The More you give; The more you receive

 Every year our school organizes a "Joy of Giving" week- sometimes during Christmas and sometimes during Diwali. Through the course of this week, we take part and participate in various events which enable us to give back to the community. October 17th to October 24th was the week of 2022.As part of the event; students had to do multiple chores- clean the labs, the library and their classrooms. Students made thankyou cards as a token of appreciation. Friday- 21st October was when pupils made delicious snacks - sandwiches; bhelpuri and lemonade which they served to the school staff. This was followed by the distribution of gifts. Earlier this week, we had a donation drive where all of us gathered up presents to share with underprivileged children on occasion of Diwali. These presents were wrapped up, put in boxes and loaded into the bus. As part of the 2022 student council, I was a representative of the school, and I was one of the 12 students who would be going in person and handing out the gifts.

After lunch me and the rest of the council met in the commerce room waited for our chaperones and discussed about the "Joy of Giving" and after a couple of minutes; we boarded the buses and drove away from school. First stop was a cozy little government school that consisted of 20 pupils. Unfortunately, that day was when there was the least attendance - only 4 kids. We collected presents from the bus; entered the classroom spoke to the teachers Ashna, Anjali and Anvitha handed out the gifts while the rest of spoke to them and arranged the presents for the absentees. The children in the school were very small and innocent. They were timid and shied away from us, but upon receiving the present they were baffled and didn't know what to do with it and when they found out it was for them their eyes gleamed. We learnt their names and gave them high fives. While we were leaving me and Thomas high fived and connected out hands with that of Madhupriya's through the window. This little trip filled us with joy, and this was just the beginning.

The Second Government school we visited was huge- there were a total of 150 students. As soon as we entered the school we were welcomed by the teachers and students. We unloaded the bus and passed the gifts and stacked them up in one corner. After getting a sufficient number of gifts we introduced ourselves and spoke to the students. We each then took a couple of gifts and handed them out. They were delighted to receive gifts and when it came to the distribution of notebooks and stationery their excitement was over the roof. This was followed by us handing out biscuits and candy and the kids taking them with excitement. This was when I encountered a lively boy who told me about his favorite biscuits. Turns out he loved Oreos just as much as I did. :) I then interacted with a couple of more students, conversed with them and laughed about. They loved us a lot and they were super enthralled to spend time with us they gave us infinite high fives which indeed made us feel like a celebrity. Filled with pleasure we bid them adieu and set out for the next stop.

This wasn't a school. The third place we visited was a slum. We got down the bus and slowly unpacked the gifts,food,blankets and clothes and segregated them into different cartons. Priyanshu and Aryaa, the extremely strong members of the council caried the cartons. In the short span of us transporting the goodies outside the bus the crowd had doubled the line stretched for a score of meters. We learnt that such commodities that were common to us were new for them, and we decided to do our best to make their way. Each one of us handed out different stuff- I was in charge of handing out chocolates, cookies and candy - the cravings of the sweet tooth. I gave each person a handful and spoke to a couple of people in Hindi and then I handed out 2 T-shirts and then was ready for the following place.

The final destination was another government school. Upon reaching the school all twelve of us split into groups of three and took responsibility of a classroom. Me Jia and Anvita were grouped together, and we all distributed some more presents, toffee games, books and art supplies. We spoke to the kids in Kanada and told them about our school we also instructed them to share certain gifts we shook hands, smiled and engaged with the pupils we also spoke to the teachers and then we said our goodbyes and set off to school.

This was an extremely engaging event. That not only made the day of hundreds of children, me my friends and teachers but it had also educated us about discipline and taught us the value of being humble and caring for others. The best event the student council took part in is definitely the Joy of Giving.

