I wrote this poem about a year ago. I decided to publish this now after I was encouraged to do so by a friend. The basic idea for this poem came to me when I was reading Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". All feedback - negative or positive - is welcome.

How Time Forced Me

 

I stood alone on the road of life,
As time pushed me forward
The track so far was already paved,
The path could not be altered.
 
Souls of my generation walked,
On identical roads,
All of them having common fears,
Neglecting them as they strode.   

 

Every little thing was frenzied,
Everyone looked hurried,
But I knew something was cooking,
As everybody scurried.
 
I ignored the people who walked along,
And thought back to my past
When life was calm and peaceful,
Not agitating or fast.
 
In the distance I could see
The road split into two
Which lane led to a dead end?
Which one would help me get through?
 
This choice was often spoken of,
It had a big impact,
Your decision could pull you down,
Or could keep your life intact.
 
But I could not come to a halt,
Because time forced me on
The fork in the road came closer,
And the tension wasn’t gone.
 
I looked at other people’s choices,
But the options varied,
This had to be my own decision,
I began to grow worried.
 
I had reached the fork but
The ends I could not see
It was very unclear,
What my future would be.


It was impossible to turn,
I had to move along,
So I picked a road at random,
And I hoped I wasn’t wrong.
 
Every single day was tiring,
The nights were far too short,
Every day was just a struggle,
I had to strive a lot.


But as time went on, life got better,
The nights may have been short,
Each and every day had been tiring,
But I valued what I got.


But what about the other path’s problems’
With which I had not dealt,
The successes and failures it had held,
The ones which I had not felt.


Would that path have torn my life apart?
Could it have helped me grow?
The answer to that question is something
I would never know.

Note: when I first wrote this, it was written as 10 paragraphs of 2 lines each and there was no consistent rhythm - though I had focussed on rhyming the lines of each paragraph. But with some advice, I re-wrote it and I liked this version better.

 

Anyway, After my Exams.....

Yes, I have neglected this blog for a long time. I almost forgot that it existed, until my English teacher reminded me (Thank you ma'am) that it was still alive. Now that it is the summer, I have decided to post on this blog as much as possible. Considering that I get only four real days of summer vacation - school ended on 20th and summer classes start on 25th, - it will be very hard.

Anyway, no better way to celebrate the end of an important school year than to go for a music concert. The music concert was one of the best I had ever been to. It made me use the one word in my vocabulary (not that my vocabulary is great) that I had never in my life even thought about using on music: AWESOME. It has been almost three years since I have practised music without someone nagging me to, but this concert made me want to practise music again (I'm sorry I forgot to mention, it was classical). Mr Ragavan Manian was the genius singer, who had also experimented with an electric guitar while singing Carnatic music.

The concert was about getting to know about the relationship between two ragas, how one was extracted or derived from the other, the small differences between them, the many similarities, and how taking out one note from a raga changed it into another one. Actually, that's what I understood. (I sincerely hope there was nothing more that I missed, as I was getting sleepier). Mr Ragavan Manian also gave the audience a brief introduction of the ragas, the song, the composer, and his intentions while composing it.

By the way for those of you who don't know what a raga is, I think it is a group of specific notes put together, from which songs can be composed. In the ragas each note has a specific curve (the actual word is gamakam - but the word processor underlines in red), which beautifully leads to the next note, and is based on the notes before or after. Some notes can be flat, or sharp. Sometimes, notes are borrowed from other ragas, and are called borrowed notes (the actual word is Bhashanga - but the word processor underlines in red). So sometimes there can be two types of the same note in the same raga. Mr Ragavan Manian also told us about how ragas could be divided on the basis of the middle note. As my music teacher had explained to me many times before, there were two types of middle notes the actual word is madhyama - but it just had to be one of those words the word processor underlines in red). One of them was really flat and sharp (and I found it unpleasant and out of tune too), and the other one was very calm (hard to explain), with two types of gamakams: a shallow one and a long one, which depended on what the next note was.

