And In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.

It’s the life in your years.

-Abraham Lincoln
Message
To channelize the creative aspect of
the students, the class has come up
with the class magazine .I hope this ef-
fort of our young minds will serve as a
stepping stone towards the many miles
stones they have to cover in pursuit of
excellence. I congratulate all the con-
tributors and the editorial board for
bringing out such a beautiful magazine.

Sumithra MD
Assistant Professor
Dept. Computer Science
Editorial
On behalf of the students of S6 Cs2,
I'm proud to present to you our class Magazine 'Carpe
Diem'.

'Carpe Diem' is a Latin Word meaning 'Seize

the Moment', it has been used many times-
to signify change, uniqueness and encourage
people to live a life without regrets. Carpe Diem is
about not wasting a moment of time, but acting on your
ideas today! Daring to dream the impossible and hav-
ing the courage to make it real. Thats what creates great
minds and inspirational people. So Lets Carpe Diem!

Anyone opening the magazine must be

wondering why it's all black and white, except
maybe for the few pictures. When every one
else might be presenting colourful ones, we for a
change decided to bring beauty to black and white.

I thank all my wonderful classmates for their

generous contributions and our staff advi-
sor Sumithra Ma'am for her great support.
Sneha VL
Chief Editor

Editorial Board

Editors Cover Page and Layout

Reshma D S Sneha VL
Vinita V Nayak
 Contents
Letter to a Father 1
Capturing the Beauty and the Beast 4
Wondrous Dream 5
Sieze the Moment 6
Test your IQ 7
ICT for Digital India 8
What's in a name? 11
The Bhagavad Gita 12
Amazing Facts 14
Who knows our class Best? 16
Don't Let Go 17
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 22
An Invitation 23
Life without Limits 25
Wow! Really? 28
Lolz!!! 29
Families Designed In Frozen Frames 31
Why Failure Is Good for Success 33
Riddles 35
Smell An iPAD 36
Unsung Heroes 38
Puzzles 44
Book Review 46
Where Will We Be in 2050? 48
Do dark clouds have silver lining?? 50
One Teacher,One Book,One pen can change The World... 52
Fulfillment in Life, for a Woman 55
The Pros And Cons Of Driving 56
Narendra Modi: The New Face Of India 58
Tension 61
Math Brain Teaser 62
Why do we Dream? 64
A Versatile Person 66
Aurum Designing, Aurm Art 69
Women in Sports 72
Sleeping Well 75
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 76
Why Loiter? Women And Risks In India 78
Life in S6 CS2!! ;) 79
Carpe Diem! 85
The kidilams of CS2 89
Short Story
Letter to a Father
Radhika felt better once she entered the
school gates. She walked through the
corridors acknowledging all the passing
students’ morning wishes. Her day had
started pretty rough. She fought with Raj
all night. Which continued till today morn-
ing when he walked out on her. She
knew he wasn’t gone. He’ll come back
from office tonight, when they’ll sit down
and decide about their future relationship.
“Good morning Radhika” Vinita wished
her as she entered the staff’s room.
“Good morning” she replied half heartedly.
“Is something wrong?” she enquired, edg-
ing closer to her once Radhika was seated.
“The usual” she replied with a sigh. “I
think it’s over. Finally.”
Vinita didn’t seem to share her relief,
on the contrary, she was worried for her
friend. “What about Sakshi?”
“She’ll get adjusted. Anyways she’s just
five, I don’t think it will affect her much.
Yes, he will be gone most of the time, but
he’ll of course spend time with her.”
Vinita wanted to tell her how wrong she
was. “But he’ll be moving right? Won’t she
need her father?”
Sneha VL
“If he doesn’t care, I’ll raise her like
she didn’t have one.” Radhika re-
plied, her voice trembling with anger.
Vinita very well knew that that was her cue
to stop pressing on. She has known Rad-
hika long enough to understand her anger.
She sighed and quickly changed the subject.
Radhika was happily married for 7 long
years, with a beautiful five year old daugh-
ter. She was very well satisfied with her
job as a high school English teacher. Ev-
erything was perfect until Raj came up with
moving to another city, where he thought
there’ll be better opportunities for him. Rad-
hika refused to give up her comfortable
job. They have been arguing for months
and neither of them was willing to bow a
little for the other. That morning Raj de-
clared his decision. He was moving, wheth-
er she wanted to come with him or not.
After the bell rang for the first period she
walked to her class. The only time she gets
to let go of her worries is when she is
teaching, where most of the stories seems
to have a happy ending. It felt like a perfect
world to be in.
She entered the class and was greeted
with a warm good morning. After taking
the attendance she remembered they were
given an assignment. She was telling them
about the book ‘Letters from a Father to His
Daughter’, which were a collection of
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 1
 letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to
his daughter. She had asked them to
write a letter to their father as an exer-
cise for the creative writing class.
She walked through the class peeping
at each note books to see if everyone
had attempted it. She came across one
that piqued her interest.
“That’s good writing Avantika” she said
as she picked up her notebook. “Why
don’t you read it in class?”
Avantika hesitantly walked to the front
of the class carrying her notebook. Rad-
hika retreated to the back to watch her.
One of the things she encouraged her
class was public speaking.
Avantika took a deep breath and started.
Dear Dad,
How are you? I guess I don’t really
need to point out how much I miss
you. You used to be always busy. Al-
ways away, it gets boring when it’s just
me and ma. It used to be so much
fun when you were around. Remember
that vacation we had in Manali? You
were so worried that I’ll catch a cold
that you covered me with sweater after
sweater, and how we used to play catch
inside the house and that time that we
broke ma’s favourite vase? Catch was
banned from the house after that. How
you tease ma with her cooking, telling
her it needs more salt more that and
this even when it’s perfect. I miss those
days. We used to hang out a lot. There
was not a thing that I didn’t tell you.
Yours
I still remember the day I brought my Avantika
first medal home.
2 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
You were so proud but, was trying so
hard not to show it. You never did. Think-
ing that that would make me over confi-
dent. You were my greatest critic, when
everyone else says it’s perfect, you would
point out its most minute mistakes, maybe
that’s what made me such a perfectionist.
I remember the day I came home crying
after a fight with my best friend of five
years. I remember telling you, ‘Dad it’s
over. It will never be the same anymore’
for the first time in my life, I had felt
alone. But I was wrong. You took me for a
movie that day. Just you and me, and we
talked in the dark. You told me to never
lose hope on people. However hard they
hurt you, don’t let them go. Because it
might be hurting them more than it’s hurt-
ing you. You told me to let go, to smile
at her tomorrow like nothing ever hap-
pened, and if she still cared, she’ll come
around. And that’s just what happened.
Today, when I’m feeling alone, I remember
all the things you told me. How I should
never let people go. But still there are
days that I cry alone. When ma’s too busy,
when I feel like I don’t have anyone to talk
to, I think of all the fun things we used to
do together. The occasional movies, walks
in the morning, discussions over dinner,
how you would sneak in a novel during
exams when ma has strictly prohibited it.
I miss all the laughter we used to have,
when we used to be a family. Now I feel
lonely even in a room filled with people,
because you were the only person who
could read me like a book. I always won-
dered why daughters were more attached
to their fathers, well... now I know why.
The class was in a dead silence. Rad-
hika waited for someone to start an ap-
plause. Surely everybody would agree
how touching it was. But no one ut-
tered a word as Avantika walked
back to her seat and sat down.
“That was really good, I’m sure your father
will like it as well, please show it to him
will you?” Radhika told her as she walked
near her. By then the bell rang. She re-
minded the class about their next assign-
ment and walked towards the staff room.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the let-
ter. How true it was. In everybody’s busy
life, we tend to forget our children, al-
ways busy with work, conferences and
meetings. We never wondered how it
would affect our kids. Wouldn’t they want
someone to talk to every day about
school? About who they met? About the
new friends they made? Whether they
had a fight? Wont they want someone to
tell them what to do when suddenly they
feel all alone? Radhika couldn’t even
remember the name of Sakshi’s best
friend. Was it Pooja or Priya? She re-
ally needs to have a talk with her today.
Radhika hoped with her heart that
Avantika would show that letter to
her father. The PTA meeting is com-
ing next month. Maybe she could meet
with her father and ask him herself.
Radhika sat at her desk, Vinita came after
a few minutes. She noticed a smile on her
face that she hadn’t seen that morning.
“What happened?” Vinita asked her
friend as she sat on her chair. Radhika
explained what happened in class, about
Avantika’s letter and how she felt about
it.
“Avantika?” Vinita asked suddenly sur-
prised at the mention of the name.”The
Avantika in your class?” Radhika nod-
ded, “I really want Raj to read it, he is
a father too, and he should know what
a daughter-” she continued, but suddenly
stopped when she looked at Vinita, who
still didn’t seem to have believed her.
“Why? What is it?”
“It’s just that” Vinita said, “Avantika’s fa-
ther died when she was very young,
about five or six”
Radhika stared at her friend speechless.
“What? But what about all the things she
wrote? The time she spent with her
father? It seemed like he was just busy
or moved away!”
“I know” Vinita sighed “I don’t think she
even remembers him correctly. I think
she made most of those situations on
her own, may be they were things she
wanted to do with her father, the things
she wanted him to tell her. That’s so
sad” Vinita said and then looked to her
friend who was staring blankly at her
desk, not having the heart to believe
the truth. She recalled the letter, and
realised how the whole letter was in a
past tense and the look on everyone’s
face when she had finished reading it.
“I think you should have Raj read it” Vi-
nita said at last.
“Yes, I should” Radhika replied, and then
she placed both her palms over her face
and cried.
***
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 3
 Article

Capturing The Beauty

And The Beast
Sruthi K

Wow! She has traveled most of the Nation-

That’s going to be the expression you are
going to have when you look into Rathika
Ramaswamy, Wildlife photographer’s
photos.
Rathika Ramasamy is well known wildlife
and nature photographer a native of Chen-
nai and now based in New Delhi. She is
first women wild life photographer in India
who has been venturing into the wild to
capture and share its beauty.
A computer engineer with an MBA, she is
into nature photography for the last seven
years. She is passionate about birds and is
specializing in bird photography. Her work
has been showcased in National and In-
ternational publications. Her birds images
have been credited in field guides, books,
calendars and postcards. Her portfolio of
images reflects her passion, persever-
ance, patience and brilliance.
al parks in India and Tanzania. She
is a photography consultant and con-
ducts field workshops for all those en-
thusiast about wildlife photography.
In her own words “I don’t think as a woman
I find any difficulties; wildlife photography
is a tough job, there will be lots of practi-
cal constraints. But if you have a will, then
definitely you can overcome them. Cam-
era and animals are not gender biased!
Wildlife photography is challenging but
rewarding. If you love wildlife, it is very
satisfying work. Being a naturalist having
good in depth knowledge of the subject –
mammals, birds, their habitat and behavior
patterns helps. If you have patience, and
perseverance, you will be rewarded with
memorable images.”
***

With an amazing sense of timing she cap-

tures some of the most amazing moments
from wildlife. Apart from doing wildlife pho-
tography she also conducts workshops on
wildlife photography.

In 2008, Birds of India selected her as one

of the top bird photographer in India. In
2010 she published her first photo book on
“Bird Photography”.

4 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Poem

Wondrous Dream
Thamji Bayar

I would love to go the place

Where I can find endmost peace
And a place where gladness
Will not cease at any instant.

A place where there is no falling-out

Between any single fellow
And a place where I can
Do more for needy and poor.

A place where good dreams accomplish

And the land is tranquil and naive
Where all are righteous and endearing
With no avarice and noise

A place where love and support

Meet each other and always
There is something good to think
And keep for well being.

I know, it can never happen and

If so, it may be a wondrous dream,
I hope God will ratify such a world
Whenever all would love to reach there.

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 5

 Article

Sieze the Moment

Suma Prakash

For each and every person the life varies..

Every one walk on the same path ,view the same faces each day but their life
varies...
Life as many think is not independent of the past...
Life is always about the present depending on which we shape the future

By present we need to live

Every day
Every hour
Every moment
Every moment is precious
So make sure we don’t miss our moment!

We can preserve the moment

In our camera or mind
The choice is ours...
If we live each moment by capturing the life in camera
Then our life becomes the soul of the camera not ours...
Try to live the moment whole heartedly
So that our mind becomes our camera..

Then to relive the moments we won’t need photographs

We would need only our mind-Our Soul!
So whatever may happen...
Live the present moment to fullest
Because only God knows what our next moment will be..

Ie.. Seize the moment!!

6 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Quizes and Riddles

Test your IQ
Reshma C

Below are five questions that determine your iq

1. You are participating in a race.you overtake the second person.what

position are you in?

2. If you overtake the last person, then you are?

3. Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add 1000. Now add a 30 to it.add an
other 1000. Now add a 20. Again add 1000 and 10. What is the total?

4. Mary’s father has 5 daughters.1.nana 2. Nene 3. Nono 4. Nini.

What is the name of 5th daughter?

5. There is a mute person who wants to buy a toothbrush.by imitating the

action presses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.
Now if there is a blind person who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses
how should he express??

Answers

1. Second
2. Cannot overtake the last person
3. 4100
4. Mary
5. Open his mouth and ask for sunglasses.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 7


ICT for Digital India
Digital India was the initiative started by Gov-
ernment of India to integrate the Government
departments and the people of India to en-
sure effective governance. Digital India has
three core areas
1. Digital Infrastructure
2. Delivering services digitally
3. Digital Literacy
The potential of ICT can be manifested in
several ways which in turn would bring about
development in both economic and social
sectors. It also helps in citizen empowerment
through delivery of efficient government ser-
vices. Some examples of the ICT enabled
services include:
1. Government interfaces for filing tax, bill-
ings, statutory record collection, etc. to em-
power citizens with information leading to
transparency.
2. Efficient services for health care, educa-
tion and disaster mitigation.
3. Access to information on rights and re-
sponsibilities for citizen empowerment.
4. Access to vast educational content for im-
proving literacy.
5. Help entrepreneurs in gainful employment
and improve their economic condition.
6. Efficient disbursement of loans, pensions
and maintenance of authentic person and
property records.
8 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Vinita V Nayak
7. Help farmers with value based informa-
tion to improve their productivity and pro-
vide timely information to traders, artisans,
fisherman etc.
8. Entertainment through broadcasting,
gaming and multimedia services at door-
steps in remote areas.
9. News delivery, which helps, integrates
people in diverse groups and at different
places.
10. Serve the physically disabled and
disadvantaged to enable them take advan-
tages of what technologies have to offer.
As a student I have certain
ideas which can be used in the Literacy
sector. I personally think that improving
the literacy sector would in turn help every
other sector too.
1. Using E Mail to Communicate with Stu-
dents
With the lack of schools in rural ar-
eas we can actually provide e-learning op-
portunity to students. Traveling to very far
places can be exhausting for the students
in rural areas. Making the school reach
them through a single projector screen
would help the students in one village.
Using a dedicated web-based email ad-
dress, students would be able to e-mail
their essays/homework and then get feed-
back and suggestions for improvements.
This would enable students to make posi-
tive use of their home ICT equipment
and use the ICT resources outside of les-
son time. With the majority of students
having access to the internet outside of
school, this would empower students to
organize and submit work electronically.
Podcasting isn’t just for revision either
– it can be used to record student as-
sessments, for a quite literal pupil voice
exercise, or even by the teacher to re-
cord revision notes and ideas.

2. Blogging the class 4. Online feedback forms

A blog is quite literally an online diary. Based This allows students to complete forms
on a calendar format you post messages and administration online, automating all
online. This basic concept has a multitude the processes. Once completed by the
of uses. In terms of education the format is individual teacher the form is immedi-
ideal to post summaries of lessons or provide ately e-mailed to all relevant individuals.
support for additional work. To extend a les- The information collected by the form
son you could provide students with a series is stored in a database and can be im-
of additional web links or a copy of the re- ported into a spreadsheet.This replaces
sources used in the lesson. The whole thing the previous slow, paper-based system
is very powerful and there are so many ways and is developing into a really effective
it can lead to the effective use of ICT. A blog technique.
is actually the easiest way for anyone to cre-
ate their own website. A feedback or request for help form can
be put on the intranet or any website.
This means you can setup another
There are many blogging tools available on means of support for students.
the internet and we can now actually setup
blogs using the school’s own webspace.
Once a basic blog has been setup they are ***
very easy to keep up to date. For further de-
velopment we could actually provide each
student with their own login - this means
the teacher could blog their own informa-
tion and ideas and then students can leave
comments and requests. As you have con-
trol over everything you are able to moderate
(i.e. check) messages before they appear.

3. Podcasting with Students

An innovative way to make students revise.

With the growth in MP3s the concept of pod-
casting can been created. Podcasting in its
simplest form is recording your voice. Pod-
casting is actually incredibly simple. Every
single PC comes with a program ‘Sound re-
corder’. Plug a microphone in the PC, load
the program and press ‘record’.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 9

 Art!

Reshma DS

10 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Article

What’s in a name?
Reshma B Daniel

Arose by any other name, smells as sweet. This is a quote by William Shakespeare. I do
agree, that if we called a rose a cactus, and that had been what it was originally called,
we would have found that the object cactus would be a red flower with fragrant stamen.

Name is important in a man’s life. Everyone recognizes a person by name. Name

is used for expressing their individuality. It is the grouping of several letters of an
alphabet, which represent the identification of a person. It distinguishes you from
other people. People choose the names they like because they think these names
are interesting or creative or just feel that it will suit that person. If you like your
name you automatically have a reason to feel good about yourself. It gives con-
fidence and makes you feel presentable to others and that’s not the case if you
don’t like it. Living with a name that we like or one that we dislike does have seri-
ous consequences on self-confidence, happiness or the way we relate to others
in society. But that does not mean the person’s name make any effect on his/ her
qualities.

The physical appearance and qualities of a person are not related to their names.
Parents name their children at birth and thus a person’s name depends almost en-
tirely on the parents. Parents tend to pick out names before the children are born
so that doesn’t mean they can determine their child’s personality and attitude. We
can say that personalities can be a part of genetics, but name is not a genetic at
all.

It is just mere coincidence that some people with same names have similar per-
sonalities. We are all similar to each other to some extent. It’s not our names that
determine this, it’s just human nature, I suppose. I simply believe people share
many common traits in personality, no matter what their name, birth date, and
even culture. We are all “Human” and all have “human” behaviors and expecta-
tions.