 

School Elections

It has been exactly 1 month since the day the elections results were announced and all the members of the eco club ran up to the vice principals office to check out the winners and by the time we reached the third floor; Tatvika starts yelling "Praseeda you won!!!!".My sister Tatvika fibs a lot so I didn't trust her. I went past the crowd and saw my name under the position of " Gladiators House Captain' I  couldn't believe it- I beat  my friend Sanchit  who is one of the most popular people in the whole school. I ran up to my friend Aditi and hugged her and skipped around the corridor filled with joy. I high fived and hugged Thomas(who was celebrating - because he became the captain of a fellow house - Challengers) and then I shook hands and hugged every other person I saw and celebrated my victory.

Initially I was skeptical for standing in the school elections because Sanchit stood against me and I didn't want another humiliating defeat in the elections. However Jia(who all so won the elections- Knight House Captain) and Aditi gave me a pep talk that boosted my ego and made me enter the mad race. For a week I traversed through classes and gave speeches where I explained why I would be a suitable candidate. Those seven days I kept on advertising myself and asked every person I saw to vote for me. My sister, Aarush, Aditi Aparna and many of my other friends  did their part and helped me out with campaigning. On the 14th of July the whole of middle and secondary school cast their votes. I was slightly let down because some people didn't vote for me but Aryaa(he won too!!!  Vice captain challengers), Jeet  and Trinay  cheered me up with their stupid high- jinks. The next day well the results were out.

From the 18th began our training session for the Investiture ceremony- where the student council will take their oath and the parents would badge their ward. We toiled under the hot sun . We practiced and practiced and practiced  some more  until every muscle of our body ached.  After 4 whole days hard work, confusion, scoldings, last minute ideas and practice we had become tanned and tired but most  importantly we were perfect.

Parents and students started filing in at 9:30 and took their seats the ceremony had began. Everything was better than I had ever imagined. All of that tiresome sessions made the whole marchpast on beat. The council was so synchronized  that it looked like we were from the army. My parents came on staged and badged me and after some more march past and a speech from the chairman our ceremony came to an end . We took a couple of photos and showed our badges of to our school mates.

Now we have regular meetings with the Vice Principal where we give suggestion and plan events we have duty where we help out the teachers  and junior grades and maintain discipline and most of all we have the extremely cool badge which somehow magically transformed me into a celebrity- I was always popular but this badge has increased my popularity by a  tenfold- students constantly high five me, give me chocolates, stationary  and stickers they yell "aye, aye captain" every time I talk to them , pupils are always trying to talk to me and try to get noticed by me, people come and approach me with their problems and little kids boast to their friends that they know me. I have become a celebrity!!! 

I may not be Andrew-( the President of the school ) and have the whole school under me but I am the Captain of Gladiators and I have the green house and this year I  Praseeda Prasad ,will put my best efforts to ensure that Gladiators (or the green people as I call them) win the house cup!!!

Offline School

 It has been a month since physical school has begun and these thirty days were pure bliss. Online school has made everything so monochromatic that homework, tests and even boring substitution classes are lively ,bright and  colorful. Racing down the school halls makes many vivid  memories flash in the back of my mind, I suddenly get flashbacks about the times me and my friends did some silly antics. Despite 2 years passing by I feel like nothing other than the height of my classmates has changed(All those people who were half my height are now giants. I feel extremely tiny when I stand close to them. I have to "look up" to them) - we all are the same people that we were in grade 7 (now we are in grade 10) extremely silly, clumsy, goofy, loud, noisy, cheeky  and creative. The only reason I wake up at 5 a.m is the marvelous time I have  at school. You must be wondering why I am soooo hyped up about going to school. Well despite the contrary belief; school is so much more than tedious classes and studying. I crack jokes and chat about with my friends, write poems, do art, play basketball , run around the building, cartwheel along the corridors(even though I can't cartwheel and I end up falling on my face),  roll on the grass :) ,make mistakes, argue, do mindboggling math and research work, sing my heart out in the bus("amool doodh peeta hai India"; "come and get your love";"Naatu Naatu"), share my food and thoughts with my mates,(Rhea's pancakes, Aditi's cookies,Mahanth's biryani ,Aparna's dessert, wafers and Aanands food  are mouth watering) present my ideas and projects, meet new people, make amazing new friends(yes I am referring to Aarush, Aryaa, Mahanth, Ruchita Tejassvi Aaryaansh and Ishita love you all<3), do chores for teachers(and get house points as rewards), do last minute revisions for the test, get freaked out while the test results are announced and give a huge sigh of relief when you do great !!!!, prank people, pretend everyone in the school is my best friend(you all are best friends),draw on the board(this one is for you Juili )experiment in the lab, finish pending work before the period begins ,saying hi to everyone who passes by, secretly switch seats so I can be closer to my best friends. This might sound extremely cliché and look like it was ripped of from an advertisement but this is extremely honest- most importantly in school I laugh, learn and grow as a person.