If you are very confused with all that I have written, it is mostly because I am not as good as Mr Ragavan Manian at explaining the intricacies of Carnatic music; or maybe you just don't know Carnatic music as well as I do.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself when the violinist played the exact notes that had just been sung, like copying them (you would know if you went to a music concert), and when the guitar had been bought into play. Who said South Indian music couldn't collaborate with Western instruments? Mr Ragavan Manian had melodiously played a few notes on the electric guitar, which I thought was replacing his singing in the middle. The violin and the mridangam had also sounded amazing with the electric guitar. During the initial stages of the Brindāvani raga, Mr Ragavan also played a few notes on his flute and my only thought at that time - one who can play different types of musical instruments = musical genius. 

The concert was arranged to render songs in pairs. Mr Ragavan explained the two ragas in each pair, how they relate to each other, how one can be derived from another, and then sang two songs in those ragas. So I should say all RAGAS of the songs where in pairs. By the last pair of ragas was sung, I was really tired, and my brain couldn't function properly enough to understand, but I continued to enjoy the music. This concert was one of the best ones that I had attended in my life, and I recommend these type of concerts to all: classical music concert performed by a genius singer with mixing in Westernized instruments and amazing mridangam and violin.

Now that I think of it, these concerts seem to be rare, and I must be blessed to attend one.

Note: I have not been posting on my blog because (yes, I will admit it) I have been writing short stories for pre teenagers. Don't tell anybody.
  

Me Playing Drums

For all the people who know that I play the drums, here's a video for you. For all the people who don't know that I play the drums, here's a video for you too.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SzAj37d75g

Note: Any suggestion on what song I should learn next?

Deepavali Again (This Time in Words)

I would like to wish all people (and girls and boys) who read this post a Happy Deepavali. I tried not to burst as many bombs as last year, and I succeeded big time. I burst almost double the number of bombs that I burst last year! And for all the Earth-saving-ecologists who are new to this blog, don't worry! The number is still less, because last year I didn't burst many crackers as I had stitches on my knee (and I didn't say I burst 0 crackers because 0 X 2 = 0). And for those of you who thought I would say "The worlds gonna end anyway!", sorry, because I don't believe in nonsense... or movies for that matter.

So, if you look at the title, you will see that this post was supposed to be about Deepavali. Last year, I just uploaded a few videos of people in our colony bursting crackers, but this year I would like to share some information that my father pointed out in a newspaper (I still don't read the newspapers). There were actually two different articles. The first one said that the noise levels were reducing and they weren't as high as last year. This is good and I hope the noise levels go further down. But the second article said that there were much more dangerous gases released than last year. This is probably because people lit flower pots and sparklers instead of bombs (and if you substituted your bombs with flower pots, now is the time to look at your feet and feel guilty).

According to the first article, the noise levels on Deepavali compared to normal days, in Pragatinagar increased by ten decibels, 4 in Jubilee hills (on the same scale), 3 in Abids, 1 in Paradise and Punjagutta, 8 in Uppal, 5 in Jeedimetla and 1 in Zoo Park. I don't know two or three of these places, so if you are not from Hyderabad, I don't expect you to know any of them.

According to the second article, the air quality compared to normal days, the air quality was worse than normal. The air quality is measured by calcualting the amount of Particulate matter 10 (PM10) in the air. It is specified in micrograms per cubic metres. This year in Abids, the count increased by 84. Similarly, it increased by 134 in Kukatpally, 131 in Panjagutta, 98 in Jubilee hills, 70 in Uppal, 111  in Paradise, 19 in Balanagar and 31 in Jeedimetla. Overall, the PM10 increased by 71% on the day of Deepavali.

Sulphur dioxide and Nitrogen dioxide had gone up by 33% and 32% respectively, but were still within the prescribed standards. I would like to end this post on a negative note: whatever crackers we burst, the environment is disturbed, so we have no option but to burst less crackers or switch to electric crackers. Electric fireworks are new revolutionary lighting systems that simulate the look of  regular fireworks through the use of the latest lighting technology. Unlike normal fireworks, electric fireworks can be displayed for hours on end with several variations of pre-programmed firework effects!