Thus I feel names are used to express our identity and it has no significance on
our personality, it just makes us unique. Always feel good about the uniqueness…

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 11


The Bhagavad Gita
The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a
dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and
his guide Lord Krishna. Facing the duty to kill
his relatives, Arjuna is “exhorted by his chari-
oteer, Krishna, among others, to stop hesitat-
ing and fulfill his Kshatriya (warrior) duty as a
warrior and kill.” Inserted in this appeal to ksha-
trahrdaya (heroism) is “a dialogue between
diverging attitudes concerning and methods
toward the attainment of liberation (moksha).
The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis of
the Brahmanical concept of Dharma, theistic
bhakti, the yogic ideals of liberation through
jnana, and Samkhyaphilosophy.
Numerous commentaries have been written
on the Bhagavad Gita with widely differing
views on the essentials. Vedanta commenta-
tors read varying relations between Self en
Brahman in the text while the setting of the
Gita in a battlefield has been interpreted as
an allegory for the ethical and moral strug-
gles of the human life.
Karma yoga
According to Fowler, since it is impossible for
living beings to avoid action all together, the
Bhagavad Gita therefore offers a practical
approach to liberation in the form of Karma
yoga. The path of Karma yoga upholds the
necessity of action. However, this action is
to be undertaken without any attachment to
the work or desire for results. Bhagavad Gita
terms this “inaction in action and action in in-
action (4.18)”.
12 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Meenu PJ
The concept of such detached action is also
called Nishkam Karma, a term not used in the
Gita. Krishna, in the following verses, elabo-
rates on the role actions, performed without de-
sire and attachment, play in attaining freedom
from material bondage and transmigration:
To action alone hast thou a right and never
at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be
thy motive; neither let there be in thee any
attachment to inaction
Fixed in yoga, do thy work, O Winner of
wealth (Arjuna), abandoning attachment,
with an even mind in success and failure, for
evenness of mind is called yoga. (2.47-8)
With the body, with the mind, with the intel-
lect, even merely with the senses, the Yogis
perform action toward self-purification, hav-
ing abandoned attachment. He who is disci-
plined in Yoga, having abandoned the fruit of
action, attains steady peace. (5.11)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi writes, “The
object of the Gita appears to me to be that
of showing the most excellent way to attain
self-realization”, and this can be achieved
by selfless action, “By desireless action; by
renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all
activities to God, i.e., by surrendering one-
self to Him body and soul.” Gandhi called
Gita, The Gospel of Selfless Action.] In order
to achieve true liberation, it is important to
control all mental desires and tendencies to
enjoy sense pleasures. The following verses
illustrate this:
When a man dwells in his mind on the ob-
ject of sense, attachment to them is pro-
duced. From attachment springs de-
sire and from desire comes anger.

From anger arises bewilderment, from be-

wilderment loss of memory; and from loss of
memory, the destruction of intelligence and
from the destruction of intelligence he per-
ishes. (2.62-3)

***

Meenu PJ

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 13

 Facts

Some Amazing and

Unknown Facts
Vidya G

1.) Ants never sleep!

2.) When the moon is directly overhead, you will weigh slightly less.
3.) Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never called his wife or
mother; because they were both deaf.
4.) An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
5.) “I Am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
6.) Babies are born without knee caps – actually, they’re made of cartilage
and the bone hardens, between the ages of 2-6 years.
7.) Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted.
8.) Butterflies taste with their feet.
9.) A “jiffy”, is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
10.) It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
11.) Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
12.) Minus 40° Celsius, is exactly the same as minus 40° Fahrenheit.
13.) No word in the English language rhymes with month - orange - silver -or- purple.
14.) Shakespeare invented the words “assassination” and “bump”.
15.) Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
16.) Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
17.) The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
18.) The sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”
uses every letter in the English language.
19.) The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar
surrendered after 38 minutes.
20.) The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
21.) The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word
you want.
22.) Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from the blowing desert sand.
23.) TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one
row of the keyboard.
24.) You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.
25.) Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will di-
gest itself.
26.) The dot over the letter “i” is called a ‘Tittle’.

14 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Art!

Sruthi Sebastian

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 15

 Puzzle

Who Knows Our

Class The Best??
Neena Jojith

Across: Down:
1. One who has Discrete Structures in her name. 2. One who has irresistible tension,
esp. in LAB.
4.”Thattattin marayathe penne...”. 3. A renowned “Chaluist”.
6. As lean as... 5. ”Entha oru chiri...
As flexible as... Entha randu mizhikal...
7. The perfectionist of our class. Entha oru style...
8. One who has a dimple so admirable. 6. ”Ullalla...Ullalla...
9. One who finds it so hard to control her laughter.
10. Popularly known as “_______ and party”.

ACROSS: 1.RESHMA DS 4.SHAHANA 6.PRATIBHA 7.TANIYA 8.SARANNYA S 9.SREYA

TONY 10.MAHALAKSHMY
DOWN: 2.SAJNA NOUSHAD 3. VINITA NAYAK 5.VANDANA 6.PREETHA

16 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Short Story
Don’t Let Go
Autumn. When the leaves fall. The dawn
before a new beginning. Life wasn’t sup-
posed to change. I was supposed to stay
the same. A new year, in a new place with
so many faces of which I recognised none.
Life was supposed to be simple. At least for
me it used to be. School, home, study, sleep
and the cycle repeats. But then I guess what
everyone says is true. There is more to life
than school and home. There’s a place out-
side this comfort zone- the rest of the world.
I met him in college. You couldn’t actually
say ‘met’. I saw him for the first time in my
college. He was in a different branch than
me. I saw him when I passed his class one
day. I didn’t know what it was. Some peo-
ple call it love at first sight. Others call it an
infatuation. I prefer the latter. I didn’t even
know his name. I would see him every day
in college, but never bothered to ask any-
one his name. May be I was fighting myself
for why I needed to know it.
Days passed and then months. Infatuations
weren’t supposed to last. Was it? Then why
did this one? I kept questioning myself. But
the harder I tried, the more difficult it be-
came for me to let go. Some people would
call it silly. You are hung up over a guy and
you don’t even know his name? Does he
know you? Well that was the tough part. He
didn’t even know I existed.
Sneha VL
Every day I tried to push him out of my
mind, why is it so hard? To forget some-
one you don’t even know? I keep tell-
ing myself to let go. But I can’t. Why is
that? I have criticised all my friends dur-
ing their heart breaks. I waved it off as
something so silly but now how am I so
broken even though nothing happened.
When I told her, Aditi laughed.
“Oh my god! The critic has fallen at last!”
She said through her laughter.
“It’s not funny. Not even close.” I fired back,
really annoyed.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that, you were the last
person on earth that I expected something
like this to happen to.” She said “Anyways,
let’s find out the lucky guy okay?”
“No. I don’t want to” I said firmly. “I said this
to you to make me feel better, not because
I wanted your help”
But the one thing about Aditi is her curios-
ity. Within an hour she found out about him,
something I couldn’t for the past one year.
Then I guess, I never tried.
His name was Varun. Same year as I was.
He’s class topper and extremely talented
singer. Not that it was important. Because
well, he doesn’t know me.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 17
 Second year passed in a flash. And then
third year began. Aditi can be very persua-
sive, which can be very annoying. All through
the year, she suggested different plans to
somehow meet him, because, according to
her, before you know it final year may pass
and I will very much regret it. Though she
didn’t get a chance to meet him, she became
BFFs with his best friend, who just hap-
pened to be a very old classmate of hers.
But that’s when fate intervenes. Whenev-
er we get to talk to his friend he is never
around.
Sometimes when I look at him, I see a sad-
ness in his face, like he’s hiding something.
Some pain that he doesn’t want to show.
He smiles through it, but when he’s stand-
ing somewhere alone, he drops that mask.
But then, it’s not just him. Every one of us
has that side, don’t we? That dark side we
refuse to show, the one that we push down
every time and still tries to resurface. Each
one of has that dark secret. It’s what makes
us who we are.
“His parents got divorced” Aditi said “Ash-
ish told me. They had been fighting for a
while and finally it was over. He was always
at his house, because he didn’t like to stay
at his”
Why did I feel sad about it? Knowing he
was in pain. Why did it make me feel sad?
I always wondered what was going inside
his head. Whether he was happy. Whether
he was hurt. If he had anyone to talk to.
It gets so frustrating, seeing him so close
and not being able to know him.
I pushed it all away. I can’t let it bother me
anymore. Why should I? I have to let go.
I remember that day. I was late for the lab.
there. Was he crying? No he wasn’t.
18 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
He looked mad. Really pissed off. He
saw me coming, glanced over and ig-
nored. To him I was just someone pass-
ing by. I was just one of the thousands
of students studying there. Why would
he care who I was? Why should he?
I decided to walk past him. He was not
part of my life. Neither was I in his. So I
shouldn’t care.
You will regret this.
Best friends can be annoying, when you
realise the truth in some things they say. I
stopped. I turned.
“Are you okay?” I asked, very well know-
ing that that was the most stupidest thing I
could’ve asked.
He turned to me and I knew he was sur-
prised. There I was, someone he didn’t
even know, someone just passing by, ask-
ing about his life. I looked at him and re-
alised. I didn’t know this person. I didn’t
know his life. What he liked and what he
didn’t. But still there I was.
“Yeah” he replied and smiled.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” I asked, just
for the sake of asking.
He smiled again. “It’s college”, he pointed
out. “Who doesn’t bunk?”
“Yeah”, I agreed, “But it’s usually for hang-
ing out with friends or catching a movie, not
brooding”
He was taken aback. “Who said I was
brooding?”
“Well, you look like you are” I replied. Be-
cause of your parents maybe, or is there
something else. Something you haven’t
told your friends?
He laughed lightly and looked away. Maybe
this was my signal to leave. But why couldn’t
I? I was not even his friend? Why would
he talk to me? Especially about his life?
“You wouldn’t understand” he said finally.
“Try me” I challenged. I was stupid.
“Well,” he said, “Have you ever felt like giv-
ing up?”
On you? Many times. I just wish I could.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When life gets tough. Have you ever felt
like giving up? To stop trying to get up?” he
was still looking away from me.
What was I supposed to say to that? I knew
something was wrong. I wanted to sit next
to him. Ask him what the problem was, try
to find a solution, make him feel better. But
I couldn’t do that now, could I. I was a no
one.
“I think everybody has that time at least
once in your life” I said, though till today I
have no idea from were those words came
from. “You don’t lose if you fall down. You
lose when you can’t get back up again.
Right?”
He looked at me. I knew he thought I was
stupid. Even I thought so. But whatever he
thought, he didn’t say that out loud. “Right”
he replied and smiled again. “You are late.
You should be getting back to class” he
pointed out.
“Yup” I said, and turned and walked away.
What was it that hurt him? Why did he feel
like giving up? I felt so helpless. Like watch-
ing someone getting burned and not being
able to help. Just watching and getting my-
self burned from the inside.
The year passed. I never talked to him af-
ter that day. I never saw him much. But I
felt better inside. He might not know my
name. But at least he knew I existed, that
is, if he remembered my face. But that
doesn’t matter. Somehow, it didn’t matter.
By talking to him for a few moments, it’s like
I got a glimpse of who he was.
Another autumn came by, leaves fell. Aditi
ran up to me in class and sat next to me
out of breath. She didn’t say anything for
some time. Just sat there. She looked like
she had seen a ghost.
“Something wrong?” I asked as I smiled at
my annoying friend.
I still remember the way she looked at me
when she said it. “He died.”
I never knew how two words could inflict
so much pain in someone. She didn’t need
to say who? She knew I understood. “He
killed himself. They found him today morn-
ing”
We both sat there. She didn’t say anything
to me that day. I understood her dilemma.
What was she supposed to do? Console
me? Why? Who was he to me?
I don’t remember the rest of the day. That
day to me, ended with that conversation. I
didn’t know what I was supposed to feel. I
fought with myself, reasoned with myself.
But for what? So that it will make me feel
better?
Now, how can I ever let go.
******
“Priya?” Aditi called, waving her hand in
front of my eyes. ” Are you day dreaming?”
“Huh?” I looked at her.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 19
 “Girl! You gotta stop doing that, sometimes
you freak me out!” Aditi replied with a sigh.
I smiled.
Bangalore. Where life starts for most soft-
ware engineers. For someone from the
south, you feel a little left out at first, but
then that’s how you learn to live right? By
finding your place in the world. By trying to
fit in.
“Sorry” I said as I went back to work. She
smiled back.
************
It’s autumn again. And three years have
passed. I’m in a new city. With new peo-
ple, but luckily Aditi tagged along too.
When in school you think this is the world,
in college you feel that that is the world.
But it’s when you actually see it that it
makes you feel so small. In a big city with
so many people. You’ll still feel alone.
Aditi was late and I was sipping my coffee,
waiting for her. I saw someone walk over to
me, from the corner of my eye.
“Priya?” I looked up at the owner of the
voice. It took some time, but I recognised
him.
“Ashish!” I said surprised. “You are in Ban-
galore?”
“No” he said as he sat on the seat opposite
to me. “Here for a training. I’m going back
tomorrow.”
We took some time to catch up. It’s not that
I didn’t enjoy meeting him. But it brought
back something that I’ve been trying to
bury inside.
“You liked him, didn’t you?” he asked, I
looked up at him shaken. “Aditi told me. Af-
ter he... After it happened.”
20 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
He looked down after he said the last part.
It must’ve been hard on him. He was his
best friend. I couldn’t even imagine the
pain he could’ve gone through. What if
something happened to Aditi? I wouldn’t
be able to forgive myself ever even if
there was nothing I could have done.
“Do you know why?” I asked hesitantly. It
has been three years but still, he looked
wounded.
“Family stuff. Pressure. You can never know
what goes through peoples mind some
days.” He said as he looked towards the
street. “Hey, didn’t you talk to him once?”
“Yeah, but how did you know?”
“I was there” he said with a smile. “When
you were walking away. I came looking for
him. What did you say to him?”
“Well, nothing, I just asked him why he
wasn’t going to class” there wasn’t any
need to let him know the rest. “Why?”
“Well” he said with a sigh, “He was different
for a few days. Though... it didn’t last. I wish
he knew about you”
Yeah. Well, I wished the same. For three years.
“Well” he said as he checked his watch. “I
should get going. It was nice seeing you.
Tell Aditi okay?”
“Sure” I said.
He got up to leave but then turned around.
”Oh, by the way, he knew your name. He
asked me that day.” He said, smiled and
walked away.
I wish he knew about you.
What if he did? Would he be still alive. Know-
ing that there was someone who loved him? ***********
Would he have had the will to live? What
would have happened if she had told him? If “Varun!” Ashish called out to his friend
she had the guts to go talk to him. To be his
friend. Would that have changed anything? “Here you are. Aren’t you coming to class?”
That’s when he noticed a retreating figure
About eight hundred thousand people sui- and his friend staring after it.
cide every year, worldwide, of this about
one hundred and thirty five thousands are “Do you know who that is?” he asked, look-
Indians. An average of fifteen suicides an ing up to his friend.
hour, about three hundred and seventy a
day, of which about hundred are due to “Yeah” he replied. “I think that’s Priya, she’s
family issues and pressure. But why? We in my friend’s class. Why?” he asked.
never know what they are going through do
we? Varun got up from where he was sitting and
walked towards his friend. “She’s an opti-
From my life and what I went through, I re- mist”
alised one thing. No one’s ever alone. No
one’s ever unloved. There is always at least “Is that a bad thing” he asked confused.
one person who loves you, from some-
where far. Someone you haven’t even met “No” and he laughed. “It’s just that...” he
yet. Someone who knows nothing about said as he turned again towards the cor-
you. Someone who doesn’t care who you ridor, but she was already gone. He turned
are or where you came from. Whenever back again and started walking towards
you feel like letting go, giving up, know that class. “I think I could use some”
there is someone who is dying to meet you.
You might think you are doing others a fa-
vour by leaving, or maybe you think you ***
can’t keep going anymore. But, you are
wrong. I never knew him, but I wanted to
know him. I wanted to know what his likes
were. His favourite movie, favourite song.
How he was when he was small. What was
that pain he was trying to hide, the pain that
finally took control of him. All we talked for
were few minutes, or even less. But the
pain he left me was for a life time. I might
be able to move on. But I’ll never be able
to let go of that past. He was the reason
for my smile every day. And he never even
knew it. What if he had?

Anytime you feel like giving up. Know that

you are the reason for somebody’s smile
today. So don’t let go.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 21

 Article

If Winter comes can

spring be far behind?
Reshma B Daniel

The quotation is referred to in the last of
Shelly’s famous poem “Ode to the West
Wind”. In the poem, the poet identifies him-
self with west wind, which, to him, is both
the destroyer and the preserver. The poet
has dead thoughts which he would like to
be scattered by the west wind like dead
leaves. In place of these dead thoughts, he
wants new and fresh thoughts to be born
in him. As from an unextinguished hearth,
ashes and sparks are spread by the wind
so the poet wants his message of hope to
be delivered to the frustrated mankind. As
winter is sure to be followed by spring, in
the same way, dark and unhappy days of
life are bound to be followed by period of
happiness and joy. Winter is the symbol of
desolation and barrenners whereas spring
stands for joyousness and fruitfulness.
Optimism is the attitude of life which must be
formed. An optimistic outlook is a healthy
sign of life and struggle. It makes us self
radiant and grant fixity of purpose. It take
away passivity and grants pertinacity of ef-
forts. It teaches patience and perseverance.
It makes us persons of indomitable will and
lofty aspirations. “Practice begets facility”.
Therefore, it is better to wear out than to rust
out in inactivity. It is rightly said “people do not
lack strength, they lack will” – Victor Hugo.
***

The quotation assumes significant applica-

tion to the present state of affairs. The man
today is passing through a period of mis-
erable existence. The days of darkness
and frustration constitute the life of man.
The world today is collapsing into a help-
less state of boredom. The weariness, fret
and fever of life have made man to deduce
“where but to think is to be full of sorrow”.

We must realize that in the course of life

good and evil days follow in succession.
But we must bear sufferings with patience
and fortitude in the hope that spring follows
winter, joy will follow sorrow.

22 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Jokes

An Invitation
Nicy Susan Koshy

From,
Trigonometry,
Mathematics Dept.,
Circular road,
Rectangle P.O,
Square line.

To,
Mr. Algebra,
Mathematical house,
Parabola road,
Perpendicular.

Dear Mr. Algebra,

I wish to inform you of the marriage of my son ‘Zero’ with my friend’s daughter
‘Infinity’. They wished to marry and so I consulted Mr. Calculus about this and he has
come out with the good news that they will lead a happy and prosperous life. As you
know, zero in association with infinity is infinity.

My son Zero is very popular among students and has proved to be a majority
in various examinations.

Please inform your relatives Mr. Formula, Mrs. Theorem and Mr. Proof about
the marriage .Also, please do consult pandit Logarithm to fix an auspicious date.

Don’t forget to invite your uncle Statistics and your neighbors Ms. Sine, Mr.
Cos and Mrs. Tan. Convey my ‘remainder’ to your beloved wife Mrs. Symmetry. Hope
you will attend the function.
Yours faithfully,
Trigonometry
Sd/-

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 23

 Art!

