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!