Spartans

SIX MONTHS | English article| Love at first sight | chocolate | Sharang Ahuja

SIX MONTHS

For six months we were apart. Six months we had been away from each other. In those six months, I had forgotten how you felt in my hands, how you tasted on my lips, how by having you, with me, inside me, you changed my life, even though for a few short hours.

I still remember our first time, the first time I looked at you, you at me, with just a glass pane between us. It was love at first sight. Me spell bound by your dark beauty, that dark, chocolaty complexion that appealed to my inner animal, I decided then and there that I must have you as soon as possible. You created in me a hunger that I had never felt before, a hunger I was afraid was insatiable.

We came close, I looked at you with wide, unblinking eyes; you were my trophy, my reward for all I had gone through, all I had suffered that day. You were going to be the Jack Daniel’s I could drown my pain and sorrow in. I touched you, held you in my hands, electricity flowed through my body, you must have felt it too; It was at that moment I realized that you were the one, that we were meant to be. I pulled you to my lips, and tasted you. It was better than I had expected, better than I had fantasized. My senses were on fire; I drank you all in.

After all these years, I still feel the same way, you make me feel the same way. I know this time we agreed that our “activities” would be limited to a maximum of two times, and I know we have way exceeded that limit, but I don’t mind. I wouldn’t have been anywhere else than with you all those times.

I love you choco-peanut bolt krusher, you complete me.

zindagi kisko nahi jini parhti
zinda reh kar bhi kisko nahi marna parhta
Khamoshi kiski jindagi mein nahi ati
Judai kiske sang nahi hoti

Haseen pal kab khatam nahi hote
Yeh hoth kab nahi muskurate

Jina toh fir bhi parhta hai
Bicharhna toh fir bhi parhta h
Jo na bichrhe wo ban gaye jindagi
Jo bicharh gaye the kabhi nahi

Rut toh badalti hi rahengi
Asun toh behte hi rahenge

Katna toh har pal parhta hai
Sehna toh har gum parhta hai
Thukra deti hai yeh zindagi
Larhkrha deti hai yeh zindagi

Yeh toh karva hai khilkhilayat aur asuno ka
Yeh ek rah hai sidha sa
Chalte rahe toh na jane kya thama degi yeh tumhe
Ruk gaye toh bikher degi yeh tumhe

Kabhi rula deti hai yeh zindagi
Toh kabhi hasa deti hai yeh zindagi

Yeh asuno ko sametna bhi sikha jati hai
Hasi ko batorna bhi bta jati hai

By Meenal Grover

Khushnasib ho tum..
Ki yeh hazar mauke jine ko deti hai
Khushnasib ho tum
Marte dum tak rah dikhati h yeh tumhe

Girati bhi h yeh tumhe
Sambhalti bhi h
Kya nahi batati h ye tumhe
Ab btao kya haseen nahi hoti yeh zindagi ?

The holiday season is around and everyone is surely clicking lots of pictures. But a picture is only half as good as you’re your idea. But cameras are an essential equipment to click pictures. Without a camera you can’t click a picture right?
So these are the top 3 cameras under the budget of Rs 10,000 that we believe will make your holidays even more memorable and fun:
1. Nikon Cool pix L28: With a pretty power packed 20.8 Megapixels, the Nikon Coolpix L28 is a great camera for those snap happy people who just like to click fun pictures. Armed with a good Nikkor 4.6-23mm lens, the camera provides a decent 5X optical zoom and an additional 4X digital zoom. The picture quality is decent and good for social situations. Lack of an ISO control might make it difficult for you to shoot it low light but that can be compensated by a good flash that is provided on this camera. The camera shoots HD videos at 720p which is pretty exciting at this price. Various fun picture modes help in the ease of use, giving you the perfect pic in almost any situation. The camera also has face detection. The L28 is available in Pink, Red, Silver and Black colors. The camera costs around Rs 5399 on flipkart.com
2. Canon SX160 IS- This camera by Canon is on the higher end of the price point that we discuss in this review but this camera is worth every penny of it. The camera looks big and bold like a bridge camera and it does justice to the form factor it has. The camera has a whopping 16X zoom lens with Lens Shift IS. The camera also has a face detection auto focus system. This SX160IS has a bit for everyone. With a mélange of both automatic and manual settings mode, this camera is perfect for anybody who would like to start learning photography. The flash fires upto a range of 3 meters and a 1600 maximum ISO sensitivity ensures that the noise level is under check. The camera also has a 32 scene smart auto which pretty much will encompass any situation that a normal student is gonna use his camera for in the college. The only downside of this camera is that it has a 16 Megapixels sensor which may not be too much but still it won’t matter as long as you are not making huge prints of your images. This camera is a good buy at about Rs 9695. It is available in Black, Red and Silver colors.
3. Canon IXUS 510HS- Another Canon has made it on to our list and for all the right reasons. The camera has WiFi, a thing whose importance a VITian would understand. The WiFi enables you to transfer the pictures from your camera onto an iPhone or a computer without the use of wires. This is of particular

