No Exams

Ok, so I admit it. I dont have anything to write about and that's because I dont have anything to do. I couldnt bake because Mama finishes baking everyhing. I cannot write a story because I dont know what should I write. But the real blame goes on exams. If there were no exams, I could have written about trips, reviews and much, much, more. Exams are starting on the 1st of March and I have to study. Sometimes, it becomes so boring. When I go to play, nobody comes down. Why? Because I am suppose to study. I want study fever to get over. I dont even know if I will be celebrating Holi this time. I bet that no one is going to come down just because it is Holi. If only I go down, what fun is it? I really hope that there were no exams. Why does the school need to check if everything we learnt this year goes into our heads. Now I got a new technique to study. On school days, I take something and I start memorising it by walking up and down. On holidays, I study at home till lunch. After lunch, I go into the park and sit there on the merry - go - round(let me be specific) and sit and study there. I finish very fast there. At home I would only finish some 1 chapter in 2 hours. There I finished all the chapters in 2 hours. Isnt that amazing? I just got the idea yesterday. When I dosed off at home, I thought Ill go down and study and it worked! I go down at some 3:00 pm and comeback at some 7:00 pm. Its fun. I get my mind off exams at least for 2 hours. I am happy for that. I really want to start this protest, "No Exams. Children know everything they have learnt in the year. They dont need to be tested for that." Or , "The system of education in India is based on marks and not on ability. Change it ." I really have a good mind of swnding a letter to the prime minister about this. Exams stress a child. Take my example. I cant even do anything. No books So I cant read books that means half the time Ill need to search for something to do. That is so bugging. Suppose I have half an hour. Fifteen minutes will go iin looking for something to do. Then the next fifteen minutes will go in doing the thing when I have not even done sone 28%. I just give up and try to study four hours at a stretch. I think they want seventh graders to feel the pain tenth graders face. After all, after three years, we will be in their shoes. SO, I think they make us practice. Sometimes, I feel like leaving everything and enjoying my life. But, I always hear, hard work always pays off at the end. Till now my hard work hasnt paid off. How much more hard work do I need to do for it pay off? I have also heard that whatever God does, he does it for our good. So I am just keeping faith in that saying and climbing the ladder of success. I think if I dont do well in this exam, it will be the hundreth time I will be slipping down the ladder. Then again I will not give up hope. Ah! That is the only problem I give up hope very fast. I always try to improve on it. Buy, when I try, something, which I dont want the thing to happen, happens. I try to take everything easy. Everytime I finish all my subjects before my exams. This time I have finished only 4. I am trying to take things easy and I hope all the students out there studying from nursery to endineering, medical, architecture, author, etc. try to take things easy as I do.

Kalpana Chawala

Kalpana Chawla (July 1 1961 - Februarary 1 2003) was an Indian American astronaut working for NASA. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana, India on July 1 1961 to Banarsi Lal Chawla and Sanjyoti. She had two sisters - Sunita and Dipa and a brother - Sanjay. She became an US citizen in 1990.
Kalpana Chawla completed her early schooling in the Tagore Public School, Karnal. She earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College in 1982. She moved to the US in 1982 and earned a M.S. in aerospace engineering in 1984 from the University of Texas, Arlington. Chawla went onto earn a second M.S. in 1986 and a Ph.D in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado,Boulder. Later that year she started working for NASA as the vice president of Over-Set Methods Inc. where she did CFD research on Short Take off and Landing. Chawla held a certified Flight Instructor rating for airplanes and gliders and a Commercial Pilot rating for single and multi engined airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio licence.
Kalpana Chawla joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps' in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996. She had travelled 10.4 million kms, as much as 252 times around the earth.
Her first mission began on November 19 1997 as part of the six member crew that flew the Columbia flight STS - 87. Chawla was the first Indian born woman and the second Indian to go into space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who had travelled in space in 1984 in a spacecraft. Chawla's responsibilities included deploying the Spartan Satellite which had malfunctioned necissitating a space walk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite.
A five month NASA investigation had fully exonarated Chawla by identifying errors in Software Interface and defied procedures in flight crew and ground control.
In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second flight mission, STS - 107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discoveryo of cracks on the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard the Columbia on the ill fated STS - 107 mission. Her responsibilities included micro gravity experiments on which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying, earth and space science, advanced technology developement and astronaut health and safety.
Kalpana Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which took place on February 1 2003. THe space shuttle disintregrated over Texas during re entry into the earth's atmosphere, with the loss of the lives of all the seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to finish its 28th mission, STS - 107.

