As far as writing poems are concerned, this is my personal best. I wrote this towards the end of the last term of the 8th class. On the last day of the class, our teacher asked us if anybody would like to share anything with the class. My friends informed her that I wrote this poem. I was asked to recite this in front of the class. I was extremely nervous and did mess up at a few lines. Despite that the applause was astounding. Will never forget that day.
The world cup caught up the fire,
The mechanic, for its live telecast, insulated the camera’s last wire.
Despite Graeme Hick’s ton,
New Zealand convincingly won.
South Africa displayed a successful exhibition at Pindi,
As that in the 70’s of the Windies,
In the match between W. Indies and Zimbabwe at Hyderabad,
The Windies regrouped and crushed Zimbabwe as if gone mad.
The match between Sri Lanka and Australia was forfeited,
And in the heart of the Lankans, the Aussies were severely treated.
The West Indies succumbed to the pressure,
And India won to the people’s delight and pleasure.
In the dual between South Africa and New Zealand,
The latter was defeated and the former honoured by a glorious band.
Due to security reasons, the second match in Colombo was also forfeited,
The sportsmanship by the Windies was cheated.
In the battle of Sachin vs. Warne and Taylor vs. Kumble, Australia won,
Due to a fine spell by Warne and Mark Waugh’s ton.
In the most shocking upset of the cricket history,
West Indies were defeated by Kenya, who registered their first victory.
The Sri Lankans blasted the Indian bowling attack,
Thus despite Sachin’s century, at the end, the face of Azhar’s men was black.
When Sri Lanka scored over Kenya a victory,
They scored the highest no. of runs and rewrote history.
In the quarter finals, the dark horses of the tournament,
Defeated England, and this was another historic moment.
In the crucial battle between India and Pakistan,
Partially due to the absence of Pakistani captain, Wasim Akram,
And some aggressive strokeplay from Jadeja and other middle order batsmen,
Left the Pakistanis staring at them.
Despite the inspiring fightback by Harris and Germon,
It was Australia’s day and so they went on.
After the shocking upset, the Windies bounced back,
To completely demolish the South African all round attack.
An unforgivable mistake by Azhar, and the unruly behavior of Calcuttans,
Forced the match referee to gift away the match to the Lankans.
A dramatic tactical error by the Windies in the end,
Allowed the Aussies to clinch the match and made the Windies face bend.
Unlike other matches, the Aussie fielding in the final let them down,
And allowed the Sri Lankans to snatch away the crown.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
An encounter with a dog
This is another poem that I wrote in the 8th class. Unfortunately, I cannot recall why I wrote it. Here it is:
It was a dark night,
DESU unexpectedly took off the light.
I was in the house alone,
When rang the bell of the phone.
It was my mother who advised,
Not to go out, but remain inside.
Without caring, I went down for a walk,
Brave I thought I was, but was in for a shock.
Nobody was there about,
Gathering my wits, I set out.
Down settling was the thick fog,
Turning to return home, I saw a fiery dog.
Right at that moment, I froze as it gazed,
With its bright red eyes as if a fire set ablaze.
Nervous and scared I ran on the road,
But I was its prey, so it followed.
As I ran, in front I saw a wall,
Excitedly, I leaped over and had a great fall.
I was relieved from my foe,
But during the stunt, I hurt my toe.
Due to the pain, I let out a scream,
But then realized, it was all a dream.
It was a dark night,
DESU unexpectedly took off the light.
I was in the house alone,
When rang the bell of the phone.
It was my mother who advised,
Not to go out, but remain inside.
Without caring, I went down for a walk,
Brave I thought I was, but was in for a shock.
Nobody was there about,
Gathering my wits, I set out.
Down settling was the thick fog,
Turning to return home, I saw a fiery dog.
Right at that moment, I froze as it gazed,
With its bright red eyes as if a fire set ablaze.
Nervous and scared I ran on the road,
But I was its prey, so it followed.
As I ran, in front I saw a wall,
Excitedly, I leaped over and had a great fall.
I was relieved from my foe,
But during the stunt, I hurt my toe.
Due to the pain, I let out a scream,
But then realized, it was all a dream.
Why are grown-ups so crazy?
When we reached the 8th class, our teachers congratulated that we had become adolescents. The word sounded esoteric and did not make sense. These lines were a small step in understanding and appreciating what adolescence was all about:
Why are grown ups so crazy?
