More Than Survival - Oshi Singh

Image found on pinterest.com by Oshi

What can a man do for passion? What can a man do with the fire that drives him? He can do wonders. There’s nothing a passionate man wouldn’t do. Passion—for love, for what you love, for that little flame in your heart. But what if someone extinguishes that fire? Passion is what drives us. Yet, when a man loses the very thing he’s alive for, he might continue living, but something inside him dies. He may die at a certain age, but in truth, he died the moment he did something he didn’t have any passion for. Without passion, life becomes a hollow routine. You exist, but you don’t truly live. Passion is what gives us purpose, what makes us reach for something more than mere survival. Without it, we are but shadows of who we were meant to be. Oshi Singh Grade XI Gyanshree School

A Letter from a Little Girl with Big Problems!!! - Aria Gupta

Opanari Society,

Sec 198, Panlangarh

12 july, 2023

Dear Aanya

How’re you doing, sis?

Everything has been challenging since Mom and Dad died in the car accident. We all hope that you’re not going through the same. We’ve shifted to a small, rented apartment in the Opanari Society. Grandma has been trying really hard to make a living for us. Happy 10th birthday to me, but no one other than her and you actually care, and both of you are busy. I could really use a friend here, but everyone calls me rude and selfish. No one could really understand me. I couldn’t do anything for anyone because of our situation, which made it hard to make new friends. So I’ve decided to focus more on my grades. I want to make a better future for us. I want to ensure that our current situation is hidden forever and is never found by anyone.

I honestly feel this brutal feeling of jealousy that makes me feel sad and angry about our situation all the time. It makes me act rude to other people. But if I tell this to anyone other than you and Grandma, I’ll be called a psychopath. They won’t understand this feeling unless they’re in my shoes. It’s somewhat a reason I don’t have any friends. When I try to make some, it’s always in vain.

I’m a bit ashamed of this situation, as I’m surrounded by children who live entirely normal lives. I want to make it better. It’s why I’m focusing on my grades so much. I want to make a better home for Grandma in the future. I want to ensure my and your future too. We’ll be living a better life in the coming years.

How’re you doing? I hope college is going well. I hope you are not like me and are doing ok.

Thank you for being my only escape from this brutal reality.

Sneha Rawalya
Your little sister

Written by: Aria Gupta Grade VI Gyanshree School

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in the below text is imaginary, including the places.

Life is a beautiful journey to death - Tenzin Jambey

I saw this quote hanging on the wall of my class classroom. Every day I used to see it, and I used to think and ask myself, is life a beautiful journey to death? Then my consciousness would say it's in our hands whether if you do good things, then you will get a peaceful death, but if you do sin, then obviously you'll face a terrible death. But, sometimes, it happens that kind-hearted people die.

If we look into the world around us and see the recent deaths, we will find that a good person dies first. There is the story of a man and son; once, a boy asked his father why good people die first, then the father said to the child think you are going to a garden, and there are many flowers and which flower would you pluck. The child told the most beautiful one then the father said that god also wants to take the good person with him. 

Sometimes things become so complicated that we are unable to predict the output. Peole say you are not good, she is like this, he is like that, they are not good but sometimes our  life itself becomes a cause of great destruction of ourselves. 

Many people desire to become rich whereas some people are happy being poor. Rich people face as many problems as other people do. Behind every negativity there is a positivity and behind every smily face there is a sad face.

Tenzin Jambey

Pestalozzi Children’s Village India

Image from The Little Book Of Values

Travellers and Death - Reveda Bhatt

“The dead are not powerless.

Dead, did I say?

There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

‘Will I die? Or will I just leave my body?’

Oh! Wait! Let me reframe a part of my question-“the” body.

Well, hello, “travellers.”

Don’t like to travel? Still travellers.

Why?

Let’s see.

This writing, I guess, could seem to be an interactive session because I have a lot of questions there

is no right answer to?

So, your interaction would not be with me but with yourself.

In the beginning, I addressed you as a “traveller,” should I have called you a “human?”

Probably, right now, you’ll agree because you have a body, right?

Or are you “in” a body?

Let’s face it. The truth is the second.

Somebody might be called a human until they’re “alive”, but once they die, they’re called “dead.”

