Blog-Lord of the Flies

In Lord of the Flies, from my personality and actions, I relate to a combination of Simon and Ralph. To begin with, my personality is similar to that of Simon. Simon is a representation of the kind and gentle nature of the human beings in a society. Along the lines of Simon's thinking and intellectual beliefs, for example his quote about the boys actually becoming the beasts, is a figurative phrase that relates to the fact of how humans have the good nature but it is society and the surroundings around that cause for the negativity and darkness of fear to develop that can corrupt you. Additionally, Simon's good nature is similar to mine, as I believe that there is a good quality in every human being and that both of us have the tendency to easily go along with what others say in order to fulfill a "duty" or "taboo."

At the same time, my character relates to Ralph, as he has a positive outlook on the abilities of success and tries to help the boys on the island to build a signal fire and shelter. Ralph is also a major character who symbolizes order with the use of the conch shell as well as being the leader of the boys. As a result, both Simon and Ralph exemplify character traits of me in two separate manners. Therefore, both of these major characters represent parts of my characters. 

Blog on Life: Friday, 4/25/14

Today is the last "official" day of Spring Break. I'm definitely going to keep this blog short and sweet. The entire Friday was extremely relaxing, but full of work and practicing. After the normal morning routine, I went straight to practicing dance. I practiced for around 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. I felt that today's practice was the best out of the week. All my corrections that I had been working on had finally paid off and I was able to perform my Thillana without much mistakes that I could find. Of course, my teacher will pin point ever minute detail that there is to be found. Besides dance practice, I studied for WHAP and reviewed post-classical to Industrial Revolution. Do names like the Jurchens, Kublai Khan, and inventions like the steam-engine ring a bell? After studying, I felt refreshed with knowledge. Overall, I felt as if I was able to accomplish a ton over Spring Break and that I properly utilized the 5 days of break to a proper extent. 

After eating lunch, my brother Akshay and I were making funny and silly videos on his iPad. We both had fun brainstorming ideas because over the summer, we are thinking of starting a Youtube channel. We even decided the username should be SHRAKS! Shreya+Akshay= SHRAKS, so we hence made a combined name. With great ideas and proper equipment, we will be able to share our crazy and busy schedules with other and influence them to not only have fun living their life but think about things in alternative ways. The saying, "There's always two sides to everything," really applies to how you feel something has gone. For example, in dance, I make tons of mistakes, but those do not need to be put into a negative connotation. Mistakes that are made will not be made the next time, so that's where the positivity comes in. In this manner, bad things and good things are one and the same. The rest of the day was fun, with me spending quality time at the mall with my brother and mother, eating crepes and having fun shopping. Spring Break was full of its ups and downs, but I'm sure glad that I was able to make the most out of it!  

Blog on Life: Thursday, 4/24/14

To get back to the normal routine, I decided that waking up a little bit earlier than normal would help me re-adjust to the school schedule, as spring break is coming to an end and school is just around the corner. After waking up, we had this plumber come to our house to fix the clogged up toilet. The toilet has been clogged for about 5 days, so no one used it until it was fixed. Apparently, the toilet is extremely old, and the flushing mechanism is quite delicate and not powerful enough. Once fixed, the plumber left and my brother left with my dad to go to his friend's house to play. As usual, I went to go practice dance and singing in the morning and worked up a great appetite, so after finishing my practices and going to take a shower, I went to eat lunch with my grandmother. It was just us two and we spent a lot of time talking to each other about some of her old memories back in India. These memories just bring great joy into her life as her age progresses day by day and the fact that she loves to share them with me is just enlightening and fulfilling. After a great lunch prepared of course by my mom, I went to review for the AP Exam in WHAP and my grandmother went to sleep. 

Studying for an exam can definitely be boring and hard to even complete, with all the pressure. But, I have learned that it is much easier to set a goal for what you want to read and accomplish in that day. For me, it was studying the time period 600 BCE to 1450 CE. This was unit two in my review book and with the focus that I put into reviewing, I accomplished a ton more than what I expected and I was pleasantly surprised. Around 4:30 PM, I left for singing class, from 5-6, and after went to a rehearsal for my brother's mridhangam (Indian drum) accompaniment. By the time everything was over, it was night and we returned home and ate dinner, completing our night routine, and eventually went to bed. I had enjoyed my musical evening and had a great amount of work accomplished just by simply being focused. The simple things that you learn everyday is quite surprising and I never expect that things turn out so easily sometimes. It definitely helps when you have your mind and full heart into something you love or want to get done. That is the secret ingredient to the "easy as cake" cake. 

