still have exams). Unfortunately, the last kid I tried to inspire disappointed me terribly, and I have, sadly, identified the factors at work to be beyond my influence. Hence, I'm a bit down on the good feelings. Therefore, let this post be a reminder to me and to all of you that despite the failures, touching even one life just a teeny bit is more than what most people ever get to do, and that it is the most beautiful and humbling feeling ever.

Peace out!

Owning Your Anger and other stories

Today I felt real, white-hot anger after a long time. I can't remember when the last time I felt like that was -- it had probably been more than a year. The reason I call my anger 'white-hot' is because of how I perceive it. Anger has traditionally been associated with the colour red, but despite my originally explosive temper that I keep gagged and bound, I have never, ever, seen red. When I'm really angry, angry without adulteration by disappointment or sadness, I feel my forehead and the tip of my nose grow hot. I've been told that they turn red, but inside I feel it like a blinding white glow, and you won't believe me when I say that I feel a strange wave of clarity and logic sweep over my thoughts. The irrationality characteristic of anger kicks in only when it comes to translating thought into action. Which is why, when I began to work on my temper, I felt my mental faculties damping. Suddenly, my moral instinct and righteous energy had no outlet, and all of it stewed in my head until they boiled up everything else, eventually resulting in more severe albeit infrequent bursts of anger -- in trying to control my temper, I had transformed from short-tempered to hot-tempered.

It was at the bottom of my anger management curve that I realized that trying to deny myself my anger was not the solution, since the cause of my anger itself was never illogical -- only my consequent actions were. Having realized that, I decided to separate the two. About a year and a half ago, I began to successfully stop myself from acting on my anger without extinguishing the anger itself -- I learnt to think when angry and act when calm. It worked. However, I didn't need the method for long, because soon, ICSE was over and times changed.

Since then, I have transitioned from a Xth Board examinee to a XIIth Board examinee and from SPL of Carmel to Head Girl of Hem Sheela, which in a very short time has uprooted my entire life, taken it for a ride, and planted it somewhere else. In all this time, I was so occupied that I probably forgot to be angry, or to be precise, I never had the time in which my anger could peak, until today.

Today was essentially a very busy day, but unlike most busy days, which I enjoy, today was a disappointing and annoying day as well. To begin with, we (Head Boy Nihal and I) were wantonly disappointed in one of the junior members of our Students' Council. We spent half a class period yelling at the kid and another quarter picking up the pieces of the giant mess he made. To put it lightly, he embarrassed (not to mention disgusted and annoyed) the hell out of us. As if that wasn't enough, I had two different kinds of unpleasant interactions with two different teachers through no fault of mine, no thanks to my uncontrollably 'romantic' (read debaucherous, more on them later) classmates, and to how Indian mothers raise their sons, in reverse chronological order. Also, I had a mildly unsatisfactory Physics Practical test -- mild enough not to bother me, if the rest of the day had behaved, but hell, it didn't. To top it all off, the Council incident made me late for PE -- not only did I lose out on play time, but I also missed my call for the long jump test. They allowed me to take it when I explained, and I beat my personal record, but I believe I could have done better without the preceding 150 metre dash from the main building to our sports complex. My distance was third highest among the girls and somewhere in the top 10 overall, which is much better than anything I've ever done in that test, but I believe I could have made it further.

So, as you see, I had cause to be angry, which my long-sleeping anger took full advantage of, and my method came out of retirement. I allowed myself anger but not action. The white light flooded my head, and I saw it all clearly. The deception, the manipulation, the breach of trust and loyalty, the classroom politics, the moral blame games, the power trips -- all of it opened up like a giant, interactive chart. And then when I calmed down, all the information was right there in front of me, and with Nihal's cooperation as an occasionally vocal sounding board, I chalked out the Council problem. That done, I navigated the others as well, remaining mostly unscathed. I expect some repercussions and hurt feelings come Monday, but hopefully the weekend damper, despite the Saturday Parent-Teacher Meeting un-damper will cushion them. The good news is that this meeting is optional unless a teacher specifically calls in your parents, which is done for academic underachievement and severe discipline issues. So basically, I'm in the clear and tomorrow can be a relatively normal Saturday.