But, you know, there is life after “death”, so why be called dead once we’ve left our physical body?

It’s just that the soul is like water filled in a bottle which is the body. So you see, the water doesn’t

reduce in amount until you drink it, in the same way, if, in the end, you say that you can’t live life

loudly, there’s no one to blame except you! That’s on you! Be it anyone coming in the way, the fault

is in you because you let them in, in through the gate to your mind, to pull you down!

Why be backstage when you can rock it up on the floor!?

So, if I don’t see you when we are both in bodies, don’t worry!

We’ll get a chance to meet on the other side!

Reveda Bhatt
The Aryan Schoo, Dehradun

It’s Not Over - Reveda Bhatt

“You die when you die, but it’s not the end.”

Death is the physical end of an organism on this planet which is its definition.

But, as always, in life, there is a twist.

Going deep into its meaning, it’s actually the process via which our soul escapes its present physical appearance into another or somewhere away to a place unknown to mankind. This opens up the question or maybe a belief in our minds about the concept of ‘life after death,’ the study of which is termed as ‘Thanatology.’ After years of denying this hypothetical statement, even some people in the field of Science have given in to believing it.

One of them is Dr. Stephen Mayer of the United States who said that there was a study proposed which states that Life After Death may be a reality. For this study, researchers at the University of Southampton in England examined more than 2000 victims of cardiac arrests from 15 hospitals out of which 360 of them had revived and about 40 percent had some sort of awareness during the period when they were ‘clinically dead.’

You see, lying unconscious or dead, there is something in the body which is conscious and aware of everything going on around.

So, life is not over after death and death is not the end of life.

There supposedly is life after death in a different form, in a different body and in a different world.

It is just a ticket to a plane heading to another land that everyone has to board!

Wish all our readers a Happy Diwali!

Reveda Bhatt
Grade IX
The Aryan School, Dehradun

Left So Soon - Climax: Reveda Bhatt

Left So Soon-I’d like to thank all those from above watching me as I write this.

To all the RIPs,
Thank you for giving me a new perspective of life to look through-Not to hang on over a
moment, but to let go and move on.
From The One, You Left Behind,
Reveda.

So, hope you went through the series well and got to pick up some morals concerned with
our mortality.

To you,
Life is too uncertain to think about anything else but to live in the moment. This was not for
any other purpose than to give you meaning, the meaning of life, not a definition.

Look, because, anyways, it’s you who defines the word-Life, but the meaning is pre-defined.
Either way, we are born by the same process and even die by the same process, but the
difference appears in the way we live and the motive behind our living-some live to enjoy,
wanting happiness in return, some live to work hard, wanting money and fame in return,
some live to serve, wanting nothing in return while some never even get the time to want
anything in return as they return back. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to enjoy, work
hard or serve, it simply means that you have to keep on doing what you love, but don’t
expect anything in return, Karma returns and it will, WHEN IT HAS TO!

Trailer - BIRTH
Movie - LIFE
Climax - DEATH

We all know our ending, to kiss the soil, the climax for the actor is boring and for the
supporting roles, is sad.
The Director is God.
The Producer is you.
The Audience is everybody else.
Suppose, the Director has given you the starting and the ending of the movie.
The script is what you have to write.
If the Audience laughs, let them, thinking that they are stupid.
If the Audience cries, let them, thinking that they are emotional.
Let them because it’s you who knows the reality behind, because perspectives don’t match.
Yes, they don’t.
Nobody’s does, they pretend to.
Nobody can put you down, unless you let them to.
It’s your stage. Rock it, Superstar!

Before it breaks down!

Reveda Bhatt

The Aryan School, Grade 9

The Art Of Focus - Rishona Chopra

 

The Art Of Focus, is a skill to be in the present in the moment. It is quite important because our mind is a universe of thoughts, while doing something another thought pops up into our mind and we start pondering over it and forget about what we were doing. The ability to control our thoughts and be present from our mind is the Art Of Focus.In school, when the teacher is teaching, and we have a doubt, we stop listening to the teacher and start thinking about only our doubt and don't realize that our doubt was already explained! 

Apart from that, the book focuses on positive thinking...In today's chapter we read about how accepting death helps us overcome challenges in life. Of course it is difficult but it is a section of life and that is why we should always keep doing good deeds because what we do for ourselves dies with us but what we do for others continues and lives on forever. 