Urmila S R

24 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article
Life Without Limits
Imagine getting through your busy day
without hands or feet. Picture your life
without the ability to walk, care for your
basic needs, or even embrace those you
love. Meet Nicholas Vujicic (pronounced
VOO-yee-cheech). Without any medical
explanation or warning, Nick was born
in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia, without
arms and legs. Three sonograms failed to
reveal complications. And yet, the Vujicic
family was destined to cope with both the
challenge and blessing of raising a son
who refused to allow his physical condi-
tion to limit his lifestyle.
The early days were difficult. Throughout
his childhood, Nick not only dealt with the
typical challenges of school and adoles-
cence, but he also struggled with depres-
sion and loneliness. Nick constantly won-
dered why he was different than all the
other kids. He questioned the purpose of
life, or if he even had a purpose.
According to Nick, the victory over his
struggles, as well as his strength and pas-
sion for life today, can be credited to his
faith in God. His family, friends and the
many people he has encountered along
the journey have inspired him to carry on,
as well.
Since his first speaking engagement at
age 19, Nick has traveled around the
world, sharing his story with millions,
sometimes in stadiums filled to capacity,
speaking to a range of diverse groups
such as students, teachers, young
Vinita V Nayak
people, business professionals and
church congregations of all sizes. Today
this dynamic young evangelist has accom-
plished more than most people achieve in
a lifetime. He’s an author, musician, actor,
and his hobbies include fishing, painting
and swimming. In 2007, Nick made the
long journey from Australia to southern
California where he is the president of the
international non-profit ministry, Life With-
out Limbs, which was established in 2005.
Nick says, “If God can use a man with-
out arms and legs to be His hands and
feet, then He will certainly use any willing
heart!”
Here are 3 reasons why he inspires us
1. He exudes wholeheartedness.
Nick begins his talk emphatically with an
oft-heard line: “You are beautiful just the
way you are.” He shares how he used to
be taunted by bullies, “You’ll never make
it,” or “You are destined for a life of loneli-
ness because no one will ever love you.”
He allowed them to determine his worth.
He even contemplated killing himself by
drowning in a tub.
Determined to move away from these lies,
he focused his energy on believing in his
own worth and self-love. He willed himself
to move away from experiencing shame
to allowing vulnerability, yet cultivating re-
silience to others’ words.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 25
 This vulnerability is what Brene Brown
defines as “being honest with how we
feel, about our fears, about what we need
and then asking for what we need.” In-
stead of being driven by fear and weak-
ness, vulnerability means being driven
by courage to be one’s authentic self.
In pushing to love and be himself, Nick
chose what Brown terms wholehearted-
ness, choosing to engage in the world and
with the world from a place of worthiness.
Nick chooses to believe that he is not de-
fined by what others see or the work that
he has done. Instead, he makes choices
that stem from knowing what is important
to him: family, self-compassion, and love.
2. He embodies gratitude
Born with no arms and legs, he is ex-
tremely thankful for a little foot (or chick-
en drumstick as he affectionately terms
it) that enables him to brush his teeth,
drive a car, type on a computer and much
more.
With what he has, he has managed to live
an independent life, write 4 books, and
bring inspiration to others.
He explains that spending life comparing
oneself to others who are better, richer,
more beautiful is bound to breed discon-
tent. For example, if he constantly wished
to have limbs, he would have no mental
space to consider new ideas to leverage his
chicken drumstick to reach his full potential.
The role of gratitude on living a full life is
not new. In his research, Robert Emmons
has found that being grateful has signifi-
cant physical, psychological and social
benefits.
26 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
People who practice gratitude often report
better immune systems, better sleep, and
more positivity. They also feel less lonely,
less isolated and more generous.
For Nick, being grateful means focusing
on what he has, what Emmons calls an
affirmation of goodness: there are good
things in the world, and we have received
some of them. It also provides a means
for Nick to figure out where that good-
ness is coming from, in Emmons’ words,
“recognizing a humble dependence
on others.” Nick credits his parents for
treating him as a normal child, his wife
Kanae for unwavering love, and God
for giving him this life to inspire others.
3. He exemplifies goodness in human be-
ings
After Nick is done with his speech, he is
joined on stage by two Singaporeans.
The first is Aishah Samad, a 41-year old
ex-Singapore national shooter who con-
tracted a severe bacterial infection in July
2012 which eventually led to the ampu-
tation of her arms and legs. The second
is Jason Chee, a Navy serviceman who
lost both his legs and his left arm in a
shipboard accident in December 2012.
Nick demonstrates extreme humility and
empathy by sharing that he has had it
lucky because he was born with no arms
and legs. Coping for him means figuring
out how to manage without something
he never had, Coping for them is learn-
ing to do without what they have always
known, a significantly tougher job. In this
moment, he puts them, their feelings, and
their plight above his.
As CEO of non-profit company Life With-
out Limbs, driven by a firm belief in God,
Nick hopes to inspire others that hope
prevails despite challenges and ob-
stacles in life if one can still find the
strength to overcome them. In this spir-
it, he shares his plans to set up a train-
ing academy to train speakers to share
this message, and extends this op-
portunity to both Aishah and Jason.

Researcher Stephen Post suggests

there is a strong positive correlation be-
tween altruism (or helping others) and
well-being, health, and longevity. In a re-
cent study by UnitedHealthcare and Vol-
unteerMatch, of 4582 American adults,
89 percent responded that helping has
improved [their] sense of well-being
and 78 percent reported that it helps re-
covery from loss and disappointment.

In setting up Life Without Limbs, Nick

reaches out beyond himself, supporting
love and hope in others.

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 27

 Quotes and Facts

Wow! Really?
Nicy Susan Koshy

A Winner Is Not One Who Never Fails…

But One Who Never Quits!!

Officials rejected a candidate for a news broadcaster’s post since hsvoicewas not
found fitHe was also told that with his obnoxiously long name,he would never be fa-
mous. He is
AMITABH BACHCHAN

In 1962,four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the execu-
tives of Decca Recording Company.The executives were not impressed.While turning
down this group of musicians,theysaid,”We don’t like their sound.Guitars are on their
way out.Te group was called
THE BEATLES

In 1944,the Director of Blue Book Modelling Agency told modelling hopeful Norma
JeannBaker,”You’d better learn secretarial work or else get married”. She went on and
became
MARILYN MONROE

A small boy,the fifth amongst seven siblings of a poor family wasselling newspapers in
a small seaside village to earn his living.He was not exceptionally smart at school, but
was fascinated by religion and rockets. The first rocket he built crashed. A missile that
he built crashed multiple times and he was made a butt of ridicule.He is the person to
have scripted the Space Odyssey of India.He is

Dr.A.P.J ABDUL KALAM

In the 1940s, a young inventor named Chester Carlson took his idea to 20 corporations
,including some of the biggest in the country.They all turned him down.After 7 long
years of rejection ,he finally got a tiny company,The Haloid to purchase the rights to
his invention-an electrostatic paper copying process. The Haloid company came to be
known as
XEROX CORPORATION

A school teacher scolded a boy for not aying attention to mathematics and for not eing
able to solve simle problems. She told him that he would never become anybody in life.
That little boy was
ALBERT EINSTEIN

28 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Jokes
LoLz!!!
Boss: Where were you born?
Sardar: India ..
Boss: which part?
Sardar: What ‘which part’? Whole body was
born in India .
*************************************************** ************************************************
**************
2 sardar were fixing a bomb in a car.
Sardar 1: What would you do if the bomb
explodes while fixing.
Sardar 2: Dont worry, I have one more.
***************************************************
**************
Sardar: What is the name of your car?
Lady: I forgot the name, but is starts with ‘T’. Art dealer: I beg your pardon sir, that is a
Sardar: Oh, what a strange car, starts with
Tea. All cars that I know start with petrol.
***************************************************
**************
Sardar joined new job. 1st day he worked
till late evening on the computer. Boss was
happy and asked what you did till evening.
Sardar: Keyboard alphabets were not in
order, so I made it alright.
***************************************************
**************
Sardar: U cheated me.
Shopkeeper: No, I sold a good radio to u.
Sardar: Radio label shows Made in Japan
but radio says this is ‘All India Radio! ‘
***************************************************
**************
Vinita V Nayak
At the scene of an accident a man was
crying: O God! I have lost my hand, oh!
Sardar: Control yourself. Don’t cry. See
that man. He has lost his head. Is he cry-
ing?
*****************
Sardar bought a new mobile. He called ev-
eryone in his Phone Book and told them:
“My mobile number has changed, earlier it
was Nokia 3310, now it is 6710”
************************************************
*******************
Jasbir visits an art gallery: I suppose this
horrible looking thing is what you call mod-
ern art?
mirror.
************************************************
********************
Santa: I am a most proud Sardar, My son
is in medical college.
Banta: Really, what is he studying?
Santa: No is not studying, they are study-
ing him.
************************************************
**************
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 29
 Banta: Why is your wife shouting at you?
Santa: Instead of posting her photo on Face-
book, by mistake I uploaded it on OLX!
***************************************************
******************************
Santa went to a restaurant in China.
Waiter: Sir, I have Stewed Liver, Boiled
Tongue and Frog’s Legs.
Santa: I am not a doctor who can address
your health problems. I am hungry. So just
get me a Menu Card!
**************************************************
*****
Drunk Santa reaches home pretty late night.
Jeeto: Peekay Aaya Hai?
Santa: Nahi. Abhi Bas Poster Aaya Hai.
Movie December Mein Aayegi!
**************************************************
*******
NOW THE LAST TWO ULTIMATE:
In an interview, Interviewer: How does an
electric motor run?
Sardar: Dhhuuuurrrrrrrrrr. .....
Inteviewer shouts: Stop it.
Sardar: Dhhuurrrr dhup dhup dhup...

***************************************************
**************

Tourist: Whose skeleton is that?

Sardar: An old king’s skeleton.
Tourist: Who’s that smaller skeleton next to
it?
Sardar: That was same king’s skeleton when
he was a child.

30 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article
Families Designed In
Frozen Frames
What started as a technique for freezing fe-
male eggs to enable women with cancer to
store eggs prior to chemotherapy has now
become a service perquisite. A woman can
freeze her eggs to promote her career and
climb the corporate ladder by deferring moth-
erhood. In another dimension, posthumous
impregnation and creation of babies by as-
sisted and collaborative modern techniques
such as in-vitriofertilisation or cryopreserva-
tion of gametes and eggs may evoke strong
notions about life, parenthood and immortal-
ity. Such posthumous artificial reproduction
has given rise to legal issues that current
outdated laws cannot address. Banking is no
longer associated with just money but with
sperms and eggs as well.
A volley of arguments has followed the offers
of freezing embryos to postpone motherhood.
These range from the risks of tampering with
the order of nature, unwarranted interference
between a woman and motherhood, subject-
ing the woman to health risks, expensive
time-consuming medical procedures and
promising “fertility insurance,” and deferring
child birth plans with assured career progres-
sion. Now the reality is that overworked pro-
fessionals are conveniently using such tech-
niques since they are physically apart at the
time of conception. Families are thus sought
to be designed in frozen frames for couples
who are career-minded. Invention has over-
taken human relationships in this race.
Nicy Susan Koshy
Babies are designed and planned like
careers, not for joy but for necessity.
Oocyte cryopreservation or freezing of
a woman’s eggs is stated to be an op-
tion to extend fertility and delay mother-
hood. Silicon Valley technology giants
have offered $20,000 to both full-time
and part-time women employees to
freeze their eggs and store them in or-
der to enable these women to focus on
their careers and delay child bearing.
While everybody talks of the rights of
the father and mother-to-be, nobody has
looked at the rights of the unborn child.
Postponing conception for career ad-
vancement takes away the rights of an
unborn child. Be it a frozen embryo in a
cryogenic jar or a frozen sperm or egg
in a bank, a human life may be at stake.
Besides issues of morality and ethics,
there is no focus on the ‘right to life’ of an
unborn child. From the perspective of this
child, his right to be born cannot be fro-
zen once he is meant to be procreated.
For a child to be born and for him to enjoy
the company of his young parents needs
determination. . A child born to parents af-
ter 20 years of his frozen conception de-
prives him of the young companionship
of his healthy parents which he would
have enjoyed, had he not
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 31
 been consigned to posterity. This angle
seems to have been totally ignored so far.

Egg, sperm and embryo banking which

were alien concepts will now enter the
home, and the family and will have to give
rise to a new set of laws and rights. Issues
may also arise if, after freezing the eggs,
the child is not conceived because of medi-
cal complications or unsuccessful retrieval
of eggs. There is no law which assures and
guarantees a woman who has frozen her
eggs a healthy child. By offering money
for freezing and preserving eggs and bar-
gaining away the joys of a natural process
for fast-tracking careers, these corporate
organisations are sending out exploitative
signals.

In the interest of nature, joyful parenting,

and the psychological welfare of an un-
born child, it may be necessary to enact a
law that provides incentives and benefits
for surrogates or parents who conceive
naturally. Providing leave for fertility treat-
ments, maternity leave for foster moth-
ers, time for child care and adoption ben-
efits may be feasible. Work places could
provide special rooms or play rooms in
crèches for children of working mothers.

Providing yearly sabbaticals which do not

affect career prospects of working women,
can further promote timely parenthood.Un-
less and until a clear empathetic attitude is
depicted, utilisation of female manpower
may become a tool in the hands of career
launchers who will keep in deep freeze pa-
rental joys.

***

32 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article
Why Failure Is Good
for Success
The sweetest victory is the one that’s
most difficult. The one that requires you to
reach down deep inside, to fight with ev-
erything you’ve got, to be willing to leave
everything out there on the battlefield—
without knowing, until that do-or-die mo-
ment, if your heroic effort will be enough.
Society doesn’t reward defeat, and you
won’t find many failures documented in his-
tory books. The exceptions are those fail-
ures that become steppingstones to later
success. Such is the case with Thomas
Edison, whose most memorable invention
was the light bulb, which purportedly took
him 1,000 tries before he developed a suc-
cessful prototype. “How did it feel to fail
1,000 times?” a reporter asked. “I didn’t fail
1,000 times,” Edison responded. “The light
bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Unlike Edison, many of us avoid the pros-
pect of failure. In fact, we’re so focused on
not failing that we don’t aim for success,
settling instead for a life of mediocrity.
When we do make missteps, we gloss over
them, selectively editing out the miscal-
culations or mistakes in our life’s résumé.
When we take a closer look at the great
thinkers throughout history, a willingness to
take on failure isn’t a new or extraordinary
thought at all.
Vineetha Mathew
From the likes of Augustine, Darwin and
Freud to the business mavericks and
sports legends of today, failure is as power-
ful a tool as any in reaching great success.
“Failure and defeat are life’s greatest teach-
ers [but] sadly, most people, and particularly
conservative corporate cultures, don’t want
to go there,” says Ralph Heath, managing
partner of Synergy Leadership Group and
author of Celebrating Failure: The Power of
Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Think-
ing Big. “Instead they choose to play it safe,
to fly below the radar, repeating the same
safe choices over and over again. They op-
erate under the belief that if they make no
waves, they attract no attention; no one will
yell at them for failing because they gener-
ally never attempt anything great at which
they could possibly fail (or succeed).”
However, in today’s post-recession econo-
my, some employers are no longer shying
away from failure—they’re embracing it.
According to a recent article in Business-
Week, many companies are deliberately
seeking out those with track records reflect-
ing both failure and success, believing that
those who have been in the trenches, sur-
vived battle and come out on the other side
have irreplaceable experience and perse-
verance. They’re veterans of failure.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 33
 “The quickest road to success is to possess
an attitude toward failure of ‘no fear,’ ” says
Heath. “To do their work well, to be suc-
cessful and to keep their companies com-
petitive, leaders and workers on the front
lines need to stick their necks out a mile
every day. They have to deliver risky, edgy,
breakthrough ideas, plans, presentations,
advice, technology, products, leadership,
bills and more. And they have to deliver all
this fearlessly—without any fear whatsoev-
er of failure, rejection or punishment.”
The same holds true for personal quests,
whether in overcoming some specific
challenge or reaching your full poten-
tial in all aspects of life. To achieve your
personal best, to reach unparalleled
heights, to make the impossible pos-
sible, you can’t fear failure, you must
think big, and you have to push yourself.
female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic
Ocean. Although her final flight proved
fateful, Maxwell believes she knew
the risk—and that the potential reward
was worth it. “[Earhart’s] advice when it
came to risk was simple and direct: ‘De-
cide whether or not the goal is worth the
risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.’ ”
Of course, the risks you take should be
calculated; you shouldn’t fly blindly into the
night and simply hope for the best. Achiev-
ing the goal or at least waging a heroic ef-
fort requires preparation, practice and some
awareness of your skills and talents.
***

When we think of people with this mindset,

we imagine the daredevils, the pioneers,
the inventors, the explorers: They embrace
failure as a necessary step to unprecedent-
ed success.

But you don’t have to walk a tightrope, climb

Mount Everest or cure polio to employ this
mindset in your own life. When the rewards
of success are great, embracing possible
failure is key to taking on a variety of chal-
lenges, whether you’re reinventing your-
self by starting a new business or allowing
yourself to trust another person to build a
deeper relationship.

“To achieve any worthy goal, you must take

risks,” says writer and speaker John C.
Maxwell. In his book Failing Forward: Turn-
ing Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Suc-
cess, he points to the example of legendary
aviator Amelia Earhart, who set several re-
cords and achieved many firsts in her life-
time, including being the first

34 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Quizes and Riddles
Riddles
1. A fellow encountered a bear in a waste-
land. There was nobody else there. Both
were frightened and ran away. Fellow to
the north, bear to the west. Suddenly the
fellow stopped, aimed his gun to the south
and shot the bear. What color was the
bear?
( if the bear ran about 3.14 times faster
than the fellow (still westwards), the fellow
could have shot straight in front of him,
however for the booty he would have to go
to the south.)
Answer:
It all happened on the North Pole. When
the man shot, he must have been right
on the North Pole. Getting it? So it makes
sense to assume that the only color the
bear could be was WHITE.
2. Who makes it, has no need of it.
Who buys it, has no use for it.
Who uses it can neither see nor feel it.
What is it?
Answer:
A coffin.
3. There was a green house. Inside the
green house there was a white house.
Inside the white house there was a red
house. Inside the red house there were
lots of babies. What is it?
Answer:
Watermelon.
Vishagini V
4. A poor farmer went to the market to sell
some peas and lentils. However, as he
had only one sack and didn’t want to mix
peas and lentils, he poured in the peas
first, tied the sack in the middle, and then
filled the top portion of the sack with the
lentils. At the market a rich innkeeper hap-
pened by with his own sack. He wanted
to buy the peas, but he did not want the
lentils.
Pouring the seed anywhere else but the
sacks is considered soiling. Trading sacks
is not allowed. The farmer can’t cut a hole
in his sack.
How would you transfer the peas to the
innkeeper’s sack, which he wants to keep,
without soiling the produce?
Answer:
The marines were standing back against
the sides of the ship so they were looking
at each other. It does not matter where the
ship is (of course it does not apply to the
North and South Pole)
5. What occurs once in every minute,
twice in every moment, yet never in a
thousand years?
Answer:
The letter m.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 35

Smell An iPAD
The physical book meets its many avatars
That musty smell of a wood-panelled book-
store, that hunt for a rare title, the feel of the
leather-bound visage of a classic. To walk
through the, maze of tall shelves, to dive
into the crevices of a labyrinthine library,
the joy of browsing for long hours. Well, all
this may have a romantic ring to it but now
the hunt for a coveted book is not so long-
winded. In fact, it’s just a click away.
Log on to one of the several websites,
key in the book’s name, hit the search
button, find, order and voila! It will get
delivered to your doorstep in a matter
of a couple of days. Not a muscle needs
to be stretched anymore to reach out
for a book you have hungered for long.
It’s cause for celebration for many a reader.
Author and journalist Shabnam Minwalla
enthusiastically recommends online book-
shopping. A mother of three, she tells the
story of her family’s quest for the third book
in the Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants
series. “I tried looking for it everywhere.
Then one fine day I just gave up and went
online and located it in a matter of minutes”,
she says. As a young crime fiction junkie,
she used to find it difficult to locate many ti-
tles of a series. “That won’t be the case with
my daughters and it’s Flipkart and Amazon
that has made it possible”, she says.
36 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Vandana R
It’s not just to do with finding a book on-
line. Technology has also changed the
way we consume a book. Just download a
book onto any smart device-a Kindle or an
iPad-and you can start reading right away.
This has led to a veritable reading revolu-
tion, whose demise pundits keep predict-
ing at least once every decade. Reading is
cool again. We are now consuming the writ-
ten word at a speed and quantity which far
surpasses any other era. That too with far
fewer bookshops, public libraries or read-
ing rooms. Simran Kaur, a young account-
ing professional, swears by her Kindle.
“What is great about it is that you can carry
as many books as you want”. And a boon
for travellers. Also, they no longer need
to occupy precious space in our tiny flats.
It doesn’t stop at iPads, tabs and Kindles
alone. There are several products and apps
to help us read on the go. Audio books are
also making books more accessible. Sim-
ply push in a CD or pen drive and get an
authentic reading or re-enactment of your
favourite book. In fact, audio books loaded
as a part of their on-board entertainment
package.
There is even a Twitter account solely dedi-
cated to retelling the one lakh shlokas of
the Mahabharata through tweets.
Internet is the fastest, as well as
the cheapest, informer and enter-
tainment channel in present times.