When we do some work,
Then also they say, we are lazy.
They always want us to study,
When we want to play games,
And spend some time with our buddy.
When we burn our garments while ironing,
We are careless,
And get a big scolding.
When the same thing grown ups do,
It is not their fault,
They have a lot of things to do.
When we go out to often,
We are loafing around,
Once caught the grown ups do not soften.
When grown ups attend parties frequently,
They can’t help it,
As socializing is a necessity.
Why are grown ups so crazy?
When we do some work,
Then also they say, we are lazy.
They always want us to study,
When we want to play games,
And spend some time with our buddy.
When we burn our garments while ironing,
We are careless,
And get a big scolding.
When the same thing grown ups do,
It is not their fault,
They have a lot of things to do.
When we go out to often,
We are loafing around,
Once caught the grown ups do not soften.
When grown ups attend parties frequently,
They can’t help it,
As socializing is a necessity.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The world through a pair of magic spectacles
I wrote this poem in the 8th class and got my first ever A grade in an English composition. It was that A grade and my parents encouragement that got me started on the path of writing. Since then, I have written several stories / articles - several of which are miserable, I agree. But anyways, the course of history cannot be changed and so here is that poem...
Looking through a pair of magic spectacles,
I saw a man having a lunch of turtles.
The lion piloted the aeroplane,
The six month old drove the car like a hurricane.
Maradona hit a huge six,
Jackson singing classical music got into a fix.
The teacher gave 100 marks for a blank paper,
My father got me a big box of chocolates and wafers.
Kapil Dev was the first to step on a moon,
In the poster, Narasimha Rao held a broom.
Morarji Desai completed his one year,
The dead man drank rum and beer.
The water on heating changed into ice,
For breakfast, I got jam and rice.
I saw a man having a dinner of turtles,
It was fun wearing a pair of magic spectacles.
Looking through a pair of magic spectacles,
I saw a man having a lunch of turtles.
The lion piloted the aeroplane,
The six month old drove the car like a hurricane.
Maradona hit a huge six,
Jackson singing classical music got into a fix.
The teacher gave 100 marks for a blank paper,
My father got me a big box of chocolates and wafers.
Kapil Dev was the first to step on a moon,
In the poster, Narasimha Rao held a broom.
Morarji Desai completed his one year,
The dead man drank rum and beer.
The water on heating changed into ice,
For breakfast, I got jam and rice.
I saw a man having a dinner of turtles,
It was fun wearing a pair of magic spectacles.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Shishir's kavita @ Aarohan' 09
Few lines by Shishir for his poem based "Pehchaan Kaun?" game round:
शांत, स्थिर, उदार, गंभीर ,
दिखूं जैसे कोई महात्मा या हो पीर |
कार्यस्थल पर सतत लगा रहूँ,
एक्स्ट्रा कर्रिकुलर में भी मदद किया करूँ |
vision ग्रुप में है मेरा बोल बाला,
थोडा सा हूँ गुस्सैल, पर हूँ अच्चे मन वाला | "
-- शुभकामनाओं सहित
शिशिर
शांत, स्थिर, उदार, गंभीर ,
दिखूं जैसे कोई महात्मा या हो पीर |
कार्यस्थल पर सतत लगा रहूँ,
एक्स्ट्रा कर्रिकुलर में भी मदद किया करूँ |
vision ग्रुप में है मेरा बोल बाला,
थोडा सा हूँ गुस्सैल, पर हूँ अच्चे मन वाला | "
-- शुभकामनाओं सहित
शिशिर
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Super ego
I have always considered myself to be an average student. Even, if concepts used to bounce off my head, I would diligently attend classes, hoping that one day lightning would strike and I would be enlightened. Clearing exams never used to be a issue. Rather, the major headache used to be with securing an A grade.
However, the foundations of this misconception (of being an avg student) were jolted when I enrolled for MS Research program at IIT Delhi. Every course that I have done over the past 3 semesters demonstrated how woefully ill-prepared I was for the courses. And that too, after having graduated from one of the premiere institutes of the nation. It was not just the lack of concepts, which is still excusable. Rather, it was the absence of appreciation of the fundamentals and inability to apply these during problem solving.
