SHE'S GONE - S B AMALJITH

He fell in love

But she didn't.

Each time he thinks of getting over it,

He feels as if he is cheating on her.

Now he can barely breath.

With tears hiding in his smile.

Screams hiding in his laughter.

Shouts hiding in his forgiveness.

Fears hiding in his sleep.

Anger hiding in his love.

Regrets hiding in his confidence.

But then he thought

You only lost love,

Not your life.

So now with great effort

He tried to fall in love

All over again.

He then realised something.

You can marry anybody.

You can marry any number of times.

But you fall in love only once.

Call it God, Universe or anything,

Only that unseen power can help you

Marry the one you loved.

Now he warns everybody he meets

Don't suicide,

Don't do drugs,

Don't drink

Don't kill,

All you have to do

To kill yourself is

Fall in love.

As simple as that.

Now he is slowly burning to ashes

Slowly dying,

As if been injected with dimethylmercury.

Suffering of lost love.

Suffocated of regret.

And bleeding out of the wounds,

That she made in his heart.

His bleeding heart made him a poet

His bleeding heart made him a story teller

His bleeding heart made him a singer

His bleeding heart made him a painter

His bleeding  heart made him an artist

His bleeding heart made him an introvert

His bleeding heart made him a failure

His bleeding heart made him a philosopher

Now everybody asks him,

Why cant you try again.

But he will not.

He wants all of it

His memories

Her blushes

His sacrifices

Her touches

His pains

Her smiles

His tears

Her eyes

All of it 

To die within himself.

To die with himself.

As at least in that way

She would be his

Forever and ever.

MORTUARY DIARIES - S B AMALJITH

                                                       TALE 6

ഡിസ്സക്ഷൻ ടേബിൾ നമ്പർ 6 ലെ ആനന്ദ് വീണു.

അവനെ വീഴ്ത്തിയത് മുന്നിൽ കിടക്കുന്ന ശവശരീരം അല്ല, ഫോമലിന്റെ കടുത്ത മണം അല്ല, ശവത്തിൽ നിന്നും പൊടിഞ്ഞ ചോര അല്ല, ഒരു മനുഷ്യനെ കീറാനുള്ള പേടി അല്ല. അടുത്തുനിന്ന തട്ടകാരിയുടെ വിരൽ സ്പർശനം, അതാണ്.

അങ്ങനെ ഒരു പാഠപുസ്തകത്തിലും ഇല്ലാത്ത, മെഡിക്കൽ സയൻസ് ഒരിടത്തും പരാമർശിച്ചിട്ടില്ലാത്ത, ഒരു സ്കാനിംഗ് നും കണ്ടുപിടിക്കാൻ കഴിയാത്ത ഒരു മാരക രോഗത്തിന് അവൻ അടിമയായി.

എവിടെനിന്നോ വന്ന ഒരു കാറ്റ് അവളുടെ തട്ടത്തിലും തലയിലും കൺപീലികളിലും തലോടി കടന്നുപോയി. അവളുടെ തട്ടത്തിനടിയിൽ ഒളിച്ചുപതുങ്ങി കിടന്നിരുന്ന സൗന്ദര്യവും അതിലുപരി അവളുടെ വിശുദ്ധിയും ആ കാറ്റ് കാണാൻ കൊതിച്ചു. കൂടുതൽ ശക്തിയിൽ അത് ആഞ്ഞടിച്ചു. ഒത്തിരി ശ്രമങ്ങൾക്ക് ശേഷം, അത് വിജയിച്ചു.  പക്ഷേ മുടികാനാൻ കൊതിച്ച കാറ്റ് കരഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ട് തിരികെ മടങ്ങി. അ നട്ടുച്ചയ്ക്ക് അങ്ങനെ മഴ പെയ്തു. അപർണ സൂര്യനാരായണ വർമ്മ തട്ടമിട്ടത്തിന്റെ രഹസ്യം അങ്ങനെ ലോകമെങ്ങും അറിഞ്ഞു. ആനന്ദ് ആകട്ടെ അ രഹസ്യം അവന്റെ അസ്തികൽകും ഞരമ്പുകൾകും പേശികൾക്കും കൊടുത്ത ആഘാതത്തിൽ നിന്നും വിട്ടുമാറാതെ നോക്കി നിന്നു. അവനും കരഞ്ഞു.