Hopefully, my methods won't be required anytime in the near future. Lessons learnt : self-control of all kinds is worth learning; negative emotions can be channelized for positive effects; and a sounding board is always a good idea as long as it knows what to echo, what to absorb, and when to do a bit of both.

P.S. : The clock tells me it's 1:18 am... so all the todays should be yesterdays and all the tomorrows todays, I guess.

HSMS Students Council, 2014-15... and good tidings!

People, this is a short post to share some overdue good news. This 1st of July, Tuesday, after a postponement due to rain, and finally braving the rain anyway, the HSMS Students Council 2014-15 were invested with their badges. The preceding Saturday, the Principal, Vice-Principals and some senior teachers had interviewed potential candidates for the various posts available to Class XII students...

The Badge. Slightly battered by
time, but hey, who cares?
(The Head Boy's badge is identical
except for being inscribed 'Boy'
in place of 'Girl'.)

... and I'm pleased and grateful to announce that they chose me as Head Girl! the second time I've held the top post in a school. To add to that, I've hardly been in HSMS for over a year.. I'm so damn happy!
It was a grand, grand moment, despite the rain, to wear that ornate badge and to take oath with the entire Council repeating after. The wait of so many days, the nerves during the interview, the speculation from all my friends, the three preceding years of student body work in two different schools culminates in this : the top post in my last year, not to mention

Alongside myself, my friend Nihal Singh was chosen as the Head Boy, a choice that I am hitherto happy with. He is formally new to this Council, although he did volunteer work with us last year. Hopefully his leadership alongside mine, and my collaboration with him, will enhance and fortify what the preceding Councils, including myself last year, have built.

Personally, I am loving the opportunity to finally lead the Council formally. After the seniors left school last year I was informally in charge, but this is a whole new ball game. As I write this, we have had our first meeting with the Council, wherein I have announced everyone's duties from this year's new roster, which combines my experience from being Coordinator last year with new ideas from Nihal and myself. We (the Heads) have also divided the supervisory duties between the two of us... let's see how it all works out, and please wish me (and all of us) luck.

P.S.: Pictures of badge coming soon! (Edit: included in post above).

Of Interludes and Creations

It has been a long time. And in this interval, I have had time to think if I would continue with this blog. Meanwhile loads of things have happened in the school: I had my last SPICE Club meeting, where we outgoing members were gifted saplings. I had loads of family stuff, friends stuff, please-let-Obama-win stuff and yay-Obama-won stuff. I also had Runescape-is-launching-Evolution-of-Combat stuff, lost-access-to-my-Runescape-account stuff, and thank-you-mods-for-helping-me-get-it-back stuff. I also read Midnight's Children and The Catcher in the Rye, which I got for my birthday (21st Oct -- I'm 16!) and I have a lot to say about them that I might get to some time in the future. I celebrated Durga Puja and Diwali and went through Carmel Treasures Retreat, which is sort of a seminar for the outgoing students. And in all this time I have decided that this blog deserves my attention from time to time. I am not in a space now where I want to put in too many hours in this: yet I want to put up things I make for all who care to see. So, there will be some changes, at least until I cope with the whole situation involving me being a public exam candidate and having only the last few months left of my 12 years as a student at CCHS (and less than a month of working days). And with growing up.

Interludes are good. They help you think, rearrange, re-prioritize. They are ways in which you do things without doing them too often. Hitherto, my breaks from the blog were interludes. Now, for some time, my posts will be interludes, and the breaks way longer. There will be no regular bite-sized pieces of my life, because I half can't and half don't want to keep up with that rather demanding routine, especially now that my life is just too eventful for me to handle. There will be updates, short ones, like in the beginning of this piece. And of course, there will be my creations.

First off, I made a wallpaper at the end of Durga Puja, for Bijoya Dashami:

For Carmel Treasures Retreat, we had tasks of writing a poem about ourselves, which I sat down to do but went a little off-topic:

========================================

MINE

They state, I disagree;
They assert, I challenge;
They hinder, I surge.
I purge
Their dreams
Of statement, assertion, hindrance.
They destroy, I rebuild;
They aggress, I avenge;
They control, I defy.
I deny
Them the pleasure
Of destruction, aggression, control.

