Snuffles.

Sirius Black is probably the bravest man I ever knew. The sweetest. The kindest. The funniest. The best. And he had to go through it all. His best friend, James Potter, died. All because of his other friend, stupid Peter. And then, Remus believes it was Sirius, along with the rest of the world. He takes in all the world's hatred and gets sent to Azkaban for 13 FREAKING LONG YEARS, for something he didn't even do. That poor thing.
And then, just when he was about to find family, when Harry was supposed to move in with him that summer, that stupid ol' Bellatrix had to kill him.

Every time I read a chapter of a fanfiction involving the Marauders or when I read Harry Potter, my mind drifts to Sirius and the hate he had to go through. Gah. Curse that Voldemort. And more importantly, curse that Pettigrew. How dare he betray his friends. How in the world did the hat sort him into Gryffindor anyway?

Sirius would have had a life. Along with James and Lily. And Harry. But no. Someone had to clear it all. Whilst writing this itself, I can't take it. Imagine if you were him, one day having the time of your life in Hogwarts and the next, your best friend is dead and you're in Azkaban, framed for his murder. I can't even think about it.

And to top it all off, his last words were, "Good one James". Really Sirius? GAHH. Bellatrix, go to hell.

When Nicky is going to get puppies (yes, I think she is!), I'm making sure I name one 'Snuffles'. RIP Sirius.

STALKERS.

A couple of friends and I went to the mall today to celebrate Karen's birthday. Swetha, Alicia and I met up a little early to buy her presents. The presents we got were amazing. No kidding. But that's an entirely different story. So anyways, we went into this store and while Swetha and Alicia were obsessing over some PEACE t-shirt, I felt someone's eyes on me. I looked around to see this guy looking at me. I had a bad feeling and moved behind the clothes rack. He moved too and did this weird salute thing and made a kind of face they show in movies before doing something bad/scary. Being as paranoid as I am, I grabbed Swetha and told her to come aside. I told them quickly what had happened and we shuffled around the aisles until we landed up at the cutlery aisle. I was so tensed, I couldn't even catch my breath. I had to grab Swetha's arm tight 'cause I felt like I was about to faint. I could swear that they could hear my heartbeat out loud. They told me I was obsessing over something that was probably 100% stupid and coincidental and would be perfectly alright. But I still had a pretty bad feeling about that guy. I convinced them to come out of the store and we left. We didn't catch a glimpse of him and I began to feel better. I thought he wouldn't come back, but I was wrong.

After all the usual 'hi's' and 'hello's', we were just fooling around at the arcade. And then, that guy came with three of his other friends and said something to his friend. All of them began to look at me. Then that guy started to walk opposite but look at me every 5 seconds. I was hyperventilating. I had to catch hold of both of them before I thought I would faint. He did that again and then, I told Karen's mom and pointed at that guy. He caught me doing so. And then, Karen's mom told her dad. Her dad looked seriously at the guy for about a minute and he seemed to disappear. But it wasn't over yet.

We were bowling when I saw that guy leaning over the railing next to our bowling alley. I was freaking out inside but pretended to try appearing strong on the outside. After a while, I guess he got bored and vanished again. But then, he came back and placed himself a few yards behind us. I wasn't as scared as then because both her parents were right there and they knew about it. Even if he would do the slightest bit of thing, I would have gone straight to Karen's dad and told him. He must've got irritated and he walked away. And I never saw him after that.

That was probably the second freakiest thing that ever happened to me. The first one being I thought I was about to get kidnapped in India, but that's another story. The whole time at the mall, I wasn't able to rest. I felt that he would come again. But he didn't. And I'm glad.

I don't think I want to go to the mall any time sooner.

An Original One

That. is the title of a story I have written recently for a national competition. It's about the relationship of this father and his daughter. The man's wife dies because of cancer, leading to the man heading into depression. The daughter, being only 2 years then, helped the dad come out of his shell and face the world, through a number of indirect messages and experiences. The story is all about having a positive outlook on life, being happy with who you are and life lessons.
I'm proud of it.
And I'm going to post it on this very blog sometime in April, once the results are out. I'm not allowed to do it now due to copyright reasons, I guess.

KONY 2012

KONY 2012 is a short film created by The Invisible Children group to create awareness about the wicked man, Joseph Kony. This video is an inspiring one and if any of you haven't watched it as of yet, I'd suggest you do when you have half an hour to spare. This video would make you realize how lucky you are and how much change needs to be done for the betterment of the world.

Many people are criticizing this movement stating that, 'Why spend so much money clearing this problem in a small portion in Africa, and rather not in other places like the slum areas of India/other places in Asia?' Well, I would agree with this too, but I think we need to understand that when something so large is already taking place, it is easier to give your support, create awareness and make a change. Even if this problem is at a lesser magnitude than other problems, isn't it better when we see a solution to this problem? 30000+ children would benefit from this movement when solved.