Chrysalis High(Varthur) is AWESOME!!!

Escape room!!!!

I never thought getting locked up in a room and having to solve puzzles to escape would be fun but here I was planning to celebrate my birthday in an escape room. On 7th of May (My real birthday is on the 5th) my friends-( Tatvika, Aditi, Aditi( from spectra),Hamsikha , Nainika )and I  went to Gaming Galaxy. We put all our belongings in a locker and were ready to get going. We booked a pirate themed escape room .After clicking multiple pictures we went into the room. It was a eerie yet beautiful place. There were prison bars, multiple chests, maps, vessels, pipes, skeletons locks and so much more. We were briefed about the game- ruthless pirates had captured us and locked us up. However those pirates were away and we could escape and set ourselves free. We carefully listened to the rules and began the game. We took a flashlight and scoured the walls for clues.

We  racked our brains and worked together as a team(it was very chaotic cause we all had unique and completely different ideas and solutions to the puzzles) and opened up a secret door that lead us to another room. This room had multiple puzzles. Hints were displayed on the screens and we had to solve accordingly. It was extremely fun- the adrenaline was pumping through our veins and we kept on thinking on many inventive ideas that  kept us going. We collected various  interesting and puzzling clues, opened a variety of locks and trunks  and found multiple items that helped us escape all while the one hour timer was ticking. There were a couple of secret trap doors that could be activated by the clues. 

We used magnets and pulleys to solve the room. We finished the whole escape room in 57 minutes-.We all were so involved in the escape room that we hadn't realized the passage of time. The whole hour felt like 15 minutes of extreme fun and chaos.

Pirate props and pictures :)

Drawings 2.0

 This is another collection of my drawings!!!!!!! Some  need improvement but I am pretty happy with what I did

Kerala - God's Own Country

On April 1st Friday - We boarded a plane to Thiruvananthapuram Kerala. After a chaotic flight- thanks to the tantrums of my brother. The weather was so hot and humid that we started sweating as soon as we set a foot out of the airport. We got into a cab and set off to our resort. After a drive of 15 minutes- we reached Uday Samudra Resort. The place was gorgeous, there were multiple tanks with colorful fish of all sorts, there were many pictures, murals, wall paintings. The gramophone which played calm music made the atmosphere even more pleasant. We took a couple of pictures. We then entered  our room , freshened up ensured we dabbed a good amount of sunscreen and then  took a walk around the resort- we went past the restaurants, around the brilliant blue swimming pools, through the herb garden ,green  lawns. The beach was just a couple of meters away from the hotel; so after exploring the resort we stepped out to go to the beach. We dipped our legs in the water  and felt the waves splash on our feet.

