Merry Christmas everyone!

We don't have holidays... we're having extra classes.

Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

- Oren Arnold

Newton 's laws of software

LAW 1: Every Software Engineer continues his state of chatting or forwarding mails unless he is assigned work by manager.

LAW 2: The rate of change in the software is directly proportional to the payment received from client and takes place at the quick rate as when deadline force is applied.

LAW 3: For every Use Case Manifestation there is an equal but opposite Software Implementation.

LAW 4 : Bugs can neither be created nor be removed from software by a developer. It can only be converted from one form to another. The total number of bugs in the software always remains constant!

The Alumni

Today was the alumni at our school. It was mostly arranged by the Alumni Committee which was headed by Gunjan Arora and gang. But the work done at school was done by us twelfths. We did the decoration work and some other things. We were the hosts, so we had to serve the ex-students. I reached school at 8:30, and returned at 6PM.

When I reached, there were just a few people at the school. The "curtain" behind the stage was being prepared. Cartoons, balloons, and a big banner of "Samanvaya". When I reached class, it was empty. No one. Slowly, some friends arrived. We did nothing. We just blew some balloons, and our part of the work was "done". It was about at 11:30 AM that everyone reached school. The ex-students had to reach at 11:00 AM, and we were later than them. But no worries, none of the ex-students had reached the school either - except the alumni committee.

Mansiz wanted to get rid of his camera, so we started to leave for Saurabh's house (the nearest). As we were leaving, Mrs. Bhattacharya was standing at the window of the office. She called us and asked what arrangements had been made for recorded music. Saurabh said, that someone was playing it on the synthesizer. Then, instantly, Mrs. Bhattacharya, in her inimitable style said..."Saurabh shut up".We told her that we'll check and tell her in a moment. We asked the school captain, and got to know that a DJ had been hired for the job. /:|

The program was intended to begin at 11:00 AM. But, it began at 12:15 PM. The program had some cultural events, and events for the ex students to enjoy.



Now, most of you were already there. There were some dances, some songs, some mimicry, antakshari, and some (not the usual boring ones) speeches. We had to serve them. The initial snacks were, I think pakoras (maybe that's what they were) and coffee. The show continues while we served them. Then Mrs. Bhattacharya announced about the cancer fund. The alumnus donated kindly. Soon, we too would have to donate...

In the antakshari our team (class XII) was the last team. Not exactly last, but... what would you call it? Two teams tied for first, and two teams tied for third. Mr. Saxena and Mr. Adil were called to dance during a game. But both of them denied.

While all this was going on, the DJ arrived with his gang. They fixed up some lights, a dance floor (not so good looking), and some equipment. Everything was packed into boxes. Each box had something. Example, one box had a stabilizer, other had two amplifiers, etc. And then came one BIG speaker. Then came another, and another, and another! They stationed them in the left corridor, pairs. And the DJ himself stood in the middle. I wondered how someone could dare to stand so close to those speakers. Our school also had similar speakers, but there was just one. The smaller speakers in the corridors were also used.

Once the program was over, the lunch started, at around 4 PM And the DJ began his job. Also, there was a contest of Mr. and Ms. VSEC. But this time, it was Mr. and Mrs. VSEC. They had married just a week ago! They were Mr. Mitra and Mrs. Gupta :)

Now for the rigorous analysis of the lunch. The lunch consisted of three things: Chole Bhaturae (heheh, new spelling!), Pav Bhaji, and Gaajar Ka Halwa. Vipul kept his dieting away, and ate everything.


While all this was going on, I did magic for some people. Couldn't get much time, so sorry if I missed you.

Later, one more student arrived. He had our left school in 5th. These days he was in the UK. He had come to be a part of the alumni too!

Finally, Mr. Adil told all of us to leave at 5:45 PM. We left after some time. And I came back home at around 6 PM.

Overall: It was fun to be at the party. Hope you enjoyed too!

[Photos and videos coming soon]

Lots happening!

Its project time these days - chemistry, physics, and computers. Plus, its alumni time at school too, and we need to organize it. Plus, its pressure time too.

All of us are busy making our projects. Most of them are almost complete. My physics project was making Logic Gates. Just in case you don't know, logic gates are the things that make your computer work. Your processor has millions (literally) of them. We had to make models of the common logic gates: OR, AND and NOT. The OR gate is very easy to make. Just place two p-n diodes, and your OR gate is done! NOT is a bit tough - you need to use a transistor. AND is the toughest. At least it was for us.

Vipul and I were the ones who made the project. We had already made an almost "working" prototype for some friends. So we knew exactly what we had to correct. So, when we made our own project, it was wonderful! I'll post a picture of the project soon... just let us finish it!

My Chemistry project was prepared one day before submitting it. I didn't even know the topic of my project, so I randomly picked five related to biotechnology - DNA, origin of life, etc. That day, the entire VSEC was out to complete their project - wherever I went (like, a cybercafe, Pandey Book Stall, etc) I saw at least one friend! I submitted an incomplete project. Got it back yesterday with a lot of remarks to complete it!!!

I haven't started the computer project yet. I'll complete it. IF we want, we can get the programs printed so no problem! Maybe I'll add some syntax highlighting too!

Vipul and I were making our logic gates (no pun intended!!) on Sunday. It was planned that I would reach his house at 3 PM. But due to some "work" (literally!!), I got late. I reached his place at 4 PM. The OR and NOT gates were complete by 6 PM. The AND gate took the maximum time - 1.5 hours. Just thinking about it took 1 hour! When I returned back to my house for a minute, there were some people - from ICICI. One of them (Mr. Neeraj, I think) was was a VSEC student. But he left the school in 4th class! So, he was surprised to know that Mrs. Nandi was still the principal! When they were leaving, I just gave them a dose of magic. They'll never forget it ;) Then Vipul and I went back. We still had lots of work - we had to buy a Bakelite plate and put the circuits (logic gates) on it. I returned at 10 PM. :)

Day before yesterday, we were given the task to write addresses and names on envelopes for the Alumni. And I was given the task to post it online - at orkut. Join Orkut.com's VSEC Alumni community. I've posted the evite there.

Make sure you reach school on time!!!

Finally...

It is almost a month since ComFest, and we get the prizes on stage today. There were a lot of things going on during the month that prevented it from happening sooner. We had our exams (the very next day of ComFest), then the juniors had exams, and there were competitions our Principal ma'am had gone to. So finally, everything was over and get were awarded on the stage.

There were lots of prizes today! Lots of competitions - interbranch, interschool, district level and even international!

There was the Vigyaan Shastra Pratibha Khoj winners. I was in that last year, along with Tanpreet bhaiyya, Zafar bhaiyya, Abhinav, and some more people. It was held at Subhash Public school and was a full day event. It was fun to try to name all those strange instruments, approximate the volume of water in various containers, etc. I was not in this competition this year. I didn't even get to know that it took place.

Then there was Creativity in Science - an international competition. Utsav, Arpit, Ayush Ladiya, and one more (I think... Dutta) were in that competition. Mr. Adil went along with them to Jamshedpur. They got the second position - among the 36 schools from all over India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. And guess what... each of them got an iPod nano as a prize (in case you don't know, it costs about Rs. 10, 000).

There was the interschool Hindi Debate. Our school was first. Varsha came second. The was second by just one point. The Cyber Olympiad students were also awarded.

