My Inescapable Thought Abyss

If you're reading this, consider it a triumph in the battle of time against the much powerful physics experiment theory writing. Congratulations! Now, back to the topic. I think I mentioned it in this year's World Poetry Day post that I'm not big on remembering days and dates, but today morning when I got to know today's date celebrates left-handed people, I knew I had to write about it.  Yes, I am left-handed.  And to be honest, I find it to be a really cool thing. However insignificant it may seem, it's still cool.  I don't want to mention facts or list down struggles of being a left handed person because there's plenty of that stuff up on the internet. Instead, I'll share some of my favorite humor for all my left-handed friends out there! P.S. Some of it might be what people call 'struggles of left handed people,' but I wouldn't exactly call them 'struggles.' More on that later in the post.  Apparently. Unless you're accustomed...

I wish I could wonder how we got here. But I seem to know exactly how, by one step after the other, on and on and on….. And there’s no whirr of excitement this year, no new books or classmates or teachers for real. Not when they’re talking icons on the screen. I don’t mean to complain, just acknowledge the myriad ways in which we’ve tackled the situation in such an unprecedented time. Last year, just when the academic year had begun, I’d written a blog post called ‘On the Annual Whirr of Excitement.’ But nobody could’ve predicted that this year, there would be no whirr, no after-exam celebrations, no farewells, no new-school first days on campus. Not when we all barely managed to lock ourselves in our houses in the nick of time. And that out electronic devices will be our saviors. But! I just felt the slightest whirr and on came the need to acknowledge it. As I was giving away my 10 th grade books and making space on my shelves which are to be filled with the books for t...

Ahhh I feel poetic. It's 12.52 am and I know I've got a class at 6 am but sleep is miles away.  In fact, unexpectedly so, I just felt infinite.  Have you ever wondered why poets find, in nature, poetry? Why they model their works around nature and it's ways? I just felt why. And so I can say I (probably) know.  Of course it's a teenager's opinion but in my view, equally valid.  Well, as it happens, I just looked at the sky only to be fazed by the sight of two tiny specs of light beside the mighty moon itself, supposedly Jupiter and Saturn.  And, here's the answer to that question about poets: It probably is because they're constant, and to some extent, calming to the human mind.  Here's what it means to me: A sheer sense of conscious insignificance against the inevitable consistency of the flow of time.  The presently mundane incapability to reach out to the starts and being limited to only be able to gaze at them and wonder.  That is, how I'd exp...

                                Okay, so we're here already! Last post for the Student Blogging Challenge March - May 2020. It's been a new experience. Yeah, probably because I've never participated in a blogging challenge ever before much less one specifically for students.  And, reading other's works has been quite interesting too. Getting more than one point of view on a subject does broaden one's horizon. Admittedly, I couldn't commit 100% to the challenge. I even missed a week or two in the middle. But it wasn't for nothing.  Besides, to quote Hank Green from one of his videos, I know more stuff now!  So, throughout the course of the challenge, I wrote a total of 6 blog posts (including this one, the number sounds awfully small now, whoops!) Should've definitely written more.  Here's some questions about the challenge as a task to answer in this post: 1. How many weeks of the challen...

The topic of the Student Blogging challenge’s week 6 is Schools around the world. Now, the world is a huge place. So I don’t think it’s possible to make the post interesting if I go ahead and list all the different types of them. Neither would it be any help. So, I’d rather share with you something about the educational boards in my country, two to be precise: CBSE and IB. And maybe even impart some of my knowledge about them because I just changed by educational board for grade 11 and 12. P.S. There are other educational boards available too including ICSE and IGCSE and other State boards. But in this post I’m going to focus primarily on IB and CBSE. Okay, so, here’s the thing: When you pass 10 th grade in India from the mainstream board (Central Board of Secondary Education – CBSE), you’re expected to make a choice. And if I were to be honest, I don’t like either of the three options. The choice is to decide which stream of study you’d like to go ahead and study for th...

There’s this one poem I wrote last year: I wrote it during a chemistry class. Don’t blame me, inspiration can be found anywhere, especially when you’re on the verge of falling asleep during an extremely boring chemistry class. Since the class topic was putting me to sleep, I began thinking of that year’s summer I spent in Switzerland and it came to me in the form of poetry. However, this poem is not written the way most poems are, or by following a specific poem structure. I’ve written it like an account of a few days in the country of Switzerland: what I saw, what I thought, which incidences I remembered and why. And I happened to have found a picture from which I can directly associate this poem. Here goes: Sitting in a classroom, Doing as I’m told, My mind drifts off to, The day I walked the bricked streets, Of Zürich . The day saw no sun, Clouds hung low above in the sky. I walked out of a store, And I walked the length of the bridge. ...