They abhor clarity—
Confusion
Is the weapon
Of their cunning choice;
My voice
Is stifled.
Rights and duties,
Explanation,
Logic and reason
Are chained to fear;
And disappear,
Trifled.

I breathe, I exist,
My heart beats. I insist
That it’s no one’s business to tell me
When, or
Where, or
How—
If they cannot tell me
Why.
I love, I live,
I say (and so I believe)
That nobody can define me
Or advise,
Or patronize,
Me—
If they are not
Mine.

========================================

Also for Retreat, we had to make a bookmark with an inspirational message to exchange with our friends. This was my design, made from Wallpaper 34 (no Photoshop, just the a textbox in MS-Word and the Brightness and Contrast adjusted):

So there we are. I'm looking forward to watching the Life of Pi movie and playing the new Combat system in Runescape. Also, I'm not going to Vibes this year for two reasons: I don't want to risk an outstation trip in the last months before my Boards, and I have an outside exam to sit for on one of the days.  I shall see you, at the next interlude. Happy life.

Catching Up

I was away from here because my internet betrayed me. Anyway, meanwhile I have finally used the T-shirt markers that a cousin gifted me quite some time ago. I did three practice runs on torn tee material. I drew a bouquet, a girl, and a block of houses with just them 6 shades: red, yellow, blue, green, orange, black. I am overwhelmed with how good they turned out given it's my first ever time with this medium. I can't say if there will be photos. Also, I'm doing good with my new phone. The inter-school fest Vibes, run by us, the students who are coordinators at The Statesman Voices, went well just like the past two years. This Saturday we had an exhibition displaying our craft work. There was some spontaneous rivalry between classes even though there was no official reward. Most classes had some innovation in their presentation, and our class's display was a hit.
I haven't made a wallpaper in ages, and I think my considerable collection of unposted ones is taking my attention off that. So I'm gonna post some right now:

#41 was made while I tried to create painting-like effects in Photoshop. It portrays a caveman crouching in his cave behind a fire, locking eyes with the dangerous beast outside, clutching at a piece of rock just in case. Good for keeping on your desktop if you're feeling unlucky -- it'll remind you of how much worse your life could be. I made with the different watercolour brushes on Photoshop, using the finger painting setting of smudging.

#42 was inspired by a salwar suit my Mom bought. It is everyday wear, with rather simple black flowers on dark blue. I liked the dark blue and black combination, and also the shapes of the flowers, which matched a preset flower shape in Photoshop. I added and subtracted a few concentric flowers to create the shape I wanted, and then coloured it. I also created the background, but I wasn't completely satisfied. I played around a bit and then did the curvy lines, tinkered with blend modes, painted the background colours and copied in more flowers. Then I blurred the flower layers, merged them and applied the plastic wrap (of all things!) filter on it. I like the final product.

#43 is another one I made with repeated use of preset shapes. I remember that I began this with no idea in mind about what I'd do. I did a row of green branches and made two more copies of it. I overlay those copies with yellow and red. Then I used different blending modes, bevels, etc. and transformed several copies in different ways to get this. You will notice that there's nothing in this but that leaf pattern, even in the background. Even the filling of the leaves is actually more overlays of the same layer, moved or rotated a bit.

#44 was completely whimsical. I took the four watercolour brushes, and set them to have the maximum rotation jutter, spacing, scatter and colour jitter. I did some random brushwork with my colour set to black. Then I changed the settings, the brush shapes, the set colours, the jitters and speeds and everything else I knew how to change about brushes. At one point I had enough on my canvas to proceed more logically, which I did. I think I used something else for finishing but I don't remember what.

I dig #45, because it actually involved some conscious creation from the beginning and was spontaneous at the same time. I used the bonfire and the spiral from the preset shapes, loads of gradients, blending modes and masking. I also used some fab colours: the flames are blue and purple. The basic colour I hit upon was the onion-peel colour that I really love. It's a bit metallic, and a bit soft as well, this colour. Another reason I love this one is because it shines! I made something shine, at last! I remember almost everything about the making process for this one, but I fear that I am so self-taught that I will use wrong language for half the things I did. Yes, I know the terms. But there I things that I know can work, but don't know the background workings deeply enough. I also don't have enough training to know the general effect of some tools, and only know what situations I have worked with. And this wallpaper involves a lot of those things. Otherwise, in all this that I have said, I might as well have told you the process. I'll see if I feel any spunkier one of these days: spunky enough to tell you in my amateurish way.