MathCon winners were also there. Akhil Lohia (remember him?!). He HAD to be a winner... we have been listening to his name for YEARS when the class toppers and subject toppers are announced.

ComFest had the largest number of awards!!! Cartoon Film Making (Me, 1st); Web Designing (Vipul & Milanpreet, 1st); Verse writing and collage making (Milanpreet, 3rd); Programming (Utsav & Rohit, 3rd); Debugging (Rohit, 3rd). Milanpreet got the maximum prizes - 3. But she was late, so she was not allowed to enter the school. When the assembly was over, only then did Mr. RB Singh allow her!! It was her birthday... and had gotten a "gift" in the very morning!!! Once the individual prizes were distributed, the Shield was given to the team!!! I wished it was the biggest shield at Comfest. But (as we were second) we had the second biggest shield. If we would have come first, it would have been the third time we had won ComFest. But... chalo... theek hai. The events in which we had not got a trophie were not to be announced. But by mistake, Mrs. Bhattacharya announced an event in which we had not got a prize - X-plode. And that was my event :D

Then there was the interbranch choir competition - held the 3rd time, and won the 3rd time by us! The day before the competition, Mrs. Bhattacharya had asked us 12th students to criticize their performance. Some of us said that the expression in the leftmost students was a bit less. Maybe the criticism helped us get the 1st position!!! They started a "hip hip hurray" bit went on faintly.

I wanted that the ComFest team should do that (as we did every year... right?). But as a surprise, our Principal ma'am did that this year!!! Everyone was quite surprised!!!!!

Finally, the National Anthem. And then we started to leave. Mrs. Bhattacharya collected alllll the different trophies of different fields (like computers, debate, singing, etc) and went into the lobby... most probably to get them placed in Principal ma'am's office!!!

The ComFest team went to the computer lab to collect our participation certificates. There, I got to know that the principal of Jaipuria, Mr. AK Goel was no more the principal! I was [omitted] (you know what I want to write, right?).

Like last to last year, we'll try to convince someone to let us play computer games the whole day - after all we have won ComFest!!!

Today was the Science Olympiad. Mrs. Cherian was in the conference hall. We reached there at 12 PM, and the olympiad started. Once we had written our roll numbers, Vipul asked me my roll number - **** ** 005. He said it was his. And I said it was mine. I asked Mrs. Cherian. She said that my roll number was 005. I tripumhantly looked at Vipul, and he showed me his answer sheet - he had written 006. X-( The olympiad went just fine. We also got the cyber olympiad certificate after the olympiad was over.

Finally, the last hour was games. We were not wearing our white shoes. So, we were not allowed to enter the field. So we just sat in th class, chatting about things and seeing strange things happen behind us ;)

Once the school was over, on our way back, Utsav took out his iPod. He showed us some pictures of Comfest. But I still wonder, how does that touch scroll pad of iPod work. Then within 3 minutes, a crowd gathered around us. And the show was immediately cancelled!!!

Enough for today!!

Is your English weak?!

READ IT FAST Olny srmat poelpe can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.! Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed tihs plesae click one of the advereesimtnts!!!

Happy children's day!

Summary: Chief guest -> IG Desai; Cancer patients visited; Impromptu show by teachers; Samosas by Mrs. Bhatacharya; Magic by Utkarsh :D

We hadn't been told that we had to come to school today. So, Mrs. Bhattacharya told a few students to tell it to everyone. So I was told the same things over and over again yesterday: "Kal school hai... 10:30 baje ka... school dress mein". :)

You may be shocked: Children's day in school uniform. Well, this time, we had to come in the school uniform because of the show planned for the day (thats what I think).

So today I got ready, and reached the gate of my house at around 10 o'clock. My neighbours were sitting there. Sunny had told them that I did magic. So they asked me to do something! And I did it... and shattered the reality they lived in ;)

Then I quickly reached school. There, I could see teachers playing in the field! As I approached the stage, I could hear the noise... things were being arranged. We were told to sit in class 9th. All of us sat there. I got many requests to do magic. I had a new trick up my sleeve today, so I was ready. (more on that later)

So finally, the program began. The choir was standing. The arrangement of the choir was good: The ones with "average" heights were on the sides. The two tall ones were in the middle of the top row. And the shortest ones were in middle of the bottom row. It looked nice. They kept singing till the chief guest arrived.

Finally (as with all the busy chief guests), IG Desai arrived. And the program started. It started with a song by the choir. Then, there was a Krishna maakhan churai dance, performed by the students of class 1 and 2. It looked very good! Then there was another song - Voulez vous.

The toppers of each section were also given scholarships today. Plus, an Australian firm also gave Rs. 12,000 (yes I know, you will not believe it: Rupees Twelve Thousand) to three students - one from the Avadhpuri branch, one from the Shyamnagar branch, and one from our branch. The students who got this scholarship were the ones who were good at all things - studies, debates, art, etc.

Our school has been collecting a fund for cancer patients. So, some of them came to visit us today. Some of them had been unable to come as they had their treatment today. All of them were small - one of them was 2 years old.

The final dance!

After that, our chief guest gave a speech. The speech was followed by a dance. Fianlly, we had the National Anthem. And as soon as it was over, he "vanished" along with his guards very fast!!

Then the parents left, and the "real" children's day program began!

Identify them!!! :)

The teachers had prepared nothing... it was an impromptu show! Mr. Tiwari sang a few songs. Another Mr. Tiwari (who is a new teacher) also sang a song. Mr. Chatterjee sang too. Mrs. Bajpai danced a bit. And there was the famous "Train on the tabla" performance too! Have a look yourself:

Its them again!





----




The train on the tabla

[Videos were being uploaded... but Kanpur's great electricity supply "cancels" those uploads many times]

Hope you liked the new "feature" (i.e. videos) on the blog!

Aashish, Vishwesh, Vishesh, Utsav and Vipul. I'm sitting
just two seats to the left of vipul :(

Once the show was over, it was time for our "class party" with Mrs. Bhattacharya!! The choir students also stayed back. She asked Utsav and Vishesh to count the number of students present there. During this time, she told us about the cancer patients - how they lose their hair and why they had masks on their mouths. After sometime, we got to know why we were being counted - Samosas! Utsav and Vishesh distributed them... and themselves did not get any... so she told them to get some more!

Vishesh and Utsav - the samosa walas!
Mrs. Bhattacharya's treat

Then, she asked me if I had some magic for the day... of course I had... I had come prepared! I went to the front.. and Mrs. Bhattacharya called Mr. RB Singh too... He selected a card... and it floated off the deck... everyone could clearly see it... It was nice to hear the gasps!

Then I did another trick... Mrs. Bhattacharya clearly counted 10 cards. Then, she picked a card - the 3 of hearts. Bam Bam Bam... cards travelled from the deck I was holding to the "packet" of cards she had in her hands... She again counted them... they were 13... 3 cards had travelled!

And finally... I did this (the video):

WARNING: Do NOT attempt to do what is shown in this video. You WILL hurt yourself. Do at your own risk.

Special thanks to Shinkoh!!!

I had one more illusion... but unfortunately, I got stuck with something else.