127 Hours

The film 127 hours is a film abot a real life canyoneer, Aron Ralston, starring James Franco. On April, 25, 2003, Aron Ralston plans a day of canyoneering in Utah's Canyonlands National Park. He goes by car there and started for the canyons on a cycle. On Every time he takes a video of him featuring himself and telling himself where he his and what he is going to do next. On the way to the Blue John Canyon, he finds two lost hikers, Kristie and Megan. He makes them believe that he is a guide and takes them through a canyon and an underground pool where they have fun. After the fun part, he leaves them and while they are departing, Megan asks him to come a party they were holding the next night. Though, fates have something different for him. He goes to the Blue John canyon and is descending in, when he slips on a boulder of 360kg and goes down with it. When they reach the bottom, the boulder trapped Aron's right arm. For the next two hours, he tries everything to get his hand out of the boulder but in vain. He tries to think of what he can do and takes a dull knife and starts chipping away on the rock. He does this continously for two days and starts to realize that his hand is, kind of supporting the boulder. So, if he chips it, the boulder settles more. He takes some video recordings of himself, about what's happening around. Meanwhile, he is growing short of water and food. Thinking himself about to die, he takes a video recording addressing everyone he knows. He starts to reproach himself for not leaving a note behind and not calling anybody about where he was going. He starts getting dreams about everyone he knows, about his parents, his sister, the two hikers, his friends, in short everybody. He sttarts the efforts to amputate his hand with the dull knife and he starts drinking his own blood. Wen he gets to the bone, he tries to cut it but is not able to. He again waits for his deaths to come. Doing some video recordings about himself to divert his mind. When he starts getting dreams about his unborn child, he musters up all his courage to cut his hand and get free from there. After about one hour he cuts through his bone with his dull knife. He was in the canyon for five days and seven hours, which is equal to 127 hours. After getting free, he will have to get to his car which was about 13 km from where he was. He starts his journey back and when he comes out he finds a puddle and plunges into it. When he is going back, he thinks he will bleed to death and he is already dehydrated and hungry. While going back, he finds a family of three going back after a day of canyoneering and asks them for water. They give him some food and water and go call the security personnel of the Canyonlands National Park. Those people also will be looking for them as his parents had filed a missing complaint for him. At the end, the real Aron Ralston is shown in many of his adventures. Now whenever he goes out alone, he leaves a note and goes. This movie is a very good one and James Franco has acted beautifully in the movie. Hats off to Aron Ralston for his bravery. He has written his autobiography which is called Between A Rock And A Hard place