As with music, which has come a long way

from LP records, spool tapes, cassettes,
discs, pen drives and Blue Ray to wearable
music in a music in a watch, the format of
the book may have changed from what Jo-
hannes Gutenberg published in the 1450s.
Yet, its transformative impact on humanity
increases with time.

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 37


The Unsung Heroes
In this world where actors and athletes
are revered,where we have so many
great heroes who helped change the
world, we often forget to remember the
unsung heroes who changed the course
of history silently and without fanfare.
Maybe we simply never heard of them.
We know about Malala Yousafai, a young
activist for female education...we know
about Narendra Modi who started out as
a tea vendor and became prime Minis-
ter of India...we know a lot of freedom
fighters,polititians and activists who are
known for their great deeds.Yet what about
those who truly made a difference and went
unrecognized for their selfless acts?
She Begged On Streets So She Could
Feed Every Orphan She Saw! Can
You Imagine Anyone More Heroic?
Sindhutai Sapkal is much more than just
a name. The 68-year-old lady hides many
stories behind her strong personality. Full
of energy and passion, Sindhutai is com-
monly referred to as “Mother of Orphans”
and as she talks about her life and her chil-
dren you can see the pain, the troubles and
the miseries she has faced and overcome
with her hard work during her life But, from
all the emotions you see on her face, an un-
usual sense of confidence, which she has
derived over the years through her experi-
ence, is something you get inspired from.
38 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Cover Article
Priya Mary Jose
“I am there for all those who have no one,”
she says with a lot of affection. You can see
flashes of her life as she talks about her jour-
ney and how she became the “mother”. Be-
ing an unwanted child, she was nicknamed
“Chindhi” which means a torn piece of cloth.
Born on born on 14 November, 1948 at Pim-
pri Meghe village in Wardha district of Ma-
harashtra, she was keen on completing her
education and used Bharadi tree leaves to
write as the family could not afford a slate.
Her early marriage put an end to her desire
to study.
“I was told there are only two processions
in a woman’s life; once when she gets mar-
ried and the other when she dies. Imagine
my state of mind when they took me in a
procession to my husband’s home in Na-
vargaon forest in Wardha,” she says.
She got married at a tender age of 10 to a
30-year old man. Her abusive husband beat
her up and threw her out of the house when
she was 20 and nine-months pregnant. She
gave birth to a baby girl in a cow shelter out-
side their house the same day and walked a
few kilometres in that condition to her moth-
er’s place, who refused to give shelter to her.
“I cut the umbilical cord with a sharp-edged
stone lying nearby,” she recalls.
The incident deeply affected her and she
thought of committing suicide, but gave
up that thought and started begging at
railway platforms for food to look after her
daughter.
As she spent more time begging, she re-
alized that there are many orphans and
children abandoned by their parents.
Having faced the difficulties herself, she
could feel their pain and she decided to
adopt them. She started begging more
earnestly in order to feed the many chil-
dren that she had adopted. Gradually she
decided to adopt every child who came
across as an orphan and, over a period
of time, she emerged as the “mother of
orphans”.
Till date she has adopted and nurtured
over 1,400 orphans, helped them get an
education, got them married and sup-
ported them to settle down in life. She is
fondly referred to as “mai” (mother). The
children are not given up for adoption.
She treats them as her own and some of
them are now lawyers, doctors and engi-
neers.
“When I was out myself on the streets
begging for food and fighting for surviv-
al each day, I realized that there are so
many orphans who have nobody to go to.
I decided to take care of them and raise
them as my own,” Sindhutai says.
To eliminate the feeling of partial-
ity among children she gave away her
biological daughter to Shrimant Dag-
du Sheth Halwai, Pune. Her daugh-
ter herself runs an orphanage today.
Sindhutai with her love and compassion
has gathered a huge family of 207 sons-
in-law, 36 daughters-in-law and over
1000 grandchildren.
Till date she continues to fight for the
next meal. She does not take support
from anyone but still gives speeches to
earn her daily bread and butter.
“By God’s grace I had good communica-
tion skills. I could go and talk to people
and influence them. Hunger made me
speak and this became my source of in-
come. I give many speeches at various
places and this gets me some money
which I use to take care of my children,”
she says.
Many years after being abandoned by
her husband, he came back to her and
apologized for his harsh deeds. Having
devoted all her life to the orphans, she
forgave him and accepted him as her
child, as she could only harbour moth-
erly love for all. She affectionately intro-
duces her 80-year old husband as the
eldest child.
The Judge Who Stood Against The
Prime Minister
A man so honourable that it cost him his
job, so brave that he stood up against
the Prime Minister when others didn’t
dare to, a judge so fair that he did not
think of the consequences when he
stood for the right decision.
The man in context is Hans Raj Khanna,a
judge of supreme court of India during
1967-77. He stood for all the qualities
required of a judge.
Born in Amritsar, Punjab on July 3,
1912, Khanna was the son of a freedom
fighter Sarb Dyal Khanna who was a
lawyer and later became the mayor of
Amritsar. Khanna’s mother died young
and his grandmother looked after the
household.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 39
 Following his father’s footsteps, Khanna
decided to study law after school. Soon
after receiving the degree he started
his own practice which was a success.
He had given many life changing deci-
sions in his life but the one thing that we
admire him for the most is his stand in the
Habeas Corpus case (ADM Jabalpur vs
Shivkant Shukla) during Indira Gandhi’s
emergency, what is considered to be the
darkest hour in Indian democracy.
When Indira Gandhi lost her election
case on June 12, 1975, she was grant-
ed only conditional stay which meant
that she could not exercise her voting or
speaking powers in the Lok Sabha and
became just a nominal prime minister.
She immediately declared a state of in-
ternal emergency. This gave her the au-
thority to rule by decree, which allowed
her to suspend elections and civil liber-
ties. This type of rule is often used by dic-
tators.
He was the only judge in a five-member
bench to go against the decision that if
a person is ill-treated or his family mem-
bers are detained without legal authority,
he can’t approach the court for any justice
and there is no remedy to this situation.
While all the other four agreed to this con-
tention and supported the government,
Khanna maintained that the state had no
power to deprive a person of his life and
liberty without legal authority.
In his dissent, Khanna said, “What is at
stake is the rule of law… the question is
whether the law speaking through the
authority of the Court shall be absolutely
silenced and rendered mute…”
40 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
The court went by the majority and de-
clared that a person has no remedy for
illegal detentions, unauthorized demo-
litions, murder and mayhem. The Su-
preme Court sanctioned “the rule of law-
lessness.”
Khanna sensed that after his stand, his
judgeship might be in jeopardy. On the
day he was to give his opinion for the fat-
ed case, he had mentioned to his sister,
“I have prepared my judgment, which is
going to cost me the Chief Justice-ship of
India.” He was soon proved right.
In spite of enjoying the support and re-
spect of all the bar associations and the
entire legal community, he was supersed-
ed for the post of Chief Justice of India by
Indira Gandhi in January 1977, and the
same day he sent in his resignation.
The Man Who Carved A Road Through
The Mountain So His People Could
Reach A Doctor In Time
This is the story of an ordinary man.
He was an outcast, a landless labourer
who had to trek across an entire moun-
tain every day, just to reach the farm that
he worked on. It was a treacherous trek,
and led to accidents often. His people
needed help, there were lives at stake
every day. He decided, if no one would
help his people, he would. Then, without
pausing for a thought, he went ahead and
did just that with his bare hands.
It was 1960. Landless laborers, the
Musahars, lived amid rocky terrain in the
remote Atri block of Gaya, Bihar, in north-
ern India. In the community of
Gehlour, they were regarded the lowest
of the low in a caste-ridden society, and
denied the basics: water supply, electric-
ity, a school, a medical center.
A 300-foot tall mountain loomed between
them and all the basic facilities that they
had always longed for.
Like all the Musahar men, Dashrath Man-
jhi worked on the other side of the moun-
tain. At noon, his wife Phaguni would
bring his lunch. As they had no road, the
trek took hours over the mountain. Dash-
rath tilled fields for a landlord on the other
side. He would quarry stone. And in a few
hours from then, he would be tired and
hungry.
Phaguni, Dashrath’s wife, prepared for
her treacherous climb up the mountain.
She wrapped the ‘rotis’, filled a container
with a thin curry, and bundled the food
into a square of cloth. She picked a small
pot of water, and hoisted it on her head.
Her children sat playing by their hut in the
small Musahar settlement in the moun-
tain’s shadow.
He would watch and wait for Phaguni.
That day, she would come to him empty
handed, injured. As the harsh sun beat
down, Phaguni tripped on loose rock, and
was badly injured. Her water pot shat-
tered. She slid down several feet, injuring
her leg. Hours past noon, she limped to
her husband. He was angry at her for be-
ing late
But on seeing her tears, he made a deci-
sion. He decided that he was not going to
wait for anyone to solve his problems, he
was going to do-it-himself.
HE CUT THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN
WITH JUST A HAMMER, A CHISEL,
AND CROWBARS.
Dashrath bought a hammer, chisel, and
crowbar. He had to sell his goats, which
meant a lower income for his family. He
climbed to the top, and started chipping
away at the mountain. Years later, he
would recount,
“That mountain had shattered so
many pots and claimed so many lives.
I could not bear that it had hurt my
wife. If it took all my life now, I would
carve us a road through the mountain.”
Word spread far and wide. He would start
early in the morning, chip the mountain
for a few hours, then work on the fields,
and come back to work on the mountain
again. He would hardly sleep. The villag-
ers gradually began to respect him, and
started donating food to his family. He
eventually quit his wage job, and start-
ed spending as much time as he could,
breaking the mountain.
Then, Phaguni fell ill. The doctor was in
Wazirganj, which stood just on the other
side of the mountain, but the road lead-
ing to it was 75 kilometers long. Unable
to make the journey, she passed away.
Her death not only enraged him more, it
spurred him on.
It was not an easy task. He would often
get hurt by the rocks falling from the un-
yielding mountain. He would rest and
then start again. At times, he helped peo-
ple carry their things over the mountain
for a small fee, money to feed his chil-
dren. After 10 years, as Manjhi chipped
away, people saw a cleft in the mountain
and some came to help.
In 1982, Gehlour was in for a surprise.
Manjhi broke through that last thin wall of
rock, and walked into the other side of the
mountain.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 41
 .After 22 years, Dashrath Das Manjhi, the
common man, the landless laborer, had
broken the mountain: he had carved out
a road 360 feet long, 30 feet wide. Wa-
zirganj, with its doctors, jobs, and school,
was now only 5 kilometers away. People
from 60 villages in Atri could use his road.
Children had to walk only 3 kilometers to
reach school. Grateful, they began to call
him ‘Baba’, the revered man.
But Dashrath did not stop there. He
began knocking on the Government’s
doors, asking for the road to be tarred
and connected to the main road. He did
the unthinkable to get the government’s
attention, he walked along the railway
line all the way to New Delhi, the capi-
tal. He submitted a petition there, for
his road, for a hospital for his people, a
school and water. In July 2006, Dashrath
went to the then Bihar Chief Minister Nit-
ish Kumar’s ‘Junta Durbar’. The minister,
overwhelmed, got up and offered ‘Baba’
his chair, his minister’s seat; a rare honor
for a man of Manjhi’s social status.
The government rewarded his efforts with
a plot of land; Manjhi promptly donated
the land back for a hospital. They also
nominated him for the ‘Padma Shree’,
but the forest ministry officials fought the
nomination, calling his work illegal. “I do
not care for these awards, this fame, the
money,” he said. “All I want is a road, a
school, and a hospital for our people.
They toil so hard. It will help their women
and children.”
On August 17, 2007, Dashrath Manjhi, the
man who had conquered a mountain lost his
battle with cancer. All his life he had toiled
for his people and for no personal gain.
“I started this work out of love for my wife,
but continued it for my people.
42 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
If I did not, no one would,” Manjhi’s words
reflect the reality of our country.
Now that he is gone, his people are still
poor. There are electricity poles, but no
electricity; a tube well, but no water; no
real hospital, no real livelihoods, little ed-
ucation. Manjhi’s son lost his own wife re-
cently to an illness. After all these years,
their fate was sealed by another mountain:
poverty, the inability to pay for a doctor, for
getting the necessary treatment on time.
Seeing Her Own House Getting
Washed Away Did Not Stop This Young
Girl From Saving A 1000 Lives!
On June 16, 2013, one of the worst cloud
bursts struck the state of Uttarakhand.
Millions were rendered homeless and
many lost their lives. It’s been almost a
year now and yet the process of rehabili-
tation and relocation of many is a ques-
tion mark. Amidst this, here is an inspiring
story of a young brave heart from Bankoli
village in Uttarkashi district, one of the
worst affected districts during the floods.
Mamta Rawat is 24 years old. Yet, she did
not let her tender age confine her sheer
strength of purpose, as she saved over a
1000 lives during the flash floods of Ut-
tarakhand last June. While pilgrims were
moving down to escape the fury of the
floods from the upper reaches of Uttar-
kashi and Gangotri, Mamta was making
her way up on her own to be part of the
rescue effort. She had no official badge,
no uniform, no map, no government or-
der or logistical support.
Her reason was simple “I am a resident of
Uttarakashi and I have the skills required
to help people. If I do not come forward
at these times of trouble, who will?” she
asks.
A trained mountaineer from the Nehru In-
stitute of Mountaineering, Mamta was in
charge of a group of 30 school children
from various parts of the country who had
come to Dyara Top in Uttarkashi for an
adventure outing. She was then work-
ing as a freelance instructor with INME,
a Delhi based Adventure sport company
that does children’s adventure camps.
With floods ravaging, she, along with two
other persons, took these kids to safety
across landsides and a shaking bridge
over river Aksai Ganga, personally tak-
ing each child on foot across the bridge
which the raging water threatened to
wash away.
After having got all the children back
safely to Uttarkashi town she took care of
the terrified children, all in the age group
between 14-16 years, giving them cour-
age and support. Once the route from
Uttarakashi opened up towards Dehra-
dun she made sure each child was safely
surrendered to his/her parent and she
immediately left to complete the unfin-
ished work. This time around it was to
help the pilgrims who were stranded and
were traversing down to Uttarkashi from
Gangotri, the roads having been washed
away completely.
Mamta then joined the Nehru Institute of
Mountaineering team and helped in the
search and rescue operations. There are
tales of this girl that will mesmerise peo-
ple. While, on the rescue mission she car-
ried a middle-aged pilgrim woman on her
back as the lady was unconscious. She
carried her on her back – like a moun-
taineer carries a rucksack– and ran down
the rocky terrain for over 3km to help her
get evacuated by a helicopter for further
medical treatment. She was helping peo-
ple during these troubled times even as
her own house was washed away in the
floods. Her house was part damaged in
the 2012 floods and last year the remain-
ing got
completely washed away taking away the
only roof over her family and her head.
Today she lives with her family of 6 mem-
bers under a tinned roof.
But, the simple-hearted girl lives her life
as any other day. Even when asked by an
Dehradun based NGO, Leap Foundation,
what help she required with regard to her
house she mentioned that it was noth-
ing that she required but it’s her village
that required rope/cable bridges to cross
over the rivers, as all the old bridges were
washed away by the river then.
Having dropped out of school to take care
of her mother and her home, Mamta after
a great struggle managed to do her Basic
Mountaineering Course from the Nehru
Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.
But, it took her two years after her Ba-
sic Course to save up another Rs 5000
to do her Advance Course. She did it with
the hope that she could get employment
in the adventure field. Having performed
very well in the Advance course, she got
a sponsor to fund her next course – the
Method of Instruction course. She then
went on to do her Search and Rescue
Course. All these courses finally paid off
and today she is a professional moun-
taineer and a qualified instructor.
Mamta, the only earning member of her
family, is a determined young Gharwali
girl who always puts others first and then
thinks about herself. Unfortunately such
is her plight that she has received no
compensation from the Government only
because she did not file her papers on
time.
Summiting4Hope, a social initiative
started by a mountaineer, came across
Mamta while on relief operations in Utta-
rakashi and decided they would build a
permanent shelter for her and her family.
***
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 43
 Quizes and Riddles

Puzzles
Vishagini V

SHE-GOAT, WOLF AND CABBAGE • The boat only has room for 2 (monkeys
or humans).
A farmer returns from the market, where • Monkeys can jump out of the boat
he bought a she-goat, a cabbage and a when it’s banked.
wolf. On the way home he must cross a
river. His boat is small and won’t fit more
than one of his purchases. He cannot ANSWER: The three columns represent
leave the she-goat alone with the cab- the left bank, the boat, and the right bank
bage (because the she-goat would eat it), respectively. The < and > indicates the
nor he can leave the she-goat alone with direction of motion of the boat.
the wolf (because the she-goat would be HHHMmm
eaten). HHHm Mm>
How can the farmer get everything on the HHHm <M m
other side in this river crossing puzzle? HHH Mm> m
HHH <M mm
HM HH> mm
ANSWER: HM <Hm Hm
Take the she-goat to the other side. Go Hm HM> Hm
back, take cabbage, unload it on the Hm <Hm HM
other side where you load the she-goat, mm HH> HM
go back and unload it. Take the wolf to mm <M HHH
the other side where you unload it. Go m Mm> HHH
back for the she-goat m <M HHHm
Mm> HHHm
HUMANS AND MONKEYS HHHMmm

Another river crossing puzzle goes as THE BARBERSHOP PUZZLE

follows.
Three humans, one big monkey and two
small monkeys are to cross a river:
• Only humans and the big monkey can
row the boat.
• At all times, the number of humans on
either side of the river must be greater or
equal to the number of monkeys on that
side. (Or else the humans will be eaten
by the monkeys!)
A traveler arrives in a small town and
decides he wants to get a haircut. There
are only two barbershops in town - one
on East Street and one on West Street.
The East Street barbershop is a mess,
and the barber has the worst haircut the
traveler has ever seen. The West Street
barbershop is neat and clean, its barber’s
hair looks as good as a movie star’s.

44 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Which barbershop does the traveler go to
for his haircut, and why?