As a "prize" I got one more samosa :D

It was 2:30 PM by now... the Hindi students have their tests tomorrow. So we all "decided" to leaved. Outside, there was a grand photo session. Just have a look at the pics. Unfortunately, I am in none of them... :(

Students from left to right: Vishwesh, Anmol,

Gunjan, Nitish, Aakash, and someone turned back
They are standing with the people who work hard to make
our school a great place where we can study and enjoy!

Last T-shirt day

Being in 12th, today was our last day of wearing half sleeved shirts. Winter dress starts from Monday.

When I reached school, I hadn't thought of this. It was Vipul, Vishwesh and Vishesh from whom I got to know that today was the last day we were wearing the half-shirts.

Almost everyone had brought sketch pens. When school was over, all of us got together and wrote a message on others' shirts. Of course, the sketch pens weren't very new. They were old, so the marks could be washed off easily.

When I showed some of the "messages" on my shirt to Mr. Rajani he said "Yeh kya likha hai... Utkarsh badmaash hai" :)

I took a picture of my shirt from a mobile phone (of course, not in the school... we wouldn't dare to...). The pic wasn't too good, so I did not upload it.

Today we also had our EVS exam... it went alright. All of us struggled with the Environment Impact Acessment, Green Revolution, BSI and ZSI!

The trophies for ComFest will be awarded once the exams are over. It would be fun to go up on the stage 4 times... for 4 different events and get the award/certificate from our Principal ma'am!


Monday -> Our maths exam...

ComFest 2006 - Day 2

Just back from ComFest 2006. Overall result - Dr. Virendra Swarup Education Centre (Kidwai Nagar branch, i.e. our team) were the runners up. And Sheilng House was first.

Now on to the blog.

I reached school a little late today. It had been decided that everyone will reach the school at 8:15 AM so that we may reach Jaipuria on time... at 9 o'clock. I reached the school gates at just the right time. Of course, they did not close... today was a sunday. But when I reached the school, 6 of the participants were already there. I was the seventh. And Varsha came even later than me!!

Once everyone was there, we boarded the bus with Mrs. Vinayak, and we were on our way back to the school where ComFest 2006 was being held... Jaipuria. Almost all of us were tensed. We had events, and we HAD to do something if we wanted a first position. I had two events today, X-plode and the Surprise event. In X-plode, I had to make a remix of one of the songs they provided. So I took a Digit Special (on audio/remixing) for X-plode. While in the bus, I read some of the topic given there. During the whole ride, Akshat told us facts about various things that were happening in the computing world.



On the way to Jaipuria, there is railroad crossing. Yesterday, the crossing was open, but today it was closed. So we had to wait for sometime. But as soon it opened, we were at Jaipuria! (There is a railway track right next to Jaipuria).

When we entered the main hall, I saw that the scores were being written on the score board. I couldn't see what was being written. As I proceeded, I saw CF0 written on the board (in the 1st place box for Cartoon film making). And slowly, she wrote 5 on the board... and all of us rejoiced and shouted out loud!

It was a good sign for us... we had just reached, and we had already started winning!!

Then we were requested to move to the "backyard" for breakfast. Once again, the breakfast was good: Sandwiches, dhokla, paneer "rolls", some rice like thing (I don't know its name) and tea. I don't drink tea, so I took everything except tea and the rice like thing. Vipul had a vrata (fast) and he intended to break it only after the results of Web designing were declared. All of us had breakfast. When we were returning, we saw a sweetdish... rasgullas... how could we miss those :D

After that, we sat at our chairs, and some more results were declared. Vipul came first in the Web Designing event. That was another good thing for us. And immediately the huge Vipul broke his fast!!!

Once the breakfast was over, the participants of the various events were asked to go to the places where the events would be held. I went to the computer lab where X-plode was to be held. We had just one hour to create the remix. The participants were provided with 10 old, melodious songs. We had to remix any one song. The other software we had was Fruityloops and Audacity. I had come prepared with a strategy. I hoped it would not fail... and it didn't! I won't disclose it here... as you might be of other school and you also do the same thing! Anyways, I made a remix of Jiya Jale (by Lata Mangeshkar), complete with beats and scratches. I hoped I would get a rank in atleast the first 3.

After I came out, the programming event started.

The Quiz was going on. We were not in the quiz finals, so we simply watched the quiz. The topic for the Group Discussions finals had been given, so our participants in the GD were practicing that. Akshat and I roamed about the school and took lots of photos. We even took a photo of the main audio system that was on the first floor, hidden from everyone's eyes.

The hall

We even saw the finals of Senior gaming (that I had not been able to qualify). The game looked really good... its graphics were great! I don't know its name, but it was a type of mini football with 3 players on each team. I shot some videos of the game.

After all that, we returned to our seats. There was some problem with my remixed song, so Sarthak Nigam called me. He took me to my computer. Rohit and Utsav were working on the programs. He opened the folders and my file was right where it should have been (most probably). He just said that he had understood what had happened. And I returned.

When I returned, I saw Kapoor ma'am of the Jaipuria school. She is the head of the computer department in Jaipuria. She was apologizing for yesterday's "happenings" (only a few know about it!!) She's really nice! I wanted to get her photograph, but couldn't... she was just too busy.

The GD topic, "I am God for I can manipulate genes" (you
can see it on the screen)... everything else is less important :D

After some time, the Group Discussion started. Our participants went up to the stage, and then came back after sometime. When they returned, we got to know that it was just a "photo session". And Varsha told the reporters that we intended to win ComFest the thrid time in a row!

Varsha and Utkarsh reach the stage the fastest!

After some minutes, they were again called up to the stage. The topic for the GD was "I am God for I can manipuate genes". Varsha spoke really well... with good impact. Utkarsh (no... not me, another Utkarsh) just spoke his part. Once every team had spoken, the rebuttle round started. The rebuttle was a mess. I was informed that yesterday's rebuttle (in the qulification round) was much better... it was much more on the topic. Todays GD rebuttle round was completely off the track... "Is God dead?" or "How did the universe start?" or "What/who is God?" The questions that our participants asked were sensible... the rest just talked about Dolly (the clone of a sheep)... the quality of life of Dolly and the big bang theory. There were so many other things to talk about: computers with brains, cancer treatment, improvement in life of humans, etc.

The questions asked by our participants were such that no one dared to answer them... an eerie silence broke everytime Varsha finished asking her question. And again, no one dared to ask our team a question. And if someone did, Varsha's answers were good enough to silence everyone once again. All this while Utkarsh just sat there... and relaxed!

Microphones were given to one team at a time. So our team got very little chance to speak. They raised their hand for the mic, but got it only a fraction of the time. CF03, CF04 and CF10 were the main teams who constantly got the microphone. Maybe they should have taken some more chordless microphones (there were just 2).

When that was over, we expected to be in the top 3 in GD too. After that was lunch. We had a lavish lunch today too. There were some different dishes too, and a different flavour icecream :D 66.67% of the naans that I got had ash on them. (of course, I ate just 3).

After the lunch, was our Surprise event. The last hope for us. We HAD to do something in that. When we received the instruction sheet, the assignment looked so simple! We had to morph a car using Adobe Photoshop. We remodelled a car: added a ventilator, a BMW logo, new tyres, new headlights, and a new name: Avelon. We had just one hour, so we could do just that much. Again, we hoped to be atleast in the top 4.