Commenting on other blogs. This task was one of the tasks of the Student Blogging Challenge, week 2 by Edublogs. So, I visited a few blogs of the other participants of the challenge and dropped them some comments, following the commenting guidelines as one should. And I realised, in case one, I ended up writing a comment in order to inform the blogger that I shared a similar interest and also telling her about a resource I’d recently found which caters to that kind of interest. I tried to keep it relevant and ended with a question I had on my mind relating to it. Comment, Case 1: Blog post: Click here Hey Enija! This is Mahikaa from India. I really love Rome too. Its culture, history and architecture fascinate me. I have little knowledge about its mythology but I hope to know more. In case you're looking for something engaging concerning Rome, I recently found a free course on Future Learn about it. I signed up for it to finally learn more about it...

Commenting guidelines, why do we need this? Because often our comments may not be constructive or provide a real feedback to the writer. What’s the need, you ask? The answer, my friend, is because if there’s something, some thought that reading a blog post stirred up in your mind, it’d be a hundred times better if you conveyed the message successfully. And such kinds of thoughts aren’t really conveyed by statements like: Amazing! Or, Cool! Or, That’s great. So, I’ve compiled together a list of guidelines that may help you, my beloved audience, to be able to communicate what my writing made you think of or what message you might like me to have successfully. 1.        For safety reasons, prefer to not give away personal information like your full name or your mobile number or your address. 2.        Be sure to add a small greeting in the beginning just because it’s polite. 3. ...

Hello people! I am officially back! Okay, here’s a quick recap of why I was gone in the first place: Those people who know me would know that I was in tenth grade. And at the end of which, had one of the “supposedly most important exam of my academic life ugh ” or, as they call it, the Board exams. I still don’t get why it’s such a big deal. Because of which I had to abandon my writing work for an unforgivably long time, three months to be precise. But that’s done with now, and that’s past us, phew, and here I am, back to work. As for feeling lucky…. I stated that I just gave my board exams, they ended on March 18. As it happens, on the very evening of March 18, CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), also, my current educational board announced the postponement of the remaining board exams because of the hiking numbers of the corona virus cases in our country. And, it’s been more than ten days and I still feel lucky for having finished my exams o...

This post is a task of the Student Blogging Challenge Week 1. So that’s my avatar, accurately representing me in real life. I’m a little of a formal person than a casual one, even among friends, which explains the collar. It’s just me. The side turn, that’s how I like to keep my hair most of the time. And my glasses, they’re one inseparable part of me. Not by choice though. But they’re the one thing I’ve had on me since first grade and have now become so much a necessity that a thought of me without the glasses is kind of unimaginable. This avatar was created using this website.

Yes! March 21st is World Poetry Day. Before we get much ahead with the topic, I'd like to mention that I'm actually back (yay) and yes it's been a really long time since I posted last but I hope to be as consistent as is possible Me in the back of my mind, Let's see how it goes.  Okay, so! World Poetry Day! Did I really remember it was today? Of course I didn't. If you really know me, you'd know I'm not really somebody who remember special days. I just can't. But whoopsie, that's besides the point. I realized today was World Poetry Day while going through my blog's last year's posts and there it was, On the occasion of World Poetry Day . This time however, the only poem I've written recently happens to be an incomplete one. So, I'll present to you a poem I wrote last year but a piece of writing I'm very proud of. Here goes.... Title:  Because you were happy, and because I was not. Don't show me the peak ...

So, in my last post, I talked about the fact that I was considering nanowrimo this November. And, I’m in for it!!! Yeah, this November is going to be awesome! Here’s a little background about the story I’ll be writing. Genre: Fantasy Title: Zivel and the Sixth Element. Author: Mahikaa (duh.) This story was the first one I ever thought of, but never wrote. Its initial idea came to me in April 2017 and it’s been in the works since then. I’ve got loads and loads of beginnings for this story, so many scrapped, a lot of back-ups, but till date, I haven’t plotted or finished its first draft… That makes it more important to be written as soon as possible right? Here’s a plot summary I uploaded on the Nanowrimo website a few days back. But fair warning, my story is currently in its plotting stages, so I’d say, at this moment, everything is subject to change. Here goes: A lot of the past hasn't been said. Does that mean it hasn't happened? ...