ANSWER:
The traveler goes to have his hair cut at
the barbershop on East Street. He figures
that since there are only two barbershops
in town the East Street barber must have
his hair cut by the West Street barber and
vice versa. So if the traveler wants to look
as good as the West Street barber (the
one with the good haircut), he’d better
go to the man who cuts the West Street
barber’s hair - the East Street barber.
By the way, the reason the West Street
barbershop is so clean and neat is that it
seldom gets customers.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 45


INSIGNIA
by S J KINCAID
Synopsis: What if playing computer games
could save the world... And what if the
Government’s secret weapon was you?
More than anything, Tom Raines wants
to be important, though his shadowy life
is anything but that. For years, Tom’s
drifted from casino to casino with his un-
lucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their
survival. Keeping a roof over their heads
depends on a careful combination of skill,
luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.
Then one day, Tom stops being invis-
ible. Someone’s been watching his vir-
tual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the
incredible—a place at the Pentagonal
Spire, an elite military academy. There,
Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to
the test, and if he passes, he’ll become
a member of the Intrasolar Forces, help-
ing to lead his country to victory in World
War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone im-
portant: a superhuman war machine with
the tech skills that every virtual-reality
warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds
everything that Tom’s always wanted—
friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and
a life where his every action matters—
but what will it cost him?
46 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Book Review
Priya Mary Jose
Insignia is set in the future, on a planet
earth that is slap bang in the middle of
World War III. However, this is not World
War III in the way that we would imag-
ine it to be, with governments launching
nuclear missiles and other weapons of
mass destruction at each other and un-
imaginable loss of human life. Instead,
it is a war waged by multi-national cor-
porations, and one in which there are
no human casualties at all. This war
is being fought far out in the solar sys-
tem where the fleets of space drones
are controlled by the minds of teenag-
ers, from the safety of the Pentagon.
Insignia is one of the best science fiction
novels I have ever read. It’s a fast paced
story, action packed, and full of interga-
lactic fighting with robots, sending fellow
classmates viruses (because they have
computers installed in their brains, of
course) that makes them giggle uncon-
trollably or fall in love with a podium, and
spending time in playing virtual reality
video games that feel incredibly real…
The protogonist Tom Raines is a
snarky,humorous character who has
zero respect for authority,a quality which
quickly earns him plenty of enemies in
a world fraught with danger and corrup-
tion. It was also precisely this quality that
brought him to the attention of the gen-
eral in the US army who hoped
Tom’s disregard for rules and incredible
mastery of tactics would enable him to
make spontaneous decisions that could
help tip the war in their favour.With a little
persuasion, Tom finds himself enrolling
to train with the best of the best, and his
life his changed forever.
When I first picked up the book,although
it looked interesting I never expected it
to hook me the way it did.Once I started
I just couldn’t put it down. You don’t have
to be a techie genius to understand the
sci-fi elements.It is the sort of book that
will blow your mind either way.

I loved the way SJ Kincaid wrote her

characters and the they interacted in the
story, with the banter, pranks and dares.
There are moments in this story which
will have you laughing out loud, and there
are moments when you might also feel
tears of a very different nature start to well
in your eyes. It also deals with themes
such a friendship,loyalty, personal iden-
tity, corporate greed and corruption.We
find Tom making friends with Vikram,
who sees himself as a bit of a joker, and
Wyatt, the geeky girl who just happens
to be an expert on all things computer/
software related and an absent minded
boy,Yuri.The banter between the charac-
ters and the light heartedness they bring
to even the most serious situations is
very refreshing. As the book progresses
we also see the relationship between the
four friends tested time and time again.

Insignia is one of those rare books that

has everything -action, adventure, hu-
mour, romance and a plot that races
along like a runaway train, all anchored
in the world of computer games. Despite
being the first book a trilogy it also has
a ‘proper’ end to it, but Insignia doesn’t
need a cliffhanger ending to encourage
readers to ache longingly for the sequel,
the characters and the quality of the sto-
rytelling are what will have young people
coming back for more.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 47


Where Will We
Be in 2050?
What does the future hold? What will the world
look like in decades to come? What will life
be like for our children—and their children?
These are perhaps some of the biggest
questions that confront humanity. Almost
everyone at some point in life contem-
plates them.
Hollywood has its own predictions. Futur-
ologists paint fanciful pictures, with flying
cars and robots to assist every human
need. Doomsayers see the world being de-
stroyed. Even some of the most renowned
minds in the scientific community now urge
people to abandon Earth before it is de-
stroyed by nuclear war or by natural disas-
ter. Others see global warming as a contrib-
uting factor to man’s supposed destruction.
2050 (MML) will be a common year start-
ing on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar
(dominical letter B), the 2050th year of the
Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD)
designations, the 50th year of the 3rd mil-
lennium, the 50th year of the 21st centu-
ry, and the 1st year of the 2050s decade.
I hope that by 2050 the entire solar sys-
tem will have been explored and mapped
by flotillas of tiny robotic craft. Robots and
“fabricators” may enable large
48 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Taniya F Thomas
construction projects, using raw materials
that need not come from Earth. But will
people follow them? The practical case for
sending people into space gets ever-weak-
er with each advance in robots and minia-
turisation. But I’m nonetheless an enthu-
siast for manned missions - to the moon,
to Mars and even beyond - simply as a
long-range adventure for (at least a few)
humans. Some claim that computers will,
by 2050, achieve human capabilities. Of
course, in some respects they already have.
What picture do current facts and trends
paint for the future?
To understand where the world is
headed, we must examine how
many human beings are on Earth to-
day—and how many will be in 2050.
But to fully appreciate these trends, some
basic history is required. First consider that
210 years ago, in 1800, the world popula-
tion was under 1 billion people. By 1900,
the population had grown to 1.65 billion.
Fifty years later, the population was over
2.5 billion.
In 1950, there were on average 19 peo-
ple per square mile. (Realize that much of
Earth is uninhabitable, so in actuality this
number is far greater.)
By 2050, the number of people
per square mile will increase to 67.
Consider the current state of the world’s
children. Over 25,000 under age five die
each day! One of the goals of the UN
is to reduce child mortality. Since child
death rates have decreased over the
past few decades, one could reasonably
estimate they will continue to decline.
The UN estimates the child mortality rate
will fall from 71 per 1,000 births to 31.
While one could argue that this view is too
optimistic, this still means that over 3.7 mil-
lion children will die each year at the mid-
point of this century!
The cumulative number of deaths from
2010 through 2050, taking into account the
decrease stated above, is over 250 million
children—more than a quarter billion.
Water is one of the most important re-
sources on Earth. Across the globe, na-
tions are preparing for water scarcity.
India, one of the most populous countries
in the world, is bracing itself for shortag-
es as it expects its demand to double by
2050. IRC International Water and Sanita-
tion Centre reports that almost every Arab
country will face water shortages in the
coming decades.
Sandia Lab News, a publication connect-
ed to the U.S. National Nuclear Security
Administration, revealed, “By 2025 more
than half the nations in the world will face
freshwater stress or shortages and by
2050 as much as 75 percent of the world’s
population could face freshwater scarcity.”
The National Geographic April 2010 article
states: “With 83 million more people on
earth each year, water demand will
keep going up unless we change how we
use it…Women in developing countries
walk an average of 3.7 miles to get wa-
ter…In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will
live in regions of severe water scarcity.”
Food production will be another mam-
moth challenge in 2050. Studies reveal
that food production will need to increase
by 70 percent to feed the over 9 billion
people on Earth. While many planners
are cautiously optimistic that this can be
done, one must understand that today
people are starving all over the world.
The world of 2050 is a world of contrasts
and paradoxes. On the one hand, sci-
ence and technology have continued to
advance in response to emerging cri-
ses, challenges and opportunities. This
has created radical transformations in
genetics, nanotechnology, biotechnol-
ogy and related fields. On the other
hand, many of these same technolo-
gies have been so disruptive that it has
led to a more frightening, unpredict-
able and chaotic world than ever before.
Humanity is now at a crossroads that will
determine its future path for centuries to
come – survival or destruction, prosperity
or collapse.
***
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 49

Do dark clouds have
silver lining??
Hair put up in a braid, the sari draping
around my waist, I see a very vague pic-
ture on the screen. Eyes wide open to see
the colorful film, in just black and white.
They say “her life is all about the night.”
Then senses start to trigger and some-
where deep down, I realize the screen that
shows the 36-24-36 is none other than me.
What people often say is true “My life is
all about the night”, because the sun rise
is something that failed to bring light into
my life.
“Brother, please turn left and stop at the
first gate”. The eyes turn around and give
a smile. Smile?? Yes, the most recognized
one.
The gates open to a bright room. “Mumma,
You know the government has passed a
new law against rape, our sad days will
end soon right?”
Rape, that’s what defines “harassment
against your wish”. But suddenly my heart
skips a beat when I realize life has taken
me to a junction where wishes don’t mat-
ter.
50 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Short Story
Pratibha Padmanabhan
“The light just goes off and every
night all you feel is pure numbness”.
They say, it’s her clothes, they say it’s the
smile, or behavior, family status, or proba-
bly even the enjoyment I acquire. Shame-
less people like me don’t deserve a life.
Life? Life is something which changed its
definition at different phases of my life.
ABC…, is not meant for us. Us often
equates itself to women in our society.
But since my gene makes me do weird
stuff, the A-Z remains the secret of my life.
There is no wooden framed degree deco-
rating my wall. The brown covered “diary”
as they say, which defines a friend, is the
secret.
Life is about staying beautiful to the man
of your life, they say. But when the man
decides to find more physical beauty, you
take a step forward to become beautiful to
the world, for that man which became my
life, my son.
Beauty often attracts attention. But at
times you are just so beautiful that the
world goes blind and you are the only per-
son who witness’s it.
Behind every mask called “face” and
behind every covering called “person-
ality” and most importantly behind ev-
ery human called “woman” there are
the same difficulties and the same
emotions, visible to the world or not.

But when you respect yourself, the beauty

just increases, no matter if you know the
ABC’s or not!!

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 51


One Teacher,One Book,One
pen can change The World...
One person on the world stage today, an
unlikely person of tender years, brave be-
yond bounds yet exceedingly humble, has
stood as a magnificent beacon of human
rights. Malala Yousafzai is her name...
On July 12, 1997, Malala Yousafzai was
born in Mingora, Pakistan, located in the
country’s Swat Valley. For the first few
years of her life, her hometown remained
a popular tourist spot that was known for
its summer festivals. However, the area
began to change as the Taliban tried to
take control.Yousafzai attended a school
that her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, had
founded. After the Taliban began attack-
ing girls’ schools in Swat, Malala gave a
speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in Septem-
ber 2008. The title of her talk was, “How
dare the Taliban take away my basic right
to education?”
Even at the age of 11, Malala understood
that the best way to free young wom-
en was to see that they are educated.In
early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for
the BBC about living under the Taliban’s
threats to deny her an education. In order
to hide her identity, she used the name Gul
Makai. However, she was revealed to be
the BBC blogger in December of that year.
With a growing public platform, Yousafzai
continued to speak out about her right, and
the right of all women, to an education.
52 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Preetha S
Her activism resulted in a nomination for
the International Children’s Peace Prize in
2011. That same year, she was awarded
Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.
As Malala became more recognized, the
dangers facing her became more acute.
When she was 14, Malala and her family
learned that the Taliban had issued a death
threat against her. Though Malala was
frightened for the safety of her father—an
anti-Taliban activist—she and her family
initially felt that the fundamentalist group
would not actually harm a child.
On October 9, 2012, on her way home
from school, a man boarded the bus Ma-
lala was riding in and demanded to know
which girl was Malala. When her friends
looked toward Malala, her location was
given away. The gunman fired at her, hit-
ting Malala in the left side of her head; the
bullet then traveled down her neck. Two
other girls were also injured in the attack.
The shooting left Malala in critical condi-
tion, so she was flown to a military hospi-
tal in Peshawar. A portion of her skull was
removed to treat her swelling brain. To
receive further care, she was transferred
to Birmingham, England.Once she was in
the United Kingdom, Yousafzai was taken
out of a medically induced coma.
Though she would require multiple surger-
ies—including repair of a facial nerve to
fix the paralyzed left side of her face—she
had suffered no major brain damage. In
March 2013, she was able to begin attend-
ing school in Birmingham.
As she recovered from a wound that
would have set many back years, Malala’s
voice has become stronger and clearer.
She has toured the world, stood on impor-
tant stages, telling men and women, boys
and girls, that all are equal.Malala said
her world may have changed but she has
not. Recounting the horror of being shot at
point blank, a bullet almost going through
her brain - all because she spoke up for
the rights of young girls to go to school,
Malala said her first thought waking up
in a hospital in Birmingham was how she
or her family would pay for the treatment.
What if the Taliban targets her life again?
Malala says she isn’t scared by their new
threats. “I may be scared of ghosts,never
of the Taliban.”
She gave a speech at the United Nations
on her 16th birthday, in 2013.At UN, Ma-
lala rallies youth to stand up for universal
education.She addressed hundreds of
young people at the United Nations, urg-
ing them to use education as a weapon
against extremism.
HIGHLIGHTS OF UN SPEECH
.“Let us pick up our books and our pens.
They are our most powerful weapons. One
teacher, one book, one pen, can change
the world,”
.“The terrorists thought that they would
change our aims and stop our ambitions
but nothing changed in my life except this:
weakness, fear and hopelessness
died. Strength, power and courage were
born. I am the same Malala. My am-
bitions are the same. My hopes are
the same. My dreams are the same.”
.“So here I stand one girl among many. I
speak – not for myself, but for all girls and
boys. I raise up my voice – not so that I
can shout, but so that those without a
voice can be heard.”
She has also written an autobiography,
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for
Education and Was Shot by the Taliban,
which was released in October 2013.
Unfortunately, the Taliban still considers
Yousafzai a target.
Despite the Taliban’s threats, Yousafzai
remains a staunch advocate for the power
of education. On October 10, 2013, in ac-
knowledgement of her work, the European
Parliament awarded Yousafzai the Sakha-
rov Prize for Freedom of Thought. That
same year, she was nominated for a Nobel
Peace Prize. She didn’t win the prize, but
was named a nominee again in March 2014.
12th july is officially announced by the
UN as the ‘Malala Day’ in honour of her
heroic stand to ensure education for all.
Her words are not to be taken for grant-
ed. They are urgent on most of the planet.
Tens of millions of girls are out of school,
about half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
A third of women aged 20 to 24 years old
in developing nations were married as
children, most of them given to an older
man as property.Untold numbers of young
women are subjected to suffering and de-
privation inside relationships where they
are essentially kept as prisoners.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 53
 Malala Yousufzai, a global icon for world
leaders and citizens alike, still says she
sees herself just as an ordinary teenage
girl.if an ordinary 16 year old girl can do
this much ,then why can’t we??its high
time to think...
come on let us hold our hands and say..

“ Malala, you are not alone. We are all

with you, standing behind you.”

***

54 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article
Fulfillment in Life, for
a Woman.
A cup of coffee on a chilled night, walking
through the beach feeling the cold air on
your face, or even dancing in the middle of
the rain, are a few things I am really cer-
tain , are there in any woman’s wish list.
Making a wish list of your own is totally dif-
ferent from considering to fulfill it.
From the time I was taking my first steps,
to date till now , I have always been told
that—
“There is a woman behind every success-
ful man”.
In rural India, girl children are often con-
sidered to be a burden. Women get mar-
ried at the age of eighteen or even before.
They sit back at home and wait for their
husbands, to sever the food that they have
cooked. For them probably success lies in
getting only their spouse to recognize them.
Earning a single Rupee of their own, or
making their own decisions is still a big
dream, unless they are permitted to do so.
Even the most educated families follow
these costumes’.
Thus whether you work or you stay en-
closed within the four walls, having Ein-
stein’s brains, lies in the hands of your
partner.
Pratibha Padmanabhan
So I guess, the present saying should be
“Behind every successful woman,
There is a man”.
I would never personally define success as
reaching the highest qualification of your
office or even earning a six figure salary.
But success lies in the smallest memories
we cherish, like getting the house hold run
for Rs.10 less. These are the moments
where we live life our own simple way.
So whether it be creating your own identity
in the society or shopping away your part-
ners salary, success is all about living your
dreams in this life and no woman can ever
be denied of it.
“Life is not measured by the breaths we
take,
But by the moments that take our breath
away”.
So in the fast run of life, we must remem-
ber that success does not lie in increasing
our bank balance, but instead in weighing
our happiness more than wealth.
A woman who gets to cherish these
heights, in a roller coaster ride of life is
truly successful.
***
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 55

The Pros And Cons
Of Driving
Driving is the most interesting and dan-
gerous task in this world. Driving can be
thought of as an easy task as well as a dif-
ficult task. People who are confident think
of driving as an easy task. If you drive with
confidence, you are responsible for your
safety and the safety of your near and
dear ones.
Driving may be thought of as an easy task.
If you have your own vehicle, then it will be
easy for people to make fun of you. They
may say, “Oh! It might be easy for you to
travel since you have your own vehicle; we
have to travel tough by hiring auto, going
by buses etc. How lucky you are!”. Some
may get irritated by these words. What
could you do? Could you buy a vehicle for
them? Or lend money to buy a vehicle? All
you can do is to keep calm.
If you own a vehicle, it is easy for you to
reach places according to your wish. So
mostly you would reach that place in cor-
rect time or you would reach late. But it is
rare that you are punctual. So, if you start
late, you increase the speed of the accel-
erator rapidly, so that you could reach in
time. This lay lead to accidents if you over-
speed your vehicle. So it is better to start
early.
Let me introduce the old and gold rules for
safe driving, which are very well known,
that tastes bitter to follow.
56 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Vidya G
Never take these as an advice since I am
not a good driver or a great adviser but I
am certainly a well wisher.
* Obey traffic rules - These are followed
by most of the citizens in the city, but still
it needs to improve. The citizens follow it
since they are afraid of the cameras that
are placed near most of the traffic lights.
* Maintain speed limit – Even though
speed restrictions and highway codes
have been designed for protection, very
few have respected them.
* Wear seat belts – Most people stay
careless in this point, since they will be un-
able to move or turn from their sitting posi-
tions according to their comfort.
* Avoid multitasking – Some people
have the ability to do many tasks at a time.
During driving, such multi tasks are put-
ting make ups, sending messages, attend
calls etc. But remember, all these can wait
till you halt. Your life is more important
than such things that should be given least
importance.
* Wear helmet if you are on a two-
wheeler – Some may wear helmet for the
sake of escaping from police’s eyes. But
if you wear helmet for your need, make
sure that the helmet strap is fixed properly.
Even though it has been made compulso-
ry to wear helmets in this city, most people
wear loose strapped helmets that do not fit
properly. Instead of being afraid of police,
be afraid of your life and value it.
* Avoid driving when you are tired or
sleepy – If you are tired or sleepy, you
would not get a good view of vehicles
that go in front or come from behind.
* Respect pedestrians – Even though,
you over speed your vehicle or if the mis-
take is yours, words will flow continuous-
ly from your mouth without a pause, if a
pedestrian passes by. He/She will have
to shut his/her ears until you stop. So, be
courteous and considerate towards them.
Show humanity in helping a person if he/
she is met with an accident. If you be-
lieve in safe driving and if you care for
the safety of others, then you are a re-
sponsible citizen. The future world would
completely depend on the vehicles. In
such cases, each family will have their
own vehicles. So, for a better tomorrow,
do something nice today. Think Safety,
and Drive Carefully.
***

* Overloading is dangerous – Avoid ex-

ceeding the limit in number of passengers
allowed traveling in your vehicle. Once I
happened to see five people traveling in a
two wheeler (the number five seems to ex-
ceed the limit of the number of passengers
allowed in an auto!), of which two were
children. In buses also, traveling in foot
boards is dangerous. We might have seen
most buses slanting towards one side due
to overloading in which the passengers
show over confidence and over courage in
hanging out of the buses.