When Vipul and I came out (after the Surprise event), we saw that Mr. Rajani had also come. By this time of the day, we were almost waiting around the score board to get the result and calculate our rank. The results were written on the board. Our results were not quite good. Here's the final score board:

(Click it... its very high res! Our team: CF05)

All of us were highly depressed. The results were bad. We were third in programming, even though Utsav and Rohit had 2 programs. But Mr. Rajani asked the incharge at the lab to tell us why we were third. We got to know that the team who came first had submitted all three problems. The second team had submitted 2 programs, but much earlier that our team members did. So we lost on bonus points. And thus we were third.

We were first in just two events (Vipul's web designing and my cartoon). Sheling house was a fierce competitor... and it got good ranks. The victory of CF13 (Sheling house) was almost inevitable. It seemed we were no where even in the top 4 (atleast it did to me). I felt too bad... this was my last year at ComFest, and we did not win a shield.

Even during the prize distribution ceremony, we were depressed. Those speeches depressed me even further. Finally, when the distribution began, I was called to the stage just once... for being first in the Cartoon Film Making event. Milanpreet got 3 prizes.

Various prizes being given

We were still completely depressed... trying to figure out what went wrong. After individual prizes, the shields were to be awarded. We were still pretty much uninterested. But just for the sake of it, I tried to focus on what they were saying. They said:

The runners up are, Dr. Virendra Swarup Education Centre

And I completely assumed that VSEC Awadhpuri was the winner. But then Utsav and Rohit said that we were second... they had said Dr. VSEC Kidwai Nagar. They rushed up to the stage for the photograph! I was the third one to literally run up the stage! Mr. Rajani still thought that we were third. Mrs. Vinayak did not understand what was going on. But finally, everyone was on stage! And our picture was taken!

My depressed and hopeless state immediately converted into an extremely happy state! This was completely unexpected!! We actually came second! The Lucknow branch of Jaipuria was extremely confident that they were second! But once again, they were right below us... they were third! We didn't even look at Sheling House getting the first prize (please don' t mind it if you're from Sheling House... we were so excited)!!

Then we shouted... Three cheers for Dr. VSEC! We shouted as loud as we can! We shouted even louder than Sheling house!! The entire hall echoed with our voices!!

But Vipul was still upset. Our rank in the surprise event had been very low... 7th was way below our expectation. Vipul requested Naman Dalmiya (JCC president) to show the morphs the other teams had made so that we could know why we got a low rank.

But on our way, we met Sarthak Nigam. We asked him to show the morphs the others had made. But he refused. He explained to us that it was against the rules. While we were talking, the National Anthem was played. So we stood in the Attention position. After that our conversation continued. Finally, we understood why we had got a low rank. We had misinterpreted the topic. We had remodelled the car. But we had to MORPH the cars.

It was a good thing that we got to know why we lost that event. Or we would have been tensed all our life that we made the best, yet got a low rank. Now we know that we made the best remodelled car, but it wasn't a morphed car.

After that, we quickly packed up. Everyone had already left, they were waiting for us. We boarded the bus. The bus took a route so that Mrs. Vinayak could reach her house faster. On the way, Milanpreet also got down at Govind Nagar. And as soon as we reached the gali of the school, we all once again cheered for VSEC. And then, when we got down, we again did that. It was fun. We'll do that in the assembly too!

Anyways, that was today's post. Its super long... thats why it took me 4 hours to write it down! I'll upload the hundreds of photos I took in a few days. Till then... keep celebrating our victory!!

Tomorrow is our English Language exam... and I haven't done anything. Let's see what happens.

ComFest 2006 - Day 1

I've come to the computer as soon as I can so that I don't forget anything. So, here goes...

Today, I reached school at the normal time, 7:30 AM, and directly entered the computer lab with my bag. I was the first one to reach the lab... even though I was the last one to enter the school gates!!!

Utsav and Rohit doing some programs for
the Programming and Debugging event

We had classes today. The first hour was computer, so all the computer students assembled at the lab for a practical. While everyone made programs, I played games! Gaming was one of my events, and I had never played such visually stunning games ever before. So everyone continuously stared at my computer screen as I fragged Ranger in Quake III Arena! After that we had 2 hours of practice at the lab... no one to disturb us. I tried to start a multiplayer game, but the network wasn't working quite well... there were problems... if the network worked, the computer did not run the game! If the game could run on a system, there was no DirectX.

Me and Vipul in our lab. And you'll see more out of focus pictures.

Vipul practised making his website for the website design event. Akshat practised Adobe Photoshop, and others practised their stuff.

At 10:15 AM, we started packing up. Principal ma'am told us to try to get the first prize... the third time! And then we boarded the school bus... bus number 3. Mr Rajani did not go with us. Mrs. Vinayak went with us this time. For the past three year, Mr. Rajani used to go with us. But this year he had some appointment, so Mrs. Vinayak went with us.

The entire team: (from the teacher, anticlockwise) Mrs. Vinayak, Akshat Wahi, Rohit Singh, Utsav Kesarwani, Varsha Saha (the little face), Milan Preet Kaur Bhalla, Utkarsh sinha (thats me), Himadri Roy, Utkarsh Agarwal (that's not me), Rajat. Picture taken by: Vipul Agarwal.

At 10:27 AM, we left the school and started our journey to Jaipuria. I don't know why, but we took the longer route. In the bus, we had a lot of fun. Vipul took a lot of photos, and I did some magic for everyone. We reached Jaipuria at 10:51 AM.

Leaving school the first day

On our way...

Me and Vipul... yet again

From the outside we could see a marching group. We thought we would be welcomed by that group. But they did nothing as we entered. Maybe they were there to welcome someone else.

Finally... we reached the place... Seth Anand Ram Jaipuria School.

When we reached the registration desk, I noticed a drastic change. We were not given a folder, a paper pad and a pen as. I had expected that we would get at least those things (I had went without them!!) We got just one thick pad, one pen and some information about the various events. We also got some ads... for the BEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEP (no advertisement in the blog!!)

The familiar setting

CF 05 - Dr. VSEC Kidwai Nagar

We moved to the hall I had been to thrice. The seats had been arranged for our team. And a tag was hung behind a chair that clearly showed our school code - CF05. After sometime, the topic for the topic for the Website Design event was declared. The drivers of the digital camera were also installed just before the breakfast.

And after that we had to go for breakfast. The breakfast was good... Liked it a lot. But Vipul did not eat a thing... he had a fast (today is Saturday).

The chief guest

Once the breakfast was over, the competition began. There were some opening speeches and a song. And the events started. The events started late... about 15 minutes, at 12:45 PM. My event was one of the first events - Cartoon film making. I had seen some tutorials at on the internet. But none of them came into use. The topic was Alien and Earth-tech. We had to make a cartoon film on this topic. I made one... but the result was still unknown.

I just made the cartoon film. And in the last 15 minutes, I added some sounds. I used Macromedia Flash MX and Fruityloops 6. There were some more softwares too, but I did not use them... it would be a waste of time.

While I was working on the cartoon film, they started showing a movie, Lage Raho Munna Bhai All of our team members had already seen that movie (read an earlier entry: Did not get the time to post yesterday...), so everyone was a bit bored on hearing the same things again.

When I came out, I got to know that we had lot the Junior gaming event. Junior gaming has never been our strong point. The Quiz prelims had also taken place while I was in the computer lab, making a film. The collage making event also took place.

