Did you go on a vacation with your family recently?Do you wish to put down your thoughts about

something that’s troubling you? Did a speech ortalk inspire you to be a better human being? Areyou a budding poet or painter? Whatever be yourinterest, use this space to speak up.

“Do not believe what your teacher tells youmerely out of respect for the teacher.”

Gautama Buddha06 MY SPACE

LETTING GO:TEJASWINI N, class X,

Shiksha NiketanSchool-NLO,Bengaluru

To be honest, I wasn'tlooking forward to theSenate camp. We tried

to dance in the busheaded for Ku-

marakom, but amoving bus isn’t ex-

actly the best dancefloor. On reaching our

destination, our vice-prin-cipal and principal tooksessions that turned outto be eye-openers. They

made us understand thatas leaders we should shoulder

responsibilities and never doubtourselves. But within minutes, we were run-

ning around like crazy.The games were designed to tap leader-

ship skills. In one game, we were blindfold-ed – a leader had to take us through a series

of obstacles. It taught us commu-nication and trust. The most

competitive game was atreasure hunt, by the

end of which we wereall at each other's throat.Next was the dive into the

cool pool which was full of fun. The best part of theday was the game 'Fair Pair’ in which we had to finda pair and dance to a song or enact a scene from amovie. Seriously, I had the best time at Senate camp.A day I dreaded turned out to be one of the best inmy life. I hadn't just made friends but a family. Forme, the camp was a golden opportunity to make new

friends and renew ties with old ones. Needlessto say, I look forward to attending similar campsin future.

- DIYAA JYOTHILAL, class X, Gregorian PublicSchool, Ernakulam

STAND UP FOR YOURSELF

ARNAV CHOKHAWALA, class VII, Children's Academy School, Kandivali, Mumbai

Ah! the world outside con-sumed in its gloomWaiting and waiting to suc-ceed before its doom,But one man apart fromthe oceans of crowds,Has one thought in hismind, swirling around,And he waits and waits forthe time to come when hesays it aloudAnd when the time comeshe says it aloud and itsounds like :The crowds I see outsidemy windowWorking like machines, on acommand or a lure for mel-lowFunctioning for life, thenfalling like a hiveBroken, broken, broken

But they never know whatlies beyond,Beyond the chains whichbind them,The chains which scarredtheir hands and numbedthemThere lies the nitwit doomAnd the most priced fameSome people that go'beyond' experience eitherof the two in their gameOr end up trying even ifthey were lame.People who live out of thebox actually live,People who think differentare the ones livingThe population of the worldactually is only a few hun-dreds livingOnly a few hundreds living

and giving the world,What only a 'few' can see .These are the people whosee gold where everyonesees nothing.Nothing, nothing nothing -There is no word as itCause the whole worlderupted from it.Figure it up and it will chewyou brainsGrind it up into fine grains,It will be too copious tocount,Either equal to the hair inyou noseOr equal to the clouds in arose.At last I want to say,There is nothing in thisworld to make you gayOr tear you up and make

you payUnless you create such ahaphazard way as peoplesay.Stand up, and up out of thecrowd,If the crowd flows south,flow north,If the crowd laughs at youbecause you are different,Laugh at them becausethey are nothing much butsomeone silent.You are youThe game is yours,C'mon let’s get set for thechoresAs life's difficult to the coreAnd then you stand up tothe crowds and say:This is it, or have you gotmore?

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WRITE FOR US

O nce a phrase usedonly by scientists, cli-matologists and sci-

ence teachers, “global warm-ing” is a commonly dis-cussed topic nowadays. Withthe month of June being thehottest ever recorded, it’s ob-vious that an extreme cli-mate change is taking place.And the fact that we humansare responsible for thischange and the impact is in-creasingly serious and evendangerous, has nothing todo with how much weknow about science orhow smart we are, butsimply where we figurein the political spec-trum. But saying that,"Yes it's a real problemand I don't want to fix it,"makes us the bad guys. Ac-cording to the Journal of Pe-troleum Science and Engi-neering, "The use of fossilenergy produced 23.8 billiontonnes of carbon dioxide in1996," and is estimated tosubstantially increase theglobal temperature in thenext 50-100 years. But despitevarious evidences and sci-entific data supporting theargument that the use of fos-sil fuels needs to cease, theissue of global warming stillremains to be a great chal-lenge. Climate change affectsevery single one of us. From

the smallest organism onEarth to us, homo sapiens,and beyond, climate changehas long term consequencesthat cannot be predicted.

