Testing Times

"Get to the books!" The teachers say,
"Study! Study!" They chant all day.
"Don't waste time, go do some work!"
My! All this talk drives me berserk!
"Do some yoga, it'll relieve the stress,
But remember, 12th grade is harder than the rest!"
Great. We're getting lectures, warnings, threats.
The pressure's building, and it's makin' us sweat!
Let's get serious! Stop acting cheesy!
Let me remind you, exams won't be easy!
Oh, dratted exams! Why are they there?
They make us study so hard, so much to prepare!
Moments of peace no longer exist,
Academics will hit you as hard as a fist.
Not the exam, but studying before,
Leaves me hating it more and more.
The greatest part of it all, when the exams are done and away...
That blissful, lazy holiday,
And we're back with a grin, feeling like the best,
When all of a sudden, oh no! Another surprise test!

The year that was

The year that was to be the end,

But, Thank God, December 22^nd came my friend,

The year that London hosted the games,

To many athletes, it brought them fame,

We watched Michael Phelps burn as bright as fire,

And watched his medal count keep getting higher,

As India, we achieved quite a feat,

They made us so proud, our athletes,

The year which was a repeat of before,

When Barack Obama won the elections once more,

The year in which I learnt to love,

 But hold steady in case I was given a shove,

When I realized not everyone was a God-sent,

Some people were enemies, others were friends,

The year I became strong, no longer that weak,

In the debate finals, I could easily speak,

The year after two which gave me a chance,

To open my heart and relearn how to dance,

The year that showed me I knew piano well,

As I slowly conquered Skyfall of Adele,

The year I finally became a teen,

And realized it wasn’t as easy as it seems,

The year I held myself when life would get me to shatter,

But I managed it all, and that’s all that matters,

The year I learnt to take it slow,

And learnt to never let loved ones go,

The year I became my father’s daughter,

In the sports world, I found myself in “water”,

The year I realized my father and mother,

Were the most important and no other,

Could’ve been loved more than my little brother,

The year that put me down but gave me some lifts,

Chances to display all my gifts,

I live, I love, I laugh, I write,

I act so stupid, but I can be bright,

But enough of me, I’ll go on no more,

I don’t want to prove myself a bore,

Just know it was an amazing year,

All great experiences brought me here,

I finally learnt to love myself,

What a year 2012!!!!

Akal Chakraane Laga

In my class, history is never boring. It very easily becomes intertwined with our opinions of how the British treated India. Let’s just say, that it is a good thing the colonial British and we live in different eras, and don’t have to meet each other.

Our first lesson of the second term dealt with English education. The chapter started with an introduction to William Jones, a talented linguist. I instantly felt a spark of familiarity with this man who knew English, French, Greek, Arabian, Persian, and Sanskrit. But the way, the anti-Orientalists criticized the culture and languages of India really angered me. It reminded me of my own tough history with Hindi, a language I’m leaving behind this year.

In 5^th grade, when we moved to India and I got to know that I had to learn Hindi, I didn’t know what to think. I literally only knew ‘doodh’ (milk) and ‘mera naam Priya hain’ (my name is Priya). We started that summer.

I learnt the alphabets within a week, which was good, as I had so much more to learn! I struggled at school. I would draw pictures of fruits next to the Hindi word of it (example – drawing an apple next to ‘seb’) while my classmates read ‘kavitayen’ (poems) which would give me headaches.

In terms of Hindi, my school-changing didn’t help much. The teacher wasn’t all that great in fifth grade. I still made mistakes – I would mess up the gender or the tense or the verb.

People would laugh. That was the worst bit of it all. They would roll their eyes – bringing tears to mine. They still do. They ridicule my language and my accent. But the fact I got this far is due to the tuitions I took in Delhi. Gosh, did that help! They transformed me from a pathetic weakling to a passably good Hindi speaker. I really started picking up and loving the language. Then, we moved to Bangalore. One more year of Hindi as second language, and I realized I couldn’t do it. I simply could not do Hindi as my second language in the 9^th or 10^th.  So I gave it up. It’s now my third language.

My mom still squirms and hisses when I make grammatical mistakes.

My friends still beg me to shut up.

My relatives still laugh.

But I? I’ll keep on learning, yaar! Agle saal se, main Hindi ki pariksha nahi doongi; par ab main Hindi ko behad pasand karti hoon. School me subject samaapth, magar meri zindagi mein uski shuruaath!!

[From next year, I will no longer give the Hindi exam. However, now I’ve really come to like the language. It has ended as a subject in school, but has just gotten started in my life.]  