All these events ended at around 2:30 PM. Then we had to go for lunch. This time, the lunch was a bit more lavish than the previous years. :D But Vipul could not enjoy it... his fast. The head of the computer department in Jaipuria, Ma'am Kapoor, personally came to Vipul and asked him if they could arrange some fruits for him. So nice of her! The lunch ended at 3 PM.


Then there were some more events. The group discussion prelims. That event started at 4:30 PM. I was bored. So we just moved around and I took our my deck of cards and [omitted]. The contestants of the GD returned, and then it was time for snacks.

Then I had another event. The Senior gaming event. This has been our strength just once - last year, when Ahmed bhaiyya was the gamer. This year, the game that was selected was Need For Speed - Most Wanted on a PlayStation 2 console! I hadn't played games on a computer... and now I had to use a remote.

The organizers tried to start the game. But the game would not start initially. Later (when it did run), the game crashed in between. So the game was changed. We now had to play Tekken - the game in the junior gaming event.

The event was taking place on a PS2, so there were two remote controls. The game was being projected onto a screen. The room had been darkened, so it was clearly visible.

When the game started, I had to select my player. I thought my player had been selected, but actually, that player was my opponent's player. My player was some girl. So when the game started, I was extremely shocked, that I had to play with a girl... and in front of her was a muscular hunk. No match. My opponent won 2 consecutive round. Then I won one. But finally, he won another round so he was declared the winner. I did not qualify. So we lost the senior gaming event.

Then we again roamed here and there for some time. The web design event had started. So had the programming event. And the strangest thing of the day happened. Our teacher escort, Mrs. Vinayak was [omitted].

Finally, we left Jaipuria at around 7 PM. While leaving we met Mr. Khanna. And there was some peon who had asked several times if Mr. Pankaj Gupta had left the school. I came to know that he was now in Delhi.

We boarded the bus again, and we were on our way back to school. A lot was discussed about [omitted]. Then Vipul and I sat together. He told me the things he did and didn't in the web design event. And when we were back in school. All of us went back together. We'll meet tomorrow again, at 8:15 AM.

Lets see what happens tomorrow. I have two event - Surprise and X-plode.

Today started off very normal. Nothing unusual. But the day ended very unusual - I showed magic to a MAJOR personality - Mr. Ashish Vishnoi.

Today was our maths coaching. When I reached there, the class started earlier than expected. So my plan of showing magic to Mr. Neeraj was foiled. Today's class was quite interesting - graphs. Liked it a lot!

When the class was over, I decided that I would show magic to Mr. Neeraj now. I asked him, and he cheerfully replied, "Yup"! He positioned himself under a light so that he could clearly see what was happening. And then I started the magic.

As soon as other students saw cards, everyone flocked around Mr. Neeraj and me. Both of us were surrounded by students! Did the magic... and everyone was literally stunned. The two cards he was holding changed right in his hands... and I never touched them!

Earlier I had thought that I would not be able to do the trick successfully... I was surrounded completely on all sided... but I was extremely surprised that I was able to pull off the trick wonderfully!

Anyways, Mr. Neeraj had some work, so he left. After some time (while I was keeping my cards back), I saw Mr. Vishnoi coming near his car. It was completely unexpected. I just asked him... "Would you like to see some magic?" It was wonderful to see the expression on his face - completely surprised! But he cheerfully agreed to see some magic.

Let me introduce you to Mr. Ashish Vishnoi. He teaches us maths. He is very tall... maybe around 6 feet 5 inches. A really good teacher with a good sense of humour. He has been interviewed on Aaj Tak too!

I had thought that he would frown or do something else and not watch the magic... but he smiled and accepted my "proposal"!!

Then, I began. I asked him hold is hand palm up. And placed a card (Ace of spade) in his hand. Then he placed his other hand on the card. Then I took another card (Jack of diamonds) and waved it over his hands. And presto - the card that was inside his hand was in my hand! And the card in my hand reached his hands! He was completely befuddled!!!

Then he asked me...

Kis school ke ho? Appearing ho kya?

(You are from which school? Are you an appearing student?) To this I told him the name of my school... and told him that I was an appearing student!!

Then he said...

Toh tum IIT ki taiyari kyun kar rahe ho??

(Then why are you preparing for the IITJEE?) I just smiled back and took it as a compliment!

Then he asked if the pack of cards was special. Of course, it wasn't! Then he "challenged" me that these tricks can be performed with only certain cards... not all cards can be used.

Immediately I spread out the cards in my hands and and asked him to pick one - any one. But it was by chance that he picked one same card again... the Ace of Spade. Using that card, I did a trick in which the same card keeps jumping back to the top! Not once... but thrice the card jumped back to the top after being placed in the middle!

But then he checked the deck to see if there were any duplicates... and there were none!

And then he went back to his car for some work... and I reached my van. There were some people there... all of them asked me question about it... but I was too happy to answer properly!!

One of the other vans was not starting, so they used the battery in our van to start it (it did not start by pushing). That took about 15 minutes. We stayed there outside the coaching. Then we returned back... on our way back, our van's back tyre got punctured. But luckily, we had an extra... so our driver quickly replaced it!

And I'm here... writing this blog! Extremely happy!!

PS: It seems that Orkut's "Today's fortune" is true. My fortune today is

Your present plans are going to succeed

So, maybe I should start trusting the fortunes! Link: http://www.orkut.com/





Happy Deepawali everyone! Enjoy the holidays!

Joke of the week

A man shoos away a mad dog and hence saves an old lady in the US...

Journalist interviewing titles his report: "US CITIZEN SAVES OLD LADY FROM MAD DOG"

The man replies "I'm not a US citizen"... The headline is changed to...
"FOREIGN HERO SAVES OLD LADY FORM MAD DOG"

After a short interview... the man says... "im from PAKISTAN"... The headline in the newspaer the next day read: "TERRORIST ATTACKS LOCAL DOG"!!!!!!!

Okay everyone... our school magazine Juvenilia is almost ready. The magazine is currently being printed and we will most probably receive it before the Diwali holidays.

What's new in the magazine? Everything. The entire format of the magazine has been made livelier. Each page is a coloured and glossy page. And guess what... my photograph will be there on the first few pages!! I'm one of the editors of the magazine!

The photograph of the editors was taken last Saturday. There are four editors: Shefali Porwal, Saumya Gupta, Varsha Saha and myself. We were not told that the photograph would be taken that day, so we did not have ties. So we borrowed some from the school stationery. Saumya was absent, so Mrs. Bhattacharya called her. She arrived at school at 10:30 AM.

All of us were told to reach the lobby at 10:30 AM. But when I reached there, no one was there. So I hunted around the school for everyone. And finally when I reached the lobby once again, I saw everyone there hunting for me.

Anyways, the four of us were led into the Principal ma'am's chamber. Mr. Goyal positioned Mrs. Nandi, Mrs. Bhattacharya, Mrs. Bhatnagar and us. The short Varsha and Saumya in the middle, the long Shefali and I on the sides. :D The teachers were in front of us.

Then, the lights were setup. I have been to Principal ma'am's room quite a few times, but I never noticed the number of small lights in the room. Mr. Goyal switched on some of those small lights and turned on the tube lights. Then, he took 2 shots with his digital camera.

