Essay: Please dedicate around 40 minutes to write the Essay.

Essay 1: Now-a-days both the parents in a lot of families work full time which
results in them giving less time to their kids at home. This is one reason why a lot
of teenagers go astray. Do you agree? Cite your reasons including any examples
you may have.

Response:
(The Introduction That Could Start with Something More Generic but Creates A
Hook for Your Topic)
With the changing dynamics of the society, the roles and responsibilities of the
family members are changing too. With the number of nuclear families
increasing exponentially, the number of such families where both the parents are
full-time working ones has gone up as well. There was a time when the mother
was solely in charge of the household chores and also of bringing the kids up,
however, today as more and more women have broken these barriers to follow
their dreams, they have taken up their careers seriously. In such scenarios it’s
inevitable that both the parents are at their professional sets-up for longer than
they’re able to be at home.

(Your Agreement/Disagreement)
However, I do not agree to the fact that this solely has everything to do with the
kids going astray. There are multiple reasons behind a kid making bad choices.
Getting less time from parents may not be the only one. No kid is born as a bad
one. But more often that not, inculcation of the wrong attitude by parents and the
society, forcing them to give-in to societal norms (mostly the wrong kinds),
inability to teach them to differentiate between the rights & the wrong, resisting
their interests in shortcuts to be successful and famous – these are a few key
reasons why a kid grows up being on the wrong path. And each of these can be
avoided if a kid is given the right guidance albeit the time a parent spends to do
so.

(Reasons for Your Agreement/Disagreement)

First, it depends on the quality of time that a parent spends with the kid than the
quantity. There are thousand parents around us who give their kids ample time
but that doesn’t necessarily help the kids to be good ones. It matters what kind of
upbringing is given to the kids. If a kid is taught the right values – be it about
respecting everyone equally, kindness towards the lesser fortunate ones,
compassion toward all living beings and most importantly the difference
between right and wrong – a kid is bound to be on the right path while growing
up.
Second, working parents are often self-sufficient and independent. When a kid
witnesses this about his parents he learns to imbibe these qualities too. He learns
to be passionate about his interests, learns to manage his own chores, learns to
be equipped to manage his life and much more. In the process he learns to be
independent too. This is a good thing – this leads him to be a more grounded
human being than the kids who have grown up always depending on others.
(Any Examples You May Have for Your Agreement/Disagreement)
My agreement to the fact that kids with working parents who can’t give them a
lot of time may not necessarily end up being bad people also comes from the fact
that I myself have grown up in such an environment. My parents have always
been working parents and from my early days my brother and I have seen them
being independent – financially, emotionally and socially. However, whatever
time my parents have got with us was always of quality. We used to spend that
time very effectively. My parents always made us take interests in positive things
such as reading, doing something creative like painting, writing or travelling;
they always taught us to be able to manage our daily lives on our own; and
taught us the importance of being good human beings. None of these were being
forced upon us, but we did these anyway because we were taught the importance
of these. Today, both my brother and I turned out to be alright – we’re doing
things that make us happy and are doing it all on our own.

(Conclusion Summarizing Your Opinion)

Therefore, I stick with my agreement that it really doesn’t matter if a kid gets
lesser time from his parents – but if the time is of quality he’s bound to take away
the goodness of it. It nowhere is related to one growing up to be someone going
astray. As a parent, one should look at trying to be a friend to his/her kids and
imbibe the importance of being a good and respectable citizen instead of being
just a successful one because the path to be a good human being teaches all the
right things while growing up.

Essay 2: It’s observed that a lot of people follow celebrities or famous people and
copy their style published in magazines. In your opinion is it a healthy habit?
Give your reasons for your agreement or disagreement with any examples you
may have.
Response:
(Intro)
One of the key drivers in anyone’s life is his/her aspirations. Aspiring to be
someone better than he/she is today, aspiring to be more successful than what
he/she is today, or just aspiring to be leading a life that’s a level better and
happier than today is what keeps one going. And in a way, all the efforts one puts
in, all the choices one makes, all the impossibles one makes possible - have this
aspiration in its core. In this process, one always tries to follow the best practices
that could help him achieve his/her goal of fulfilling this ambition. And, since any
famous personality or a celebrity is often seen as a successful one with a life that
seems happy and content, one ends up trying to keep them as a role model or
someone ‘I want to be like’. Therefore, more often that not one ends up trying to
imbibe traits from them – be it their style, fashion, choices in food, products – or
even how they talk.

(Your Agreement/Disagreement)
In my opinion, there are two sides to one following their favourite celebrity or
any famous personality – the good and the bad side. It could be a good thing if
one tries to see the hard-work that one does to reach to the stage that a celebrity
is in today and tries to follow that. However, it could be a dangerous and
damaging act if one just see the glittery side of one’s fame and thereby tries to
follow the lifestyle blindly because to fit in this someone’s shoes one might end
up taking the shortcut which almost always is going on the wrong path.