This was followed by a heavy lunch ,where we enjoyed a continental cuisine and striked up a conversation with the friendly chef. It was afternoon and the heat was at its peak so we went to our rooms and took a nap. We then played online charades and put on our swim suits; glanced at the picturesque scene, played in the ocean, took photos. The waves were ginormous and they were extremely strong. The wave showed me and I hurt my knee but that didn't stop me from swimming. My brother who looked forward to the beach wasn't very impressed by the saline water and thus he decided to stay on the shore and built sand castles

After this my brother who didn't really have a blast in the beach wanted to play in the pool. We watched as he got elated and splashed about in the pool. I did a couple of laps and we cleaned up and got ready to go to a temple nearby. The temple was dedicated to lord Shiva and had a humongous statue of him-it looked perfect everything including the minute , intricate details like the scales of a snake, the beads of the necklace were made with perfection.

 we admired the grand piece of art, visited other shrines, prayed, went to another beach nearby and took a couple of snaps and ate the holy food- prasad. We then had a feast went to bed for we had a busy day ahead of us.

The next day we had a hearty breakfast and  went to the beach and spent 15 mins gazing at the ocean while my brother and his friends were playing in the pool. After cleaning up we got ready to go to Kanyakumari- the southernmost tip of India. This is the place of confluence of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. We then boarded the car and prepared for a 3 hour drive. 

After an hour we reached Poonal backwaters where we took a boat ride, while the fresh air was rushing through our faces we appreciated the beauty of a various  lush green trees of mangoes, coconuts jackfruits etc.

 

We took a good amount of pictures and stopped by at a island like area where we beat the heat by drinking cool and refreshing coconut water we also had some refreshments and cookie. Me and my brother along with his friends climbed upon a camel and went for a ride .The camel thudded its feet on the sand and we rocked to and fore as it moved. I was enjoying and fearing for my life at the same time.

I got of the camel and petted it(despite the awful stink it carried around)

We then got back in the car and resumed our drive- I am a person who suffers from motion sickness. If I stay in the car for long durations- my head gets woozy and starts spinning, my stomach starts churning, I get nauseous and have a head pounding migraine. The only cure to this terrible pain is sleeping in the car- which unfortunately is practically impossible because no matter which in position you try to sleep either your neck or your back feels like it is about to snap. After  a good amount of shifting about I fell asleep and when I woke up we were in Kanyakumari. We stood in a huge line and finally boarded the ferry which took us to the Vivekananda temple. We went through the temple and learnt about Swami Vivekananda's life, we then gazed through the balcony like structure and looked at the glistening ocean. We noticed that the Arabian sea had a greenish tint while the Indian ocean was more towards blue;

 We then walked towards the  Confluence en route- we came across many tiny thrift  shops where shopkeepers were advertising their colorful wares.

I had expected 3 different colors of water to merge into one and  to my disappointment the Kanyakumari confluence was nothing but thousands of people jumping around in  the water and taking "holy baths". We just dipped our feet had food and set of to the hotel. Trip back to the hotel felt even more tiresome .After a very very tedious ride we stopped at a Punjabi restaurant and had a light dinner reached our hotel and went to bed without second thought.

Even after a tiring day we had to wake up at 6:30 .I begged my parents for extra time. After waking up we adorned our selves with traditional clothes.We then went to the Padmanabhaswami temple. Legend has it that this temple has an underground vault filled with gems and stone worth more than  trillion dollars and that the treasury can be only opened by a true devoted saint and if any other person attempts to do so they shall face the wrath of death. I got the goosebumps when I entered the temple. Since salwar kameez wasn't allowed in the temple I had to tie a dhothi around my waist and go in. The temple was wonderful and a sight for sore eyes. The stone carvings were extremely pretty and unfortunately we couldnt click any picture. The architecture however was the best thing I had ever seen .We even had a look at the Vishnu sculpture this place is extremely famous for . After a dharshan of the multiple shrines we took some prasad and went out for breakfast.

After breakfast and a nap (my brother was again jumping about around the pool) we went out to Olive- for lunch.We had mouth water varieties of food.I barely had place in my stomach but  the food was soo good that I kept shoving it in my mouth.

 I even drank an enormous mojito!!!!!

After a very filling meal we went out for ice cream(I somehow managed to squeeze it in). Then we watched the sunset in the beach and headed for the airport wrapping our Kerala trip up :)

A Trip to the Zoo

 My dads friends  were planning to visit the Banerghatta zoo and they called us up to see if we could tag along with them. After squabbling about the day of the visit we finally agreed on Sunday .