Blog on Life: Wednesday, 4/23/14

I woke up today feeling fresher than normal. Is that even an understandable term? Well, after I woke up, I had my usual morning routine and went straight to practicing dance today. I dedicated myself to an hour to and hour and a half of practice time to get my practice done. While I danced, I saw an improvement that I had been struggling with for a long time and the fact that I had finally gotten what I had hoped for was the best feeling yet. Dance is a form of meditation, relaxation, enjoyment, and passion all combined into one. With enough dedication to the art form, I am able to maintain a clean and simple life path which helps to drive me towards the right direction in my future. Right after finishing my practice, I went back to my room and got my homework completed. I finally finished the research and powerpoint for biology. I sometimes wonder why I have not even approached the class thinking that there is only about 5 weeks left of it? I think of it as if I have the class forever and the pain that I get with that class will stick forever. It's not as if the teacher does not try or put an effort to teach, it's just that the work we get done does not correlate to the concepts that we learn or what we are supposed to learn. Oh well, I'll just think of it like we have about 5 weeks left of the class and freedom awaits. I then quickly showered and went straight to practicing singing. 

Practicing singing is completely different than dancing. Though both have rhythm and the same motives in mind, singing is a form of enhancing what the composers have given to us. Making a song feel the emotion given by the meaning of it as well as the correct attention to detail is harder than it seems. I focus constantly in staying in the right pitch and tune, yet there are times when hitting the higher notes are hard for me. I just need to believe that I can hit them, because I can. The fear is what is putting me into a phase of discomfort and disbelief in myself. The rest of my day was pretty calm and casual, as I studied a little bit of WHAP and watched TV after eating diner at night. I also played with my younger brother, which brings great joy to my life. That about sums up my work-driven day! 

Blog on Life: Tuesday, 4/22/14

In my opinion, today was one of those days where you just feel like doing absolutely nothing, however; I am not the type of person to do such a thing. I woke up around 7:30, and for the rest of you, that might seem quite early, but in my household, that's considered late. After waking up, I completed my usual morning routine and getting my breakfast and eating it after brushing my teeth and such. I decided to work a little bit on biology to get some research done about my project. Biology is a fun class, but in my opinion, the class is terrible as the teacher does absolutely no teaching. Most kids do not do any work and I felt bad for the teacher as she made an attempt to teach. I ended up researching a bit as I felt some sympathy for her so called "hard work." Afterwards, I practiced dance for a solid 1 hour and the rush of adrenaline had never felt better. My feet were extremely sore, but without a doubt, I had witnessed an amazing practice of the day. As I am still sick and coughing a ton, I could not practice singing, but I still benefited from the experience by listening to music. As soon as I finished, I took a shower and ate lunch with my brother afterwards while watching Spongebob on TV. We ended the afternoon by taking a nap for two hours as my brother was recovering from jet lag and my cough syrup made me feel sleepy.

After we woke up, we both got ready for my brother's rehearsal. He plays an Indian musical drum. The way he plays just rejuvenates your soul and wakes up your mind as well as cleanses your outlook upon the song he accompanies. I thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsal. In between, my mother and I went to the mall and we enjoyed some mother-daughter bonding time. It was only 2 hours, but those 2 hours were plenty for my mother and I to talk about my future and about planning my week and of course shopping! We both bought the exact same sandals in different colors so that we could twin! It was definitely a memorable time that we spent together. Lastly, we all ate dinner together and returned home. The day was long, but the events in the day were memorable and ever-lasting. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to my brother play the mridhangam and spending quality mother-daughter time at the mall. Some moments like this are treasured for the rest of my life.    

Blog on Life: Monday, 4/21/14

More than any other day, today was a pretty relaxing day compared to others that I have had in the past. I visited my Aunt's house and she taught me some math lessons in pre-calculus. I'm first and foremost very glad to have her as an Aunt, and secondly very appreciative to her teaching skills. I was able to grasp the concepts quite quickly and it helped to boost my self-confidence about myself in math in general, as I used to struggle in middle school. As today was pretty calm and peaceful, I did not have much change in emotion except for happiness and joy and enjoyment in the day, however; I decided that for this blog, it would be better to talk about my Sunday, on the 20th of April, as that day was a key milestone for me.

