Examination Pressure!

I recently happened to watch the film 'Tarein zameen par'.It throws light on 'dyslexia' which is a disorder pertaining to slow learning among certain kids.It also brings up the issue that- 'every child is special'.Kudos to directorial brilliance of Aamir Khan for making such a sensible movie which opened the eyes of several parents and teachers about child's learning ability and grasping power.
After watching the movie i was reminded of my`school days when the cut throat competition did not let kids to stay as kids.The heavy satchels which are even heavier than the kids themselves ,the long unending queue at the bus stops early morning and the weight of water bottles and tiffin boxes on top of all this , would make any body sympathize with the misery of these tiny tots.The school administration too does not leave any stone unturned to make their lives hell.The regular maths exercises lay emphasis on mugging formulae of Pythagorus rather than teaching maths as a tool to solve day to day problems.The history lessons are mere collection of chronological events which the students have to mug up and vomit in the exams.The history book chapters relating to India's Independence highlight only specific leader's contribution in the struggle and bury the heroic deeds of other significant ones.This distortion of the facts has led to mere confusion among the present day youth who scratch their heads in bewilderment when they try to put pieces of history together.
Grammar again is taught more as a maths class and pure language classes offers nothing to enhance in the department of vocabulary.
If a student intakes all the above mentioned subjects with the same mundane spirit as expected by the school he /she is declared as 'an extra-ordinary student' , 'an achiever','a gifted child' and blah blah.....The moment he tries to experiment with something new he is deemed as a' not so bright' or 'average student' or a 'black sheep' in the class many times.
Our examination system evaluates a child on the basis of his/her ability to mug up the course and put everything neatly into a sheet of paper.God forbid,if the child happens to be sick at the time of the exams, forget about his grades his complete academic year can be at stake!

Apart from the regular school unit tests and terms how can we forget the two deadliest exams which scares the shit out of every student including the brightest ones?? Yeah..I am talking about the SSC and HSSC BOARDS!!!Dare to mess up with these 2 and u r literally wiped out of the face of the world.
The Indian system of education sometimes creates scary aura for students and makes them mugging puppets instead of enlightening them with practical knowledge.Learning should be made a fun and an entertaining exercise which every child should take up interestingly and use it in his own way to perceive things and earn a living for himself when he is done with his basic education.
Education should be a journey towards a world of discovering new things,it should be a process which creates awareness among people about the general issues in and around them.Lastly,the ultimate goal of education should be to turn children into efficient world class citizens who can deal all minor and major issues of the world through effective education and make the world a better place to live in!!

Is this what is called.......???

Well for those who are trying to interpret the content of this article by the title above let me tell u that yes i have actually fallen in the "trap" where no one would like to fall..but can't help it...
So here goes my story..please guide me if i m right after u read this....
Actually i have a very close friend called"-------"(name not to be revealed so soon) who became too friendly and close to me in the past (say few) months and i sought of felt infatuated towards him..
I am a very serious and straight forward girl by nature,who is a feminist in every way....but after meeting this guy things started changing for me..
Every comment that he passed playfully on me made me think seriously about it..every prank he played made me laugh and feel happy ...every moment i spent with him gave me immense pleasure..i really started pondering whether i m in the fantasy world being bitten by the '4 letter word' which everyone speaks of..???.

As I told u he was/is a very good pal and telling my feelings to him would be either losing my friendship or acheiving him...so i was a little nervous before telling him my feelings..
But somehow i was so restless that i decided to tell him whatever i felt for him...

So here comes the D day of my life,i somehow mustered courage and called him to a place where i was going to reveal my emotions withheld till now...he came and gave a cute smile(i experienced my heart beating fast as he gave that grin with so sweet dimples..)and sat down expecting to chat as we usually did..
Then after a few minutes of chatting about mundane topics i began my actual conversation for which i had called him..I could not gather courage to look at him in his eyes , specially bcoz i was telling all this stuff for the 1st time and the fact that me being a girl taking the first step was sounding a bit desperate...I took 30 minutes to say what i wanted to and then.....ouch!!!.i felt somebody angrily knocking me down on the floor..who was it?? Oh my god was that such a big sin!!!! I only revealed my true emotions and i was being strangulated for doing that??

