Shishukunj

From Russia With Love

Hridhima Tyagi, Class XI A

Zdravstvuyte!

My experience in Russia was what can be described as phenomenal. The place was just as I had imagined. As much as I enjoyed escaping the tormenting heat of Indore, I was absolutely mesmerized by the expanse of culture there too. In Moscow, we had stayed in the Star Wars hostel. All of us girls stayed in one dormitory, and we stayed up all night sharing stories, playing different games, but still we were full of energy and enthusiasm in the morning. Through the hop-on-hop-off bus, I was able to visit the majestic places such as the Supreme court, the Parliament, the President’s mansion, Kremlin and much more. We also went to the trampoline park, where we all jumped around till we didn’t have any energy left. My most favourite part, of course was when we had a whole day to ourselves to shop around and buy souvenirs for our families.

Then we went to Surgut. At first I was a bit nervous living with strangers, but they gave me such a warm welcome, I instantly felt at home. They took great care of me, took care of my food preferences, and always helped me with everything. Eliza, my host, was just like a sister to me. On the first day, we were all so tired because of the jet lag, but I wanted to cover as much of Surgut as possible, so my host family took me for a concert. And on top of that, it started to snow, and it was the first snowfall I had ever seen in my life. It looked magical. We spent the whole day playing cards and getting to know each other.

From the next day, we attended all the classes there which included sewing, cooking, clay moulding, metal moulding, engineering, and many more exciting ones. I loved the engineering class the most and felt proud when I was able to make a working Bluetooth operated remote-controlled car all by myself.

After school ended, Eliza and her friend Sasha and I would take long walks exchanging all about our culture. Sasha took care of me just like an elder brother too. He gave me his jacket when I felt cold, helped me with my homework, and even taught me how to ice-skate. They also took me to the zoo, where we fed birds, monkeys and even bats! (Except I was not ready to even touch the bats, I was so scared). Over a short period of 7 days, the bond of friendship between me and my host family had grown so strong that we weren’t ready to separate! Overall, I never felt that I was short of anything, I learned a lot and of course I enjoyed so much, these memories will forever be imprinted on my mind. I am looking forward to another one of these inter-cultural programs!

The UFO

Mihika Panjwani, Class X A

‘And then, the plane entered the big cloud and they could never see it again!’

‘They must have shut their eyes! Hehehe’

‘Oh Ram, shut up, can’t you? Tina, continue…’

‘Thanks Zayn, so…. The plane… it disappeared. Later they found out that the plane had taken a turn when when it got hidden behind a cloud and thus wasn’t seen.’

‘Ughh, can’t these alien stories have REAL action?’ Zayn exclaimed. He was one of the keenest listeners and loved to listen to Tina when she shared whatever she read from magazines.

‘I’ve told you earlier too, there are so many researches going on, yet, nobody knows if aliens exist or not,’ Tina sighed, flipping the pages of another weekly.

‘I don’t care if aliens exist or not. Plus there are already so many people who worry about them. Let’s not get into boring debates again. C’mon, let’s go getta life and play outside,’ Ron winked, holding a poster with the words ‘GO GETTA LIFE’ written in bold.

The three friends got out the house and sat on the porch outside. They were all sitting there when Zayn exclaimed, ‘R….Ron…T….Tina….look! Up there!’

‘Oh my god! This is so much like a Doracake!’

‘No Tina! You’ve been watching Doraemon a lot these days. This looks more like a ……doughnut!’

‘Oh no Ronnie. This is so much like a UFO!’

Tina and Ron exclaimed together, ‘A UFO! Yes, it is a UFO! Run! Let’s get someone!’

They all rush to Zayn’s elder brother Jim and ask him to look at the UFO.

Jim had a nice look at it and said, ‘Oh yes, that is definitely a UFO. But a plastic one! Kids it is a promotion of the new TV series The Scratched Alien Stories.’

‘It was an amazing day, full of fun and frolic. We all stood aghast and laughed, seeing that strange flying object!’ Tina ended her diary entry and another amazing day!

The Triangle Strikes Again

Vidhi Dev, Class X A

It was an amazing day, full of fun and frolic. We all stood aghast to see a strange flying object over our heads. We started guessing what it was. Of course, everyone’s first guess was that it was a UFO. But the object didn’t really look like what we had imagined UFO’s to be. It looked more like an airplane but it was covered with rust and seaweed. We were all curious to know what it was.

