The blinking cursor…thoughts getting digitalised

Riya Hirwani
XII A

The blinking cursor…thoughts getting digitalised

Earthlings often took it for granted,
For never did they understand its value,
Until now that it is temporarily unfortunate,
A cry of pain was only what I could hear!

It was two years ago, they carried bags, really heavy as I could make out, they called it their school bags; went to this building, they called it their BK Birla Public School; read these huge books; played at the playground and probably it was their favourite place in that whole area. I never understood why was that playground and that one extra PT period so important to them, it brought a lovely smile on each child’s face. One tiffin box belonged to the entire class, that seat beside a friend was more important than the one near the window, that day without a friend was so upsetting, that one substitution in the day was better than any other lecture and that building was more like a home to them.

Surprisingly, one sudden day, no child came to that building, no bells, no noise, absolutely nothing. After a few days, I saw that all these children who went to their school, sat at their homes in front of these differently sized boxes which they called their laptops, computers, mobile phones, tablets and what not! I never saw that expression on their faces as it was that day. All with mixed emotions. After that day, they never met their friends, never played at the grounds, just stayed at home.

But, that building, their school, had taught them to never give up and make the best of what they had. The children took these words very seriously, they mastered using those differently sized boxes and helped their teachers learn it as well. Gradually, I could see them getting accustomed to it. They started to come up with amazingly awesome ideas. Those lectures started to attract these children. I could see each child taking a little more effort each day. With the help of their teachers, they showered rainbows of thoughts and made their teachers and the school proud. The students ideated and lead projects and awareness programmes that could help the suffering in their world, donated things, created digital arts, did exciting new courses and most importantly with the help of their teachers, principal and other staff, they successfully organised all their school functions and programmes online, on those differently sized boxes, digitally. Ergo, I could see their cursor blinking and their thoughts digitalised!

Earthlings often teach me,
To never stop trying,
For even in this unpropitious situation,
A laughter of success is only that I can feel!

(This blog is written from the perspective of an alien who is fascinated by the entire idea of a school which is only built on Earth and no other planet.)


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Will India ever be a Super Power?

Dhruv Thakur
XII

The falcon remains the fastest known creature on this planet. But does that mean it cannot have wounded wings deteriorating its speed? India is known to be one of the world’s largest economies; being at the sixth rank in terms of nominal GDP while being at the third in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). But it still lags behind countries, like the USA and China, in being a superpower. Economists admit that although India is a large economy and is growing at a rate better than many countries of the world, its history impacts a lot when it comes to the final results. Over the years, the contribution in GDP, from the tertiary sector has increased significantly, making it one of the most important economic sectors. Even though, majority of India’s population is employed in the primary sector which has the least contribution to the GDP. Hence a majority of Indians are indulged in a job sector that requires more effort and less outcome. The CoVId-19 hit the Indian economy worse than that of many countries. The simple reason lies in India being the second-most populous country in the world. Despite measures taken by the Indian government, the growth rates of the population show depressing results. The increase in the Indian population remains India’s greatest setback on the path of being a superpower. According to stats if the current rate of population growth continues over the years India might even cross China and become the world’s most populous country by the year 2027. This leads to an even greater threat: a very high population density. The Indian subcontinent faced several partitions resulting in a large population being fitted into a comparatively small land. While a large population can contribute to the GDP, just like the case of China. But an uneducated mass of people falls in the sector of the labor class, which is itself an oversaturated sector. Even after innumerable tries of the government over the years, some communities still exploit the so-called “freedom” to interrupt the birth control policies. The wealthy class has an average of 1 kid per pair of parents; this average is 2 for the middle class while it is 4-5 for the economically backward class. This leads to an increasing population turning into a liability rather than an asset. Those who are not able to afford the necessities for themselves possess a large family: one which they can’t feed. Such people use up health resources, space, basic food necessities, economic support without actually contributing to the country’s GDP.

Indian judiciary is one of the justest and least corrupt judiciaries of the world. But there still exist many loopholes in the idea of jurisdiction. Indian judiciary is based on the principle which states that “Let a hundred criminals slip out, but not even a single unguilty person should be punished.” While this sounds moral and just, this does allow hundreds and thousands of criminals to slip out of the laws’ hands every year. This is a major drawback of the laws set by the judiciary of a country that is already infamous for its crime rate.