CIAO!

Pujo 2011: Poshak and Paduka

Clothes and shoes. Huh. I'm not much a stickler for the new-outfit tradition, and I have no qualms about wearing something twice within the festival or wearing something that I've just worn before for a few hours. Anyway nowadays most people don't buy new trousers every time, just the tops. So that's what I did. I bought a couple of new tops, wore one which I had worn only one before (last Pujo!) and one which I had worn in the SPICE Club Congress. And no new trousers. Only instead of keeping just one pair active at a time (which I usually do), I had both my pairs of jeans out, along with my two semi-formal pairs. So that makes four pairs. Enough, don't you think?
I usually don't buy new shoes, and this time too I technically didn't. However, for the song costume at the Congress, our school's team wore identical black ballerina shoes. So they were practically unworn. They weren't too ballerina either, if you know what I mean, so they went with almost anything. I wouldn't wear them in the rough and tough of daily life of course, but they were sturdy enough to walk about in. So for the days of Pujo, I wore that pair. Then, back to good old sneakers. :P
This is the end of the Pujo series. I think I'll do a Diwali and Kali Pujo theme starting tomorrow or coming weekend. But no promises.

Pujo 2011: Pet-Pujo (ie. fooood!)

Mahashashthi (sixth day of lunar waxing in the month of Aashvin, customary day for beginning the celebrations): Simple home-cooked food. Nothing worth mentioning. The next four days I ate at Buzz Court, the multicuisine food court in the new snazzy Junction Mall, which is the first proper mall here in my opinion. The others are shopping complexes, that's what I think.

Buzz Court is a hassle-free place. You get a debit card made at a counter for some round number, use it at all stalls, and take home the balance.

Mahasaptami (seventh day of the same): Buzz court has several stalls of different cuisines and types of food. On Saptami I ate chicken sandwiches from Pop Tates. Mom took veg sandwiches. I also ate a scoop of butterscotch ice-cream topped with M&Ms from the stall of the famous Cream and Fudge Factory, which is inside Buzz Court as well.
Mahaashtami (eighth day of the same): This day I ate a couple of tikkas and aloo paratha from Kebabilicious. Ice-cream was a scoop of chocolate ice-cream with white chocolate chips. Way to combine two choco tastes. :D
Mahanabami (ninth, obviously): I ate crispy noodles with soup and chicken momos from Shanghai Noon. Mum took some curry and kulcha from another stall along with her share of the veg momos. I finished with a scoop of sweet cream ice-cream with chocolate chips. Yum!
Bijoya Dashami (tenth lunar day): This was our totally Indian day, and we took food from Garam Masala and Kebabilicious. We ate dal makhani with aloo paratha. For dessert I ate a scoop of chocolate ice-cream.

We ate rolls from outside one of the evenings too, and Mom cooked good stuff at home. We also had stocked up on our dessert at home, making the Pujas a complete gastronomic delight. But my favourite part was the ice-cream from Cream and Fudge Factory.

Pujo 2011: Pandals & Protimas

Mahashashthi (sixth day of lunar waxing in the month of Aashvin, customary day for beginning the celebrations): The goddess's arrival. The first part of the day I just relaxed at home. In the evening I went out. I kicked off the pandal-hopping, of course, by visiting my colony's Puja pandal. They used an orange-based colour scheme for the pandal and white-based decorations for the protima (idol). I visited just one other Puja that day: the Vatican City-inspired pandal at Choturongo grounds. The pandal resembled Roman architecture, and the idol was pale-skinned and light-haired to keep with the theme. As is customary, I wore new clothes. I didn't buy too many new ones -- in our family we don't insist on new clothes for each day, and buy only if we find ones we like. The only compulsive custom is to wear new on Shashthi, the rest is, in the traditional sense, optional though almost everyone with the means opts for it.

