The Other Side..

What does Gaddafi's death mean for Africa?

shared from BBC

First Year in Higher Secondary

Its been like 6 months since I last wrote here... I was too busy with school (and that doesn't mean I'm not busy now!). Its been really tough this year to keep up with studies but I believe I'm doing good so far. Seriously speaking, this seems to be my best year in school. Everything is going just great.

 I was a little off mood in the first month...not only me, all my friends too was in same condition. We couldn't just accept the fact that we cant be in 10th anymore... We've been together in same class for like 10 years, and most of 'em split up now to different schools for different reasons.. We were really missing the old class, the old atmosphere and many other elements which we wont get back.. Then slowly, everyone became good friends and now we are ok with it..

 I'm in the Computer-Maths ( no biology!) Group as I've mentioned earlier.We've been brain-washed in 10th by our senior batches that higher secondary is like HeLL coming to earth. Anyways for me, it has been more comfortable than last year. Maybe, its because I'm working more now. Health conditions weren't goin balanced earlier , but now I learned to manage it. I'm much more systematic and everything is going planned now.. not because I wanted it like that but because there is no other way. The syllabus is like a vast ocean, I've to survive.. I don't want to compromise on my dreams.

 Right now, we're busy with Youth Festival.. The last time I wrote about it here was during when I was in 9th.. Anyways, it hasn't been much exciting this year like before. But, anyways its our last chance to be in a school Youth Festival.. So, I don't want to miss it..

By the way, one of my blog posts was published in The Hindu :).. Thanks Hindu for considering it.

My Creation.. Track Follower Robot (Arduino)

Vacation Robotics Camp

   Its the vacation after X Standard now... We didn't get the result yet (curse CBSE!). I am trying to utilize this vacation to the very best. I had plans of going for Computer class for studying C++. I'm going to need it for next year because I'm opting for Comp-Maths Group (English,Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Computer). Me and my father were searching for a good place to go for class. Finally, we decided  to go to Keltron Education Centre. We got to see another notice about an electronics and robotics class there. My plan is to go for engineering in future. So, I decided to try out this course.  I wanted to know if I have a real aptitude towards it. That was the objective.

    

I'm really happy now.  This was definitely a good option. They taught us the basics of electronics. I didn't had much knowledge about the various devices because I'm in CBSE Syllabus( which I understood later on). I think the State Govt's Teaching syllabus is way better than ours. There is no room for us to think and know more. The first classes were about the basic equipment used in electronic devices and their principles.We had a small introduction about C - programming too. I think they were trying to give us a logical understanding regarding its application and the basic procedures involved. We're using an Open Source electronic prototyping platform (Arduino board). We did some basic circuits with LED and programmed it. Then, we started robotics, had an intro about its kinds, applications, and functions.  Its almost one month since it started and its going to end within a week. T Our final competitive project is to make a line follower robot. I am trying my best to do it well... I will tell about in my next post, have to concentrate more.. 

Life with the goats - Aadujeevitham

"നാം അനുഭവിക്കാത്ത ജീവിതങ്ങളെല്ലാം നമുക്ക് വെറും കെട്ടുകഥകള്‍ മാത്രമാണ്. "

"The stories of life we hear which we don't experience is just tall stories for us"
... but the reality is different.

I had plans of coming back to my past reading habits, and I got this book "Aadujeevitham" written by Benyamin. (Its in malayalam language - my mother tongue) . What a book to start with! It takes you away and steals your heart. It brings the real 'human being' in you. The theme is life in desert.

In India, especially in my state , Kerala, a lot of people go to the Middle-East for jobs. 'Jobs' here does not mean the high-profile professional jobs, but working as slaves because there is no other way for living. Surviving in an orthodox country for us 'keralites' is very difficult because unlike here, the rules are harsh..not liberal. 

In this story,  a person in Kerala living in a typical Kerala family is going to Middle -east. He is picked up by an Arabi person. He is taken to a deserted place, where he is made to work as a shepherd. The sufferings he face are very hard to believe.

In dire straits

I am sure that many people are stuck there even this moment waiting for someone to rescue them. The book gives you a clear picture of the maximum extent to which a human can be exploited. He has to live among the goats, as a goat... and at times , we feel that the goats have a better life than him.. We will get a deeper meaning of water, food, etc and the book will teach us how important they are and the huge role which they play in our lives. You may not be able to grasp the full extent of having water and food  because all we know is that without water and food we will die, but we haven't experienced their utter scarcity.. The book tells how much simple or uncertain is human life when exposed to the violence of nature or say, the violence of his own species. He is lost without any help, all alone in the vast desert...

While reading the book, I have even wondered how can people behave like they have no heart. The 'arbabs' who have held this slave treats him so badly even worse than an animal. He is not given the position of a human being. I had deep thoughts of the thousands of people from families around me facing the same fate at this very moment. They go for a job in the middle-east with a hope of earning something by getting daily wages by doing difficult jobs , because this is their last hope of saving their poor family. Their dreams are shattered very soon and they vanish for ever...

Another thing I saw in this story is that the person's hope never fades.. He is a strong believer of Allah and prays to God for helping him. There is this constant hope in him that God will help him surely.. I don't know whether its God who have helped him in the final place, but I'm sure that it is the hope (that God is there for him) in him that helped him survive all this horrible conditions...

This book is definitely in the 'must-read' category..

So, a large session of my academic life have come to an end...I am looking forward for more challenges... I am in the Higher Secondary Category now.. Now its summer vacation and I'm concentrating on my interests.. going for electronics classes now...and more reading on the way...

Lines from my History Text...

I thought I must post this here...

". . . rarely given such permission When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the autorities and headed home. They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own villages, They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a railway and streamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme. They interpreted the term Swaraj in their own ways,, imagining it to be a time when all sufferings and all troubles would be over. Yet, when the tribals chanted Gandhiji's name and raised slogans demanding 'Swatantra Bharat (Independent India)' , they were also emotionally relating to an all-India agitation. When they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, or linked thier movement to that of the Congress, they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of thier immediate locality. . . "

NATIONALISM IN INDIA,

'INDIA AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD - II',

'TEXTBOOK IN HISTORY FOR CLASS X'

These were the lines that struck me deeply...I am really going to miss studyin history and politics from next year... because I'm opting for science...