It is ironic how a thousand years ago, India was the world’s largest economy with the label of “Golden Bird”. India is a country that housed the world’s oldest Urban civilization, the Harappan civilization. It was also the world’s most powerful nation with a fierce army and with rulers strong enough to tremble the souls of famous foreign rulers like Alexander the Great. Well how then India got messed up in these thousand years to be one of the most poverty-stricken countries of the world? The answer lies in the events that took place in these years. Rulers of India became disunited and often ended up fighting with each other over land or differences of India. This gave the Mughals/Mongols/Afghans an opportunity to attack the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent and later loot India of its treasures. This continued until Indian rulers lost most parts of India to these foreign rulers. Later in the 17th century, the East India Company expanded its influence over Indian markets and businesses which eventually deteriorated the Indian economy and destroyed the Indian textile industry which was once the finest in terms of its quality. The rule of the Mughal and the British affected our country in various ways. Religions like Islam and Christianity added to the number of religions and variations of ideas increased. Also, over the past years, our culture and heritage had been destroyed by these intruders. Even after the independence, The Partition had a great impact on the nation, economically and mentally. Our countrymen were trapped in cycles of poverty for almost half a century.

One of the reasons for India’s downfall on the path of development has been its open-hearted nature. India gave shelter to Rohingya Refugees as a token of humanity but didn’t realize the aftermath. The Rohingyas have been stirring instabilities in North-Eastern parts of India. They have been creating havoc and menace by attacking the native people and even sometimes burning down their houses.

India emerged as an independent nation amidst commotion and disarray. The differences in ideas that suddenly emerged after the independence, regarding the future of democratic India, created a political instability that affected the future of India. After the partition the differences between Muslims and Hindu became significant and India’s diversity soon became its enemy. A partition in terms of religion ignited the spirits of other religious radicals, that soon began dreaming of new nations, as they saw themselves as different from people from other religious communities. These differences in the ideologies of people soon took the form of communal riots. Today, three of India’s 28 states still struggle for independence.

One of the biggest and the most important problems that India faces on the way to being a superpower is its political structure, which forms a weak base for a large democracy like this. It is well known that a country’s political situations affect, or rather determine the healthiness of its democracy. In India, due to sharp differences in the ideologies and aspirations of different political parties, no long-term policies can be implemented. Every time the government switches after five years the new government urges to undo the various policies of the previous government. This is one of the ten reasons given by Ramachandra Guha, the famous analyst and author of the book “India After Gandhi” explaining why India cannot become a superpower. Mr. Guha explains how the political chaos and instability accompanied by the pluralist system make it almost impossible for India to have effective long-term policies.

Nevertheless, the solution remains unclear, with hundreds of new hurdles blocking the path of India, that cannot be even expressed through the 2-3 pages of this article. Although this should not and does not stop India from trying its best to become a superpower. As a teenager and the future of this nation, I express my concerns on this topic “India as a SUPERPOWER.”


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ARE WE REALLY BRAVE?

Roshni Jha
10 C

ARE WE REALLY BRAVE?

The nature was so beautiful,
Before humans tried to rule.

Called themselves brave,
Treated others like slave.

A puny creature,
Tried to destroy this nature!

Seeking food,
Cutting the same wood.

Trying to reach high,
We destroyed the blue sky.


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Technology

TEJAS SRIVASTAVA
9 B

Technology

What is Technology? If you check it on google, it says that technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. If you ask me, then try to visualize that the whole universe is in your hands in terms of virtual knowledge and in a more advanced and adaptive way. Technology doesn’t mean just attending online classes on your device or doing some useless stuff. It’s about switching on your device and exploring because exploration is the best way of learning. Exploration takes time, but it is worth the time invested as you learn many things. In my case, whenever I am exploring I understand new fundamentals, new terms, and obviously new skills. Technology is a vast thing and for understanding one step of it we have to start. Just remember when one stone breaks, you start and when the next stone breaks you understand and like this, you can break a mountain.

Keep on exploring Technology.


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Music

Sarthak Chitnis
9 – C

Music

Melodious and pleasant sounds are called music. Music is a thing that is one of the best friends of human brain. It relaxes us and pulls us out of any stress, anxiety or depression. It’s a thing that is heard by all humans, even if they can’t create it. It sometimes doesn’t need words too. Only the sounds of instruments are enough to connect with brain and heart. Practicing music, for example playing musical instruments or singing, increases concentration. In some cases, it even helps to cure diseases. It is everywhere, in every heart. What I think is that music is a great boon of God.


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Is an apple really an apple?

Ved Joshi
Std XII

Is an apple really an apple?

Humans have hitherto questioned their existence in the most fascinating ways one can ever imagine. The ability that human bear to ask these questions is because of intelligence. We have been the result of a painful 4.5 billion years of evolution and it seems quite usual to question. The questions like, “Why the universe chose us to be the one?” or “Why is God planning out this convoluted path of life which has pain and suffering and happiness, at times?” We perhaps would not find the true nature of the reality.

The world has seen many great thinkers like Plato, Socrates, Ptolemy, Da Vinci, etc. It is highly unlikely that those great thinkers faced many internal struggles while questioning nature. Some turned to become agnostics: who believe that human intellect cannot understand the true nature of God. We are entities floating in the sea of unanswered questions. We would never get to know everything beyond the horizon. It is statistically unlikely for us to know everything which struts far out in the cosmos. We do not know if our brains would ever understand itself! Another interesting thing to note is that, the world we perceive is filtered through our senses. Therefore, we would never know if an apple is really an apple! The extreme form of this philosophical musing is called solipsism, which is a premise that the knowledge of anything outside one’s mind is unsure.