What was that?? OH !! to my despair it was my little brother trying to wake me up from my dreams saying"Didi ab utho bhi college nahi jana hai kya??? Mummy kab se utha rahi hai"
So i was dreaming!!!! Uhh what a dream!! But his smile was really cute yaar!!!

Hope to meet him in my next dream..sweeet dreams!!!

My Stay at Penstate till now

" Ladies and gentlemen,please lend me ur precious eyes and empty mind for a few minutes and peruse through my post"
Thank u


Well this is my first post, so I am a little nervous and curious about the reviews that i will receive after my friends read this.

Before i start describing my experience at Penstate, how can i forget to share the memories of the D' day when i left India ,my homecountry to turn a new leaf of my life here...It was 3rd Of August 06 when i was ready with all my luggage,passport and "n" number of official documents at "The Delhi International Airport" with my parents. I was loaded with a mixed bag of emotions of happiness, to start a new journey which would quench my thirst of knowledge but at the same time disappointment to leave my beloved country and my dear ones.The actual saga of emotions bursted when the flight took off and i felt as if i am leaving the most significant part of me somewhere down at the airport..tears were rolling down my cheeks,but no one was there to console,(so i stopped crying after i got tired...)!!!

Then came the moment for which i was waiting since so long..my entry in US (Washington) and from there to State College.
Penstate or 'Happy valley" (as called colloquially bcoz ppl here live in a fantasy world which is quite different from the lifestyle of rest of America) is a small town with scenic beauty housing mostly the students of Pennsylvania state university(i can say that as i read somewhere ..that out of every 2 residents 1 is a student of penstate)

I stayed with my seniors at South gate for a few days before finding an apartment of my own in Vairo village which is a very quite and serene place..i liked my apartment except the fact that it is situated near a forest(i can actulally see the forest from my kitchen window!!!..scary at times..believe me)

Now let me write something for which i m here..my department,my friends and seniors and my research interests(most important of all)...Well my department is in the Sackett building which is at a stone's throw away from the bus stop and i occupy the 4th floor office which is made specially for the "Pipeline Infrastructure" students..I am lucky to have Shiv and Adam as my seniors who keep on giving their valuable advice to me..and how can i forget Chandrika my friend who made my stay at the department pleasant enough..with her culinary skills and her gr88 hindi (which can make anyone laugh)..My research revolves around asset management and my final thesis will be on 'Performance Prediction modeling of underground pipelines"..I wont go in detail of this as most of u would end up sleeping,if i do that!!

During my first few weeks i messed up everything from food to laundry to assignments...i added so much of salt and chilly in the curry that my roomies literally ran for water..i burnt my sofa cover with the hot iron ..to add to these miseries our kitchen sink got choked and we ended up paying fine of 50$..But after the initial hassles,things r pretty much fine now....

So here i am well adjusted to the student life at Penstate ,learnt too cook(with proper amount of salt n spices now),clean my own room,and keep everything in order(unlike India,where i was pampered and spoiled to a great extent)...
My exams were Ok and semester ended in no time..hardly came to know how time passed..and my research work begins from 16th January so i am excited about it...
Yeah about my pals at penstate i came across people of all moods and temperaments..some dedicated , some not so dedicated,a few helpful, some little reserved,some very innovative ,some always overcharged(for i cant understand what??) some quite, some too loqacious,some interesting to chat with...some boring..etc.But I can safely say one thing that the company of friends i have are cool to chill out with and i gel properly with them...
I am planning to buy a new laptop and plenty of stuff in new year..already spent a lot on buying digital camera,mp3 and stuff....So to no one's surprise my New Year Resolution would be ' to spend less and save more..organise everything in a better way and work hard'..

Overall i have loved my stay till now and hope of enjoying the rest of it too..