After our photograph was taken, we went back. We returned the ties... one of which was not used... Saumya (who was absent) had brought her tie. And returned back to class.

I did some magic at school again... cards, coins, and the levitation. I did it for Sahu ji too... he was quite impressed. Today I did a levitation for a few teachers. They were all (as the Americans would say) "freaked out"!

Comfest is approaching. Today's 13th and its on 28th. I'm not in web designing. I wanted to be in that, but events clash. :( More participants should have been allowed as the number of events have increased.

Plus, there's an inter-branch and inter-school Online Computer Programming contest! More on that later... its too late...

I've received a lot of positive feedback... thanks everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read the blog and letting me know what you think about it!

Today was our assembly. And the singers prepared the song just yesterday.

It all started in the English hour just after lunch. No one remembered that it was our assembly today. When we reached the conference hall, Mrs. Bhattacharya "mocked" at us. She told us that she had prepared what she would speak, but we had not prepared what we would do.

We had already decided the theme a month back... umm... I should say circumstances had decided the theme when someone in class had lied to Mrs. Bhattacharrya. Yup, the theme that was decided was Honesty. But all of us convinced her that the theme of our assembly should be Mahatma Gandhi.

Just after the English hour were 2 practical hours... the singers practiced the song during those hours... the song was "Bande mein tha dum... bande matram" from Lage raho munna bhai. I just don't understand why our assembly always has some "filmy" song! Since 8th class, the assembly of our class has always had a song from some movie.

During those two hours the speakers prepared some speeches.

And we did the practicals. It was a titration experiment in which we had to find the number of molecules of water of crystallization in ferrous ammonium sulphate. The experiment was interesting and was fun to do. After all of us had done the practical, I did a simple trick for our practical teacher. I placed a coin in one hand, and it travelled to the other hand! She liked it!! Also showed it to Sahuji!

Back to the assembly. The assembly was ok. Not too good, but ok. But Mrs. Bhattacharya still spoke on honesty!

Blog super-update

I've added lots of hi-resolution photos to my blog. I had taken the photos a couple of weeks back from Mr. Goyal, but I couldn't find time to upload those huge photos. During these holidays, I've finally uploaded them. From now on, I'll try to post something everyday.

Here are the links:

Teachers Day
Dance competition
Spic Macay

Guess what... Comfest is coming closer... its on 28th of October, and today's the 2nd.

Gandhigiri

Bole toh... Gandhi jayanti hai aaj! Aur saath mein Dussera! Ahinsa aur hinsa ek hi din par... mast hai baap!

If you've seen Lage raho Munna Bhai, you know what I mean! Enjoy the holidays!

There was no electricity during the last two days, and I was too tired (I don't know why) yesterday. Anyway, here's a really short post.

There was a Hindi Divas Samaroh on 14th September. There were various songs, dances and "speeches" that told us that Hindi is THE language of the nation. One very rememberable thing was a dance in which a very small boy (1st or 2nd) became Krishna and danced. It was wonderful watching that titytot!! Another thing that I remember is children of classes 3rd or 4th telling us about the various languages of India.

That was Hindi Divas, now for some Comfest! Our photographs have been taken and Mr. Rajani has sent the registration forms. I think I will now be in 5 events... Xplode, Web Design, Cartoon film making, Surprise event and Gaming. I don't know what I will do in the Gaming event... I've never played the lastest games... my computer is really old and it is simply incapable of running new, graphically intense games... I think I will somehow practise something and learn how to play games... I atleast want to clear the prelims of the gaming event..

Hindi saptaah continues...

Tomorrow is Hindi Divas and there are some preparations going on for tomorrow. I'll let you know what happens at school tomorrow.

Anyways, here's what happened today. Today was another competition on Hindi. The competition was in the English hour... and we were all willingly "forced" to give appear in it!! I being a computer (and not Hindi) student did not know much... all I remembered were the things I had rattofied (learnt) in 7th-10th. And even in those smaller classes, I never got more than 65% in Hindi. The highest in class was usually around 92%.

Despite that, I looked at the question paper. I knew quite a bit of it... at least enough to pass. I started writing. When I write the first letter, I realized that it was the first time in 2 years that I written Hindi!! And guess what... my Hindi writing was better than my English writing!

There was a slogan competition too. The topic for the slogan was "Anti-reservation". I wrote the following slogan:

Mat baanto is desh ko, jaati ke aadhar par
Sangharsh se jeeti thi jo ekta
Mat maro use aarakshan se

I know... its awful, but I think its a really good for a person who never liked Hindi and never got very good marks in Hindi.

More on Hindi Divas tomorrow...

As you might be knowing Hindi Week is going on (read this post: A pretty boring day... if you don't!) So, today we were shown a telemovie in Hindi.

It was a story by some Indian writer. I don't remember his name... I've never been good at lekhak parichay in Hindi!! The story was really old... the characters clearly showed that they were about 100 years old.

And the fact that its was a Kanpur Productions film made the film really funny!!! Golf in a park; hours pass by at the same place when a person is bit by a snake, etc...!

Mrs. Bhatnagar definitely did not like this... after the movie I could see her "angrish" face.

And one more thing... "Panna ke bapu" has become THE phrase among the students!!

For those interested in the magic part... here's a small description. Today I did magic for Mr. Neeraj (the one at the Vishnoi Coaching). He really liked it... and let us go up (and cross the queue of over 500... all ready to push and pull whenever required). But the other peon stopped us... that *$#^!@^%*@.

Don't have more time... gotta go now!

Spic Macay is an organization that attempts to show young people the rich cultural background of India. And today they succeeded in doing this.

Padamshree Kiran Sehgal

Padmashree award winner Kiran Sehgal was at our school today! She is an Odissi master. Along with her were 2 of her students, who seemed about my age, but had been learning the dance form for 11 years... amazing. She said that the basics of the dance take about 5 years. So I'm sure the students of hers must be masters of the basics too!

Welcome!

Mrs. Sehgal definitely knows how to make us interested in something as classical as Odissi. At first, I felt like I would be highly bored (just like in other Spic Macay programs!!!). But she kept us all so interested that we sat there without a fan!! Let me describe some of the details that I wrote on my hand while watching the program. From the next time I'll get a paper too...

The program started with the introduction of Mrs. Sehgal's students - Supriya Nair (in a green dress) and Aradhna Burman (in a yellow dress).

Supriya Nair and Anuradha Burman

After their introduction, they performed the Mangala Charan. It was basically composed of 3 things: first was offering flowers to the Earth, second, a pranam to the Earth, And then a Trikhand namaskar - first a namaskar to Gods and heavens, the second to their Guru, and the third to the audience. Mrs. Sehgal told us the various details about the dance we had just seen. She explained what each step meant. This was what I appreciated the most. We got to know what those alomst meaningless steps of classical dance meant.

And that is the reason I am able to describe the program in such detail.

Then she described the dresses they were wearing. Their dress was a silk saree. Their heads were adorned with something that Queen Amidala (of star wars) wears. The only difference was that the material was not intergalatic dust... it was a reed or some wood or flower. They wore silver jewellery and a big nice looking waist band. Mrs. Sehgal said that the inspiration for the waist band was a frog... yikes!!