NO MORE LAKE VISITS - S B AMALJITH

One day we went to the lake.
Everybody had their phones in their hand.
It was completely silent,
Except for certain random laughters,
That broke out of the  trolls they read,
And the sound of WhatsApp statuses,
That became unmuted.
People barely talked
And amidst these many people,
I felt as if I was alone,
So lonely.

And finally when we were about to leave,
As if following a certain custom,
The one with the best front camera
pulled out his phone,
With a certain expression of victory.
Photo number 1, came a voice
Sorry I think I blinked
Photo number 2, came a voice
Sorry I think my smile looks fake
Photo number 3, let me see
And the app just won
In lightening everybody's fake smiles

Evening came
Status number 1, best day of my life.
Status number 2, a day well spent.
Status number 3, we created tides on the ground with laughter.
Story number 1, I love my friends
Story number 2, 'mine'...
Story number 3, wish I could always have them

Fake people, fake stories and fake statuses
All of this tired me.
Bored me
I dont want to be a face on those fake candids
And I decided
No more lake visits
Unless I am alone.

WHAT IS THE ACTUAL VALUE OF A CUSTOMER? - S B AMALJITH

I think this happened in the month of August. There is a hotel called MARYA'S CURRY HOUSE in Thevara. This is one such hotel where you get the worst customer service. I have had experience with both, star hotels like The Panaromic Gateway and Le Meridian, and also from those 'thattukadas' where you get a bajji for 2 Rupees. Never have I got any experience like what I got from Curry House. The waiters serve food like wardens in prison.

I will explain one incident that happened. I and one of my friends were buying lunch parceled. So we ordered together and asked them to parcel it separately. And when the order came, they put it in a single cover. Since we had to go to different places, I asked them again quiet politely to give it in seperate covers. They said that it was not possible. I thought of not making a scene there since both of us were really hungry, and also because we didn't have much time since we had classes. And what happened later was, one of us had to carry our lunch in bare hands with all those curries and all. I found it both insulting and embarrassing as a customer.

Even though I had many such experiences from them, I was a frequent customer, since that was the closest hotel from my hostel.

So now let me just put my growing 'economist' brain to use, for the first time. I just started wondering what the actual value of a customer might be. I always had only less priced foods from them(compared to things like tandoori, al faham etc.), which averages to like 70 Rs per day (yeah, I used to have my dinner everyday from there). I thought myself to be a 'not so valuable' customer.

Now let me get in to the arithmetic of this. (There are a lot of assumptions and approximations,so please bear with me).

When I was a customer, I used to spend Rs. 70  per day.

So for a month that will be like, 70 times 31, which is equal to Rs. 2.170.

I will be here in Thevara for 36 months (approx.). Or for the sake of assumptions, subtracting the year end holidays and all, let us say we have like 28 months.

So for 28 months,

2,170 times 28 is equal to Rs. 60,760.(pretty big number right? There is much more to come.)

As a prudent customer I am in no way going to keep my mouth shut about my experience. Let's say, I narrate my experiemce to 50 people. And let me assume that 10 of them on hearing my experience stopped being their customer. And let me average their expenditure to some Rs. 50. Let's also assume that they could have gone to that hotel 5 times,if they were customers. That is Rs. 250 a month. So for 10 people, it is Rs. 2,500.

Hence, for 28 months, 2,500 times 28 is Rs. 70,000 (again pretty big number. I am not done. Wait for it.)

So the total lose made by me and 10 other people who heard me was,

60,760 + 70,000 = 1,30,760.(this is big enough, but I dont want to stop here)

Here comes my last assumption. Let us just assume that the hotel lost 10 customers like me, just because of the way they treated us. Then the total lose is,

10 times 1,30,760 which is,

Rs. 10,30,760.

This is obviously a very big number. This means that, if they had treated me nicely in the first place, they could have started a new hotel by this time, in 3 years.

Let me end this with a punch dialogue.

I dont want to say that customer is 'king' and all, because one cannot survive without the other. And in a business both customer and the seller gains utility (satisfaction). But, never under-estimate the power of a customer.

Thanks for reading.

EDEMA - S B AMALJITH

Pulmonary edema is a condition caused by excess fluid in the lungs. It is hence very similar to drowning, but on dry land.

'Do I have pulmonary edema', he thought.

GRANTED - S B AMALJITH

Everybody took me for granted, he said with tears in his eyes.

His friend replied, no, you're wrong. You let everybody, take you for granted.