The Hijack

I was in my friend's Audi, when the sliding roof opened and fresh air started coming in. My friend, whose name is Mona, and I were going to San Francisco for a holiday. I must admit that Mona is weird. She packed her 'make up' stuff in her school bag saying, "If I have this school bag it will remind me of my happy memories in school." I rolled my eyes when I saw her doing that. In the Audi,I was trying to do some emailing on my phone with Mona singing some stupid song and eating Lays. We reached the airport and the minute we got down from the Audi, our flight name was being announced telling that our flight is two hours late. It was night time, so we told the driver to go home and not to worry about us. We went to a restaurant to eat food. the restaurant's name was 'Shah Jahan'. The restaurant was high class. The whole time in the restaurant I wondered if we would be able to pay the bill if we pooled in all the money. Without thinking much I, again took my phone and started emailing. When I was half way through, Mona snatched the phone and started reading my email. I let her because it was related to work. I must admit that her voice was very loud. "Dude, Ritz, what is this? We will be going for a holiday and you are still working in the phone. This is not fair." " I am handing the responsibility of the archaeological department to Sid. So, I was just emailing him about the work to be done in the whole month." Mona was about to say something but she suddenly fell quite. At first I was puzzled. Then I realized why she was quite. Everybody were staring at us. They thought we were hired to do this type of a thing and everybody were amused. We bend our heads in embarrassment and soon people came to know that our 'act' was over. They went back to our own business. We had just humiliated ourselves. For the rest of the time there, we didn't speak at all. We quietly ate our dinner and went back to the airport. We had one hour left. So, we checked in and were waiting on the benches. Mona went to sleep and I started working on my phone. Thank the Gods, I had taken such a cool phone. I can do almost anything on it and thank God we will not be meeting any of those people in the restaurant again. After some time, some people came and sat next to us. When they saw us, they started whispering to each other. I didn't bother much and was still emailing. They aroused my suspicions when I heard the name of the restaurant where we had food. After five minutes, they asked me, "Aren't you, and the lady beside you, the people who were hired to do that play. I must say it had a lot of humor. I liked the part you said. You didn't even let that lady speak. From that I remembered, we are going to have a party at our place. Our guests would like some humor. Can I please have your phone number?" I was shocked and staring at them. I didn't know any one could have mistaken us for hired people. I was just about to tell them 'we are not hired people and we had just humiliated ourselves' and humiliate ourselves again. What was I thinking? I didn't know what to tell them. They were looking at me with a questioning look. Just then a flight attendant announced their names and they said, "Ah! That must be us." They literally forgot all about our conversation. I was staring at them. They amused me. I couldn't help laughing on my good luck. But, little did I know that this good luck can change into bad luck and prove fatal for someone. When Mona got up, they were announcing that our flight's boarding gates are open and we can go and board. We went in and, as usual, Mona had forgotten to check her seat thinking that we would get the seats together. My seat was in the front, so we both sat adjacent to each other. Soon, a passenger came telling that the seat on which Mona was sitting was his seat. I checked Mona's ticket and her seat was at the last. We tried to bargain with the fellow to go sit at the back, but in vain. Mona went back and I was stuck with this guy who looked very clumsy. He was wearing, I think, three jackets, a thick denim, his shoes were Reebok which could be very costly and his hair was all messed up. He looked as if he could do anything to anyone. After the plane took off, I went to the lavatory. I saw Mona and saw who was sitting beside her. That guy (or was it a girl?) looked the same like the guy sitting next to me. That aroused some suspicion in me but I let it go. After about two hours the person next to me went to the lavatory. He didn't come back for about fifteen minutes. I started to think what was wrong with him when two people, one guy and one girl came out of the lavatory. The guy was like the person sitting beside me and the girl was like the person sitting next to Mona. Now, both of them were wearing very light clothes and the girl had put some make up. I think she put it in a hurry because it was all messed up. Her hair were beautiful and any guy could fall for her. Their hands, I saw last. They were carrying a gun. How did they get the guns inside? Weren't they checked? Or had they greased the hands of the cops? It didn't make sense at all. Then it all made sense . The people who I met were these people. They were master of disguise. I think they had come to drop the air hostess (the one who called out their names). She somehow got all the ammunition inside and gave it to them after calling them. But how did she get the ammunition in? Wasn't she checked? This question was bothering me. I didn't have time to bother long. The girl grabbed Mona and the guy grabbed one more man. The guy said, "Everybody