Acr-lic Colour

I have noticed something about people which worries me. People love to follow blindly. We love to hide behind the opinions of others; influential people like presidents, godmen, industrialists, actors, social workers, scientists... people and organisations who do the thinking and make decisions for us. Mass media, art and psychology are powerful tools. By putting them together those in power can create a campaign that will that will sway the masses in any direction they want. The Romans who were easily convinced of Caesar's ambition were just as easily convinced of his selflessness. Public memory is short. People who were burning Maggi on the streets a few months ago are now happily welcoming its return. Human society has certainly progressed since era of absolute monarchy, colonialism and dictatorship. Democracy, education and social media have made the individual powerful. We united to make India corruption free. We united for a Swacch Bharat. We united to protect our wome...

I saw a notice on the notice board the other day. It said ‘New library for kids in flat no. xxx.’  ‘This notice doesn’t concern us anymore does it?’ I jokingly remarked to my friend, who was standing next to me. She looked a little hurt.  “I was going to take a look", she said.  “For your little brother?”   “No, for me. We’re still kids, aren’t we?” On children’s day, another friend asked me if I was participating in the children’s day event in the apartment. " No. Are you?” I replied, thinking ‘We’re too old for such things.’ I was about to say that out loud when he said, ‘Yes, I’m dancing.’ Both incidents left me a little taken aback. When had I started classifying myself as not-a-kid? At twelve, I was officially too old for the children’s playground in the apartment complex . At seventeen, I was too old to attend the summer theatre workshops at Ranga Shankara. On my eighteenth birthday, society decided that I was an adult. That...

                                                                                                                                                                  Ananya Ravikumar As the last summer vacation of my school days comes to an end, I begin to think of what summer means to me. It means no school, obviously; It also means mangoes - the big juicy Alphonsos cut into long slices; Swimming - the brilliant blue of the pool under the hot sun; the screaming and laughter of children as they splash around in the cool water; Lots of vanilla ice cream;Watching movies at home with popco...

I was studying the chapter on relations and functions and the words were sort of bouncing around in my head when I suddenly remembered something I've wanted to rant about for a long time. The relations and functions I'm talking about, however, have very little to do with mathematics. I'm talking about the army of people most Indians have the privilege of calling family and their naming ceremonies, birthdays, coming of age ceremonies, weddings, house warming ceremonies and a couple of other poojas and celebrations thrown in for good measure. It's not that I dislike the events themselves, but I've attended one too many weddings at which I have to whisper in my mom's ear, "So are we on the bride's side or the groom's side of the family?" just before we hand the wedding present over to the happy couple. And if we ever met them again it would be at the next unknown person's wedding. When I think of the money we spend on petrol, the p...

As a teenager, I have gushed about many things. The overwhelming cuteness of a puppy or a kitten, the sight of my best friends, a good looking actor, a beautiful story…you get the point. When your body is riddled with hormones, you can be pretty emotional about a lot of stuff. But one thing I didn’t expect to be emotional about was my Physics textbook. I chose science in 10th grade because I thought it was beautiful. In the whirlwind of preparing for competitive exams and the suddenly overwhelming workload, I lost sight of that beauty. Physics was reduced to a a bunch of theories, laws and equations and most importantly, problems. While trying desperately to find the values of E and B, I had forgotten what they stood for. And I don’t mean just ‘electric field’  and ‘magnetic field’ .  As I read the Physics textbook in the week before my board exam, I marvelled at how smoothly it  connected one idea to another- charges to currents to magnetic fields to electromag...

                                                        Art by Ananya Ravikumar Ahem. Some time ago, I came up with a hypothesis. After testing it multiple times under different conditions, I summarise my findings in the form of  the following law: “The influx of ideas times the desire to write is inversely proportional to the time available under normal conditions and is inversely proportional to the square root of time available when an unpleasant but important deadline approaches.” I give a report of my experiments to verify the same: Experiment One: The Keeping of a Diary Upon re-examination of several years worth of diary entries, the beginning “Dear Diary, I’m supposed to be studying <insert boring subject> right now…” has been found to occur most frequently. Experiment Two: Writing befor...

If I had to be reborn, And if I had a choice, I would be a tree.                                                         Art by Ananya Ravikumar Not a horse, Whose beauty and majesty I love and envy. Not a bird, With the power to soar Above and away from the petty concerns of living Not a cheetah, With all it's speed, power and grace. Nor the leaping gazelle it hunts With long and slender legs Not a whale, with the ocean to explore. And not a human being. I can stand it no more. I would be a tree. I would grow, solitary. Taking only what I need. Giving back, All I can. In a forest, I would laugh As squirrels scampered up my spine I would watch the ant climb, undaunted by the distance With love. I would hold with tender care The eggs in the nest on my branches. And watch with pride, and a little sadness As ...