Vistrit Choudhary

importance to those of us who wish to put up their pictures of social networking sites. The camera has a good image quality and decent enough picture quality even at high ISO settings. IXUS 510HS has a 3.2 inch touch screen display at the back as well. The two things that we didn’t really feel excited about in this camera was the modest 10.1 megapixels sensor and the fact that you cannot connect to FB automatically through the WiFi. The camera is available in 2 colours – Black and White at about Rs 8700- 9000.

~Vis
photosynthesis.spartans@gmail.com

I was driving back from Noida, the people who commute daily must have seen the huge farmlands on the Yamuna flood plains opposite to Mayur Vihar. You may also recall that they were flooded till a few days back due to the excessive rainfall and all farmers are camped alongside the roads.
While i was driving on the road, for some weird reason the song on the radio was "sun raha hai na tu, ro raha hu main" (may sound funny, but frankly, it isn't) and the huge stretch of the relief caps with the flood lights on and municipal water tankers painted a very sad picture indeed.
There were a couple of policemen stationed and Congress and BJP posters stuck all over the tents ( sad indeed! )

I parked my car, got down and walked towards the foot over bridge near the Mayur Vihar Extension Metro Station.
A group of farmers sat sadly on the parapet of the road staring at the vast expanse of their field- now brownish, decaying, smelling foul and with dying crop.
Scattered, floodwater-destroyed hutments lay all around.

You could clearly see the faces of the old men, tired of hard work and old age, and eyes that showed their hopelessness and the poverty that they have always had to deal with. They displayed a blank expression- synonymous perhaps with the vast tracts of desolate land that once had their crop.

I sat down next to an old man with a turban. His clothes were torn and dirty. I felt a rising sense of guilt inside me as i looked at my own shirt and wondered- isn't this the man who grows the food that i survive on and THIS is what he deserves ?
He was pleased to have company. Not many stop and ask us about what happened he says besides a few bikers who stop by to buy cigarettes/ pan from hurriedly mantled shops along the pavement to fetch them some immediate income.

The man asked me, "Sahab, neeche chaloge ? "
I was afraid. The fields were stinking and there may have been snakes around. I chose still to go down. Climbing down a steep slope, followed by i think kids who were probably the man's grandchildren, i walked down. He showed me a tumbled down hut with a smashed TV. A dead dog lay nearby. The children suddenly became busy going through the debris hoping to find their toys perhaps.

The farmer looked at the sky and sat down on a rock and said-
" Sahab, ek gareeb ki zindagi bhot bekaar hai sahab. Itni mehnat karte hai sahab , par jo kuch ho - chahe rajneeti, chahe baad(floods), chaahe badte daam, ya kuch bhi aur- maar hamesha gareeb khata hai. Faridabad se aaya hoon, aaya tha 8 saal bina ek paise ke, aaj bhi vahi haal hai sahab- mere pote (grandchildren) school tak nahi jaa paye sahab, meri behen ko cancer hua that, par hum gareeb kaha itna paisa kharch kar paenge? Humare bhai toh bhot pehle hi apni jaan de chuke the recovery agent ke chakkaro mein...fasal ke liye har baar mehnat karte hai sahab, par paanai sab barbaad kar deta hai. Dukh ki baat jaante ho sahab - jaha aaj akshardham aur commomwealth games city hai, vaha par ek time yamuna ka paani bhara kar ta tha - aaj vaha jab yeh sab ban gaya, to unhone road ke us paar paani rok diya. Dekho , yaha nizamuddin pul ke ek taraf sab dooba that , hum bebas the aur us taraf akshardham mein badi badi light jal rahi thi, tourist aa rahe the , hans khel rahe the..aur hume dekho, mar rhe hai yaha..."

Translates to :

The life of a poor man is perhaps the worst. We toil all day, but come what may- politics, floods, rising prices - it's always the poor that bears the brunt. I came here 8 years ago from Faridabad without any money, today , i am without money, still. My grandchildren can't go to school, my sister died from cancer as we being poor can't afford modern treatment..my elder brother gave his life because of recovery agents.
Sir, we work very hard for these fields, but water ruins it all everytime sir. Look across to where Akshardham and the CWG village stands- those too were once the Yamuna flood plains that were filled with water during these floods. Now they blocked it because they are buildings there. On one side of the bridge you have people mourning the loss of what was everything for them and on the other side, you see tourists visiting, smiling and enjoying. Look at us, we have nothing left.