But I was always honest to everybody, I have always kept my word, he said.

His friend replied, yeah sure you did, but you were never honest to yourself and you never kept the promises, that you made to yourself.

May be you are right, he said.

His friend smiled and said, and you always put yourself in the wrong side.

Book review - Pranav P

                    As You Like It
                                 -William Shakespeare
                        ' As you like it' written by William Shakespeare is the dramatic representation of a love story of Orlando and Rosalind. There are love and beauty scattered in 'As you like it'  but there is no lack of laughter and unrestrained joy too.
                       
                           In this play, sketch of female character is more beautiful than the male character. Role of a clown cannot be neglected also. It is said that on completion of the play Shakespeare would not think a suitable title for it,he left the title for spectators as they want, that is, 'As You Like It'.

                                On the whole, this is interesting and full of romantic beauty. You would like to read it at all cost.


By,
Pranav. P

                     

The Alchemist: book review by sreya.s.menon

The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he asks a Romani fortune teller in a nearby town about its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that he will discover a treasure at the Egyptian pyramids.

Early into his journey, he meets an old king named Melchizedek or the king of Salem, who tells him to sell his sheep so as to travel to Egypt and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend. Your Personal Legend "is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is."

Early in his arrival to Africa a man who claims to be able to take Santiago to the pyramids instead robs him of what money he had made from selling his sheep. Santiago then embarks on a long path of working for a crystal merchant so as to make enough money to fulfil his personal legend and go to the pyramids.

Along the way, the boy meets an Englishman who has come in search of an alchemist and continues his travels in his new companion's company. When they reach an oasis, Santiago meets and falls in love with an Arabian girl named Fatima, to whom he proposes marriage. She promises to do so only after he completes his journey. Frustrated at first, he later learns that true love will not stop nor must one sacrifice to it one's personal destiny, since to do so robs it of truth.

The boy then encounters a wise alchemist who also teaches him to realize his true self. Together they risk a journey through the territory of warring tribes, where the boy is forced to demonstrate his oneness with "the soul of the world" by turning himself into a simoom before he is allowed to proceed. When he begins digging within sight of the pyramids, he is robbed yet again but learns accidentally from the leader of the thieves that the treasure he seeks was all the time in the ruined church where he had his original dream.

THE PAPER BOAT - S B AMALJITH

He taught his son how to make a paper boat. But the 3 year old didn't know what a boat was used for. His father told him that they are used to travel on water.

After the floods, water level dropped, rescue officers found the body of a boy clasping some soaked paper.

(Unedited)

THAT THING - S B AMALJITH

As a child, I always wanted to get on to that thing you see on that picture. But every time I went to a park, many things stopped me from doing that. What will people think of me, what if I fell down, what if my pants get torn, what if it gets damaged, so on always kept me away from that thing.  I will definitely climb on to that the next time, I used to say to myself. But to this day, I failed to keep that promise. Now it has come to that stage in which I can't do that anymore, even if I very badly want to. 'Only for children below the age of 12', they say. So, if there is something that you want to do, do it now, because tommorow never comes. Want to thank someone, do it now. Want to hug someone, do it now. Want to tell your brother how much he means to you, do it now. Want to do a get-together, do it now. Want to express your love to someone, do it now, because, you can make a bigger grid for someone who is above the age of 12 to climb, but, some beautiful things in this life, once lost, are lost forever.

BUT SHE FAILED - S B AMALJITH

Neha Krishna Kumar always wanted to become a doctor,a paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon to be more precise. She has never been in love with anyone,but she was madly in love with the medical professional. She loved every single bit of it. Thinking about sleepless nights spent in the operation theaters always excited her. Thinking about the smile on the face of her patients always motivated her. Thoughts about times when she was going to stand between life and death of a patient always pumped up the adrenaline in her body. She used to walk around wearing her sister's white coat and stethoscope, with a toddler's fascination. She even decided her abbreviated name to be printed on the OT coat- NKK. Jr, after her sister Nita Krishna Kumar, who is presently an MBBS student in AIIMS Delhi. She even changed her signature accordingly. 'Jr.', to Neha meant that she will always be a junior to her sister, not by just age alone, but even in the silliest aspect of life. Being a subordinate to her sister was not about dominance to her, but that there will be her sister's guidance throughout her life.

