Sunday, 14 August 2022

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

Saturday, 13 August 2022

Coffee With The Coach : Money - Anvesha Rana

Today We Talk About Money

We have got a form of brainwashing in our country. Do you know how they brainwash us? They repeat something over and over. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it - and have it repeated to us - over and over until nobody bothers to think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this,  and he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.

Wherever we might go in life, we meet people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of land. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they want to tell about it. 'Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'. These people are so hungry for love that they accept substitutes. They are embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. We can't substitute material things for love, gentleness, tenderness, or a sense of comradeship. 
Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. As we lay on our deathbed, neither money nor power will give us the feeling we were looking for, no matter how much of them we have. 
There's a big confusion over what we want versus what we need. We need food, but we want chocolate. We need to be honest with ourselves. We don't need the latest car, we don't need the most prominent house. The truth is, we don't get satisfaction from those things; what gives us joy is by offering others what we have to give. 

We don't have to offer money or power but time. Offer your concern, and submit your stories; it's not so hard. Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. If we show off to the top people, they will look down on us. And if we show off to the people at the bottom, they will only envy us. The status will get us nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally among everyone. 

We should sometimes take out time to listen to other people because giving is what makes us feel alive. Not our car or our house. Not what we look like in the mirror. When we give our time, when we can make someone smile after feeling sad, it's as close to healthy as we can ever get. 

Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, and you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back. 

Anvesha Rana, 
Grade 10-B, 
Gyanshree School. 

अगर मैं एक बाघ होता - रिशोना चोपड़ा

अगर मैं एक बाघ होता तो मैं जंगल पर राज करता और बहुत सारे कानून और नियम बनाता। काश, मैं हर किसी को शाकाहारी बना पाता, लेकिन चूंकि यह प्राकृतिक चक्र को प्रभावित करता है, इसलिए मैंने सभी से वादा किया होता कि उन्हें पर्याप्त भोजन मिलेगा और मैं भूखा नहीं मरूंगा।

मैं अपने लिए शिकार करता और बाघ डॉक्टर बन जाता और जानवरों और अन्य बाघों का इलाज करता। मैं कभी किसी इंसान को हमारी जाति में कटौती नहीं करने दूंगा। इंसान हमारा सबसे बड़ा दुश्मन है। मनुष्य हमारी त्वचा को कुतरते हैं और उससे कपड़ा बनाते हैं। हमारा परिवार लुप्त हो रहा है। काश इंसान हमारी भावनाओं को समझे और वो हमसे न लड़े और न हम उनसे लड़ें।

रिशोना चोपड़ा
कक्षा 6
ज्ञानश्री स्कूल

Reflections Since 2021