Pro Bro

It's strange to know that you are not here,

No source of constant blab is near.

No questions, no requests for advice,

No justified replies for something not nice.

And the moment you see your parents' daughter,

No questions about Harry Potter!

About flying brooms, magic sticks,

Harry, Voldy, or Bellatrix!

No annoyance, no frustration,

No more fights, no irritations.

All is calm, yet not quite a joy,

For what's there to do without you, boy?

No one to fight with, no one to tease,

No questions to answer, when we both make peace!

No chatter or laughter, anymore...

Without you bro, it's quite a bore!

Yet it's something, that I'll never admit –

That I miss you, uh! I sound like a twit!

So I'll mask my joy with a face of sorrow,

When you return home, day after tomorrow! 

MONKEY BUSINESS

My mum was cooking, holding a pan,

And a hard ladle in her hand,

Just as the batter was becoming nice and fine,

My mum felt a chill go down her spine…

She felt like James Bond, she felt like a spy,

Discovered by the enemy’s watchful eye….

Slowly, by instinct, she turned around,

And caught the gaze of a creature, furry and brown.

At first she didn’t know what to think,

She rubbed her eyes, gave a blink,

Then she realized the situation wasn’t funky,

Sitting near the kitchen window was a monkey!

She shook her ladle, gave a heart-stopping scream,

Shaking her daughter out of a sweet daydream.

But the monkey did nothing but sit and stare,

While my mum responded with a ‘monkey, beware!’

 It took its own time, waddled over to the bottles,

And what it picked up, made us all chortle –

It was an empty peanut butter jar, with nothing to hide –

Yet the monkey tried to open it, to see if something was inside,

My mum tried to appear as a large scary threat,

But the monkey did nothing, the monkey didn’t fret.

And let me tell you, the monkey must love bread,

For it chose another bottle – this one of cheese spread.

My mum had had enough, she couldn’t take anymore –

She made her way, and opened the kitchen door.

‘Hyash! Hyash!’ She screamed and she shouted,

Now the monkey was startled a little, undoubted.

My mother shrieked in Monkenese, ‘DON’T YOU DARE COME HERE!’

The creature gave one frightful look, and then it disappeared.   

Happy Diwali!!

Upon the red stone floor I lie,

Watching marshmellowy clouds pass by,

Thinking of how, in the night,

The sky will remain just as bright.

Not becuase of the Sun, which lights up our world,

But because of US, normal boys and girls!

In the evenings we'll rush with matchsticks in our hands,

To turn this ordinary place into a fiery land!

With sparklers, and chakras, and flowerpots...

Enjoying whichever crackers we've got!

With friends and family, we'll admire,

The sky alight with colourful fire.

BOOM! BAM! The bombs will burst,

100! 1000! They'll keep getting worse,

But even THEY cannot scare us away from this place,

Even THEY cannot wipe the smiles off our face!

For this is the festival of lights, time of flaming glory -

Behind these moments, there's many a story!

All of them talk of change, a mass upheaval -

The world will be saved, good wins over evil.

Gods and Goddesses descend upon Earth,

In magnificent form, all of them take birth!

Bringing about miracles, just as a child -

They'll save Mother Earth from demons so wild!

And they'll defeat these monsters, with power and magic,

And this will avoid events which could've turned tragic.

All these tales come back to us today,

And we celebrate these triumphs in the above-mentioned way.

To scare off the danger, around us which lurks,

We burst and enjoy many fireworks!

And I'm so glad, it's come! I'm so glad it's here!

Diwali: My favourite festival of the year!

'Lah' at first sight

Only large dustbins have trash,
The Metro flits by in a flash,
Many apartments - house on house,
With no stray dogs and no stray cows,
But prowls and moos will be heard by you,
At the famous city zoo,
And the night safari, just next door,
Will leave you darkness to explore,
But it won't scare you in the least,
Wait....was that a beauty or a beast?
And while all restaurants do look good,
It's hard to get just veggie food,
But what they do have is nice,
Sweet and sour with a little spice,
And I can guarantee a moody sky,
Once a day the clouds will cry,
It falls uniform - straight and neat,
The drops themselves are sticky sweet,
Intense penalties will make sure,
All the people feel secure,
With the folks themselves, its fun to be friends,
They'll give you directions till no end,
But they don't say "yaar" and they don't say "da",
They have their own version and that is "lah",
And as much as the city's clean,
It does its best to stay very green,
All these things and so much more....
Make you fall in love with Singapore.