(Reasons for Your Agreement/Disagreement)

Anyone with genuine fame and money achieves these by following a journey of
their own – which mostly consists of sheer passion, complete dedication,
resilience, focus, years of hard-work and a ‘never-quit’ attitude. These are traits
that make them achieve success in their chosen fields – be it business,
entertainment or anything they choose to be in. And therefore, their current
status of being a successful, rich and flamboyant personality is a legit one. If they
choose to live their life in a certain way – be it by living in the most expensive
house in the city, wearing the most famous brands and holidaying in the most
exotic places – it is something they’ve earned it. Therefore, if a common person
needs to follow this famous person, it should be the ethics and the hard-work,
because then the common person could end up changing his/her life for the
better too.
However, if a common person is to just be a superficial follower of his favourite
personality it could do more harm than help. If one has to see and be influenced
by the way a person with fame lives his life – all that could be taken away is the
money he’s spending in his life to maintain his her lifestyle; or all he could take
away is the parties and holidays one is off to; or just the flamboyance that’s
shown on television, magazines and social media. This is a dangerous space –
because while there’s no actual means to fulfill these wishes, one still may tend
to want to fulfill them – which in turn may push him/her into depression, a
feeling of void; or may push him to follow short-cuts to such fame which more
often than not are the wrong paths to be on. This could end up creating a
generation that’s gone astray.

(Examples to Substantiate Your Agreement/Disagreement)

My opinion cited above is based on my personal experiences too. I have
witnessed both the good and bad sides of following a celebrity. I had a friend
who aspired to be an entertainment star, his favourite celebrity being Salman
Khan. He was so fond of the star that from being passionate for body-building to
wearing Salman’s famous bracelet, my friend used to copy his favourite star in
every way possible. However, after trying for a few years to make his name in the
entertainment industry he was unable to bag anything big. While he started
living his life in a certain way, there was no financial means to sustain that.
Today he went back to his father’s business but his broken spirit damaged his
confidence forever, which has made him a depressed soul for life. At the same
time, I have also seen another friend who follows Sheryl Sandberg and thereby
has always tried to imbibe Sheryl’s personality traits in her own. This friend used
to be an under-confident student with a fragile attitude. However, after her
interest in Sheryl’s work and after making many a useful attitudinal changes in
her own, today she’s a much stronger person. Last I heard, she has started her
own business and is also employing around ten people under her. Certainly this
hasn’t been just one day’s work. But the effort to follow the right aspects of her
favourite famous personality has really paid off.
(Conclusion)
Therefore, my conclusion is that one must know what is it that one needs to be
influenced by from his her role model. This only can come from one thing – the
ability to differentiate between the right and the wrong. This is not something
one will be able to help him/herself with in just one day – but as parents, as
friends, and as a society we must make a conscious effort to help each other
make the right choices.

Letter: Please dedicate around 20 minutes to write the Letter.

Letter: There’s a drain being dugged-up in your area thereby obstructing

garbage collection by municipal trucks which has resulted in accumulation of
such garbage in the area. Write a letter to the city authority to explain why it’s a
nuisance and suggest how to tackle the same.

Response:
(Salutation)
Dear Sir/Ma’am,

(Reason Why You’re Writing, Quick Mention of the Issue and the Expected
Outcome)
I’m writing this letter to you to inform about my concern regarding unhealthy
garbage accumulation in the Koramangala Neighborhood, and thereby to request
you to take an effective action to get rid of the situation.

(Explain the Issue in Detail)

As you must be aware of, there’s a huge drain being dugged-up in the 4th Block
neighbourhood of Koramangala area. While the drain will eventually solve the
water-logging issue of the area in the long-run, currently the work-in-progress
has created another kind of trouble for the residents. Owing to the civil work,
both the main streets are blocked and only the small lanes are open for the
residents to commute. While this adjustment may seem fine for daily usage, the
major issue has come from the fact that the bigger vehicles including the garbage
collecting truck is unable to pass through the area. Therefore, the families are
ending up dumping all the daily waste by the corners of the streets. With the
garbage piling-up by the day, today there are mountains of it in multiple corners
of the area. There’s dreadful nauseating smell in the air all the time, causing
serious pollution and unhealthy atmosphere. Stray dogs are loitering around and
spreading half of it in almost everywhere, and the amount of bugs & mosquitoes
have increased exponentially in the past few days. If it continues further a lot of
households will be un-livable.

(Details of the Expected Outcome with Your Suggestions)

Therefore, as a concerned citizen, I along with my neighbours from the area
request you to step in and help us get rid of this situation. In order to help you
help us, we also have come up with a few suggestions as to what could be done.
One, you could help us with smaller garbage-carts that could get inside the
smaller lanes and collect the waste to take to the bigger trucks on the main-roads
on a daily basis. Alternatively, you could help create small pits in certain places
where the garbage could be dumped and transformed to organic manure. Either
way the garbage would get removed from the neighborhood and the residents
could get their peace of mind back.

(Conclusion)
It’s my sincere request to you to take the right action at the earliest so that we all
can be rescued from this urgent and damaging issue. Look forward to your
effective interference at the earliest.

Thanks and regards,

XX