When this mission is over, a new mission would be bound to take place. This time, bigger and better. But for that, this mission needs to be solved by the end of 2012. For that to happen, the world needs our support.

When the whole world funds for Kony's finding, I'm pretty darn sure we'll find him. When the world stands together, we unite for a cause.

I'd request you to please support the cause and not criticize it.

Life is not fair.

It's all a matter of luck, chance and opportunity.

Many a times, I keep wondering and telling myself that it's not fair how life is not fair. 'Life has to be fair. It just has to.', I keep thinking. But in reality, it's not.

A person who deserves better may not be reaping what he deserves. A person who studies thrice as more and works harder than another may not be securing a higher GPA. A person who studied at Stanford may not be a CEO but a person who got into a local not-so-highly ranked college may be one. A person born to a maid and a person born to a rich family would have totally different lives ; it's not fair how one is born to the latter and the other to the rich.

My dad keeps telling me, 'Out of the million good things that happen to you, don't focus on that one thing you didn't reap from your hard work. Appreciate what you have and learn to deal with the rest and fix it later on'.

I studied hard the whole year, but if I'm going to not do that great this semester, all the hard work I put in together dies. That's what happened this year. I kept thinking about it and then I try to realize that, 'it's not really in the score sheet. Looking at 6 A+'s is a great feeling, but what matters more is how much you've developed throughout the year'. That thought is always in my head, but I don't really correspond to it. Meaning, I still keep thinking very negatively. But I do understand the fact.

Like Gates said, 'Life isn't fair. Get used to it.' I've just gotta get used to it.

Besides, like I've mentioned before, a million good things have happened to me. Be it, the fun times I've had throughout the years, getting real cool birthday presents, getting good scores this year, making people smile, winning things...everything. I need to learn to stop being pessimistic and just enjoy the crazy ride of life.

I'm grateful for where I am right now. For where I stand. For my friends and family. For the support I have. For what God's given me.

Lost In A Store

NOTE: This post, well I have written during my Writing Workshop. And hence, would be quite formal when compared to the usual Summer. So read on.

It was a cold winter evening in Detroit when my five year old self and my dad had decided to buy a few food supplies at the nearby grocery store. Since we had gone to Detroit to visit our cousins, we were not familiar with the area but had managed to go to the store without much trouble.

While my dad was carrying out his errands, my eyes began to drift across the store aimlessly. And then, I saw it. Standing on the rack right there was the all-new Powerpuff Girl's Lunchbox. My eyes widened and I jumped with joy. I pulled my dad to the opposite aisle and showed him what I wanted. My dad gave me a look and shook his head to say, 'No'. It was as if a balloon had burst. I asked him again. But I had heard, once again, the same reply. I stood there, admiring the perfect lunchbox while my dad continued to buy the supplies. Five minutes had passed by and I looked around for my dad. He was standing there, in the refreshments aisle. I realised it was hopeless to wait for my dad to buy the lunchbox and walked to him. He walked to a few more aisles and I followed respectfully. Just when I was about to call him, he turned around. I gasped. The man infront of me was not my dad but rather a middle aged Chinese man. I ran away from him mmediately and began to search for my dad in tears. After another 5 minutes of searching, I saw my dad with his arms our, waiting for me. I ran to him and cried even more. He laughed, telling me not to cry. Yet, in shock and happiness, I cried into his shoulders.

After a long time of sobbing and crying, we went back home. And guess what? I went back home with my Powerpuff Girl's Lunchbox.

Another Note: I assure you everything above is an actual real life personal narrative and is absolutely 100% true. Well actually 85% true. *sighs*

A Real Story

This video is an inspirational video of an eighteen year old who died recently of a cardiac arrest. It made me think for a long time how unfair, short and memorable life can be. Many of you might have watched it since it's been crazily publicized. So have I, on the day after Christmas, but I wasn't in town so I wasn't able to post it. In case you haven't watched it, make sure you do. Because it's one of those kind which makes your reflect back upon you.

Best Christmas Present Ever

I was reading this article on Yahoo! earlier today. It was such an inspirational story to read and it made my heart skip a beat. Teaching moral lessons to never give up on what you want and working hard towards is this girl's example. Reuniting with her family would probably be her best Christmas present ever. On a similar note, it's pretty freaky to imagine that while we were sitting back home, kick back and relaxing on that day of the quake, over 40000 people went missing and over a million were displaced. Life's pretty scary and unpredictable and we should be thankful and grateful for where we are. Thank you God.
Merry Christmas!

