VARUN JOSHI'S BLOGS

I see the sky dark, gleaming with stars bright, a breeze of air around, making me cold in the night. The tree nearby sways, moving side to side, where a screeching owl settles, taking hide. I pause and close my eyes to listen to that night- crickets adding their score, a rhythm hidden from sight. There’s an intruder here; a lapwing warns his friends that someone has arrived where their darkness blends. The owl or me who truly doesn’t belong? But then appears another patroller, siren-song, of police van cutting through the calm tonight, as bird-guards watching over their flight. I step back through pixelated netting, seeing clear, this borrowed world, this night I hold so dear, A plane crosses overhead with blinking light, another flock, another way to claim the night. I wave to travelers soaring through that sky, whether feathered wings or metal vessels fly, All share this canvas, all patrol and roam, the night stays still and calm, as I watch from home. The moon observes us all with p...

 I have participated in many speaking (elocution, speech, debate, oratory) competitions and had the opportunity to do anchoring on several occasions since my pre-primary classes and kept doing so till my primary grades and bagged prizes. Being a shy kid, people used to get amazed at how a shy kid like me could perform in such a fantastic way in front of a large audience. I loved to speak on stage. I remember memorising those speeches given by class teachers and presenting them on occasions/celebrations at school. As I grew older and moved to secondary class, I never hesitated to speak on stage, but I started to observe that I was getting behind in this game. I was just winning at surface levels (inter-school) competitions by memorization and just speaking that next day, but it never helped me go beyond this. I have now started to take a step back from these things. Years passed, and after the lockdown period ended, school started again, and a new activity of student-led classes and...