Note: If you are interested in purchasing elecric fireworks, you can visit http://www.air-effects.com/fireworks-palm-tree.html. This website has all information about electric fireworks.



 

My Interactions with Famous Personalities on Animal Welfare

It has been almost three months since I posted anything on this blog. After the exams, I had made a new time table and forgot to add time to post on my blog. I only remembered my blog when something interesting happened.

My father recently happened to be sitting next to Amala Akkineni on a flight. He told me that they talked about animal welfare issues and Mrs.Akkineni told my father about a program that her organisation conducted in Venkatagiri, a village in Nellore district (I will write about what was happening in the village later) in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Later, when my father told me about the program, it sounded interesting and I thought of writing a blog post about it. I asked my father for more information and he told me that I'll have to contact Mrs.Akkineni for that since he didn't have all the information. I immediately lost interest but decided to send her an email anyway. At first, I thought it would reach her spam and she would probably look at it some ten years later. Anyway, I really didn't expect someone who had their own page on Wikipedia to reply to my emails; and when I didn't receive any reply for a week, I was convinced that I was right.
Then one fine day... in the middle of the night... I opened inbox to see what was sent out...jokes aside, after a week, I finally received a reply to my email from Mrs.Akkineni and she stated that she couldn't reply earlier because she was busy and she would ask one of the blue cross members - Education Officer Mr.Sriram - to send me all the details I had asked for. After another week waiting for an email from Sriram and then feeling dejected, I happened to open my spam folder and realised that Mr.Sriram had replied to my email 3 days earlier. In that email he had answered all my questions and provided a lot of information about the program they had conducted in Venkatagiri.

It seems that huge number of animals were being sacrificed in temples in the village of Venkatagiri. Small animals like hens, goats, sheep, and sometimes even large animals such as buffaloes were sacrificed on the annual festival days (the dates for the annual festival are declared by the temple committee every year). Mrs.Akkineni had organised a campaigning team, which had been in action in the September of 2010 and 2011, and their campaigning team happens to be at Venkatagiri right now for this year's festival. The team compromised of corporate professionals, NGO founders and students, who were aged from 17 to 38 (I would have liked to be the youngest at 13). The team had used various strategies to educate the people, such as 1) Door to door counselling for households in sensitive areas. 2) Short talks with students in their classes in all high schools and colleges. 3) Huge public gathering addressed by Mrs.Akkineni. 4) Mrs.Akkineni followed by student rally. 5) Celebrity bytes on local cable television channels, etc; The program carried out by this organisation had been funded by the Administration of Nellore district. And guess what? This program really payed off. It was believed that 60,000 animals were sacrificed every year, and now -with the help of district authorities and the police departments - the numbers have reduced by 40%! I am sure that the number of animals being sacrificed will be further reduced this year. After the program, Mrs.Akkineni's team had empowered local NGOs to work accordingly. Now, the Blue Cross visits Venkatagiri during the months of September and October.

Personally, I think this program has been a huge success. The team has saved the lives of thousands of animals in the village of Venkatagiri. Everyday, many animals are killed (especially in India) in the name of sacrifice. Endangered species are becoming extinct. People are killing animals without realising their use in the ecosystem. How many of you like dead animals better than the ones alive? Animals can provide us with many things even when they are alive, and somehow people don't seem to notice this. Why sacrifice buffaloes, hen and sheep, when they can provide us with milk, eggs and wool when they are alive?

Mrs.Akkineni has also spent a lot of times with animals, and she has founded a voulantary organization: Blue Cross of Hyderabad, which has saved over 300,000 birds and animals. And I feel happy to know that some famous person who has the ability to change the mindsets of people (about animals), is helping the world to turn into a better place by siding with the animals (who cannot create guns to defend themselves against the most violent animal - humans).