When Old Meets New

Today at school, we had this group story writing competition thing. Alicia, this other girl and me were in this team. The way it goes is the librarian gives us a topic to write about. Without planning, one of us goes and begins typing the story on the computer. After 10 minutes, we pass the computer over to the next person who continues the story. After another period of 10 minutes, we pass it to the last person who concludes the story. The basic rules were 'no planning' or 'looking over at the computer when the other person was typing in'. Guess what topic we got? The sole one topic that we crossed our fingers in hope that we don't get, we get. Suspense/Crime Scene.

However, you may consider it as rule-breaking, but we sort of didnt follow the rules. *giggles* The librarian told us to decide who goes first and last and blahh, and we took advantage of the few seconds she gave us to discuss our plot in brief. It came out pretty well for a 30 minute story.

Our story, 'When Old Meets New' was a story about a 50 year old Melissa Middleton reciting a personal anecdote to her grandchildren. The story talks about how Melissa used to be a popular girl during high school and used to bully other kids around. Then, the story switches to her being stalked by someone, in reality and via the internet. This 'stalker' turns out to be one of the kids she used to bully a lot. After that, there's a mini action scene, eventually leading to the stalker dude getting caught. It turns out that the pressure and bullying he went through during high school turned him revengeful against Melissa and much more...it turned him schizophrenic.

The story was actually quite cool, although it would have been better if we had more time. It's like this vague adaption of the movie 'Cyberbully', except a little different.

I'd post it in onto the blogger thing if that librarian sends or gives it back to us. *sighs*

Popularity

The two words that pops in my head when somebody says teenagers is 'popularity contests'. The reason why teenagers care so much about popularity is still a reason that sounds stupid to me. To be part of the inner clique? To dominate the whole grade? To make the opposite gender like them?

Teenagers can be themselves, can't they? Why do they change themselves to be popular? Following the crowd doesn't make you popular. Neither does forcing the hard accent. Or putting on excessive make-up. Or bullying other people. The dictionary definition of popular is 'Commonly Liked or Approved'. Doing all of the above would not make you commonly liked or approved.

Most teenagers today want to be popular. Few of them are, most of them are wanna-be's and some just don't care. Honest, I'm one of those people who don't care. It's so irritating when I see teenage girls forcing upon themselves the 'like, whatever' accent and changing themselves into duplicates of the popular kids. It's just so annoying to see girls who are not even themselves streaming across the hallway self-embarrassing themselves.

What teenagers don't realize is that, no matter how much time you spend during the day wishing you could be part of the A-List or posting statuses of Facebook that sound 'cool', nothing of this sort is going to matter when you grow up. Once you graduate from high school, you go to college. And then, you go to an university. And then, you have a job. And then, you have a family. And then, why would popularity matter? Where you stand and what you are inside really matters. Popularity during childhood won't even matter. Childhood and school days are all about the great friends you would be having for the rest of your life time and the happy memories to cherish for you to remember later on, not a damn about popularity.

Popularity is all a stupid contest that teenagers compete in. Popularity is one of those things in life that do not even matter later on. Popularity is what I think is completely ridiculous and I wish people would think so too.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

..almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

It is sad to hear that the world lost yet another great man. R.I.P Steve Jobs

Scary.Surreal.Spectral.

So maybe I'm 13, but I sure had quite a few scary, surreal, spectral experiences across my life. And most of the happenings don't have any logic or science behind them. Thy see for yourself.

• Back when I was around six years old, my dad had gone to China for business travel. So, it was just my mom, my brother and me in the house. It had been around a week since my dad left and days were passing by as usual. That night, I believe to be, November 21st, was a usual night and my mom tucked both of us to sleep and went to sleep as well. It was alright and we couldn't feel a thing (duh, we were asleep) until... BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP! Sirens were going on and on. Our security system had gone off. Someone was in the house. Atleast someone had to be. My mom, being a frantic woman, got up instantly and shut the door of the master bedroom. She called 911 and our neighbour. Within 15 minutes, the cops were at our house. Before knocking on our locked master bedroom door, they had scanned the whole house. My mom opened the door and settled things with the cops. Apparently they had come through the open patio door , but there was nobody in the house. After an hour, we were on our own again. That. was our freaky night. And you know, being a mature six year old, though I woke up instantly as well, I hid under the bedsheets because I didn't want my mom to panic even more. And it was freakier when I didn't have anybody to hug tight. The real twist here is... was there really somebody in the house but ran away because he/she was too scared? Was it some supernatural force? Was it just the plain wind?