* Keep distance and ob-

serve other users on the road.
* Pre check your vehicle before a drive.
* Do not drink and drive.

Driving is fun, but it could turn dangerous

if you are overconfident when you drive.
While driving, you must keep in mind that
you are the one who should take care of
your life. You are responsible for the lives
of the passengers and also the pedes-
trians when you drive. The need of road
safety has gained a significant importance
in the modern world. ‘Think Safety’ is what
people say. But do not just think; do em-
phasize safety by driving carefully.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 57


Narendra Modi –The
New Face Of India
Narendra Modi, in full Narendra Damo-
dardas Modi (bornSeptember 17, 1950,
Vadnagar, India), Indian politician and
government official who rose to become a
senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty (BJP). In 2014 he led his party to victory
in elections to the Lok Sabha (lower cham-
ber of the Indian parliament), after which
he was sworn in as prime minister of In-
dia. Prior to that he had served (2001–14)
as the chief minister (head of govern-
ment) of Gujarat state in western India.
Modi was raised in a small town in north-
ern Gujarat, and he completed an M.A.
degree in political science from Gujarat
University in Ahmadabad. He joined the
pro-HinduRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) organization in the early 1970s and
set up a unit of the RSS’s students’ wing,
the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in
his area. Modi rose steadily in the RSS
hierarchy, and his association with the or-
ganization significantly benefited his sub-
sequent political career.
Modi joined the BJP in 1987, and a year
later he was made the general secretary
of the Gujarat branch of the party. He was
instrumental in greatly strengthening the
party’s presence in the state in succeeding
years. In 1990 Modi was one of the BJP
members who participated in a coalition
government in the state, and he helped
the BJP achieve success in the
58 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Vrinda L
1995 state legislative assembly elections
that in March allowed the party to form
the first-ever BJP-controlled government
in India. The BJP’s control of the state
government was relatively short-lived,
however, ending in September 1996.
In 1995 Modi was made the secretary of
the BJP’s national organization in New
Delhi, and three years later he was ap-
pointed its general secretary. He remained
in that office for another three years, but
in October 2001 he replaced the incum-
bent Gujarat chief minister, fellow BJP
member Keshubhai Patel, after Patel had
been held responsible for the state gov-
ernment’s poor response in the aftermath
of the massive Bhuj earthquake in Guja-
rat earlier that year that killed more than
20,000 people. Modi entered his first-ever
electoral contest in a February 2002 by-
election that won him a seat in the Gujarat
state assembly.
Modi’s political career thereafter remained
a mixture of deep controversy and self-
promoted achievements. His role as chief
minister during communal riots that en-
gulfed Gujarat in 2002 was particularly
questioned. He was accused of condoning
the violence or, at least, of doing little to
stop the killing of more than 1,000 people,
mostly Muslims, that ensued after dozens
of Hindu passengers died when their train
was set on fire in the city of Godhra.
In 2005 the United States declined to is-
sue him a diplomatic visa on the grounds
that he was responsible for the 2002 riots,
and the United Kingdom also criticized
his role in 2002. Although in the suc-
ceeding years Modi himself escaped any
indictment or censure—either by the judi-
ciary or by investigative agencies—some
of his close associates were found guilty
of complicity in the 2002 events and re-
ceived lengthy jail sentences. Modi’s ad-
ministration was also accused of involve-
ment in extrajudicial killings (variously
termed “encounters” or “fake encoun-
ters”) by police or other authorities. One
such case, in 2004, involved the deaths
of a woman and three men whom officials
said were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba
(a Pakistan-based terrorist organization
that was involved in the 2008 Mumbai
terrorist attacks) and were alleged to
have been plotting to assassinate Modi.
Modi’s repeated political success in Gu-
jarat, however, made him an indispens-
able leader within the BJP hierarchy and
led to his reintegration into the political
mainstream. Under his leadership, the
BJP secured a significant victory in the
December 2002 legislative assembly
elections, winning 127 of the 182 seats in
the chamber (including a seat for Modi).
Projecting a manifesto for growth and de-
velopment in Gujarat, the BJP was again
victorious in the 2007 state assembly
elections, with a seat total of 117, and the
party prevailed again in the 2012 polls,
garnering 115 seats. Both times Modi
won his contests and returned as chief
minister.
During his time as head of the Gujarat
government, Modi established a formi-
dable reputation as an able administra-
tor, and he was given credit for the rapid
growth of the state’s economy.
In addition, his and the party’s electoral
performances helped advance Modi’s
position as not only the most-influential
leader within the party but also a potential
candidate for prime minister of India. In
June 2013 Modi was chosen the leader
of the BJP’s campaign for the 2014 elec-
tions to the Lok Sabha.
After a vigorous campaign—in which
Modi portrayed himself as a pragmatic
candidate who could turn around In-
dia’s underperforming economy—he and
the party were victorious, with the BJP
winning a clear majority of seats in the
chamber. Modi was sworn in as prime
minister on May 26. Soon after he took
office, his government embarked on
several reforms, including campaigns
to improve India’s transportation infra-
structure and to liberalize rules on di-
rect foreign investment in the country.
Modi scored two significant diplomatic
achievements early in his term. In mid-
September he hosted a visit by Chinese
President Xi Jinping, the first time a Chi-
nese leader had been to India in eight
years. At the end of that month, having
been granted a U.S. visa, Modi made a
highly successful visit toNew York City,
which included a meeting with U.S. Presi-
dent Barack Obama No politician in in-
dependent India has been demonised in
such a relentless, manner as Narendra
Modi, and no politician has withstood it
with as much resilience and courage as
him, Not withstanding the entire Cen-
tral government,influential sections of
the media machinery and civil society
arraIgned against him. His dark patch
started with the unfortunate Godhra train
massacre and the ensuing communal ri-
ots in Gujarat in 2002, where several in-
nocent people lost their lives. A train car-
rying non-violent harmless karsewaks
were set on fire and nearly 60 persons
were burnt to death.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 59
 Understandably, but regrettably, this pro-
voked retaliation and mayhem resulting in
many innocent members of the minority
community losing their lives and suffer-
ing other indignities. It is equally true that
the desire for revenge did paralyse the
will of some law enforcement agencies,
including some prosecutors and judges.
Serious steps had to be taken to restore
the confidence of the victims ofrevenge in
the legal and judicial system of the state.

Today, vast sections of civil society see

in Narendra Modi the most efficientPrime
Minister of India. And hope he will plant
more visible footprints on the international
seashore. He has to speak of peace and
a durable solution to the Kashmir problem
with the rulers of Pakistan. The most dia-
bolical role was played by the Congress
government at the Centre. A bogus com-
mission was appointed to whitewash the
Godhra tragedy to establish that the attack
on the train was not the result of a con-
spiracy of some evil minded Muslims, but
an accidental stove fire. This serious crime
by the Congress government was fully ex-
posed when a Special Investigation Team
appointed by the Supreme Court made
their own independent investigation and
reiterated that the burning of the pilgrims
was a concerted plan by those who must
have known that it will inevitably lead to re-
taliation and atrocities against the minori-
ties, a finding fortified by recent court judg-
ments. Their evil calculations proved to be
right. Obviously, the planners wanted India
to get a bad name, its national unity and
integrity shaken and its defence against
scheming neighbours enfeebled.

Let’s hope Mr. Modi brings a new face to India.

***

60 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Poem

Tension
Sajna Noushad

The moment you are in tension

You will lose your attention
Then you are in total confusion
And you’ll be in irritation
You won’t get co-operation
Then there arises some complication
And your BP may be rise to caution
And you may have taken meditation
Instead you can understand the situation
And try to think about the solution
Many problems will be solved by discussion
Which will work out better in your profession
Don’t think it’s my free suggestion
It is only for your benefaction
If you understand my intension
You’ll never face any depression

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 61


Math Brain Teaser
1) One brick is one kilogram and half a
brick heavy.
What is the weight of one brick?
ANS:There is an easy equation which
can help:
1 brick = 1 kg + 1/2 brick
And so 1 brick is 2 kg heavy.
2) Two trains, 200 km apart, are moving
toward each other at the speed of 50 km/
hour each.
A fly takes off from one train flying
straight toward the other at the speed of
75 km/hour.
Having reached the other train, the fly
bounces off it and flies back to the first
train.
The fly repeats the trip until the trains col-
lide and the bug is squashed.
What distance has the fly traveled until its
death?
There is a complicated and an easy way
to calculate this cool math puzzle.
Think outside the box.
ANS:There is a complicated way count-
ing a sequence. Or simply knowing that if
the fly is flying for
2 hours still at the same speed of 75
km/h then it flies a distance of 150 km.
62 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Quizes and Riddles
Sruthi GM
3) A passenger train leaves New York for
Boston traveling at the speed of 80 km/hr.
In half an hour a freight train leaves Bos-
ton for New York traveling at the speed of
60 km/hr.
Which train will be further from New York
when they meet?
(Kids might know the answer faster than
the adults :-)
ANS:Of course, when the trains encoun-
ter, they will be approximately the same
distance away from New York.
The New York train will be closer to New
York by approximately one train length
because they’re coming from
different directions. That is, unless you
take “meet” to mean “perfectly overlap”.
4) The circumference of the Earth is
approximately 40,000 km. If we made a
circle of wire around the globe,
that is only 10 meters (0.01 km) longer
than the circumference of the globe,
could a flea, a mouse, or even a man
creep under it?
ANS:It is easy to compare old and new
perimeter - original perimeter is 2xPIxR,
length of wire is 2xPIx(new R)
and find out that the result is about 1.6 m.
So a smaller man can go under it and a
bigger man ducks.
5) We know little about this Greek math-
ematician from Alexandria, called the
father of algebra,
Connect all 9 dots with 4 straight lines
without lifting the pencil off the paper, and
without going over the same line twice.
except that he lived around 3rd century
A.D. Thanks to an admirer of his, who
described his life by
means of an algebraic riddle, we know at
least something about his life.
Diophantus’s youth lasted 1/6 of his life.
He had his first beard in the next 1/12 of
his life.
At the end of the following 1/7 of his life
Diophantus got married. Five years from
then his son was born.
His son lived exactly 1/2 of Diophantus’s
life. Diophantus died 4 years after the
death of his son.
How long did Diophantus live?
ANS:There is an easy equation to reflect
several ages of Diophantus:
1/6x + 1/12x + 1/7x + 5 + 1/2x + 4 = x
So the solution (x) is 84 years.
6) If it were two hours later, it would be
half as long until midnight as it would be
if it were an hour later.
What time is it now?
ANS:9pm
7) A square medieval castle on a square
island is under siege. All around the
castle there is a square moat 10 meters
wide.
Due to a regrettable miscalculation the
raiders have brought footbridges, which
are only 9.5 meters long.
The invaders cannot abandon their cam-
paign and return empty-handed.How can
the assailants resolve their predicament?
ANS:You can put one foot-bridge over
one corner (thus a triangle is created).
Then from the middle of this foot-bridge
lay another foot-bridge to the edge (cor-
ner) of the castle. You can make a few
easy equations confirming that this is
enough.
8) At noon the hour, minute, and second
hands coincide. In about one hour and
five minutes the minute and hour hands
will coincide again.
What is the exact time (to the millisec-
ond) when this occurs, and what angle
will they form with the second hand?
(Assume that the clock hands move con-
tinuously.)
ANS:There are a few ways of solving this
one. I like the following simple way of
thinking.
The given situation (when the hour and
minute hands overlay) occurs in 12 hours
exactly 11 times after the same time.
So it’s easy to figure out that 1/11 of the
clock circle is at the time 1:05:27,273 and
so the seconds hand is right on 27,273
seconds.
There is no problem proving that the
angle between the hours hand and the
seconds hand is 131 degrees.
***
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 63

Why do we Dream?
The human brain is a mysterious little ball
of gray matter. Scientists have been per-
forming sleep and dream studies for de-
cades now, and we still aren’t 100 percent
sure about the function of sleep, or exactly
how and why we dream. It’s also pretty
commonly accepted among the scien-
tific community that we all dream, though
the frequency in which dreams are re-
membered varies from person to person.
The question of whether dreams actually
have a physiological, biological or psycho-
logical function has yet to be answered.
But that hasn’t stopped scientists from re-
searching and speculating. There are sev-
eral theories as to why we dream. One is
that dreams work hand in hand with sleep
to help the brain sort through everything
it collects during the waking hours. Your
brain is met with hundreds of thousands,
if not millions of inputs each day. Some
are minor sensory details like the color of
a passing car, while others are far more
complex, like the big presentation you’re
putting together for your job. During sleep,
the brain works to plow through all of this
information to decide what to hang on to
and what to forget. Some researchers feel
like dreams play a role in this process.
It’s not just a stab in the dark though --
there is some research to back up the
ideas that dreams are tied to how we form
memories. Studies indicate that as we’re
learning new things in our waking hours,
dreams increase while we sleep.
64 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
Thamji Bayar
Participants in a dream study who
were taking a language course showed
more dream activity than those who
were not. In light of such studies, the
idea that we use our dreams to sort
through and convert short-term memo-
ries into long-term memories has gained
some momentum in recent years.
Another theory is that dreams typically
reflect our emotions. During the day, our
brains are working hard to make connec-
tions to achieve certain functions. When
posed with a tough math problem, your
brain is incredibly focused on that one
thing. And the brain doesn’t only serve
mental functions. If you’re building a
bench, your brain is focused on making
the right connections to allow your hands
to work in concert with a saw and some
wood to make an exact cut. The same
goes for simple tasks like hitting a nail with
a hammer. Have you ever lost focus and
smashed your finger because your mind
was elsewhere?Some have proposed
that at night everything slows down. We
aren’t required to focus on anything during
sleep, so our brains make very loose con-
nections. It’s during sleep that the emo-
tions of the day battle it out in our dream
cycle. If something is weighing heav-
ily on your mind during the day, chanc-
es are you might dream about it either
specifically, or through obvious imagery.
The truth is, as long as the brain re-
mains such a mystery, we probably
won’t be able to pinpoint with abso-
lute certainty exactly why we dream.
***
 Urmila SR
Art!

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 65


A Versatile Person
It was a pleasant climate…Bhagavathy
Ammal was about to give birth to her sec-
ond child. Her neighbor said, “This is the
suspicious moment for the birth of your
second child!” She predicted that he will
be turned into a legend. After sometime,
Bhagavathy Ammal felt pain and cried
loudly. The neighbors and other relatives
rushed her house and helped. Thank God!
She gave birth to a baby boy. The neigh-
bor ecstatically came out and loudly said
to Bhagavathy Ammal’s husband, “Mr.
Ranganath, your wife has given birth for a
baby boy. Both mother and baby are fine
by the grace of God. It is sure that he will
uphold your name.”. “Thank God”, cheer-
fully said Mr.Ranganath. Mr.Ranganath
was a religious priest at Thrikkariyoor, in
Ernakulam District, Kerala. He has gained
Veda Sashtra, Upanishadh, Hindu cus-
toms and rituals. He was liked and loved
by the local people for his philanthrop-
ic mind. The name of the house where
Mr.Ranganath and his family lived was
called “Kootingal Matom”. His lucky boy
was named Subramonia Sarma and was
called by his siblings and other kiths and
kins as Moni. He had four sisters and four
brothers.
Moni was a naughty boy in his childhood.
He loved his grandmother a lot. He also
supported his father to his best of abil-
ity. He obeyed whatever his grandmother
said. He was under the wings of his grand-
mother while other children were under
the wings of their mother.
66 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
True Story
Vidya G
His family was the most respectful and
popular in Thrikkariyoor. Moni had his
schooling in the same village and he
was intelligent and sagacious in studies
as well as in dealing with other issues.
He used to walk miles to his school. He
never fought for anything. He was an
angry, obstinate and unbiased person.
After his school education, he turned to
Trivandrum and joined at Government
Sanskrit College for higher studies. He
could hardly learn, living in a thatched
and leaking house for rent. He used to
take food from Sree Padmanabha Swa-
my Temple. For his hard work, he got first
class in Sanskrit.
At the age of 22, he got married to Sub-
bulakshmi Ammal, who was born in Palak-
kad and brought up in Mysore. Her father
was also a scholar in Veda Sashtras, San-
skrit and other religious/devotional issues.
Their marriage was solemnized at Ka-
lady, Kerala. Subbulakshmi was a noble
lady, very soft-hearted and had enduring
capacity. From his childhood, Moni had
significant interest in Astrology and read
different kind of books written by scholars.
They had six children, consisting of two
boys and four girls. Moni briskly learned
Astrology and became popular.
Moni and his family stayed in many places in
Trivandrum for rent. When he was living in
a small and dilapidated house situated oppo-
site to Southern entrance of Sree Padmanabha
Swamy Temple, the Secretary of the then
Maharaja of Travancore happened to visit
his house to see his last baby boy. He ob-
served the house and asked Moni wheth-
er he was interested to buy a spacious
house in the Eastern side of the temple.
Moni immediately agreed and bought the
house shortly and settled with his family.
The Secretary was coming from Aristo-
cratic family and he was a philanthrophist.
Apart from worshipping Lord Padmanab-
ha, Moni worshipped Lord Ganapathi ar-
dently.
Following his diligence and deep research
in Astrology, he became popular and at-
tracted by many people. Moni had entered
the service in Oriental Researsh Institute
and Manuscripts Library, University of
Kerala, and retired as Research Officer.
He stepped down from his service in 1974.
After temple visit and ‘Thevaram’ pooja
(hereditary pooja), he engaged in astro-
logical consultation. The ‘haves and have
nots’ approached him with various prob-
lems. After scrutinizing the horoscopes,
he advised small remedial poojas accord-
ing to their capacity. He spent most of his
lifetime in verifying horoscopes i.e, match-
ing, the present and future of bride and
bridegroom etc. He never deviated from
his principles. His decision was stern, in-
flexible and transparent.
He was also efficient in Ayurvedic treat-
ment especially in ‘Nostrum’. He had pre-
scribed Ayurvedic medicines to his chil-
dren, and other people.
Quite unfortunately, his beloved wife, who
was supportive in his life in solving all
problems, breathed her last in 2003 fol-
lowing Jaundice. . Moni was depressed
as soon as he heard the demise of his life
partner. But he controlled his feelings and
gave directions to his sons to undertake
the obsequies of their beloved mother.
Thereafter, Moni was looked after by his
two sons. He continued the horoscopi-
cal verifications upto his age of 96 and
earned moderate income. He had not kept
the pension amount and income from pro-
fession for his sole purpose.
Moni had also shown interest in serving
public and helped many people in his early
age. His disciplined routine helped him to
withstand any disease. Regular oil bath,
exercise, chanting of mantras etc led him
to be an Iron man. His control in food gave
him longevity and good health. Above all,
he had written the horoscope of the foe-
tus of his third daughter. He had predicted
that his daughter will give birth for a female
and clearly narrated the symptoms. He
also predicted the exact time of delivery.
By the grace of God, his prediction went
true. None of the astrologers could take
such a kind of effort. This clearly shows
his perseverance.
He got opportunity to meet several dis-
tinguished persons in every walk of life.
Certain persons were highly grateful and
certain persons were not. He had taken
tuition for Vedas and Mantras, and impart-
ed moral matters to one famous doctor.
He had taken classes for 36 years without
any remuneration. But one day, the selfish
doctor argued with Moni for a silly matter.
Unbiased and fearless Moni immediately
rebuffed. At once, the shameful doctor left
the premises. Both Moni and doctor had
been intimate friends for a long period.
Before their rift, the doctor had request-
ed Moni to prepare a detailed explana-
tion concerning medical science for him-
self to present in a medical conference in
England. Moni took strenuous efforts in
preparing the medical explanation for the
doctor. The doctor presented the paper in
England and was appreciated by every
delegate.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 67
 Without taking into account the efforts of
Moni, the doctor turned into an ingratitude
person.