On Sunday, my dance company, KalaVandana Dance Center, was asked to perform in the Concord Shiva-Murugan Temple to celebrate Tamizhl New Year. Every year, our company is given this prestigious opportunity to dance in front of God and get the Temple's blessings. My day started off great with my friend's mom getting me and my friend ready, as my mother was in Cleveland, Ohio, with my brother. The whole dance makeup and dresssing up takes about 2 hours and with the additional person (me), we had to start even earlier. The whole painstaking process gets easier with more and more practice, as does any task, so I helped my friend's mom out by getting ready as much as I could without her help. The jewelry and hair are pretty heavy and that is where the change of emotion kicks in from eagerness and excitement to suddenly feeling angry and the brink of pain. But, in order for the process of getting ready to be competed faster, I decided to hold back and be as patient as I could, and it truly helped us get ready faster. After we were ready, we all left to the temple in Concord. The drive was far so we took a power nap. Once we reached the temple, this is where the rollercoaster ride began.

First and most importantly, we greeted our teacher and discussed with the younger kids the Mangalam, or the ending, where we all come back onstage and bow to the audience. As I was the leader, I had to teach them how to walk and arrange them in order of height. I felt a great sense of strength being a leader and it gave me some credibility that I knew I needed. Afterwards, we all circled around my dance teacher and we performed prayer with our bells to wear around our feet. The prayer is a way of thanking God and have his blessings with us during our dance. Once completed, we tied our bells around our feet and went upstairs to the temple from the hall and got ready to perform. The first batch of girls were from my class, though they were one level above us. They performed first as an offering to God, as their dance was the first. Their dance was beautiful and all coordinating and in sync. Following them was the juniors group. Their dance was all memorized properly, but as it was their first time dancing at the temple, the were all quite nervous. Overall, the children danced well. Once they finished, the butterflies in my stomach started flying in all sorts of directions. My dance teacher had put a ton of pressure on us to perform well as this was one of the most important and key moments in our dance career. The pressure caused some stress and increase in anxiety levels for me, but I decided to calm down in order to perform better. As a result, our group was amazing. Our hard work from constant 3 hour practices had paid off. I felt very accomplished inside and that feeling was pure joy. After the last group danced, we all came back to perform the Mangalam and receive our prasadam, or offering from God. This whole experience at the temple is completely different than performing on stage during our Annual Recital. As we are in a temple, we need to do justice to this art form. Bharatnatyam is a South-Indian Classical Dance art form used as a form of worship in the temple and that is exactly how we managed to dance. I am very thankful for my teacher giving us the opportunity to perform and appreciative of the Temple Committee for additionally organizing the Tamizhl New Year celebrations. My day was definitely a rollercoaster with its ups and downs, but in the end, then experience that I gain conquered all and is for sure the most important lesson of the day.   

A Midsummer Night's Dream Reflection: Get Over It-Kirsten Dunst

The movie Get Over It featuring Kirsten Dunst can be compared to the Shakespearean play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the movie, the plot is based off around a complicated love triangle, which can be better portrayed as a square. The story line begins with a boy, named Berke Landers, who faces a terrible breakup and does all that he can to get back his "first true love." In this depiction, Berke can be seen as Demetrius who tries all his hardest to win the love of Hermia, though she loves Lysander. Additionally, Berke can also be symbolizing Helena's eagerness to get what she wants. Berke is a high schooler who involves himself in the school theatrical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream to win back his love, where he ends up falling in love with someone else, Kelly (played by Kirsten Dunst). In this situation, the movie faces similar plotlines as Berke is Demetrius who finds his true love of Kelly who is Helena, as she loved him earlier, but he did not feel that it was right due to complications with his best friend, also known as her older brother. In the end of the movie, the play wraps up similarly to the actual script, however; as Berke plays Lysander and decides that his true love is Helena in real life, he drifts apart from the script of falling in love with Hermia, named Alison (Berke's first true love). At the end of the play, the love triangles complication is solved after the continuous intertwining. In the play and the movie, both have formed and encompassed the universal theme of romance, but to actually appreciate romance not for just looks, but for the personality and character of a person. The play by Shakespeare highlights this moral value and the movie helped to depict the scene in a real-life scenario. One important aspect of the movie was the song "Pocket Full of Dreams." This song was song by the actress Kirsten Dunst, amplifying the intimacy and the full respect of what is to be called as a "true love" relationship. This song has a powerful meaning which caused for the turning point in the play within the movie and the change of heart for Berke to love Kelly. Overall, the depiction of the movie was relatively similar to that of the original play and allowed for a visual understanding and a more relatable situation to children of this current generation.