As a young adult, a safeand clean environmentmeans a lot to me. I believeit is important to know howserious this issue is and find

out everything we can aboutclimate change. Eachone of us can make adifference by harness-ing the simplest prac-tices in our day to daylife. Carpooling, using

p u b l i ctransport,saving wa-ter, rainwaterharvesting andswitching to so-lar energy etc are afew of the measures.The bottom line is this– climate change is af-

fecting you and me righthere, right now, in the places

where we live. But by work-ing together we canhopefully fix it. - HUNAR, class XI, Carmel

Convent School,Chandigarh

FLUTTER OFBEAUTY: ANITAKUMAR, class V,Jnana SweekarPublic School,Bengaluru

IN CALM WATERS: ANANYASHETTY, class VIII, St. Mary'sPublic School, Bengaluru

BUILDING LEADERSHIP AND TRUST

ESHUPRIYEH BELGOTRA, class X,NESISM, Mumbai

REJOICE IN WHAT YOU HAVEI t was the first week of March; I

was visiting my sister inKolkata. I was happily munch-

ing on a sandwich, chatting withmy sister and mother in the car.That is when I saw three children

in torn clothes playing on a pileof cement heaped in the cornerof the road for construction work.Innocent smiles on theirfaces, they didn’t realise howdangerous their ‘toy can befor them and their lungs.They were not sad abouttheir misfortune or lack of

nice clothes or food. Thismade it uncomfortable forme to eat the sandwich. Iwrapped it in a newspaperand told my mom that Iwould eat it later.

Their smiles hauntedme and that's when I re-alised how comfortable mylife was. I remembered thetimes I cried for a dress myfriend had even though Ihad a better one. I realisedhow lucky I was to have

such great parents, a comfortablehome, good clothes, food and every-thing else to lead a content life.

That day, I learnt to be satisfiedand rejoice in what I have.

- ANUPAMA S, class IX, Venkat

International Public School,

Bengaluru

IN THE LINE OFDUTY: ADITYARAWAT, class X,Army Public School,PRTC, Bengaluru

WE CAN FIX CLIMATE CHANGE

RAVEN EYED: SHREYA SKANT, class VIII, Gregorian PublicSchool, Ernakulam

MOTHER OF MINE: SAHILDHIMAN, class IX, Holy ChildSchool, Morni

P rincess. When I mentionthe word ‘princess’ youare struck by the imageof an elegant, delicate

woman walking down the steps ofher palace. When I say princess,are you also struck by her weak-ness, dependence and that her onlygoal in life is to meet her princecharming so that he can turn hersorry life around? I have a fewquestions to ask these princesses.Couldn't Cinderella have been boldenough to stand up to her tortur-ous stepmother instead of re-maining her helpless slave? Whydid Ariel sacrifice her etherealvoice just to meet some unknownprince? If their love was so true,why couldn't she ask the prince tocome and meet her in the oceaninstead? What if Sleeping Beau-

ty's prince had never come tomeet her? These princessesportray exactly what a girlshouldn't be – dependent,fickle, faint-hearted and al-ways submissive.

I know, what you are like-ly to say. "Hey, chill. It's justfiction." I agree. But whatabout girls all over the worldpresuming that weakness, de-pendency and pretty faces arethe only sign of true beauty?Basically, this means fittinginto society's image of perfectlittle girls (princesses). Anygirl who is not thin, not par-ticularly nice to look at, iscarefree or opinionatedand/or unafraid to expressher views is termed as 'disre-spectful' or 'a tomboy'. In fact

boys, along with girls, car-ry the burden of leading'a perfect fairy tale life'.Shedding tears is consid-ered a weakness and ac-

cepting defeat the signof a wimp. Have youever read about a 'prince'crying? As new defini-tions of masculinity in-filtrate the world, sensi-tive men are shamed.

To change the sce-nario, I thought of mak-ing princesses new rolemodels – giving them thetitle of goddesses. Indiangoddesses are polar op-posites of princesses.They are strong, fiercelyindependent, highly in-telligent and are theirown 'Prince Charming'.Indian goddesses are theepitome of power. Theyare the women every girl

must look up to.My first choice is goddess

Kali. She is intense, powerful andfearless. This dusky beauty, proud-ly flaunting her dark complexion,can slay any demon in her way. Sodon't think that dark isn't beauti-ful! We should learn from Kali tobe fearless and stand up to any-body looking to suppress us. Mynext choice is Saraswati, goddessof wisdom, music and learning.Intelligence and tranquillityemanate from her. All girlsmust at least try to be like her– smart, confident and poised.Number three is Durga, thegoddess of justice and pro-tector of all that is good and

harmonious in the world. Pro-tecting our world and all that itstands for is an important quali-ty to be learnt from this ferociousdeity.

There you go, I ‘scrapped’ theprincesses and gave you new rolemodels to look up to. I feel that In-dian goddesses could easily takeprincesses down in a fight. Weshould also be like that. Anyonetrying to take us down should be

met with stiff opposition. Sodon't be a princess, be a ‘god-dess’ instead.SANIKA DESHMUKH, class IX, Fr.Agnel Multipurpose School & Jr.

College, Vashi

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THE REVELATION

NEHARIKA THAKUR, class XII, KV INS Dronacharya, Ernakulam

I was shocked, a littlesurprisedWhen I heard my heart'svoice.It said something I never expected tohearBut it was something

I knew was there.It said it because It couldn't bear anymoreThe deep fears Sugarcoated with'strength'Now came out melted.

Indian goddesses are polar opposites of princesses. They arestrong, fiercely independent, highly intelligent and are theirown ‘Prince Charming’. Indian goddesses are the epitome ofpower and are the women every girl must look up to.

Perplexed by the ocean of the world,Anxious by the fish in the sea,Composed only by the sound of thewaves and dreams in the sky.

OCEANS OF FANTASY

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