He guided his children and grandchildren

to lead moral life. He loved his grand chil-
dren in exceedingly well manner.

His 100th birthday was celebrated on 21st

October 2014, both socially and religious-
ly. After six months of his birthday, he suf-
fered respiratory problem and was hospi-
talized. He breathed his last on 8th April
2014 and abode to heaven on the day of
Sree Rama Navami. He is my beloved
grandfather and I could live in his pres-
ence only for 20 years. I don’t know how
many of us would touch this century mark
but I can proudly say that with many peo-
ple’s blessings, my Grandpa lived for 100
years! As far as I am concerned, the loss
of my Grandpa is an irreparable one. But
still he blesses us in each and every part
of our life. Love you Grandpa… We miss
you so much… Your blessings mean a lot
to those who love you. We hope that we
will stay blessed. I swear that my grandpa
is a beamish light.

***

68 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article

Aurum Designing,
Aurm Art Sarannya B
Jewelry design is the art or profession of want for jewellery is no more a symbol of
planning, rendering, and/or fabricating, financial security but a trendy fashionable
one of a kind, studio multiples, or produc- wear that can go well with different occa-
tion jewelry. sions.
Jewellery designing, manufacturing and
trading has been an integral part of the ndia and jewelry, jewelry and Indian wom-
human society since five thousand years en - the terms are linked inherently. At the
and more. And our country is no exception. time of wedding as well as numerous oth-
In fact, our country is world renowned for er occasions, a woman is gifted jewelry by
its jewellery and jewellery designs since her parents and relatives. Although the gift
ancient times. is meant to give her security in contingen-
cy, ornamentation is an obvious purpose.
Earlier a few select families ran the busi- All the cities across the length and width
ness of jewellery designing and jewellery of India have shops of jewelers - some tra-
making. Moreover, the technical knowl- ditional and some modern jewelers, cater-
edge associated with this trait was kept ing to the need of all kinds. Not that the af-
a closely guarded secret and passed on fluent class people wear ornaments, there
from generation to generation. However, are low cost jewelry items in ample, which
all that has changed. The current boom cater the demand of low income group as
experienced by this industry has commer- well.
cialised this art and opened new boundar-
ies for job seekers. India houses various kinds of jewelry arts,
ranging from Meenakari and Kundan to
Jewellery today is more of a fashion state- stone and bead work. The craft of cutting
ment or you can say a reflection of who and polishing precious and semi-precious
you are. In this context, different person- stones and giving them glamorous face is
alities and different senses of style have something artistic. Emeralds, rubies, gar-
revolutionised the traditional gold jewel- nets, amethysts, corals, sapphires, and
lery and modernised it to the taste of the turquoises are among the stones which
new era. are used for the enhancement of gold and
silver jewelry. Gold jewelry is the most
Now-a-days jewellery designing as a ca- popular among South Indian women. In
reer is flourishing like never before. This southern part of India, gold is considered
profession is not only rewarding but also auspicious and a status symbol. Talking
available for anyone who has a creative about the art on gold jewelry, Kundan is
bend of mind. People these days have be- something that comes into our mind.
come very image conscious and the

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 69

 It is a Mughal-inspired art of setting pre-
cious stones like diamonds, rubies, and
emeralds in gold and silver jewelry. In
Meenakari, enameling is done to protect
gold and floral pattern coloured in red, blue
and green attracts the attention. Silver
jewelry is not far behind in popularity, par-
ticularly because of its affordability, mak-
ing it popular among low income group
people. Jhumka, hansli, chokar, nath and
bracelets made of silver are quite popular
among women in India. In short, the range
of jewelry in India is wide as well as var-
ied. Be it gold, silver of diamond, you will
find everything in the country

thus jewellery designing is an

art of a designer from soul.

***

70 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Art!

Pratibha Padmanabhan

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 71


Women in Sports
In sports more often people do not ac-
knowledge women sports as much as
men’s sports. From the time of early
Olympics the role of women in sports
and games was neglected.Throughout
the history of the advancement of sport,
women have had to strive twice as hard
to gain the same status and recognition
as their counterparts - men. There have
been many factors, which have prevent-
ed women from participating in sport
and reaching their full potential .Per-
haps the biggest factor has been preju-
dice, stereotyping and discrimination.
The end of the 19th century and turn of
the 20th century saw the rising interest of
women in sports both as participants and
spectators. However compared to men’s
participation in sports, women sports are
newer and is the reason for them not get-
ting the recognition they deserve. But the
world of sports has begun to see how
women’s sports can be just as interest-
ing and exciting as men’s sports can be.
An important role in encouraging women
to participate is played by the educational
society, be it at school or at college. The
provision of sporting facilities on an even
scale to both women and men shows the
new trend. This has seen a rise in the
number of women participating in sports.
More people want to see women play
sports now than in the past because of the
better quality of players. However a few
discriminations still persist.
72 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Article
SreeLekshmi V
For example television time is something
that both men and women teams have
to compete over. In most areas men get
most of this television time which is not
fair at all. There should be equal television
time for both .Women are just as impor-
tant as men are. Also it is seen that when
it comes to salaries, coaching positions,
cash awards and television time men are
again given the preference. So to an ex-
tent along with the concerned authorities
even the media is responsible in promot-
ing equality to women in recognizing their
accomplishments. It is beginning to even
out a lot more though, than what it used to
be. Now days you can usually catch a girl’s
game on some odd channel. The main sta-
tions mainly have men’s games on them.
It is clear that the sports experience for
girls and women has been greatly en-
hanced over the past decades, besides
traditionally popular men’s sport such as
baseball and soccer, a variety of women’s
sport have generated attention in the me-
dia; many women actively participate in
local sports groups or enjoy sports at fit-
nesscenters.
It is no exaggeration to say that sports ex-
perience has become an essential aspect
of culture for women. It provides commu-
nication with other people and improves
the physical, mental and emotional well-
being of women.
In other words, sports are important for
women since they have significant value
for the quality of women’s lives.
It seems that the gap between men
and women is sport is getting small-
er in terms of statistics and systems.
Equality amongst men and women in
sports should not merely be measured by
their physical drive and prowess on the
playing field but also by the percentage
of athletes compared to the total number
eligible. Great efforts have been-made to
provide an equal opportunity for females
in the sports world and even greater steps
have to be taken. Women have come a
long way and yet have a long way to go.
Increasing scholarships, salaries, airtime,
operating and recruiting expenses will
help encourage female athletes.
P.T.USHA
Popularly known as P. T. Usha, is an In-
dian track and field athlete from the state
of Kerala. P. T. Usha has been associated
with Indian athletics since 1979. She is
the brand ambassador for “SPEEDSTAR”.
She is regarded as one of the greatest
athletes India has ever produced and is
often called the “queen of Indian track
and field”. Born in the village of Payyoli,
Kozhikode District, Kerala, she is nick-
named the Payyoli Express. In 1979 P. T.
Usha participated in the National School
Games, where she was noticed by O. M.
Nambiar, who coached her throughout
her career. Her debut in the 1980 Moscow
Olympics proved lacklustre. In the 1982
New Delhi Asiad, she got the silver medal
in the 100m and the 200m, but at the Asian
Track and Field Championship in Kuwait a
year later, Usha took the gold in the 400m
with a new Asian record.
She was awarded the prestigious Pad-
maShri in 1984. She won the World
Trophy for best athlete in 1985, 1986.
KARNAM MALLESWARI
KarnamMalleswari (born June 1, 1975,
Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh) is an In-
dian weightlifter. During her career, span-
ning ten years, she has won 11 gold and
three silver medals besides the presti-
gious Olympic bronze. She has been the
National Champion for nine years (twice
in the 52 kg category and seven times
in the 54 kg category).Malleswari partici-
pated in the ‘National Junior weight lifting
championship’, and stood first. In 1992,
she participated in the Asian champion-
ship which took place in Thailand, and
won three silver medals. She also won
three bronze medals in the world cham-
pionship. She won a bronze medal in the
2000 Summer Olympics at Sydney lifting
110 kg in the Snatch and 130 kg in the
Clean and Jerk for a total of 240 kg, which
made her the first Indian woman to win an
Olympic medal. She is a recipient of the
Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna award, India’s
highest sporting honour for the year 1995-
1996. She is also a recipient of the civilian
honour Padma Shri in 1999. Malleswari
was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1994,
India’s second highest award in sports.
SAINA NEHWAL
SainaNehwal (born 17 March 1990 in Dhin-
dar, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh) is
an Indian badminton player who attained
a career best ranking of 2 in December
2010 by Badminton World Federation.
She is the first Indian to win a medal in
Badminton at the Olympics.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 73
 She achieved this feat by winning the at the championship. She competed in
Bronze medal at the London Olympics Barbados in the 48 kg weight class, after
2012 on 4 August 2012. She is the first AIBA had stopped using the 46 kg class.
Indian to win the World Junior Badminton In 2012 London Olympics she won the
Championships and wasalso the first In- bronze medal.
dian to win a Super Series tournament,
by clinching the Indonesia Open on 21 ***
June 2009. Saina is supported by the
Olympic Gold Quest. Previously coached
by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award win-
ner, Saina is the reigning Indian national
junior champion and is currently coached
by Indonesian badminton legend Atik-
Jauhari since August 2008.With the for-
mer All England champion and national
coach PullelaGopichand being her men-
tor. SainaNehwal plays for Hyderabad
Hotshots in Indian Badminton League.

MARY KOM

Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom (born

1 March 1983), also known as MC Mary
Kom, Magnificent Mary or simply Mary
Kom, is an Indian boxer. She is a five-time
World Boxing champion, and the only
woman boxer to have won a medal in each
one of the six world championships. She
is the only Indian woman boxer to have
qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics,
competing in the flyweight (51 kg) catego-
ry and winning the bronze medal. She has
also been ranked as No. 4 AIBA World
Women’s Ranking Flyweight category.
she won a silver medal at the 2008 Asian
Women’s Boxing Championship in India
and a fourth successive gold medal at the
AIBA Women’s World Boxing Champion-
ship in China, followed by a gold medal at
the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam.
In 2010, Mary Kom won the gold medal at
the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship
in Kazakhstan, and at the AIBA Women’s
World Boxing Championship in Barbados,
her fifth consecutive gold

74 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Article

Sleeping Well
Mahitha Gopi Kalyan S

Sleep is more important than you may think.
Can you think of a time when you didn’t
get enough sleep?That heavy,groggy
feeling is awful and when you feel that
way,you are not at your best.So if you
are not too tired,let’s talk about sleep.
WHY DO YOU NEED SLEEP?
The average kid has a busy day.There is
college,taking care of pets,running around
with friends and doing your homework.
By the end of the day,your body needs a
break.Sleep allows your body to rest for
the next day.
Everything that is alive needs sleep to
survive.Even your dog or cat curls up for
naps.Animals sleep for the same reason
you do-to give your body a tiny vacation.
When your body doesn’t have enough hours
to rest,you may feel tired or cranky,or you
may be unable to think clearly.You might
have a hard time following directions,or
you might have an argument with a friend
over something really stupid.A college as-
signment that is normally easy may feel
impossible,or you may feel clumsy play-
ing your favourite sport or instrument.
One more reason to get enough sleep:If
you don’t,you may not grow as well.
That’s right,researchers believe that too
little sleep can affect growth and your im-
mune system-which keeps you from get-
ting sick.
***

YOUR BRAIN NEEDS Zzzzzs

Your body and brain needs sleep.Though

no one is exactly sure what work the brain
does when you are sleeping,some scien-
tists think that the brain sorts through and
stores information,replaces chemicals,and
solves problems while you snooze.Sleep
is an individual thing and some kids need
more than others.

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 75

 Article

Zindagi Na Milegi
Dobara
Neena Jojith
“Trust no Future, how’ver pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!”
- H.W.Longfellow

The above lines tell us what we exactly Do we speak up when it is actually neces-
need to do in life to make it meaningful. sary...? Are we all sure whether our words
It urges us to seize the moment at hand haven’t hurt anybody in some way or the
and only the present moment, since the other? Similarily, our actions are to done
past is long gone and the future is un- on time diligently. There should not be any
seen. It is really important that we re- delay in what we need to do at present.
alize the present moment is precious
and not to be wasted.The door that is Without the invisible hand of God, our ac-
opened to us today may be shut tomor- tions can never be fruitful. We should nev-
row. So we should grab the oppurtuni- er rely alone on what we think we know.
ties that God provides without any delay Trust in the Lord with all your heart.Re-
so that we must never regret our actions. member Him in all your ways and then He
will show you the right path...!!
Just like Hrithik says in the film Zindagi
na milegi dobara ”Chaliske bath i will ***
retire...”,some of us may have some hid-
den interests,dreams that we are post-
poning for some unknown reason.To
such people,my question is “If not u,then
who...? If not now then when..?”.We must
take hold of time,live life fully without any
worries.

In a day-to-day basis also,it is quite im-

portant that we speak and act necessarily.
Definitely God has blessed almost every-
one of us with the ability to speak.But on
second thought,do we make full and effi-
cient use of this blessing?

76 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Art!

Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Reshma DS

77
Zaina F Kamal
 Article

Why Loiter? Women

And Risks In India
M Sukanya

How much safe is our country for A strong recommendation about co-edu-
women?The dailies reporting about the cation should be encouraged in academic
domestic and public violence about wom- institution to establish a social harmony
en make us ponder about what is going among two genders.It might be hard to
wrong in our country? beleive that,most of the violence to wom-
en are arriving from middle aged men and
The recent issues reporting the brutal acts senior people than from youngsters.
of man has made every women in the
country to think about thuis issue.As it be- It shows a point on morality gives to the
came cultural prejudice which doesn’t al- people at younger age.Coming generation
low the women to face the world head on. should be taught to be recognized more
as people or individual then in gender,
Are the women in this country safe?The also we need to have efficient laws which
statistics show that nearly 1/4 of india have not even modified since 60 days af-
men were found to have comitted sexu- ter independence.
al violence at some point of time in their
lives and 1/5 th to have forced his wife The moral values,the acceptance and
or partner to have physical relations. mutual respect for genders should be
a must for the relief country as India.
The electronic media is also play-
ing a part ofin it,by focusing only on the ***
public violence,and the domestic vio-
lence are usually getting avoided. Their
news,limelight makes a feeling among
people that the public spaces are only
vulnerable for women which is a contrary
to the research that shows not only that
women are vulnerable it violence in their
homes than in public spaces but also that
more men get physically assaulted in pub-
lic space by their family.