On 13th march at 7:30 my alarm rang  and I hit snooze and at 7:45 I had come to my consciousness and realized that if I stayed in bed any longer I would miss the zoo. I rushed into the bathroom ,got dressed and woke my brother up .Then I helped out in making peanut butter sandwiches I was soo caught up in the sandwiches that I forgot to brush my hair. after debating on how to do my hair I tied it up into a simple pony tail, packed my tiny bag with headphones, lip balm  and candy I was finally set to see the animals.

Banerghatta is a 2 hour drive from where I stay, so for quite some time we sat in the car, looking out the window and occasionally talked about random topics. Mid way we stopped at a restaurants to eat breakfast and then we again set off to Banerghatta. Engaged in the conversation my dad accidently got muddled up and we were 7 kilometers ahead of the zoo. In the next 15 minutes we  made multiple phone calls, read various signposts and used the GPS and we finally reached the zoo. After meeting up with my dads friends we got all set for the safari . We all hopped into a minivan and drove off. We came across many animals like deer, lions ,elephants. ,tigers and bears. 

After that we took a couple of snaps; played in the park and then visited  the butterfly park we came across a huge variety of butterflies and moths that were spreading their colorful wings while fluttering about. This was followed by a trip to the museum where we had a look at different preserved species of butterflies ,scorpions ,larvae spiders and every other creepy crawlys. I also held a cocoon and a  caterpillar in my hand.

We then  gathered together had some lunch delicious lemon rice and sandwiches and  after a good amount of rest went to the zoo exhibit. We gazed at  the beautiful zebras, fierce  tigers, lions,  calm elephants, lazy hippos, tall giraffes, hyenas, jackals, crocodiles , wolves.

 

  We admired the colorful birds- peacocks, parrots, roosters, parakeets, macaws etc. This was followed by the primate and reptile section where we had a look and learnt amazing facts about various amusing monkey, turtles snakes snakes and serpents- python, king cobras, rattles snake, boas etc. 
After walking around the zoo we packed up and prepared to go home. En route we stopped at a mall enjoyed tasty momos and waffles, visited a humongous book store and went to a restaurant which served various types of homecooked meat. Finally we reached home. The day was soo exhausting that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

Percy Jackson Book Review✨

 Most of us relate mythology to tales of the past legends that apparently occurred eons ago but that is not what happens when you flip  through the pages of one of my favorite book series Percy Jackson written by Rick Riordan. It is a blend of Greek  mythology and the current day United States of America- where heaven is in the Empire State Building and the underworld in Los Angeles.

Whole series  consists of 5 books .Which revolve around  Percy- a demigod who is the son of the Greek god Poseidon  and an American- sally; and a  prophecy about him that warns the mythological and human world about a supposed oblivion that is to occur on Percy's  16th birthday.

All the demigods either go to or live at Camp Half blood - protected area that shelters, feeds, trains  and entertains demigods and protects them from deadly Greek monsters. The demi gods then from the camp go on quests to retrieve magical objects, solve mysteries, help other demigods  and prevent doom. The books talk about Percy's time at camp half blood and the adventures he embarks on with his 2 best friends Annabeth and Grover. Each one of these adventure throws light on Grecian mythology. We get to know about the the brave deeds of heroes like Hercules, the origin of the world via the tales of the gods, the curses and the punishments people suffered from due to their sins, the depth of friendship and love all through the witty narrative of Percy. The books are extremely interconnected hints relating to the climax are dropped about in a subtle way  and every small detail adds up to the final battle between Percy and Kronos- who is the main antagonist of the series 

The story is told in a beautiful and  extremely humorous way.  you fall in love with the series as soon as you start reading the first page just like me and my friend Aparna did - this series is  extremely interesting and book lacks "the boring bits" you would skip. Once you start reading it you wont stop until you .So I advice you all to pick it up.