Mahasaptami (seventh day of the same): I didn't go anywhere in the morning. I ate out for lunch (more on that later) where I met two of my friends. They were all hanging out at the Choturongo pandal and asked me to come, but that day I went out in the evening elsewhere: we took Granny to see the colony pandal where we watched some of the ongoing cultural programmes too. There's a relatively easily accessible pandal (compared to the other award-winners), the Poshchimanchol pandal, so we took Granny along to that one, which is why is took us some extra time. They had made a really imposing, golden-coloured temple and a very pretty idol, the face of which was beautifully crafted, very close to the traditional majestic face of Goddess Durga. I met one of my classmates at this pandal, which is always an added bonus.

Mahaashtami (eighth day of the same): I ate out for lunch on Ashtami too. Then I visited the Cement Park pandal. It was not themed but was pretty, decorated with grains, sand, etc. and I liked the idol. It is a unique Puja because it has it's Kumari Puja (the worship of a young girl as the goddess) on Nabami instead of the traditional Ashtami. Then I visited the Anandabihar pandal. It was a dark red-based colour scheme and a traditional idol. The whole thing was very neat and looked beautiful. In the evening I visited the Marconi Dakshinpalli pandal, which wins district- and state-level honours every time and this time was no different. Like some previous years, the honours included the Bengali TV channel 24 Ghanta's Best Puja of Burdwan District. It was also the 51st year of this Puja. They had replicated the famous Somnath Temple of Gujarat, and like every year the craftsmanship of both the pandal-makers and idol-makers was excellent. The idol was not the traditional idol, but wasn't strikingly unconventional either. It's size and beauty was impressive, but the integration into the theme was not as seamless as the previous years. The only flaws of the Marconi Puja were in comparison to it's glorious record -- independently it's hardly fit for criticism. They had even invited two real ascetics to sit on the temple foyer and do real yajna. I also passed by several small Pujas which I peeped into, for increasing my pandal-hopping count, both this day and the next. In the evening I went to the Choturongo gathering of my classmates, many of whom live near there and more come there to meet them. Choturongo is the Pujo adda place for many groups of friends as it is the locality Puja of a large number of people.

Mahanabami (ninth, obviously): Lunch out again, and I visited the most pandals this day. I visited the pandal at the Chandidas market which was inspired by Dakhineshwar temple. The red lighting inside was impressive and added to the effect, but the idols were too small. Then Mom suggested that we visit the Fuljhore pandal, right beside my school, so she drove straight there, and it was worth covering the distance. The pandal was in the shape of a giant palanquin with two giant bearers. All around there was artwork. And all this was done using construction material. There was no paint. Intricate designs, and even the whole surface of the idols, including weapons, jewellery and hair was made, and perfect expressions were crafted on the idols, without any paint. For straight hair and border lines they used small construction chips and for curly hair they used the big ones. Skin was made with sand. In the artwork all around, broken pieces of burnt clay from flower-pots were used for shapes like heads and sailboats. Pebbles were used for the gemstones in jewellery and figures in the artwork. Sand was glued on in various shapes for everything from waves to clouds. Out of all the pandals I saw, I liked this one the best, and Mom agrees with me. After Fuljhore I came back nearer home and visited the Joydev pandal which was winning awards for the past few years but was an utter disappointment this time. There was no delicate craftsmanship or well-executed theme. They called it 'Disney World' but nothing was done properly. There were just imperfect representations of cartoons. All the characters shown (imperfectly) were not even Disney characters: they included non-Disney characters like Tom & Jerry, Ben10 and Bugs Bunny. They even had manga characters like Goku and Indian cartoons like Chhota Bheem. It was like a bad dream. I hadn't expected this from Joydev: their last few pandals had been really outstanding. On Nabami too I went to hang out at Choturongo.