78 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 True Story :)
Life in S6 CS2!! ;)
Actually ……at present am sitting in front
of my laptop with the Microsoft word page
open and wondering what article should
I write for our class magazine……and
the ultimate force behind this situation of
mine is none other than my “cuppy cake”..
Sneha…she is our class magazine edi-
tor… who had been shouting in our class
from the past many weeks that “edey
onnu article kond tharuo..njan kaalu pidik-
kam..plzz”. As usual …nobody bothered
her...as we people of s6 cs2 are used
to such quarrels ! Finally she decided to
collect a fine of Rs.50 from those who
didn’t submit the articles and that final-
ly lead to the present situation of mine!
First I thought of copying an article from
one of my old school magazines. I some-
how managed to find out an old school
magazine and searched for an article……
at last I found few articles ……though not
satisfied, I thought of typing them and then
mailing it to Sneha. But few minutes later,
when I got in front of my laptop…I thought
of writing an article myself…isn’t it a good
idea? I started typing without any ideas or
anything…and this is my first experience
as a writer…in my 20 years of life,I have
never ever written an article or anything as
of my own before. After all these happen-
ings…I thought of writing about my bes-
ties and about our classmates!
Shilpa Vijay
No doubt……as you people
know, I have many besties in our class!:)
Mahi(Mahitha Gopi Kalyan S) and
RBD(Reshma B Daniel) are my best
friends!!! The main reason behind men-
tioning their full names is that both of them
would write their full names everywhere,
whether necessary or not, even though
there is only one Mahitha and only one
Reshma B D in our class.No compromise
in that! :p Now…lemme explain something
about them. I share each and everything
with them. There are no secrets between
us! I met them 10 years ago, when I was in
5th std. We studied together in K V Pattom
till 12th and the interesting thing is that
we were not best friends..not even good
friends! We belonged to separate gangs.
Mahi was a silent and obedient student
and RBD was a “buji” and very quite per-
son those days…and no doubt I was a
“villathi” …same as now! Even though we
studied long 7 years together..we spoke
to each other rarely, at some occasions
like when I had dance programs with Mahi
or when I wanted RBD to move her huge
round head to right side so that I could see
the blackboard(as she used to sit in front
of me in the class). Then we joined same
college…to be frank, I was quite unhappy
to leave my active gang of friends and sit
with these 2 silent people…I thought that
our bench would resemble a silent valley
and my 4 years are gonna be a big waste!
But within few weeks I got closer to them
and soon we became besties.
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 79
 Mahi is quite secretive ,but still shares ev-
erything with us (most probably after the
expiry date of that secret).She often gets
angry and is highly skilled in beating us..
especially me! She sometimes plays the
role of our mother and scolds us for mak-
ing silly fights. She often writes notes for
me ,no matter how many pages…she is
always ready.After all she has a sweet
heart…which cares for me n RBD.
Now coming to RBD.!She is also quite
secretive….but not as much as Mahi
dear!:p Within heart she is a sweet per-
son…loves us a lot! From 1st year till this
semester,all the registrations such as
for workskops,competitions or filling up
of forms,etc…for me has been done by
her. I ‘am sooo lazy that am least both-
ered about such registrations n al…and
am sure that she will take care of such
things! Because of her I have never
known the stress or problems or hours
one has to spend before computer to
make such registrations.She does every-
thing for me and when the day to attend
workshops or classes arrive,she informs
me and I just walk in like a rani,without
any effort from my side!Because of this I
have got many certificates ,which would
be very useful in future !You guys know
that how much valuable a certificate is to
us(since each and everyone of us would
die for a certificate,perhaps we do spent
lots of money and went till kollam just for
a certificate!) ………just as valualble as
Mahi n RBD are to me! We always have
small fights n jokes between us during
class hours (when the teacher turns to the
board) and have lots n lots of fun!They are
very supportive n help me do my works
whenever I get busy with some coordi-
nation works or anything!We do often
have combine studies for a whole day n
all,where we study for 2 hours n chat for
the remaining whole day!
80 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
Love them a lottt..!!!Ofcourse I cant imag-
ine a world without them..it would be hor-
rible.! I think I can write a whole book
about them..but thought of stopping for
now! :) Now coming to Sneha…u might be
wondering why I called her “cuppy cake”
in the beginning……its ‘coz she used to
sing the song “u are my sweet little cup-
py cake……” whenever she is in a good
mood(it means whenever we get free
hours),dat’s all! She sits beside me,from
the last 3 years and there is one hobby
which she coudnt change till now and
that is “stamping me”!Every day I earn
minimum 2-4 stamps from her and it usu-
ally happens when she put her leg on leg.
She is a computer bujiiii….very good at
programming!As we say,big things come
in small packets! She is the only person
‘coz of which most of us could complete
our mini projects ,especially our group !
She is sometimes louder,naughty,childish
….at the same time she has a very good
leadership quality!One important thing
is that she accompanies me in sleeping
during boring class hours……as mahi
n RBD hav good control at their sleeps!
I have another set of lovely friends, they
are Suku(Sukanya), Vandu(Vandana),
Vini(Vineetha Mathew) and Priya! They
sit behind me!They are also my besties!
Suku always has a neutral expression on
her face(nobody never knows whats run-
ning through her mind or whats her feel-
ings from her face) and that’s the reason
why I call her “injiiiiiii”!My main hobby is to
irritate her and make her angry by waking
up her from sleep and ask her “ Sukuu…
uranguayrnoo??” ! The expression on
her face at that moment is just awesome!
Vandu and Vini are very good at finishing
my curries (especially potato curry).They
are good at making fights which usually
includes marshall acts( adi,chavittu,bottle
vechu thalakku adi,watch pottikal,etc) and
some verbal conversations inbetween(vere
onum ala, cheetha vili) !They are very help-
ful at the same time(recently I got a task of
finding a question n answer in FLAT,I got
busy with some other work n they some-
how managed to get me a question next
day).Priya is a totally different person.She
is a buji(verum buji ala,katta buji),very
silent(purathunnu nokumbo,aduth iri-
kunna namukale original swabhavam
ariyoo!) and spiritual(every Thursday you
can see her running behind Christian
gals to join them in the meeting of Je-
sus Youth,most of them run away from
her and poor gals who get cought will
have to perform action songs with her!).
There is one more person in our gang,she
is Sruthi K. She is from kasargode(thani
kasargottu kaari), always has high opin-
ions about her native place and always
speaks about the greatness of her native
place(as if we are all alians and trivandrum
is not even a part of kerala). She is inno-
cent (veruthe sukhipikan paranjata tto),
worries for small things and laughs a lot
for small things.She loves taking her own
photos and never gets bored of it(koode
nadakunna aalu photos eduth avasanam
camera thane veruthu pokum,athrakku
bheegaram aanu).We 8(mahi,rbd,suk
u,vini,vandu,priya,sruti n me) of us to-
gether form the gang named “X-Galzz!”.
(story behind this name is quite long).
My list of besties does not end up with
this,it also includes Sruthi G M and Sreya.
We 3 are in the same college bus.Sruthi
always hungs up for window seat,no com-
promise in that(little baby). She is a soft
spoken person and often gets into trouble
‘coz of me n Sreya.She is crazy about
staircases, always wants to climb up the
stairs of our college in the morning( while
me n Sreya opt for lift,
she would pull us to climb the stairs(she
might want us to loose our weights) and
only ‘coz of that we never get late during
1st hours and get attendance!). Sreya…
Ahh! I donno what to write about her.We
are in the same busstop and whole time
“kathi vekkal” is our main job(ofcourse
“vayinottam” also goes along with it),
talking with her is a great timepass.
Even though not trained,she loves danc-
ing…and the expressions given by her
are extraordinary and out of reach of a
trained dancer( expressions developed
by herself apart from navarasangal).
I would like to mention about one more
person,its none other than our great Vi-
nita V Nayak(hope the spelling is correct).
She was also my schoolmate and we had
worked together for our house activities.
During those days itself she was very
good at “chalu adi”. Then we joined the
same college, I thought that she would be
a normal person without any chalu’s and
by gods grace her “chalu adi” increased
by many folds that sometimes we may
feel like crying. She is very good at get-
ting teachers into trouble by asking doubts
and the teacher may spend a whole
hour trying hard to clear her doubt( we
guys feel happy ‘coz we get a free hour).
Reshma C and Sarannya B are also my
good friends,I often talk to them. Reshma
is a sweet person,she has a sweet voice
and we have lots of laughs in our conver-
sations( mainly ‘coz of her silly doubts ).
Sarannya has got a very formal tone,she
always uses English words inbetween(
puttinu idaku idaku thenga veykumpol-
ee…!). Another bestiee of mine is Shilpa
Joseph. She seems to be a very quite per-
son, a pakka innocent(sherikkulla swab-
havam kandal … ntammoo …apaaram) !
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 81
 First I thought she is a “paaavom” gal, but
once I got closer to her I came to know
her actual character, she is very good at
fights and extremely good at irritating me(
but after all its great fighting with her with
duster as weapon and running al around
the class) !
There are few benches in our class
‘coz of whom our class hours go fun-
ny like Neena ‘s bench(Chotu,Prati,S
uma,Sajna),Susan’s bench(Reshma
Mohan,Maha,Megha) and Srilekshmi M P
‘s bench(Niki,Sreya,Pooja)…these guys
are very talkative during class hours( least
bothered about teachers lecture) and often
they get the most horrible punishment(to
sit in the 1st bench) and ‘coz of this we
guys get rid of teachers lecture atleast
for few minutes and burst into laughters
upon their excuses for talking and on their
sportive comments. We also have a set
of lateral entries(Manju,Akhila,Greesh
ma,Swapna,Sheena) who makeup a si-
lent corner of our class (aareyum angottu
poyi upadravikkilla……avare aarum onum
cheyate irunna mathi),very innocent guys
and quite mature as well. Soumya chechi
also sit along with them, she is the mother
of a small girl baby and hence has that
maturity as well(we all appear to be very
childish compared to them,ofcourse they
are elder than us,but I don’t think that we
guys will have their maturity even if we get
into their age after 2 more years).But now-
adays these guys are getting a bit naugh-
tier maybe because they are sitting close
to Sruthi Seb,Zaina n al..! :p
There are few more special people in our
class such as Taniya (hope she was born
with a book in her hand),she is a “padip-
ist” ofcourse.If teacher ask us to study
anything n cum,most of us would not even
touch the book but she n Shwetha would
be studying during free hours(now we are
not shocked at such sights). :p
82 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
The remaining guys also form a good
part of our class….they include Roshni,
Shejiya,Revathy,Vidya,Sujitha(very good
at pinching me),Mehwish n Thamji(amul
babies…born n bought up with great
care,so handle with care.. :p), Meena(our
dearest mandaginii…always slow n
steady,the coolest person!),Reshma A,
Reshma Nair,Vrinda,Silpa S Kumar,Suma
Iyer(yo yo gal),Sona,Srilekshmi V( bujii
cum comedian),Preetha( most energetic
person,koprayam kanikunnenu oru athirum
illaatha jeevi,most entertaining),Urmi(one
who tolerates Preetha),Reshma D S(most
creative person and good at making sport-
ive comments),Parvathy P L,Parvathy
Anil.
Finally our reps Vishaghni n Vidya …to be
the reps is the most toughest job , as I have
experienced it once in S1S2.They always
try their level best to inform us everything
in time and make all of us complete our
works in time( and ofcourse we are the la-
ziest students and most probably put them
into more troubles).Our class people are
best at mass bunks and our reps try really
hard to avoid such mass bunks inorder
to avoid the after effects from our staffs.
Vishaghni is a loud speaker and the an-
nouncements made by her in our class is
audible to the entire college,but still major-
ity of us don’t listen to what she says and
finally she gets angry so that we listen to
her(that’s the only way how she can make
us obedient).
A mixture of all these different kinds of
people make up our class s6 cs2. It’s a
very special class and each and every mo-
ment in our class( especially free hours) is
enjoyable.We started our journey together
in 2012 and after 3 years when we look
back each n every moment was really
memorable (kollam trip for IEEE, IV, trip to
veegaland,etc) and we have hardly 1 nd ½
years remaining..
hope we enjoy the remining years in the
same way…and am sure that we will miss
our class badly once we get passed out.
We wont ever get such moments in our
life again(you might be thinking that these
are the most horrible days in our life,but
later when we get into busy lifes with lots
of family burdens ,at that moment we will
realize…how precious our college days
were, so better realize it now! )……so en-
joy it to the fullest!!!

***

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 83

 Art

Urmila SR

84 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

 Cover Article
Carpe Diem!
We all get 24 hours every day. No one
is blessed with a minute more, or cursed
with a minute less. Then why are some
people remembered even after centuries
and some are not. Here is were the real
escence of ‘Carpe Diem’ comes in.
Malala Yousafzai was 16 when she gave
her speech to the UN. What were we do-
ing when we were 16? Chilling out, hang-
ing with friends, spending sleepless nights
for entrance preparations and getting tired
from hours sitting at the tuition centers.
It’s time we think about what we want to
be a few years from now. Not the usual ‘I
want to go for Mtech, get PhD’ , ‘I want to
be a software engineer, get high salary’ etc
etc. What about being someone or doing
something that will be remembered forev-
er? Even after you die, wouldn’t you want
a part of yourself to stay behind? Not just
be rememberd by your children, but by the
world? We remeber Mother Teresa don’t
we? What about Sachin Tendulkar? These
people had a passion in their heart and
even when people around them critisised
them and made fun, they never let go!
They never let time pass by wasted, they
worked hard everyday to achieve their goal.
It’s about siezing every moment you get
and to stop keep everything for tomorrow!
Keeping this in mind, I made a google
form, and told my class mates to fill it.
Sneha VL
I asked them a very simple question.
“What is your unique dream?”, the dream
that you dare to dream, something that
deep inside you know you want it, but
have a feeling that it’s just too hard to
reach. Maybe it’s omething you think the
society or worse, your parents would
never accept, Something that, when you
tell your friends they might laugh at you
and go “Really? You? Ha!”
I must say I was really surprised with the
response. I’ve never felt more proud of
my class than now. Some poured their
hearts out, some kept it short, but the im-
portant thing was, every one was honest.
I kept thinking, everyone must have a
dream like that right? Then what’s stop-
ping us? If everyone stayed true to them-
selves, never gave up hope and took criti-
cism positively, I’m sure right here, in our
college, we can find the future Malalas,
P T Ushas, Sheryl Sandbergs, Arundhati
Roys, Indira Gandhis and Rathika Ra-
maswamys.
It’s about believing in yourselves. Who
knows you better than you yourself? Your
neighbour? Your distant relative who
never calls on your birthday but somehow
always remembers the day your results
come out? Tell them to leave you alone.
Your life is yours! never waste a moment,
because you may regret tomorrow.
Best of luck! Let the world remember you!
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 85
 “To be a good woman who doesnot cheat
any one+to be a fasion designer+to be
the one who care about others+to be a
great scientist+.......
:P :P :P”
-Vishagini V
“I would like to see the world as that of
the settings shown in the songs of direc-
tor shankar sir’s films. I would like to be a
world known singer.”
-Vidya G
“I want to be an athlete someday.....since
my childhood days i have had this dream
of playing for my country and winning
medals for her. In my school days i used
to participate in sports day every year
and win prices;whatever event they con-
duct my participation will be there in it.
Winning or losing in an event comes sec-
ond to me but the amount of joy that I get
after participating in it is unexplainable.....
and thats my dream and I will make it real
someday.....”
-SreeLekshmi V
“Well..My Unique dream is to become
an aspiring model!! well in fact a brand
ambassador for a cosmetic company like
Lakme,Garnier,REvlon,Herbal Essence
etc..For becoming a model,all you need
is full dedication,confidence, and infact
good looks and shape but its impossible
for me!!”
-Shwetha Menon
“My dream is to become a scientist.I want
to work in ISRO.So that I can explore the
universe.Well, some say that there is no
end for the universe. But one day I will
find the beginning and end of the uni-
verse and disprove their theory. I will do
86 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
a research about time and universe.I will
seize the time and I will even invent a
time machine to go back in time.Finally,
my biggest dream is to receive the Nobel
Prize in Physics.”
-Taniya F Thomas
“What a world would it have been if peo-
ple had a pure heart. When i look myself
in the future i want to be one who would
try to uphold whatever good that exists in
the world. I wish that i would be a person
who leaves a landmark behind doing
works of the maker of the heaven and
earth. I am an ambitious girl. I’d like to be
at the top of what I do. I hope I can be a
woman who would give out to the society.
In other words i AM a very ambitious girl
but with a different mind-set. “
-Reshma Susan Wilson
“I am also a CSE student .I am proud to
be a CSE student ..From school days
i had a wonderful dream to become a
“JEWELLERY DESIGNER” which is not
fulfilled yet...When i was in tenth standard
my dad asked “what are you going to do
after completing your twelfth?”...During
those days i had no idea what i am going
to do.. so i said “I don’t know dad i have
not decided anything yet” ......And he told
me “ you must become as an Engineer”
...
After tenth board exams we all had a
very long summer holidays...During those
days i used to browse internet to see ac-
cessories of good designs..And i got very
much interest in it...
So i started to look for more designs of
various types like temple set,
gems design jewellery and gold...I was
wondering that how this people can do
very descriptive designs...Some thing
pulled me to search of it..
so i went through a good investigation
about this field and i came to know that
this designing field is known as jewellery
designing and it is a very much difficult
thing to do..At the same time it is very
interesting..And i decided that i should do
this course...That time i came across to
one of the famous jewellery designer...
Her jewellery making was some thing
mind blowing..
I told my parents that i want to do “jewel-
lery designing” course..And they said “No
...you wont get a good earning from it and
all” ..it continues..I strongly urged that i
am very much interested and i wanted to
do this course ...But nothing worked....
You know jewellery designing is a sub-
lime field.....Unfortunately
or fortunately i joined B.TECH ...But after
completing B.TECH i wanted to do jewel-
lery designing from my own salary :D :D
:D :D :D :D :D ......If you beautiful ladies
are lucky enough and then i would design
an jewellery piece for your nuptial ehi ehi
ehi :D :D :D lolzzzz.......”
-Sarannya B
“My unique dream is to write a book
about human psychology, human behav-
iour at different stages of their life.....after
making a proper study about the people
around me!!
Am also very well interested in astrol-
ogy...when i meet a new person the thing
which i never forget to ask is his BIRTH-
DATE! I like to study about ZODIAC
SIGNS and their behaviour and how far
it is true!!
step i have taken for accomplishing my
dream:
I HAVE STARTED STUDYING OB-
SERVING PEOPLE ;)”
-M Sukanya
“I just want to be a famous dancer !!!An
Indian who can dance in any dance
form!!!”
-Mahitha Gopi Kalyan S
“:).. I always wanted to be an author !!
To be an established novelist was my
secret dream :P..
As of now I’m an author of many small
stories.Some of these have not been
completed.
To accomplish my dream I’m ready to put
my heart and soul into it :D”
-Suma Prakash
“I want to be the Prime Minister of India
some day.and want to work for the Peo-
ple of India :D”
-Vinita V Nayak
“First and foremost, my very biggest
dream is to become a great pop singer
known all over India. I want to sing with
A R Rahman and share stage with Ste-
phen Devassy.My next dream is to be-
come a dubbing artist and do many films
( I am ok with Malayalam. :-P:-P:-P:-P)
That’s all.....:-):-):-):-)”
-Reshma C
“To be a spy and work for intelligence
agencies...........!!”
-Neena Jojith
“In 2 years I dream of me attending the
campus placement for the post of princi-
pal of lbs engg college and finally sitting
up in that room,ruling the whole group of
awesome girls!!:P :D”
-Vineetha Mathew
Carpe Diem S6 CS2 87
 “Well, my dream is to travel around the
world. Its been my dream for so long
and I’m sure it would be fulfilled some-
day. There are so many places that I’ve
always wanted to visit, Eiffel Tower, The
White House, Niagara falls are a few on
the list. Another of my ‘so-not-gonna-hap-
pen’ dream is to travel on the Air Force
One :P”

-Vandana R

“My UniQur dReAm iS...

SOmedAy iAm gOing tO bE fRee ...!!
And Iam gOing tO tRavel All ArOund tHe
World!!
Miami...lOndOn..rOme.. vEnicE...dUbaI..
los aNgleas...aThens..
.lasVegas...sYdnEy..fIji...pAris...sWitzEr-
laNd...!!
It wOuld bE rEallY a WoW mOment!! If
trAvelliN wOz free u wUd nEver sEe mE
aGain!!! :D “

Sreya Tony

***

88 Carpe Diem S6 CS2

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 89
90 Carpe Diem S6 CS2
 The ‘kidilam’s of CS2
Like all class magazines, this magazine should definitley contain a class list. To make
things intresting, I gave a task to four of our funniest students to put nick names to all
students according to their behaviour or personality in class, and I must say, they did
an outstanding job!!!
- Sneha VL(Chief Editor)

This list is based on keen observation and survey conducted in CS2 by four
poor students of CS2. Please don’t balme us!
- Sreya Tony, Sreelekshmi MP, Pooja Raj, Nihdha R

M Sukanya Whatsapp Mougli
Mahitha Gopi Kalyan S Neelambari
Meena S Manglish Molykutti
Meenu P J Vaakathy Rani
Mehwish Sainudeen Silsila
Mekha R Mappi Madhavi
N Mahalakshmy Chala Mary
Neena Jojith Talking Tom
Neenu M S Dapp Dapp Janaki
Nicy Susan Koshy Kalikudukka Koshy
Nihdha R Kolappi
Parvathy Anil Jingina Mani
Parvathy P L Puchaavathy
Pooja Raj Kuthiravattom Prem Nazir
Pratibha Padmanabhan Podiyan Kothu
Preetha S Oolampara Oolala
Priya Mary Jose Face on Book
Reshma A Kanjikuzhi
Reshma D S Vethalam
Reshma Mohan Kuluki Thavala
Reshma R Nair Dillalankadi Kuttan
Reshma Susan Wilson Dikky Maria
Reshma B Daniel Popy Kuda
Reshma C Chellakili
Revathy L Silencer

Carpe Diem S6 CS2 91


Roshni S Nair Kumaranashan
Sajna Noushad Khalbilethi
Sarannya S Chottu Maama
Saranya B Chemmariyadu
Shahana S Penguin
Shejiya M S Thattathin Marayathu
Shilpa Joseph Ambi vs Anniyan
Shilpa Vijay Nonstop Kondattum
Shwetha Menon Kalimannu
Silpa S Kumar Urulaykupperi
Sneha V L Kaali Cylinder
Sona Sunil Komalangi
Sree Lakshmi V Chitti Robo
Sreelekshmi M P Natholi oru Cheriya meenalla
Sreya Tony Azhagiya Laila
Sruthi G M Belinta Molu
Sruthi Sebastian Madalasa in 1980’s
Sruthi K Kasargod kaattupucha
Sujitha A S Naakumukku Tholasi
Suma P Purushu
Suma P (23/4/1995) Donald Sayippu
Taniya F Thomas Pronto
Thamji Bayar Tenali Raman
Urmila S R Michelle Obama
Vandana Radhakrishnan Action Sheelamma
Vidya G Ujala Unni
Vidya S U Padayappa
Vineetha Mathew Mannar Mathai
Vinita V Nayak Gundu Shashi
Vishagini V Arisumutta Jayan
Vrinda L Panjara Kunju
Zaina F Kamal Bumber Bheeman
Akhila Das K P Jamban
Greshma Shine Vada yakshi
Manju V Indrans
Remya Raju Thumban
Rohini M G Peekiri Professor
Sheena N PK
Swapna Chandran L S Vaayadi
Soumya Krishnan R Chechiyamma

***

92 Carpe Diem S6 CS2