The extreme worldview of solipsism can also result in a rather fanatic belief called Nihilism. A nihilist is a person who believes that life has no inherent purpose and, in the end, everything is going to end. Nihilists believe the entire human species is insignificant and everyone is barred from knowing their own existence. Why wouldn’t anyone think so? We are stranded on this rocky planet fighting with beings of our own race.

One thing they miss out is that they do not realize that the universe is allowing them to exist. We have the mathematics and physics that can explain nature quite efficiently. The most fascinating thing is that everything, every equation, theory has come from our heads! No one shall argue that the genius of all the mathematics was pre-existent. The universe has selected us to observe itself! We should inculcate what is called as ‘Optimistic Nihilism,’ a belief driven by the need to make our lives worth from the time we have. Optimistically, we do find a purpose. The purpose of appreciating the universe. The whole blog discusses about pessimistic view of existence. These questions won’t even matter to us as we have our own goals. But it feels good to walk in those unanswered questions.


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Life of A Football Fan

Utkarsh Karmungikar
Std XII

Look, I am going to be honest here, I’d go mad if Football were to be cancelled from this world and I was about to when lockdown was declared. When the football world came to a standstill, I was livid. But thankfully the games were back just in time to save me from sheer insanity.
I’ve been a football fan for a better part of four years now. It was ironic how before those four years when I lived in the UAE, a country whose fanatics are majorly loyal to the football side, I was cricket-crazy and after coming back to my land, a country where cricket is religion, I am on the football side through and through. I am a damsel, one not in ‘distress’, but in ‘disorder’.
I still remember how after eight months of staying indoors, trapped, unable to put my feet through a football and occasionally breaking stuff trying to do so indoors, a football on the concrete of my society finally graced my feet. I know this all seems exaggerated. But what I felt then was overwhelming too. To be able to put my feet through a football with purpose was like releasing some of the stress-hormones brewed during lockdown, not that I had that much of them.
But that’s what playing football is anyways – a stress relief, a pleasure of sorts. Football is one of the ways I choose to express myself. I’ve learnt a lot about passion, about discipline, about motivation from football. At the very pinnacle of my passion for football, remains Manchester United – a club I love, a club I choose to associate with.
I can summarize my love for United through one instance. A few weeks ago we (when I say we, I mean Man United) were losing, and one of our players played a bad pass. I got angry and absolutely thumped the sofa I was sitting on with my hands, so much so that it rattled off the ground and rested again. My sister was on that sofa (who surprisingly didn’t feel much of it). My dad was having none of it. He came and slapped the T.V. shut, and honestly who could blame him? We lost that game. But at the end of the day someone has to lose.
These instances however are something fans forget about in a day, perhaps even have a laugh about in hindsight, and get back to backing their team. And that’s called passion, that’s football. The same sort of roar will come from me when United score against Liverpool, except this time it will be of happiness, of adrenaline. Football is nothing without the fans, and the banter. And until fans are not back in the stadia, football will never remain the same. But still, it will always be something that will never fail to make my day.


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Truth (Couplets)

Dishita Majumdar
8 F

Truth (Couplets)
There is one quality we all should cherish
Which on attainment shall make us beautifully flourish
Truth is that quality
Which brings out one’s incredibility
One is lucky to have it
Since it does require a lot of wit
Getting it is a big goal achieved
Coz after that you will always be believed


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TRUTH

Riddhi Joshi
7 E

TRUTH
If you tell lies, the truth you cover,
But the truth seemed to be stubborn and braver!

And then remember, the bitter scolding,
Either from your parents or your own sibling.

Do you really think lies are so sweet?
Or are they dangerous when you look beneath?

When you tell a lie, you place a boulder,
Not on the others, but on your own shoulders.

For a lie stops a happiness flow,
The same way in which boulders stop the river flow.

With you, truth can play hide and seek!
But never it has happened that truth you cannot seek.

When finding the truth, problems, you may face,
But never give up and never end the chase.

The truth is a wonderful and a beautiful thing,
Tell a lie and you will be stinged.

Tell the truth and on his arms, you swing.
Ah, truth is a wonderful and a beautiful thing!


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TRUTH

Tanuj Sawant
6 E

TRUTH

Though truth is bitter
But it’s for better

Speaking truth gives you confidence
Hiding it create a nuisance

Talking truth is our culture
Make it habit in your nature

Follow its path, you will never get disappointed
Keep your soul happy, deleting lies unwanted

Though one wishes, you cannot hide
It comes out with full swing, like high tide

No one dares to challenge the truth
But when I see those I feel ruth

The truth though bitter or better
It always wins whatever the matter……….


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