Then the two students did a 1 minute dance to portray 4 instruments. I was able to identify 3. The first one was Veena - portrayed by holding a imaginery Veena in the hands. The second was a Murli, or a flute. This was quite clearly visible. The third one was a Mardala - a kind of Dholak (but not a Dholak. She strictly said it wasn't a dholak). The action for the Mardala looked so nice that you had to see to understand what I mean... the action was like this: Hold your hands towards each other, pointing towards the ground. Then with the tip of the middle finger of each hand as the fulcrum, rotate the hand. The action looked excellent! And the last instrument was a Manjira.

Guess who!

This was the first time I watched a classical dance and could actually make out what was being said!!!

Then we were showed the 3 basic postures of Odissi. The Chaukha, in which the performer fits inside an imaginery square. The second one was the Tribangh. In this, the posture was "broken up" at the neck, waist, and knees. The third one was the Atibangh. This was similar to the last one, but it was "more broken" at the knees.

Then she showed many basics actions that are commonly used in the dance, for example, various "flag positions" and a few positions in which a woman is adorning herself.

After this, she herself performed a scene in which Radha and Krishna meet while Radha was going to fetch water from Jamuna. Again, she explained what each step portrayed.

And finally, she called 10 boys up on stage and taught them some dance too!! Aseem too was on stage... he had to be!! He was (to a certain degree) able to do what her students were doing.

VSECians on stage

One thing that I remember clearly was doing the Chaukha mudra and sitting up and down in 16 counts, then 8 counts, and then in 4 counts.

And then she finally ended the program and answered a few question... that were most probably pre-prepared! She herself seemed in a hurry so quickly ended the program!

Conclusion: This was one of the best programs by Spic Macay. All of us actually watched the entire show and enjoyed it! She knew exactly how to let young people know about her artform.

I'll try to get the photographs from Mr. Goyal. I think I'll ask him tomorrow... I also hope to get the teachers day and dance competition photos.

Did not get time to post yesterday, sorry about that. But I'll make up for yesterday's post today.

Yesterday we had real fun! We had a seminar at the Awadhpuri branch of VSEC and later we saw a movie. Mrs. Bhattacharrya says the 9th and 10th classes are jealous of us... because we do such a lot of stuff!!

The seminar was about AIDS. We reached the venue (i.e. the conversation hall of VSEC, Awadhpuri) a little late. The seminar had started at 7:30 AM. But we could not reach there at the same time our own school starts. So we told them we would reach at 8:00 AM. But we failed to reach at that time too... we reached at 8:20 AM, with 3 buses. But its was good that we reached late. Let me tell you why.

The seminar had been organized by the Rotary club of Kanpur Metro. They had some things to tell us too. When we reached there, they were telling how to conserve water. Some of the ideas were nice, I think I'll do those things. But most of them were the common, repetitive things. We were there for AIDS, not water conservation. The person who had to tell us about AIDS had to reach at 8:30 AM. So we had to "jhelo-phi"(bear) just 10 minutes of water conservation.

Then, finally Dr. I. S. Gilada reached the school, at 8:30 AM. He was the first person in India to educate people in India about AIDS. He started doing this in 1985 and is still doing this. And this was the reason he was here. The seminar was good, and he is a good orator. He had a slide show for the seminar too, but sadly, some virus had infected it! Mcafee Virus Scanner constantly detected the virus and did not allow PowerPoint to open the presentation!! But fortunately, there was another presentation!

One astonishing thing that I noticed there was that the Awadhpuri branch had a laptop! Our school has none!! We always carry a bulky CPU and monitor when there is a movie show or presentation at our school! But the people at Awadhpuri branch casually carried a laptop and plugged it into the projector! That really made me jealous... Mr. Rajani, if you are reading this, please get a laptop in school... please... its the prestige of the school...!!!

I'm sure the Awadhpuri branch has also been invited to Comfest. Comfest is a computer festival at Seth Anandram Jaipuria, Kanpur that "celebrates computers"! Awadhpuri has some really awesome flash designers. Last year they had some exhibition where they had a flash movie. Its looked great! I have to be one step ahead of them... as I wish to get the 1st prize :D

Anyways, back to the original topic. Once the presentation was over, we waited outside, in their playground, under the sun. And I took advantage of the situation and showed magic to a few groups of girls! The reactions that girls give the best! They literally scream!!

Then we set out for Gurudev... a movie hall... actually 2 movie halls. I got to know this just yesterday. There are 2 halls there. One is Gurudev and the other is Pammi. We had to go to Pammi. It was small, but was enough to accommodate us twelthees and eleventhees.

The movie was Lage Raho Munna Bhai! I loved the movie. It was made up of 80% fun, 10% excellent acting, 9.9% Ghandigiri (yikes!!) and a pinch of emotion! Mr. Adil (our physics teacher) had already seen the movie, but he still came with us. He said he really liked the movie.

We came out of the hall happy. Then we started our journey back and again I took advantage and showed Mrs. Bhattacharrya (she was in our bus) some magic! I goofed up a little... and when I told her "I messed up..." she laughed out really loud... I had never seen her laugh like that! But that was a reaction too... a good tool to misdirect someone!

We reached school and left. I went back with Prateek and Utsav. And they finally managed to make me give them a treat... I don't know what it was for, but they sure managed to get one!

And the fun day ended, and the 9th and 10th class students are still jealous of us, just like we used to be when we were in 9th and 10th!

A pretty boring day...

Reached school on time again!! This week is Hindi Week. So there have been various activities related to Hindi. Today was an essay writing "competition". Actually, I didn't even know that there was such a thing going on... it was when Mrs. Bhatnagar (the Hindi teacher) told use the topic in class. Then I noticed a chart on the bulletin board downstairs that mentioned the list of activities planned for the Hindi Week.

The day passed by quite well with Shobhit Jain - the don of the class. My friend hadn't come today, so he sat with me. My knowledge about Hindi was enriched a lot (I hope you get when I mean!).

And I had a bad time at the Chemistry coaching. I had to sit right at the front. I mean, at the very front, from where the angle between the board and me was 0 degrees. 3 hours wasted...

I think I'll end right now... or I'll just go on and on and on...

Today I reached school at around 7:20 AM :D

Today we had a dance competition at our school. I already knew that we would be having a dance competition, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. But as things unfolded, I became highly concerned about it!!

Lets start with the beginning. When I reached school, we had an assembly. It was totally unexpected. The "auditorium" had to be changed a bit for the competition, but still the assembly took place. Strange.

Then, I get to know that we would have the first hour of studies, i.e. Maths. I had not brought a notebook... got a little lecture from Mr. Saxena. :(

Anyways, the hour passed by and the competition started. And as we sat down to see the show, my enthusiasm started to rise. My classmates were in really "strange" dresses! Let me describe some...

Most strange costume award: Abhinav Mahajan
He performed on Black Or White (by Michael Jackson). He painted half his body black, and half his body (including hair) white. His performance was OK, not better than some other performances. What I really liked was the ending, the place where the lyrics go "Its Black, Its White". Abhinav flashed his black side when Michael said Black and flashed his white side when Michael said White :D

Black or white... you decide!

One strange things that I noticed was that there too many "saint" performers. Got bored a bit by that in some performances.

Saint parade??

Stranger than the strangest award: Ekansh Mishra
This was THE strangest costume: a tribal with leaves and shorts!!! His repeated his steps a lot, but I had fun watching it! By the end of his performance, he had started "shedding leaves" (as Mrs. Bhattacharya said later!).

