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. 

Dramatic Gestures- Question of the Day (Q.O.D.)

The relationship between gesture and thought is a key concept for all actors and actresses. Gestures are used to convey the thoughts for the audience to understand from the perspective of the actor(s). Actors incorporate gestures into their performances to tell their fellow actors on stage their specific feelings and thoughts for them to correspondingly respond and explain to the audience how a certain situation makes a character feel or how an event can change the entire feel of the performance. Gestures additionally help to support the mood and tone of the play to the audience and highlight the importance of the scene or act. The actor's hand is required and needs to be very conscious of its actions when trying to express a thought or specific emotion. Even a slight mess up or incorrect gestures can come across to the audience as a different emotion and change the entire feel of the play. Therefore, the hand of a character must be very careful and always at watch. 

SSR Book Reflection + Academic Language

Today, during SSR, I decided to read my nonfiction book, called Brainiac. This novel is a compilation of some of the greatest moments of Jeopardy! history for Ken Jennings. A little along the lines of Ken Jennings and his novel that he wrote. Ken Jennings is the highest winning and trivia's undisputed king for Jeopardy! Ken has won over 75 games, played in two years, with over 2, 642 correct answers and more than $2.5 million in winning later. During his college time, Ken Jennings and his college buddy Earl watched various trivia game shows and hoped that in the future, they would be able to reflect on themselves as one of the champions of a trivia game show. After auditioning with hundreds and thousands of people, we can all predict and infer that Ken joined the panel of Jeopardy! In addition to just competing in various trivia shows, Ken believes in investigating various trivia across the world. Ken continues to compete all over the world in college quiz-bowl and goes head-to-head with other fantastic competitors. Jennings, as a person, is remarkable and ponders questions, based philosophically, and the motives in life for people. He analyzes the various emotions and feelings of nostalgia, curiosity, yet the nerdy side to every human being, apparent in the world of trivia. Overall, after finishing more than half the book, with each chapter having trivia questions at the end, this book is simply engaging and full of imagination, yet still informative. 

Poetry Slam Reflection

Looking back at my poetry slam performance, I felt very joyous and extremely proud to be the one to perform the way that I did. Poetry is one of the most under-rated pieces of work in literature. One of the key points of why I truly love English literature to this day is purely based on poetry. Poetry is like dance and singing for me. It is a path that allows me to channel my inner thoughts and feelings to and to be the genius, the creator, the master in my own world. My spoken word poem that I presented is one that is very deep and meaningful and definitely thought-provoking. Throughout highschool, whether it be the small teasing or the "bullying" that happens to all the children around me and including me at times, I really wanted to just express my feelings to stay strong and chose to be the way that you are. It's really not about the people who bully others, but rather the victims who chose to act a certain way. In other words, even if someone tries to influence you, it does not matter at all what they say, but it actually is your choice whether you let that control you or when you decide to make your own decisions. 

"What I think and who I am is ALL up to me. What you think and who you are is up to you." This line comes from my spoken word poem and sums up all that one needs to be a success. Reflecting back on my performance, I feel as if I put my emotion and really conveyed my message across to the class. I feel as if memorizing the poem a bit more would have allowed me to get up and do a few more gestures to enhance the mood of the poem. Additionally, I made one small stutter at the end, but I was able to recover from it. After my performance, the class demanded an encore and really seemed to enjoy my poem. I was glad that the inspiration and motivation from my family, on my mother and brother, as well as my best friends allowed me to create such a beautifully flowing and natural poem. Although the message might be simple, people who experience the difficult situation really understand how hard it is to rebound. Life is filled with various paths, all in different tracks for a train to go on. Your job and your choice are the same thing. Hop on the train which really makes you proud to be and for you to be happy. Ultimately, all that matters is happiness felt by each and every person about themselves.