"Garib Kisan hona bhi ek paap hai" he concluded.
I stood motionless next to the man.

This man is responsible for the food i eat.
Today, he does not have clothes to wear.
He couldn't save his dying sister because he never had the money.
His brother committed suicide because of the vicious trap of banks, loans, poverty and recovery agents.
His life's work lays destroyed before him.
And yet we all lead our lives happily.

My phone rang, it was my father anxious to know where i was.
It was time for me to leave- i shook the mans hand- feeling the warmth and the rough skin that indicated years of work with soil and tools and crops and corn.

As we climbed back onto the road, a tear rolled down the mans cheek and dropped onto the floor that was full of torn clothes, hurriedly stashed belongings and disappeared next to a wrapper of a Snickers. I thought for a moment, the bar is 30 bucks and we almost have it everyday. This man for sure did not possess Rs. 30 at the moment , i was sure of it.

With a deep sense of respect and guilt, i bent down and touched the mans feet.
" jeeta rahe mera beta" he said and those words coming from a farmer who is the reason for our survival means a great deal to me.

Siddharth Sinha

I left.
"kal aaunga" were my parting words.
I came back home, and wrote this.

I always get a scolding from my mom whenever I am at home for being lost in my cell phone or my laptop, whenever I get a chance, whenever I have nothing to do I just tend to take a sneak peak in my phone to look up my social networking sites, if someone has left me a message or any notifications on my facebook, there is only one thing I say to my mom ”its normal mom, it’s important to me”
But is it right, or we are just so lost in this trend of social networking that we don’t see it is right or wrong. Instead of talking to the person sitting in front of you or socialising to people around you we tend to socialise with people too far away from us through a virtual world, rather than going old school we just rely so much on our technologies that we have lost that personal touch, people have thousands of friends on facebook but out of those thousand he hardly know 100’s and even lesser no. people are his real friends, technology was meant to make communication easier but the only thing it has done is created a void in us, in a flash you will take out your phone when you are not getting the desired attention to show off other people we are busy, we try finding someone in that virtual world to fill that void, to search for someone’s attention rather than grabbing the opportunity and trying to get the people who are actually around you listen to you or talk to you, y
ou just want to get lost in that virtual world of your phones and laptops the second you get a chance. Today every kid knows what an I pad is or what a laptop is, he would love playing on these gadgets than going out to play, rather than making real friends knowing people personally he is happy chatting with some unknown or a person he barely knows online, when I was a small kid these gadgets didn’t meant much to me for me playing cricket in ground was much more exciting than playing it on my laptop but today times have changed, people have changed.
I am not saying these gadgets are not good for us they are actually very useful it has made communication very easy it’s just that their excess and unnecessary use is hurting the society’s future, it’s good to know what is going around the world but it is also necessary to know what is going in your neighbourhood, it is really good to be in

Rahul Vijay

touch with your old friend who might be far away from you, but it is also needed to make some friends who are near to you who can help you out in an immediate crisis.
Rather than being lost in this virtual world we should try enjoying the real world.

