Acr-lic Colour

I saw my shadow dancing As I walked home from school I felt a pang of longing If only I could look that good. She was tall and slender, In the late afternoon sun Her hair  framed her face Curls bouncing at every turn Her silhouette looked so pretty I thought with pleasure and pain But then some clouds appeared She disappeared in the rain. Her face may be smooth Without pimples and marks Her figure well defined, Smooth and dark Her hair may look thick, She doesn't need glasses to see But I realized as the drops fell fast, I'd much rather be me. Not quite as tall, Glasses from the reading Not quite so slender, Because of chocolates I love eating The pimples I'd rather do without, But there's so much else to gain, My poor pretty dancing shadow, Can't dance in the rain!                                 -Ananya Ravikumar                 ...

Most of us  have, at some point of our lives, done a little programming. And that means most of us have at some point been beginners at it. And that means we have successfully survived a living nightmare without losing our minds. Congratulations. Shall I recount my own experiences? First, I had to install  a compiler on my system. After spending fifteen minutes installing one that was recommended to me, I realized that  the environment was completely different from the one I used at school. After struggling a little with with DOS ( about which I knew next to nothing) by typing commands whose meanings I did not know, I managed to type a simple program. Then came the moment of truth... compilation. It didn't go smoothly.There was a huge list of errors (or so it seemed). You probably know how intimidating the command prompt window looks to someone who's always used  GUI. After trying in vain to correct the errors, I gave up on that compiler and decide...