Bijoya Dashami (tenth lunar day): Maha or 'great' is added to the usual names of lunar days to signify that they are the Durga Puja days. For Dashami, however, the prefix Bijoya or Vijaya is used. Bijoy means 'victory', and due to the mythological background of Durga Puja, this day is specially significant of the triumph of good over evil. This is the last day of Durga Puja, when the goddess is said to return to her Heavenly Abode on Mount Kailash (the mountain is really there; creepy, huh?). Traditionally the straw and clay idols are immersed in water bodies in the evening on this day, after sindoor khela and feeding of sweets. After immersion, till Laxmi Puja, is the Bijoya period, when greetings of 'Shubho Bijoya' and sweets are exchanged and blessings are sought. Nowadays, however, the themed pandals draw huge crowds, and not only does the pandal hopping begin before Shashthi, but it also continues on and beyond Dashami. Several Puja organisers keep a smaller idol which is actually worshipped and immersed on schedule while the large decorative one is kept longer for show. Others carry out symbolic immersion, which is a compulsion in Pujas outside India where environmental norms do not make provision for the minority festival. Here, cleaning of the water after immersion is undertaken. This time, a few Pujas like the one in my colony, delayed the immersion for a day, not because of show (ours is a non-themed Puja) but because Dashami was on Thursday and journeying on Thursdays is inauspicious. Bijoya Dashami is my lunar birthday, which means that the moon was in the same phase, and it was Bijoya Dashami, when I was born, though the calendar date varies every year. So my mother cooks payesh for me on this day. Usually I watch the immersion procession of the colony pandal, click photos, etc. and then eat my ceremonial payesh, but in this case the immersion was on Ekadoshi (eleventh lunar day) and so the routine was different. Also, I visited one last pandal on Dashami which had delayed immersion (probably for show cuz it was awesome). It was the David Hare Road pandal, where the decorations were done in contrasted colours with golden sitting Buddha idols all around. The protima (idol, remember?) was made entirely out of paper, and the gods and goddesses along with their vahans (transport animals) and all the supports and idol decorations together weighed only 19 kilograms. Awesome, right? At the David Hare pandal too, I met a classmate and also a junior. Meeting schoolmates and teachers at pandals always feels nice. I, for one, anyway like meeting people from school outside.

শুভ বিজয়া!

The Time Is Nigh

After a long wait and lots of rehearsals, the SPICE Club Regional Congress is finally here. Today at 3pm, I will be at school with all my stuff. The Inaugural Session is going to be hectic: I have to change costumes twice in half an hour. Can't divulge too much about the Congress now, though. I will write loads of posts once I'm back (after 11th afternoon). I can tell you though that the theme colour that we were given for our dance is orange, and the religion we were given for the inter-faith dialogue is Christianity. Each school got a unique colour, and two schools got each religion. Being the hosts didn't give us any advantage in the competitions, which is both a good and a bad thing :D.
I'm sure you've noticed the SPICE Club Special look of my blog: all dressed up in the Spread Peace Improve and Conserve Environment get-up. It is going to stay until I finish reporting about the whole Congress. That leaf is the club's logo, and also our SPICE Club badge. It is green, with gold border, a white dove, and gold inscription: 'Spread Peace Improve Conserve Environment'. I also changed the whole colour scheme of the blog to fit the mood. I'm participating in dance, singing, quiz, extempore and the Inaugural Session, so wish me luck. Staying at school day and night and meeting Carmelites from other Apostolic Carmel Eastern Province schools is going to be fun. Ta-ta!

Life comes in the way

I haven't been touching my computer much these days. It takes longer than usual to do any work on the bad internet, so I need longer free hours to get anything like blogging done, which I don't get. Here's something fun to keep you occupied: Join RuneScape.

Also, my half-yearly exams are on. I'm trying to catch up with my online life too, but I keep falling behind. There's the SPICE Club Congress too, after the exams. I'm participating in the dance, quiz, singing and extempore competitions, and in the inaugural programme that we are doing as the hosts. So lots to do, and till then blogging can only happen once or twice a month.

Travians Rehab

I'm back from the Travians rehab that the universe forced on me. A series of troubles plagued my cyber life for some weeks, and I used it against myself as an excuse to quit Travians as I'd been meaning to for a long time. I quit for the same reason i quit Travian: I don't like playing unless my efforts bear fruit, and in these 'peopley' games the others whom you inevitably need to succeed have lots of expectations from you. So there, nothing but RuneScape now. That is one multiplayer RPG I can play alone and still enjoy. I can't afford to tailor my schedule to gamers who have loads of time on their hands. Somehow, I don't know how. And forgive me for any missing y's in this post. That key is not working well as ants chewed on the spacer layer between the circuit and the keys. It's happened with the g and m before. I just need to get used to applying extra force on y as well.