Suddenly, the object started plummeting and landed somewhere nearby. We went around looking for it and found it parked in a vacant plot. We got a better look at it and became certain that it was an aircraft. We glanced at each other, confused about how it had ended up here. We started discussing theories when all of a sudden, Samir cried out, ‘Look! Someone’s coming out of the plane!” We turned our attention to the aircraft and saw two figures emerging from it.

We let out a collective gasp when we saw who it was. The woman had fair skin and short brown hair and we immediately recognized her as Amelia Earhart, whom we had studied about in school. We were all dumbfounded. No one had found Ms. Earhart’s airplane! Besides, the journey was decades ago, she ought to be dead by now. We started asking Ms. Earhart and her co-pilot questions and they seemed as confused as we were.

Once Ms. Earhart realized where she was, she told us her story, “I remember waking up in the middle of the ocean inside my plane. But the surprising thing was that the plane was floating! We recognized our location as near the coast of Florida or near the Bermuda Triangle. So we tried to fly to the States but we came here instead. I have no explanation for that!”

All of us were awe-struck. We had heard about the mysterious happenings near the Bermuda Triangle but this time, we were able to see it for ourselves! An expedition that had been lost decades ago had come back in the twenty-first century. What a miracle!

Number Gallery

Inter-House Wall Magazine

Ghosts are Fun

Soumya Tiwari, Class X B

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a storm brewing outside. Suddenly, the lights went out and I realized, to my horror, that I was all alone at home that night. My parents were out of station.

I quickly searched for my phone and turned on the flashlight. I was terrified and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I got an idea. I took my phone and went to the living room. There, I could see the box. I carried it back to my room. On the way, I shut all doors and windows. Once inside my room, I closed the door and opened the box.

It was my collection of candles. I placed them around and lit them one by one. My room looked beautiful. ‘They’re so pretty!’ said a voice behind me. I was horrified! I turned around and saw a little girl sitting on my bed. I screamed as I froze in fear.

The girl spoke to me consolingly and assured me that she wouldn’t harm me. I was way too scared to speak. Then she asked me to sit down and told me that she was very lonely. Eventually, I began to calm down and got comfortable with her presence. As we talked, we soon became friends. We had a pillow fight, played tic-tac-toe and even had a candle light party in my room. I must say, all ghosts aren’t bad. Some are fun too!

A Slight Misunderstanding

Ayush Baweja, Class X G

The moment Johnson stepped down from the train, he was greeted at the platform by the people of his small town. They had gathered there with garlands and a band’s loud music added to the cacophony.

Johnson stood dazed. He was sure he got off at the right stop; he even recognized some of his neighbours. In the small town of Panjam, everyone seemed to know everyone else. So he couldn’t have been mistaken for someone else.

After his vacation to Goa had flopped, he was uninterested in any more commotion. He called for the band to silence and went over to Mr. Jai Jain, the Mayor. He asked him what all the celebration was about.

For a second, the Mayor seemed astonished and then understood. He replied, ‘Don’t be so modest. We all saw you on TV yesterday. You’ve really put the town of Panjam on the map!’

All of a sudden, it clicked to Johnson what was going on. They must’ve seen Johnson on some regional news channel after the incident in Goa but didn’t understand what the news was really about. Johnson flushed red and then pale. How could he tell these people that he was wanted?

In Goa, he was mistaken for a notorious thief. Ever since, wherever he would go, the police would chase him and he would narrowly escape only after proving his identity. He had even seen a picture of himself in a Goan daily. How could he break it to these innocent people that the ‘Hero of Panjam’ was just a thief’s look-alike?

Power of Parody

Ronit Banerjee, Class X B

The moment Johnson stepped down from the train, he was greeted at the platform by the people of his small town. They had gathered there with garlands and a band to celebrate a victory.

Was it the victory of the town, or of Johnson? Nobody knows. As the people only thought of the memories which had brought them there to witness this.

Six months ago, Johnson had arrived in Lindenburgh with his unusual sky-blue hat and a briefcase filled with humble beginnings. With that hat, he looked like an aristocrat, difference being just one – he mimicked one. You see, Lindenburgh was facing atrocities of aristocrats with contacts in the House of the Lords in London.

Johnson took up the initiative to satire and parody the aristocrats for the poor people there to give them the confidence, to not be idle to injustice even if it comes from people with hats!

‘Who knew humour could do so well!’ that’s what people asked, standing at the station, holding the newspaper with the headline ‘Lindenburgh Unites, the Aristocratic Fright!’

As Johnson stepped down, the band saluted. His parodies had splashed cold water over stereotypes and ignited logic. As he saw a heavy-set man in burgundy attire enter the train, he asked, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Away. It’s not safe here.’ replied the aristocrat.