What Makes My Day?

It doesn't take a lot to make someone's day. The misconceptions keep changing, and everyone, in the realms of their mind believe that there is a fixed way to make someone's day. Some believe the special ingredient to be a gift. Other's believe that it's giving someone attention and making them feel important. 


If you ask me what makes my day? Its a Smile. It seems easy, but think about it. When was the last time you smiled at someone? The perfect smile. Balanced. Not the weird smile, and not the fake smile. Just a warm-radiant-full of life smile. It's quite hard. But I think its worth it. 
Just yesterday, I was at my community mart and I saw an old couple sitting on the bench outside [I know, it sounds like a scene from a typical movie. But it happened, so deal with it :D] . While I looked through the Notice board to see what people had put up over the past month, I couldn't help but notice that they were staring at me. I turned towards them, and instead of saying something, smiled. As I was leaving, the man called me. He said I reminded them of their grandson, who was probably a little older than me. They said that the way I smiled reminded them of their Grandson even more.


It's that incident that got me thinking, it doesn't take much to make someone happy. I think a Smile does just fine.


Parichay Swarup

The Young Entrepreneurs Competition

At the end of Grade 11, there is a competition held at the Dubai Mall for budding entrepreneurs called the Young Entrepreneurs Competition. Though to some of us, its also just a means of earning money. it is also a very valuable event to us 'commerce' students. It brings experience to us and also, if one does extremely well, its a great asset on the college application!


I've been waiting 3 years for YEC [ Young Entrepreneurs Competition]. Ever since I entered senior school, and heard about this competition, I've been waiting to take part in it. And that dream is finally about to come true. The competition starts on the 28th of December and lasts till the 31st of December. Thats 42 hours of selling!


You can't even imagine how excited I am for YEC. I've got plans in mind, what to sell, where to buy from. Contacts, Sources etc etc. I'm not going in with the thought "I'm in it to win it". I'm doing it for the experience. And needless to say for the $$ which i'm working really hard to make sure comes in ample amounts.
The bad part? is that since the exams are going on, the time to plan and carry out various field trips/ execute the thoughout plans is reduced to approximately 2 weeks which I feel isn't really enough to compete in a competition of such a scale where participants go into thousands in numbers.


We've decided to call our Stall "Azienda". Its an italian word and I think it suits the Stall. I'm doing it with my fellow commerce-from-the-beginning-mates Sohail Hafesjee and Mohit Gurnani. Both of which are excellent sellers and thinkers when it comes to entrepreneurship!


I wish all the teams a best of luck in their endeavors and may the best team win!
Parichay Swarup (: 

End of the Month/Year Post.

So yesterday was the last day of Grade 11. In 16 days I’ll be done with the examinations and be in the process of moving to Grade 12. Boy doesn't that sound impossible. It seems like only yesterday that we were finally done with a year of 'Board' pressure and finally into a slightly laid back year [which by the way it wasn't!], and now we're entering a Board year AGAIN? A whole year of NAG NAG and the sometimes-wishing-to-tear-my-hair-out various set of Exams. 

I won't say that I enjoyed my year in Grade 11, But I've made new friends, which I’m immensely grateful for. I've learnt a lot. But when it came to my class, Grade 11A, it’s not something I take pride in. I've actually made a conscious effort to stay out of any trouble that involves my class. And I've been quite successful. Except that when my class decides that it's better to take the blame as a class instead of that one stupid individual taking responsibility for his actions. 

Keeping all the Class issues aside [because they'd take too much time to narrate]; let’s focus on another reason why a lot of us can't seem to grip the fact that we're going to Grade 12. And that is,

We're going to be the senior most batches in school. Now that's two different reason grouped in one. 

The First being, we’re going to be the most looked up to batch of the school. We're supposed to be setting new standards and maintaining the bar [which I Must say, the current 12th grade batch has set pretty high!]. And as a batch, I don't think we're up to it. Sure, we're academically strong, and we've initiated a whole lot of new projects in the school. But when you actually look at it, half those projects are failing or have already failed. We start stuff but don't carry it out. And in this race to become prefects/Head Boy/ House Captains, every one's just trying to start new stuff and no one's really trying to uphold those projects. As a batch, we're not united. 

Sometimes I wish that we have just one head boy and no prefects. A head boy who has the capability to actually bridge the gap between the two sections of Grade 11 and finally bring the missing unity back to our Grade. It sucks. Being regarded as an 11A-er is like a caste system. In my class' eyes, 11B are lower than them, and in their eyes 11A is lower than them. 11B initiates a project, 11A isn't involved. 11A initiates a project, 11B isn't involved. And so continues the endless cycle. 

The second being that we're going to be alone up there. Till now we've always had some senior to help us out whenever we're stuck with ANY problem. But now, we're going to have that responsibility and we're not going to have anyone to guide us. I know it's all a big part of the eventful journey called life, but still. There are something’s we just don’t want to change. 

I've decided not to go on and on and bring yet another post to an abrupt halt. 

Until Next time, 

Parichay Swarup - An 11th Grader.

Life and its bumps.

Recently, an extremely good friend of mine went through quite a rough bump in his life. His parents decided to go their separate ways, and so they got divorced. I know that term (Divorced) isn’t a good one, but I prefer using that because I believe in being straightforward and since it was a divorce, I’m going to call it a divorce.

So, my friend (Who shall remain an anonymous Mr.X) went through that phase where X’s parents got divorced and he didn’t have much of a say in the matter. He lives with his sister and his two elder brothers are currently attending college in India. Now X isn’t one who shares his feelings too easily, and I’ve never pressurized him into doing so either. But there was that hint on sadness in his eyes, whenever I’d meet him or talk to him.

When X first called me after school and told me, I was devastated. I thought of how his remainder of high school might turn out to be a slightly uncomfortable one and I didn’t want that for him so I spent the following day with him at his place just talking about everything that had happened regarding his parents. X seemed reluctant to talk about it and I respected that, but finally he gave in and let it all out.

After a lot of advice and bad times, at last I can say that X’s life has returned to what it used to be sometime back. His parents aren’t the bickering types and they respect each other’s space. They meet often and there are no awkward moments between them. They still live in the same vicinity so they can choose to visit their mum at any given point in the day.

I’m just happy that things turned out quite all right given the prior circumstances and that his life isn’t as filled-with-sadness as it was when this incident first took place. Also, this incident really shocked me to a great extent, and now when I think about it and I think about my life, I feel a sense of relief that my life isn’t as rough as his was.

This Ones For You X,

Until Next Time,

Parichay