Back back

Back from Kolkata trip and found time for postlet between 11th hour unit test preparations. My posts are increasingly resembling tweets nowadays :/
Btw, Wallpapers will not be there on the Wallpaper page for some time even if I post them as I have no time. I really have loads to do. Really loads. So sorry,

Swearing In

First off, sorry for the delay: my internet connection was interrupted by a storm yesterday.

So, yesterday, on the 25th of April, 2011, the School Cabinet for the Academic Year 2011-12 was formally sworn in. It was a solemn affair as usual, but being a part of it was on a whole different level than the usual awe. The badge of the Assistant Discipline Minister felt so heavy when the Principal first pinned it on. Each minister from 10th grade was sworn in along with their assistants from the 9th. I now have a nice neat blue badge with 'Asst. Discipline' inscribed on it in white capital letters: blue and white, the colours of our school flag, uniform and the monochrome version of our logo. Today we were called to the Principal's office for the distribution of duties. My 'boss' and I are to visit classes and rate their level of discipline so that they can be rewarded accordingly.

My badge

Also, this year is a special year as the Annual Convention of the SPICE club, the environmental club of all Carmel schools, is being hosted by our school. The Cabinet of course is expected to take charge of the organising along with the teachers. There's a whole lot to plan out: Students, teachers and nuns from so many different sister schools will be here, along with several dignitaries. We'll have to prepare hard: there's so much to do, planning events, decoration, welcoming, hiring, and a lot else. A whole lot of orders will be flying back and forth. And combined meetings will be held, with the Cabinet and concerned staff. There's loads of work to do, orders to give and follow, brainstorming to be done. I'm so excited that my junior cabinet year is going so well. I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and it will help me do my job better if I (hope so!) get a post next year too.

Gen3

Travians is an awesome game. I have my second regeneration in the game tomorrow, so today is my last day before generation 3. I'm dead busy. Wallpaper, I promise, in next post.

Wallpaper 24

The result of some whimsical Photoshopping, coming before the public eye long after its birth.

The original size looks much better. The thumbnail looks nothing like it, believe me.

Night, loud music, false relief

10:30 pm is the latest I've ever begun my daily sitting with my computer. I spent the rest of the evening finishing my General Knowledge syllabus. Stupid, stupid subject. In our subjective and narrow-minded education system, a broad subject like that, which brings up a lot of ambiguity into assessment, has no place. Thank heavens Grade 8 is the last time we're studying it.
Today there was a sitar concert that maybe I would've visited if my state of mind would've been any better than this murky mess I'm in. The loud music from a nearby wedding is not helping, especially because they are playing very popular songs wrong -- the cheap local band is playing those songs wrong that I can hum in my sleep, and is pulling my attention away from work. Also, they are way outside the public sound curfew, that is 10 pm. Nowadays many weddings and private ceremonies are doing this, in addition to public festivities and club parties. No one is stopping them; everyone knows how much trouble that sort of protesting can land you into.
I'm done with studying the first exam day's subjects: EE and GK; but I am somewhat relieved, as they are the most uninteresting to study. However, the relief is hardly rational, as I have a whole heap of studies left to do.
As I type, I'm way past bedtime, and the music is still irritating me as I race to keep up with my blogging routine. And you expect me to write something better than a simple update of my humdrum student life?

Saraswati Puja, Bio practical, Studying

Yesterday was the day when we worship the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati. All Bengali girls dress up in the traditional sari for the occasion. Like every year, I too wore a sari, and kept my books before the Goddess. After the Puja at my place, I visited some other Pujas. Last festival before exams, bleh.
Must submit 1/4th of a chart paper tomorrow, which we shall use on the day of the Biology exam for practical work if we are told to display the morphology and the structure of the shoe-flower (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). I'm hoping I get the potato osmoscope question, though. It's easier. But then it involves more writing.
Must study! Bio syllabus is a hazard to life. We have to study half of it on our own, teacher says there's nothing in there to explain; I tell you there damn is! There's more to a subject than mugging up and scoring on one exam. What about when we'll have to apply that knowledge again?
Sorry for the short updates, I don't have much time on my hand at the moment.

Old drawings on Paint --2

Two more of the drawings I made in Paint as a kid.

One of my first tries at sceneries on Paint, black bg added later

One more of the previous kind, only a floral this time