It is better to accept death happily because being sad won't change it.

Rishona Chopra

Grade VI

Gyanshree School

The Art of Focus - Anvesha Rana

Positive thinking should be the most essential attribute for each of us. If we are positive, then we are happy, independent and self-sufficient. Still, if we are negative, we always lack confidence in our actions. We will doubt our deeds and even make the others around us doubt themselves, so we must stay positive. 

Life is short, and death is inevitable, so we should make it count. Life is not the only time for living, but death is also an episode to discover the epitome of joy if you have done punya in your Life. Death is not the end of Life but the ultimate meditation to reinstate the clarity and perspective for each aspect of Life.  

Our soul's journey is Life, but after death, our body passes, but the soul continues its journey in another form, which is defined by karma in the previous Life. Death is simply the transmigration of the soul. We should not fear death; instead, in every moment, we should be prepared to die because it can strike us unexpectedly anytime, anywhere.

Death makes us powerful, more robust and bolder by prioritising what we need or want; it gives us a sense of urgency and importance in our Life. Death makes us more grounded humans who believe they are one of the infinite children of God. It makes us grateful for every small action, unshackle from mental anxiety, and live up to ourselves. 

If we all can go from fearing death to embracing death, 

then we can be positive humans who have understood Life. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School

The Sweetness of the Bitter Truth - Reveda Bhatt

For those who’ve read part 1- I hope you found the courage to read it whole.

Stay tuned and read this too because, you know, to those who think reading about death is not worth it at all when you can read about a bright things-my, friend, death is the ultimatum of a life, and every passing day just leads us one step closer to it, this might make you think-

“Then what is the point of living happily when the ending will just be sad?”

See, while watching a trailer, you do not just get the whole idea about the storyline until you watch the entire movie, so, look, neither the beginning is the central part, nor is the climax (Though people seem to make it) it is what happens in the middle.

There it is; that’s how life is not to be seen from the perspective-

How was someone born?

Or

How had someone died?

It should be seen as - How had someone lived?

The time we have to live is limited, but how to live in the given time is in our hands.

That is how you find - light in the dark, 

the joyfulness in the screeching voice of a lark,

the cheerful desire of the people who sank in the mournful fire 

- the sweetness of life in the bitter truth of death.

Reveda Bhatt
Grade 9
The Aryan School

Ordinary Lives - Anvesha Rana

Let's not strive for extraordinary lives, 

Let's not make success a goal, 

but let us make Spreading Happiness

our role. 

Let it be ordinary but ensure it is happy, 

Let it be simple but ensure it is fun, 

Let it be calm but ensure it speaks tons. 

Help others find the wonder and 

a marvel of the ordinary life, 

Discover pleasure in tasting 

apples, plums and tomatoes. 

Show others how to cry, 

when pets and people die

and show them how to laugh, 

when we lose after a tie. 

Let it be how you want, 

or let it just go with the flow, 

Don't change it for anybody else's rant

for it is your life when it is high

or when it is low. 

Make the ordinary come alive for them, 

and the extraordinary will just go. 

Anvesha Rana, 

Grade 10-B, 

Gyanshree School

Getting To Know You,life - Reveda Bhatt

So, today, I'll tell you a truth that humans need to face boldly.

First of all, let's ask ourselves once what life means? I think life is just a path leading to a very mournful destination- death!

When you realize the meaning of this one statement profoundly, the first question popping into your mind is that 'Then what am I struggling for!?' If this is it, then you are back on the right path - I mean working really hard to earn money, not being a spendthrift, saving it for your future generations and then, after getting old, waiting for 'the payback' from your children for what all you've done for them but when you get what you expected or have more than you expected, it is too late.

At that particular point in time, all the places in the world long for your presence to be there, but your life doesn't allow you to, and by the time the reality hits you, you get a callback from where it all began. So, see, where you are, at this moment, this place is unique, so why not live life to your best right now, and not think about what's ahead or what's the end, cherish every moment so, at last, you do not blame anyone or anything for not being able to, and that's just life, the sooner you understand it, the better it'll be!

Reveda Bhatt 
Class 9
The Aryan School