Yes! Nanowrimo. Now, I realise that most of my blog audience probably has no clue what it means. If somebody does, it’s probably because I told them and they thought it was a crazy idea. But then again, what is it? Nanowrimo is short for National novel writing month. Every year, writers from all around the world participate and attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It happens annually and spans the entire month of November. Yes! It’s possible, many people have done it and I want to do it too. Before you begin preparing a speech for me, advising me to study this year and reminding me that I’ve got another round of 80 mark exams in the end of November, read what follows. Yes, I know, tenth grade, I have to study, etcetera, and reminding me has got no point because I know. We're being hammered so that the message to study seriously is ingrained in our minds permanently.  I realise the importance of prioritising studying and I’ve been doing so. But,...

Nope, this isn’t about where we stand in the society, as an individual, our position in the world, no, none of that. This is about where we stand as a species. About where the collective mankind stands in this world. And probably even beyond. Here’s one thing before we begin. When I say humanity, I am not referring to the humanly nature in us. Instead, I’m referring to the humankind as a whole. We currently stand in a position where we seem to have the world figured out. Not just that, we know and shape how it works by our actions. Humanity has been around for so long that we’ve even dated back to our origin. How the living came into existence, how it’s been so far, how the world works. What our needs are, what our potential is, what our challenges are. Where we stand in the world of the living, in the universe, explorations to the beyond. So many spheres, all conquered by mankind. All along in or journey to figure out the world so far, our minds and observat...

***** Spoiler Alert ***** Synopsis: If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human. When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Everything is going to change. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember. Survive. Run. Spoiler Alert, once again, because if you plan on reading the books, you wouldn’t want the plot revealed. And, much of it won’t make much sense either. Rest is your call. I’m not sure if I’d call it a review but it’s a fair representation of the thoughts that popped up after I finished the book today. Okay, okay, okay, fast breathing. It’s the first (or maybe the second) page-turner book I’ve read and those are the thriller feels it gave me ...

Okay, this is not a blog post teaching how to write or anything like that because let’s face it, writing is an art that can’t be taught, but yes, it can be learnt. Little funny isn’t it? Okay back to the topic. This is about what I’ve been writing. Summing up from the words I’ve written since April 2018, I have written approximately 50,000 words. Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!! 50,000 words is the average word count of a novel.  No I’m serious. Seriously serious. And, I have to tell this in detail. So here we go, about 8000 words for my novelette, about 1000 words on my mystery WIP (work in progress which I hopefully will finish one day – haven’t worked on it since last September but I love the theme so there’s a great possibility that I’m going to pick it again someday, then an exact 5506 words on a story I wrote last May but I’ve mostly given up on it – sorry, okay now it’s getting boring so I’m going to leave it right there. But a big oops, I just re...

Okay, so it’s been a while now since I’ve been in contact with a few of my old schoolmates. But before I go ahead and talk about it, here’s a little trip down the memory lane. In fourth grade, I changed my school and got a whole new lot of friends, eventually losing contact with the ones at my prior school. That’s it. That was the little trip. Now, it’s been what? Seven years? Eight, maybe? And since our classes happen to be same now, I’ve been seeing those formerly-familiar faces again regularly. And I do remember a few things from back then, in fact, there are many incidences, people, things about the school, how my classmates used to be – that I still remember. And those people remember me too. Only, they know me differently. Now that we sometimes happen to engage in brief conversations, I realize that those people knew a different version of me, the older version, the ‘third-grade-me’ person. And I remember myself quite differently. It is ...

It’s an unexplainable desire, learning new languages. Why? I know this might not sound like a reason enough but I find that the ability to be able to speak a greater number of languages awesome. It’s not only because you sound smarter, yeah, that’s a huge point of consideration but also because it increases your knowledge in an important way. And I don’t know why but learning a new language has always sounded like brain games to me because it tests your memory and your observational skills. How observational skills? Well, there are a lot of words in different languages that are similar to the language we know, mostly English. So, it primarily depends on how good you’re at recognising the variation-ed word in the other language and also accept the fact that that’s how it’s said. But it’s also scary because at present there exist 6500 languages in the world. Whoopsie! Mastering a few is a huge task and then there’s thousands of them around this lonely planet of ours. A...

On 5th July last year, my first novelette ‘How To Identify A Time Traveller’ came out. Now, over the one whole year, I did learn a lot of things I wish I’d known before it came out. It’s common, you learn from experience right? For instance, as I followed other author’s statements about how the first draft of their books were different from their final copies, I realized the important role played by multiple revisions and editors. The story of my book was pretty raw and there weren’t any significant revisions to the plot which, I now think of, were very essential. Also, the publishing method chosen wasn’t the most preferred one but I won’t go into specifics because it might get boring then. By the way, here's what it looks like: Also, once you finish a story, there’s always a possibility of there being more to it. But it’s been one year two months since I wrote that story and sure there were many ideas I had on paper which didn’t make it ...