Hu lalala hu!

Groups C (that is, classes 9th and 10th) did things less stranger. There was salsa and some more saints. I wouldn't comment much on that.

Salsa

Best performance of the day: Aseem Mishra
The best performance in my opinion was that of Aseem... on the title theme of Dum. His performance was energetic, just high enough to justify the song Dum. And in the end, he broke a brick with his hand (he's a Tae kwon do black belt). But the downside was that his shirt did not match with the song - you wouldn't wear a chocolate colour shirt on a "gangster" type song. Though the best performance, he got 9th position (out of 9 participants). Strangest.

Yeah!

Once the competition was over, we returned back to our classes. And then our English hour... where Mrs. Bhattacharya discussed everything about each performance. And Ankit Hazara (D.L.B.) had his birthday today.

After that was our computers hours and finally our games hour. Now that I've done magic for some people in school, rumours have started that I can levitate.. got many requests to do that, but I did not.

Its usually a nice idea to let the people think as much as they can... and finally when you show them the magic, they actually believe it themselves and spread the word around so much that you get famous!

Guess I wrote too much today... more tomorrow!

More photos:

The good over evil dance

Another interesting day...

Got up late this morning... but still reached school 5 minutes earlier than ever before!! That is the earliest ever! Usually I reach school about 2 minutes before the gate closes... but from today I pledge to reach school at least 5 minutes before 7:30 AM.

Once again, I showed some magic at the Vivek Pandey coaching. I did the usual cards across routine for them, and they were all fumbling... :D

For those who don't know what this piece of magic is about, here is a brief description. A spectator clearly counts 10 cards and places them at the securest place he can think of. Then another spectator selects a card. The number of the card (e.g. 3, 8, etc) is seen by everyone. This number is remembered by everyone. I stand at a metre's distance from the spectator and give the deck a few flicks. When the spectator counts the cards again, he sees that there are more than 10 cards with him... and he has 10 + the number cards!

Liked the reactions, but they were not what it was supposed to be.

And, one more thing... I did not qualify for CodeJam.. :( The language of the questions was just too confusing a simple guy like me to understand...

Happy teachers' day!

Happy teachers' day!

Just back from school...

Today was Teachers' day... and the students of 12th class (that is, my classmates and me) had to arrange an entire show for teachers. And the show was awful... :(

Everything was a mess. The program was supposed to start at 8:30 AM. But started at 9:15 AM. The students had to be seated class-wise. But it was a mess too. Class 1 and 2 had to be seated in the corridors, and 3 and above in the main "auditorium". (This may seem strange to you if you haven't seen my school. The architect is a genious!)

While the show was going on, there were many errors that took place. For example, at one time, wrong performers was sent onto the stage.

Mimicking old actors

Dil na diya performance

Anyways, the show was OK OK, not too good, but not too bad either.

After the show, two of our teachers interacted with us... Mr. Adil and Mrs. Bhattacharrya (I hope that's the right spelling!) Songs and shayeri followed. We all enjoyed.

Then I showed her some magic that I had prepared. Just showed her two things - "Be Honest, what is it?" (2 Card Monte) and an ACR. She really liked it! She took me to the Principal's room and I showed magic to our Principal ma'am! I showed her the 2CM and the Here Then There trick. Many of my friends came along with me!

And the best part? I got a Cadbury Wowie from her! I mean I got a Wowie!! I mean.. a cadbury wowie. Oh, well. Its just a chocolate...

And she also said that she could arrange from a show or something..!

The reactions I got were good. And it is those reactions (and Wowies!) that inspire me to learn more magic and do that well!

Testing

Yesterday there was a test at our Mathematics coaching.The topics of the test were the Binomial theorem and Complex numbers. I knew a bit of both, and the test was ok... I hope... But not as good as I had expected it to be.

Anyways, I finally bought a couple of packs of cards yesterday. And guess what - flourishes have become SO easy to do! The cards aren't bicycles or vipers or tally hos, they are "local" plastic cards. And I bought them because I intend to do a small magic show at school on Teachers' Day tomorrow. Here's the act that I've prepared.

1) 2 card monte
2) Waving the aces
3) Ambitious card routine
4) Here then there
5) You do as I do
6) Mind reading
7) 3 cards across
8) Biddle trick
9) 2x10 rupees = 20 rupees (you know, merging two notes)

I've practiced quite a bit and I have the script. I just hope the show doesn't bomb, its the first "show" that I'll be doing. Wish me luck!

Now I gotta rush... or I'll be late to school!

Everyone... Google's CodeJam is back! If you want to be a part of this challenging programming contest, register quickly. Registration ends on the 5th September!

http://www.google.com/codejam/

I've participated in it 3 times. And each time, I reach the final 500. But the problems become so hard to solve (atleast for me!) that I am unable to reach the next level, or the final 50. Maybe this year I'll qualify. Lets hope for the best!

Tip: Use Java as your programming language. It really helps to use a clear cut language with features like garbage collection.

On to magic now. I've seen many people ask how to practice on various boards and forums. And almost all of them get the same reply "practice anytime you get time". I was also new to magic at some time, so I know how it feels!

Let me tell you how I practice. I practice whenever I get time, literally. I have to travel a lot everyday to reach my coachings - almost 1 hour everyday. So when I'm going there, or coming back, I take out my pack of cards and start practicing any sleight I want, push off DL, biddle count, elmsley count, etc. My friends (who go with me) have become accustomed to me carrying a pack of cards everywhere, or I should say... Woh sab pak chuke hain (or, they have become "cooked")!

But while practicing, I make sure that I don't do things that "expose" magic - like palming. When I'm waiting for someone and I don't have anything else to do, I again do that same.

And the best practice is, in my opinion, doing magic for people. If you do that regularly, you learn a lot more than performing for that mirror or webcam.

So go out there and do magic, and remember to register for CodeJam!

Ok... so here's my first post.

Let me first introduce myself if you don't know me already. My name is Utkarsh Sinha, I'm 16 and I live in India. My passions include doing magic and programming. I know... programming and magic don't go together. Its a strange combination. But life's full of strange things and things can be stranger than you think. Maybe I stop philosophizing... its the strangest I can do!

Yesterday I was at my Vivek Panday coaching. I did magic for four groups there. And the reactions were amazing!! Especially Ashish Yadav (one of my classmates), he turned expressionless for a few moments when he realized that the two playing cards he was holding, changed into different ones in his own hands! I just loved it!

A few days back Mr. Rajani (our computer teacher) told me that Comfest was back. The moment he said that, I was extremely overjoyed!!! Let me explain why.

Comfest is THE school level competition for computer geeks like me. Comfest stands for Computer Festival, celebrating computers (I hear that everytime in the opening speech!). And its real fun to go there. The events at this competition include cartoon film making, debating, programming, etc. Everything is related to computers.

This time, I am in 4 events. Xplode, Surprise, Cartoon film making, Web designing.

Xplode is about remixing songs to create new ones. Surprise is what its title is - a surprise! And the rest you can easily understand!

I wanted to go into the Programming and Debugging events too, but then who would do the remixing and animation? No one else in my school can do that.

Comfest is still two months to go. Most probably it is on the 28th and 29th of October. The preparations have begun, and I hope to get a trophie in all my events!