But then Neha failed. She failed miserably, once as a fresher and twice as a repeater. She had no other option but to give up on her dream, to break up with her love. She failed in everything she did, including her three attempts to commit suicide. She was now a well known example for everyone in her locality. People started telling their children not to be like her so as to not become a failure in life. She had no idea how things got this worse, she was always one of the best in her class.

She failed.

6 years later...

Nita after graduation, is now an intern in a primary health centre in Punjab. It was then that a cyclone broke out. Nita and some of her colleagues got their appointment letter to a relief camp. The letter was counter-signed in green, NKK. Jr.

GROUP 4 - DESCRIBING A PLACE

GROUP 5 - THE NAVKID

DIRECTED BY SEENA MARY THANKACHAN

GROUP 3 - DESCRIBING AN EVENT

GROUP ACTIVITY TEAM 2, TOPIC : DESCRIBING AN OBJECT

Group 1 - Describing A Person’s Appearance

TEAM 6 GROUP ACTIVITY (TOPIC: DESCRIBING PEOPLE)

Topic: An interview board interviewing candidates and describing their abilities, temperaments, attitudes etc. 

2 STATES- UNNIKRISHNAN.R

BOOK REVIEW-2 STATES - CHETAN BHAGAT.

'2 states- The story of my marriage' is a novel writtern by Chetan Bhagat. The own writer took inspiration from his own life ,but the novel is a work of fiction. The novel is based on the story of a couple ,who belongs to different states,castes and religion and wanted to get married. How they meet at IIMA campus and the way they convince their parents for their marriage is the actual plot of the novel.2 states ,as it is commonly called,is a very interesting novel,which is light and seems real as every second couple in india can relate to this story.
                 Two main characters of the novel are Krish and Ananya. They meet at the campus mess and soon they become friends and their friendship turns into love and they start to live together. After the course both of them get job. Then Krish proposes Ananya for marriage.While both of them were ready but not their families.They start trying to convince their parents and take turn to win each other's families.Somehow they manage to convince their parents for marriage.
                  The entire plot of marriage between individuals from two different states and their cultural differences have been very interestingly depicted. The book really questions the prevalent racism in India and how a couple like Krish and Ananya has to struggle for a marriage. The book is so compelling that I completed it in one go. The language used is very simple and easy to understand with a humorous tone.

Muttathe Muvandan

The beautiful novel written by Rasheed Parackal vividly explains the relation between nature and man. The life of a person from childhood to his young age is depicted in the novel in which the nature get united with human hearts. The life cycle of a person is closely linked to nature.

The love, affection and quarrel between the relatives of the boy named Sameer, the pond, the mango tree in their courtyard, the lantern etc. symbolises the past generation. People lived in joint families got split into nuclear families which shows the end of old culture. The boy who started his life with past generation has now got placed to a new style and order where there occurs disturbance in the relationship between man and nature. The story includes two life stages and we can see the transformation that takes place in the treatment of nature by man. The new generation tries to destroy the pond and the organisms in that particular ecosystem. The mother nature is suffering beyond endurance for the sins committed by her children.

The life'e feelings and emotions of migrant Keralite workers were also depicted in the novel through the character Sameer who travels to Gulf for a job;The workers who works hard in a strange land for their families. The struggle between society and culture can be seen throughout the novel. The transforming culture is a common theme in Rasheed's novels. The man who lived depending on nature at the early  stages of life began to show the signs of change. This drastic change resulted in the transformation of human culture.
                       
                       ARUN ANILKUMAR
                                  6222

BOOK REVIEW - KEERTHANA P.S.

VERUKAL

MALAYATTOOR RAMAKRISHNAN

Verukal is a Malayalam semi-autobiographical novel written by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan in 1996. It is widely credited as one of his best works. It won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award in 1967.

Verukal tells the story of a family of Tamil speaking Iyers who settled in Kerala. Raghu is the protagonist of the story. The pivotal event on which the novel turns is the return of Raghu to his native village after a lapse of several years, to raise money to build a city mansion for himself by selling his ancestral home. He sets about this reluctantly, under pressure from his shrewish and domineering wife. In the village, as he meets his sisters and others among whom he grew up, a flood of memories overwhelms him, and he abruptly changes his mind about selling the property.

The novel gives us a beautiful picture of village life in Kerala, its innocence and simplicity. It shows the importance of family relationships and also gives us a clear distinction between life in a city and that of a village. It reminds us not to forget the roots of our life as it is upon this base that everything else in our life is built on. Verukal by Malayattoor is a must read.