take out all your valuable things, be it living or non living, on the walkway. I don't want anybody to be smart or you will see these people's brains flying." That time the air hostess came in. She whispered something in the guy's ear and he whispered something back to her. After she went, he told, "The pilot is under our control. If you try something smart, he will make the plane crash." Everybody were scared. Anger was brewing inside me. These people were getting on my nerves. I, suddenly,got up and twisted the gun hand of the girl. The hijackers didn't expect this and everybody were in a trance. Even Mona went into the trance. I couldn't believe it! The man quickly came out of the trance and left the person he was holding and pointed his gun at Mona and said me to leave the girl. Thank God the person was not like that. he immediately grabbed his arms and held it back like I had done to the girl. Everybody now thought that victory was theirs. Everybody started cheering. During this time the grip on the hijacker's hand loosened and he freed his hand and shot him. Everybody fell quiet. He looked with disgust on the dead body. He turned to everybody and said, "If any wants to end their life like that, come and face me." I said, "I want to. What are you without your gun? Just a human being like us. I don't even think you have the guts to fight me without your gun. I f you have the guts, come and fight me without your gun." He said, "Fine." Our fight started. I aimed for his stomach but he blocked and kicked me in my stomach, taking all the air out from me. I got angry and punched on his face. He went back, wincing in pain. Without wasting a second, I charged forward hitting him on the back of his head. He dropped on the seat behind him. I heard the girl gasp. I mustered all my courage and charged forward aiming for the back of his head again. This time he rolled away and kicked me in my stomach. I went back crying in pain. He again came upon me and dropped me to the ground. He got his elbow down in my face and I rolled away. He again got his elbow down on me and I rolled away. Now, I got up and kicked him in his stomach and he fell down. I got my foot down on him and he cried for mercy. I bent down and asked him about his life. He started to tell me, "I am Joseph and she is my sister Josie. Our parents died when we were very young. When I grew up a little, I didn't know about good company and bad company and I joined this group which used to steal small small things. I persuaded my sister also to join the group saying that there was nothing wrong in this group. She listened to me and kept trust in me because I was her older brother. The truth is that I brought her into a group of assassins. Time passed and I became the nominal head of the group, though all the decisions were taken from this flight attendant. later, I realized where I was and wanted to get out of the group but the people threatened me that they will kill us if we left the group. So we continued in it. After some time, we became powerful and started attacking planes. We used to do how we did today and kill every person on board. I beg you please don't tell the police or our lives will be washed in water. Please." That time the flight attendant came. She saw the scene and was about to go in, when a person got hold of her and got her to me. I slapped her and said, "What a merciless person you are! You don't deserve to live." I slapped her again and went inside the cockpit and told the pilot everything was alright and to take the plane to the San Francisco airport. The rest of the time went peacefully. When we got down the airport, there was a hungama there. I was surprised that the news spread much faster than I had thought. On the exit gate I saw my cousin, moving about frantically, every now and then looking up to see if we were there. When he saw us, he beckoned to us to come fast. We went to him and the first thing he said to us was, " I'm sure glad you're alive." I laughed when he said that and replied, "I barely survived." We all started laughing and he took us to his home and showed us around the city. It was a fun time we had there, though, not to mention the hijack!

Saraswati's Way by Monica Schroder

Akash, a village boy, lives with his family in the Rajasthan region. The land is not giving good yield because there is no rain that year. His family are heavily under debt. He lives with his cousin, his grandmother, his father,his aunt and his uncle. He has an ability to play with numbers. His brain can memorize anything as long as it is maths, though he is good in other subjects also. His grandmother always thinks that boys above the age of eight should be sent off to work and girls above the age of ten should be married away. When his father passes away, he is left with his unemotional grandmother and his drug addict gambler uncle. He realizes that heis the only source of money for the family. His grandmother soon sends him to the quarry to pay off their debt from where Akash escapes to Delhi. There he comes into the company of a drug dealer and some "glue addicts". With the help of the book seller, on whose roof he sleeps, he is able to realise his dream of going to school and winning a scholorship. This story is very good and makes us realise the hardships faced by poor people in a village and hardships faced by a poor boy in a city. Sometimes people dont know when they are getting into bad company. This book tells us if your too late to realize that then how to take hold of the situation. Monica Schroder has writte this book beautifully.