• Last to last summer, we had moved into our new house. Our cousins were over and we were just having fun all over the place. One fine evening, I took a fresh shower and went to stand in my balcony. The wind was blowing right in my face and it was ever so pleasant. Right then, the door slammed shut. 'It must have been because of the wind,' I thought. I turned around and tried to open the door. Fail. I turned the knob again. Fail. I began to turn the knob frantically. Third time fail. 'Okay. So, maybe, the door accidently locked itself when it slammed shut...', I thought. I looked out onto the road. Not a single fly passed in and around my sight. Which was quite weird considering it was just the evening. I looked around in despair and began to shout for my mom. After a while, I gave up, though my heart was beating ever so fast. I lean on to the rod and search for somebody...anybody. In the midst of my thoughts, I heard a sound. Click! I turned around and opened the door. Damn! It opened. I rushed out and ran to scan the entire first floor. Not even a single person was there. I run downstairs and see everybody. At first, I thought it was a prank by one of my cousins. But I highly doubted it. Running downstairs from my bedroom would atleast take 45 seconds. As soon as the door opened, I scanned the entire floor. Nobody. Nobody even seemed like they played the prank. I ask them, till day, and all of them deny it. Could it be...? I really don't wanna say it, so I would expect thy to assume it.
  


• Around 4 months ago, I was studying for a math test late in the night. My brother was sleeping and my mom was upstairs in her room. My dad had gone out for a walk with his friends. I heard a few noises in the back, coming from the backyard, but ignored them thinking it was our neighbors behind. While I was solving the problems, I looked up to figure out what to do next in the problem. You know, strategies. And then, I saw the door handle move down. I thought it was my dad and began to call out for him. No answer. I still thought it was my dad and began to laugh. 'Dad? I know it's you!' I said. No answer. I began to get psyched. I called my dad on his mobile and he told me he was about a quarter mile away from my house. I explained the story to him and told him to come fast. I cut the phone line and freaked out. I ran upstairs and told my mom. She confessed that she heard noises in the back too. My dad came and told me that my dog was sleeping on the doorstep and there was no possible way for someone to push the handle down without waking Nicky up. I still had my fear. Dad called the security and they checked the place and the house. No signs of any stranger. There went another false alarm. What happened that night, I don't know. Did someone really come? Was it a you-know-what? Or was it just because those math problems tackled my brain and I began to imagine things like a schizophrenic person?

So, that's some of my most terrifying and scary moments ever. In all these three scenarios, I do not know what happened. Nobody knows. That's whats freaky. It could be anything. Imagination. People. Or you-know-what forces. Fine, I'll get myself to say it. Supernatural forces. Nobody knows. It's a mystery.

Commencement Speeches

I was watching a few commencement speeches by famous people the other day and wanted to blog about it today. You can watch the speeches on this website. I wrote few short POV's from my side on a few of the speech givers right below:

• Steve Jobs - Steve Jobs connects the dots of his life in his speech. His speech made me cry. Especially the part where he was describing the time he dropped out of college. Steve Jobs, the Founder of Apple, is possibly one of the most inspiring people I've ever know.



• Larry Page- Larry Page's graduation speech was amazing. He starts talking about his family to his school to his company, Google. He started Google based on a dream. Like, literally a dream in his sleep.



• Ellen Degeneres- Ellen's speech is not like the others. Not what you would expect. It's not the usual deal of inspiration and hope for the future, but is a really funny and hilarious presentation. It's just like the 'Ellen' show that airs on TV. She makes the most unexpected jokes ever, but it's still real good. In a bad mood? Go watch her speech. You'll crack up with laughter.



• J.K Rowling - Being a HP fan, I got into the speech even more deeply. Her speech is much like Steve Jobs, but very different as well.



• Randy Pausch - Watch his speech and pay a little tribute to the great man who passed away. Although his commencement speech is the shortest, it's no way less inspiring. He talks about his life, his relationship with his wife and everything else put together in around 7 minutes.

Traumatic Children

Ugh. Homework oh homework. I wish it would stop pouring on me. Tests, exams and pop quizes. I wish they would all just go away. I feel like running away from all the pressure in my early life of pressure. But is that possible? Not in this generation in which toddlers are starting to feel stressed out.

Once you are seventy years old and look into your 'pensieve' to remember your childhood, I don't think it would be a wonderful picture to see yourself studying or loaded with pressure due to extra-curricular activites or as such. Childhood should be full of fruitful and fun-filled times. But in this era, children, starting from the early age of 7, are being stressed out at their own levels due to pressure put in by themselves, their parents, their peers or their schools.
Personally, I definately don't think this is good for the young breed themselves. Stress is eventually going to come our ways as we climb the staircase of life. But why now?

Schools and parents should really think of the child's freedom before taking up any act. I am not saying they should not give homework or send them for extra karate coaching. They should do so but do it with regard to the child's potential and freedom. Schools should not dump homework onto children but rather give it in small installments with fixed due dates. Parents should not force the child to 'make' a hobby or forcefully go for extra-curricular classes but rather, talk to the child and enroll them into the corresponding class with consultation to the child.

These young traumatic children who have a long way to go do not need to be rushing their life. Let them enjoy the ride and destiny will take them their way.