I opened my eyes wide open, a hundred percent alert, I sensed something was amiss. Now, it would be cool to say, “my spidey senses were tingling”, but unfortunately I can’t. Three times I tell you…three times I have been bitten by spiders and still I haven’t woken up one morning, feeling “changed”, a web slinger. Arghhhh. Yeah, so ,back to where I was……. I was wide awake. I slowly peeled off the covers of my blanket and lightly moved to the door on the balls of my feet. Without any noise, I opened the door and was just about to climb down the stairs when I heard somebody rummaging around my parents’ room along the hall. This got me a little curious, well… a hell lot of curious because, my parents had gone away for the weekend and I was home alone( yay me! ). So who was there in that room?
Now years of watching horror movies, crime thrillers should have influenced me to make the right decision of alerting the authorities right away and to keep myself away from harm’s path. But to a 17 year old teenager, well……you know what I mean. Bhawanaon ko samjho. They say curiosity killed the cat, it almost got me killed that day……I walk into the room and it is a mess. I see two bodies bent over some stuff, probably looking for something. I can’t make out their face, whether they are men or women, they are wearing black masks and black body suits. The intruders weren’t yet aware of my presence, but being the klutz I am , I knocked over the vase kept by the door. We all have heard of the butterfly effect; you haven’t? let’s see….it goes like, a small change to an unseemingly unrelated thing or condition can affect large complex systems- a simpler explanation , the flapping of wings of a butterfly can ultimately lead to a hurricane. Interesting? I know- so my k
nocking over the vase started a butterfly effect which evidently led to two separate events, both highly dangerous, in my life. The first eventually led to me being attacked by two members of the Chinese triad, the second was my mother scolding me for breaking that vase when she got back. And believe me when I say, I would take the two members of the triad any day over my mother. So the now-aware-of-my-presence intruders slowly move towards me. Adrenaline rushing through my body, nerves tingling, I felt alive more than ever, exhilarated, man I was high and loving it! The initial normal reaction should have been to run, run like the wind, run like Forrest Gump at the sight of danger, but I didn’t , I couldn’t. Now all of you must be thinking that I had something like the superhero syndrome…..no man, nothing like that… sorry to burst your bubble. They were quick upon me, like ninjas they were. I will let you on a little secret…. I am superman…..wait for it to sink in….
true story… I am just saying, superman and me have never been found to be in the same room at the same time. So with my superhuman strength, I tossed the two triad members around the room like a ball. Hell, I started playing tennis with myself man! It was all fun till one of them pulled a gun. It was millennium g2 9mm polymer grip sub compact pistol. Phew! Classy roberers they were. I kept on smiling, well, because I am bullet proof –amazing super power it is-. The perp apparently knew his guns but he couldn’t shoot for dime. He fired, an off shot, the bullet’s trajectory towards my ear. I kept still, being bullet proof. But somehow I felt the pain when it hit me. The pain was unbearable. The lights were blinded out of me. Was it a kryptonite bullet? It couldn’t be.
The pain kept on increasing and it felt like somebody was pulling my ear out of the body! I snapped out of my sleep and to my amusement and horror, no actually all amusement, saw my chemistry teacher standing over my seat pulling my ear so that I would shake of the afternoon rêves and concentrate on the “exciting” chemistry tutorial going on in the class.

Sharang Ahuja

One of the greatest wizards of all time, Albus Dumbledore, said, “it does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live”. But what did Dumbledore know about the chemistry classes I had to endure. Meh. Sleep is precious. People say you should dream high, and that’s exactly what I am doing, and intend to do so in the future…..sleep more tha….. zzzzz zzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Dear someone,
5 years, 14 days, 12 hours, 7 minutes and 14 seconds to this time, this day, I fell in love with you.
They say true love happens at first sight, and though the first time I saw you….well I can’t even remember the first time I saw you…well that says it all….but the love I feel for you, the love I love you with, is the “truest’’ and the purest , truer than the love Romeo felt for Juliet, truer than what Paris felt for Helen of troy, or what Davy Jones felt for Sparrabeth.
Every day after that day was lived for you. You were the reason I wanted to wake up every morning, you were the reason I went to sleep every night, just so you could be mine in my dreams. Every breath of mine whispered your name, every thought was about you.
I would see you in school every day and pine for you. You sat next to me in class, made it all the harder for me. I could not push you away because it would only crush me, but again your presence near me, but not near me, crushed me all the same. The way you flicked the strands of your hair behind your ear, the way you wore your hair, open and tousled, the way you laughed, the way your voice sounded, the small and short touches, however unconscious they were, your big, beautiful eyes, your pale and soft skin, they way you blushed when you got a little embarrassed, I loved all of it. Just hearing your name, seeing you would light me up inside like a thousand fireflies. It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it.
But that was as far as it went. I never got the courage to tell you how I felt about you, how I feel about you. I just remained your friend, who you called up when you were sad and needed cheering up, the friend you called up at night, talked for hours, talking about your boyfriends, complaining about them, telling me how your day went , asking me how was my day, and then cut me off in the middle and start talking randomly. I loved that too. No one can do random like you do. The times you would fall asleep on the phone and then ‘sleep text’ me at ungodly hours of the night……I loved that and I miss that.
Being that friend for you was enough, till now. Now that you have stopped talking to me after I confessed my feelings for you, feelings I had kept bottled up till today, I am lost……… lost in my own life.
You were all that I seeked in life, all I ever wanted, all I ever needed. . I had dreamed of us getting together, and staying together for the rest of our lives. And since you have chosen not to be with me, I cannot imagine living in this world without you. Every part of my life for these last 5 years reminds me of you, and I just can’t bear that pain, it hurts bad. They say, to forget about pain you put yourself through something more painful than that. But nothing and nobody can make me forget about this, about you.

Sharang Ahuja

To ease me of this suffering, this misery, it’s only right that I do what I am about to do after I finish writing this letter. Goodbye …….hope you are mine in another life.