Teenage Reading

I have an addiction, if I may say so, towards the 'Baby Sitters Club' books. Bad start, ugh. My heart rests(too formal), I looooove(too informal), I really love(just perfect) these books by Ann M. Martin. I have over forty of them, thanks to my parents. For girls, and guys too, this book really provides a lowdown on an American teenager's life. There are five girls aged 13 who are part of the BSC (Baby Sitters Club) and they are excellent sitters, great friends and share a wonderful camaraderie with each other. Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey and Dawn are the five girls who do have problems and tide over them in a perfectly normal way. Problems they face (ofcourse not all of them have all these problems) range from adjustment after divorce, diabetes, low grades in school, a single parent and division of families. Two other girls, Mallory and Jessi, aged 11, also are part of this great club. Mallory has seven siblings, yeah, seven and Jessi is Afro-American. She has to deal with racism. Ofcourse, they do have their 'crushes', some steady, and some not steady. They enjoy their life in Stoneybrook, a fairly small town, very unlike major metro cities. The contentment is remarkable. No ambitiousness or slogging away at school (though slogging away at school does give you large returns later), and great respect and love for each other. There are 131 books, from each member's point of view. Kristy has an adorable adopted sister, and two cute stepsiblings, Mary Anne has Logan (her boyfriend) and Tigger, her cute cat, Claud is super stylish and innovative and is great at art, Stacey is the 'NYC' girl, who copes with her diabetes positively and Dawn is the veggie environmentalist, who is really 'California' at heart. (Well, she is from Cali.) Mallory draws and writes well (though having seven siblings is really a bit too much, and I always sympathize with Mal for having to babysit them most of the time). Jessi is a really talented ballet dancer who has danced in lead productions and is great at languages. Logan(an associate member, also MA's boyfriend) is a complete jock who is great at all sports, and looks like Cam Geary to Mary Anne. MA looooves Cam Geary, so you get the picture. Shannon, the associate member, is totally into studies and extra-curriculars (sort of like me) and Abby, the member who appears in #Book 90, is also totally athletic(like Kristy) and is asthmatic. All of them are so different and unique, and thats what makes reading a great pleasure. There are minus points though, but they are 'minus', so just leave them. The plus points are just too many. Its really a part-reflection of your life, and the feelings we all have had. Feelings towards everything, like school, friends, activities, choices, decisions, health and love. Grab a book, hope that it is raining outside, make yourself a cup of creamy, frothy coffee or hot chocolate, cuddle up with your quilt, or just sit on a rocking chair, and transport yourself to the heaven of reading!! (Re-reading, Re-Re-Reading will definitely follow. Just ask me!) Savour them. You will really learn a lot. (Not in the truest academic sense, but it does make you wordly wise.) Ofcourse we read other books, but let me assure you, the BSC will be really intertwined with your heart and life. (Am I going too overboard? I really, really looooove the books!) All thanks to my school library who introduced me to them. Your next destination: bookstore and then Mocha, CCD or Barista, for that irreplaceable coffee!! Enjoy reading!!

Environment Article

I wrote this article when I was 14. It was published in the Me Magazine, which comes along with the DNA newspaper on Sundays. Hope you like it.
Sarayu Satish, 14. Student, St Gregorios High School, Chembur
I have always wanted to do my bit for the environment. I have a few ideas: Many of us want to save our environment, but do not know where to start. With your immediate environment, I’d say. There is a famous saying: “We have not inherited the Earth from our forefathers, but are borrowing it from our grand-children.” Saving the environment is our duty and responsibility. I bought new white-board markers that are free of xylene and toluene. Every time we open our markers we release these harmful gases in the air. Like whiteners, you can switch to eco-friendly appliances, which are free of chlorofluorocarbons. Some refrigerators are CFC, HCFC and HFC free. Plastics below
20 microns take millions of years to decompose. The Government has issued a ban to curb the production of these plastic covers; but many shopkeepers still pack vegetables and fruits in these bags. We can refuse to take them. We hear about compost pits, wet and dry garbage, recycling, etc, but rarely make the effort. Buy notebooks made of recycled or eco-friendly paper. These papers are made from bagasse (leftover sugarcane pulp). We can print many pictures in a single paper by copy-pasting them Use napkins instead of tissue papers. Re-use the water used for washing vegetables and fruits to water the plants or wash the cars. Lessen Mumbai’s sweltering and unbearable heat by planting more trees. Let us join hands and pledge to serve the environment, which has indeed given us a lot. Together we can make a difference!

Smile!!

Their quotes and my sayings

These are some really really 'awesome' quotes. Sure to inspire.
Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking." Daisetz T. Suzuki

"Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make something happen." Lee Iacocca


"If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different." Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe


"An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise." William Dean Howells


You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." Woodrow Wilson


You must get good at one of two things;planting in the spring or begging in the fall. Jim Rohn

"It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it."

These quotes definitely inspire. Think practically, though. Inspirational talks, motivational speakers, life enrichment courses and whatnot....do they actually determine how we act and behave in daily life, for example, taking a decision? Yes, we all know that failure is the stepping stone to success, life is full of ups and downs, failure is a greater teacher than success, life should be meaningful and all that....but actually, how many of us feel that failure is God's gift? None of us do. Frankly speaking, all these quotes and proverbs momentarily inspire you, but which is the catalyst, always with you, emanating good energy? I guess its different for different people. 98% of them don't have catalysts, or they just take life as it comes. Whenever we are sad, or depressed, do these 'talks' actually help us? We just get over it in some time. Reading inspirational stuff for a very long time helps, like stocking armour and artillery before a war. Something like an anticipatory bail. The comparison is good, right? Its funny, but a lot, yeah, a lot of us read solace giving stuff, but when we are angry, poof! We fret and fume. Normal. One quote, just one quote is embedded deep into everyone's minds. Time is the healer.

School To College

The proverbial first day at college:

1)No canteen visits.......because apparently there was a chance of us getting ragged!! (Why did they ask us to leave our bags behind? Did they think we'd just walk out of the college premises? Go figure who is 'they'. Anyway, we respect them, so leave it. I don't think anyone would just walk out on the first day, but then, there is a girl who speaks: Two days over, and I have not bunked a single lecture? Hell, it is seriously 'uncool' and dumb to bunk lectures in the first two days at least)
2) Yawns during maths (10 people). Happily solving logs (70 people). OK, make that 20 and 60. The snooooze-alarm ones were just not getting exponents, and the I'm-happy-solving-logs group was so thrilled. Guess which group I was in. If you guess the HSL group, you're right.
3) Triple yawns and people drowsily staring at the blackboard. (Yeah, economics. It's not thaaat bad also)
4) Accounts/Book keeping. Total fun. Awesome prof. Explained sensex( sensitive index), bullion, NASDAQ, RBI stuff damn well.
5) Needless to mention, transferring songs through Bluetooth, exchanging numbers, gossip....all that.
6) Great extra-curriculars.
Yeah, its time for everyone (above 15 below 17) to tune into the only frequency whose beat rocks!!- College!!)