During the last semester, I did a course on Advanced Algorithms. The course instructor was Dr. Naveen Garg; and his style of teaching was just awesome. In fact, attending has classes has rekindled an interest in Algorithms and Data structures (subjects, I used to stay away from). Unlike several other profs. who taught by rote, he used to actually work out the algorithms / derivations in the class. Several times he would get stuck during a derivation; he would ask us for our inputs and collectively we tried to figure things out. And when we were really stuck, he would say that it's time to "cheat"; he would refer the textbook and we would proceed.
The best part, though, were the exams. Every time, I was able to attempt only a maximum of 50% of the questions, but it used to be gratifying. The questions really tested your grasp of concepts and required clever jugglery of ideas. However, attempting half the paper does not translate into equal ratio of marks. In fact, in the minor exams, I was able to secure at best 35% marks.
I started having nightmares of whether I would clear the course or not. I badly wanted to clear the course since I was sick of my semi-weekly visits to IIT for attending classes. I did not want to continue with the same hectic schedule for another semester. But more importantly, I have never failed a course in my entire life! I just could not let myself fail. My ego would not allow it. My super ego, which had been pampered by undeserving grades secured through uncompetitive exams, could not have taken it.
Fortunately, I got this realization quite early and tried to address the problem from multiple directions. On the one hand, I started mentally preparing for the worst and on the other hand, I started preparing a strategy to ensure that I cleared the paper. Strategy part of the preparation included identifying which subject areas to focus on, how much time to devote on a question, how to present if I am not able to work out the solution etc.
Luckily, I scored well in the majors - relative to class and my previous standings. However, there was this feeling that I did not do justice to the subject. I prepared a contingency plan and thankfully it worked out. Today, I am not confident that I will be able to attempt and solve some of the same questions, even after refreshing my concepts. My ego, though not as bruised as had I failed, has certainly been bumped. I plan to and certainly will work on my basics (including 12th class mathematics) and aim to reach a level where I am brazenly confident. Till then, I would rather continue preparing and reminding myself of the fact that I am a failure who has been lucky until now.
However, the foundations of this misconception (of being an avg student) were jolted when I enrolled for MS Research program at IIT Delhi. Every course that I have done over the past 3 semesters demonstrated how woefully ill-prepared I was for the courses. And that too, after having graduated from one of the premiere institutes of the nation. It was not just the lack of concepts, which is still excusable. Rather, it was the absence of appreciation of the fundamentals and inability to apply these during problem solving.
During the last semester, I did a course on Advanced Algorithms. The course instructor was Dr. Naveen Garg; and his style of teaching was just awesome. In fact, attending has classes has rekindled an interest in Algorithms and Data structures (subjects, I used to stay away from). Unlike several other profs. who taught by rote, he used to actually work out the algorithms / derivations in the class. Several times he would get stuck during a derivation; he would ask us for our inputs and collectively we tried to figure things out. And when we were really stuck, he would say that it's time to "cheat"; he would refer the textbook and we would proceed.
The best part, though, were the exams. Every time, I was able to attempt only a maximum of 50% of the questions, but it used to be gratifying. The questions really tested your grasp of concepts and required clever jugglery of ideas. However, attempting half the paper does not translate into equal ratio of marks. In fact, in the minor exams, I was able to secure at best 35% marks.
I started having nightmares of whether I would clear the course or not. I badly wanted to clear the course since I was sick of my semi-weekly visits to IIT for attending classes. I did not want to continue with the same hectic schedule for another semester. But more importantly, I have never failed a course in my entire life! I just could not let myself fail. My ego would not allow it. My super ego, which had been pampered by undeserving grades secured through uncompetitive exams, could not have taken it.
Fortunately, I got this realization quite early and tried to address the problem from multiple directions. On the one hand, I started mentally preparing for the worst and on the other hand, I started preparing a strategy to ensure that I cleared the paper. Strategy part of the preparation included identifying which subject areas to focus on, how much time to devote on a question, how to present if I am not able to work out the solution etc.
Luckily, I scored well in the majors - relative to class and my previous standings. However, there was this feeling that I did not do justice to the subject. I prepared a contingency plan and thankfully it worked out. Today, I am not confident that I will be able to attempt and solve some of the same questions, even after refreshing my concepts. My ego, though not as bruised as had I failed, has certainly been bumped. I plan to and certainly will work on my basics (including 12th class mathematics) and aim to reach a level where I am brazenly confident. Till then, I would rather continue preparing and reminding myself of the fact that I am a failure who has been lucky until now.
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