Note: Articles about the program in Venkatagiri have appeared in National newspapers also. You can read more about the program here (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2466314.ece)

Bonnet Macque (Macaca Radiata) Visits the Kitchen

Does anyone know what to do when a monkey visits your house and decides to grab some free bread? I am not really sure, and I am certainly not accepting the answer "FREAK OUT", because I know that's not going to work. And I say that with experience. A monkey actually just visited our house, went so close to my cake that my mother forbade me to eat it, took our packet of bread for snack and polluted the environment by discarding the plastic cover in our yard. And they say only humans cause global warming.

This is like a repeat episode of the Snake in the yard, with one huge difference. The difference: the snake was stopped from entering the house, but the monkey wasn't. 
Details: the monkey was sitting on the wall opposite our back door. I happened to notice the monkey just as i finished a science article about 'Rabies'; talk about coincidences. I was too scared to go and close the door and I started shouting for my mother to come downstairs. I then realised that I could close the door myself, but it was TOO LATE! By then the monkey had come inside and was exploring the dining table (and you might think that it was my fault). That was when the FREAKing OUT part happened.

I picked up an apple and drew the attention of the monkey to it. I then rolled it out of the door and saw that the eyes of the monkey followed the (not so) delicious apple. But no luck; the monkey did not follow the apple outside. I tried the same thing a few more times, and gave up as the monkey turned it's back on me. Man, what all you have to do to impress these modern monkeys. You know how you feel when people ignore you? Somehow, it was worse when this monkey did it.

Then this monkey stepped into our kitchen. And instead of staring at the monkey that had developed a new interest in our stove, I ran for my camera. I was 20 steps and 1 click away for getting one of the funniest pictures. And I missed taking the picture. By the time I jumped the last 9 steps in a single leap, the monkey had gone out the door (and the jump was not because of the influence of some monkey, mind you). I was disappointed and relieved at the same time. But when I saw what was happening outside, I realised that I could still get some good pictures. The monkey had stolen a packet of bread and unwrapped it on the wall. It then disposed the packet into our backyard and scrambled onto the window sill of our neighbour's house, and was enjoyed it's late snack and left from there. That was the end of the bandit monkey episode.

I might have missed a few things so please look below.

• My dog  was barking all along as the monkey committed it's crime. Fortunately it was tied
• You know everyone says that monkeys are incarnations of the Hindu monkey God Hanuman? Unless getting your bread stolen is a divine blessing, I wouldn't believe it.
• People say monkeys are smart. I think that doesn't really matter if they don't have basic manners (don't pollute the environment).
• Forgot to mention, I think the species of the monkey that stole our bread is the Bonnet Macque and thats the English, not the scientific name.
• My mother later told me that when I went to get my camera, I missed seeing the monkey flying from cupboard to cupboard and almost nearly stepping into the cake.

Note: I think I specialize in writing about abnormal animal incidents, which rarely take place.

Timetables, and Death by Bernoulli's Principle

Finally

I heard that it is not a good idea to start a post with if, so I have decided to start a post with "I heard that it is not a good idea to start a post with if.....". I really hope you don't mind. Anyway, if you are wondering why I haven't posted for this long, it is because I was trying to finish 4 posts at the same time, and I didn't have any time. I was actually going to write about my vacation, and the details of my vacation, and something else, and this, but this one got over first and I can finally post.

And coming to my timetable. Well, it's kind of hard to explain. I have almost one free hour the whole week, and I usually end up playing video games or something. I actually wanted to paste the whole timetable in this post, but my mother didn't let me do it. So I don't think I can. Anyway, I would like to conclude the post by..... no, not yet. I skipped the Bernoulli's Principle part.

So, the Bernoulli's Principle is this Principle discovered by Bernoulli, which states that when wind blows really fast between two objects and low pressure is created between them, the objects get attracted to eachother. Take an example of a train. If you stand really close to the train, the wind caused by the train creates low pressure. Then the pressure behind you is higher, and pushes you towards the train. Death by Bernoulli's Principle is when the high pressure pushes you onto the railway tracks. And, I think i'm getting late for school, so I would like to end the post.

Note: Don't stand next to a train to check if what I said was really true. That would not be a science experiment, it would be suicide.