What I hate about exams:

My exams are about here, and the only good place that I can have a good rant seems to be my long-unused blog. So, hello. 

The thing I want to say is, 'Doesn't it make you tired of exams when you see how schools go on (by giving you exams until you're not sure how long you've been taking them and you're not sure when the cycle will end)?'. If you're a student like me, you need to go through all of this, too, and I won't blame you if you have a nervous breakdown. I'll explain what "all of this" is in a minute. 

No.1: 

Schools (and most of your family) insist that good marks are the only things that matter. 

This might influence you to: 

a) Act out and get bad marks on purpose. Don't try at all. 

b) Worry so much about marks that you half kill yourself trying, and when you don't get enough of them, analyze all the reasons why your paper wasn't as good as someone else's, and feel inferior.  

This might (nearly certainly) send you into the depths of despair, from which it might be hard to extract yourself. You know how you hear of people committing suicide because of pressure from school and exams? I guess this might be the reason. Don't do anything like that, okay? 

My mother always says it's trying your best and understanding what you are writing about that matters. I have a friend who works harder than anyone else I know. She studies long before anyone else has opened their books for the exams, and yet she fails in a lot of subjects. I don't know why. She doesn't seem to know either. But I think it's because she worries too much. She's worried about what her parents wil say, what she'll do. So don't worry too much, ok? You and I need a clear head in our exam.

No.2: (I've just realized how mortifying it will be if I get bad marks after this publishing this post) 

(And that's not no.2) 

Do you ever feel (especially if you live in Asia, like me) that your schools are trying to get you to memorize your syllabus? Have you gone through chapter 1 so many times that it's gotten etched into your head? Don't you wish they'd teach us something new to stimulate our brains? We could learn something new ourselves, at home, if we've got the Internet or a library nearby, but not with the pressure of exams on our heads,! I could learn something extra about chemistry, for example, but I need to finish my syllabus first, right? (That should teach me not to be lazy. I  can do it and I should.) by the way, have your schools ever told you that if you forget to write it exactly like it is in the book, or forget to write something that's in the book (but seems completely unrelated or irrelevant to you, or just not necessary to what you want to say) you won't get any marks? Did you know our schools here in Pakistan (at least the ones I've been to) don't let you give the Board exam in the regular way unless you pass the send-ups? They don't want to get their school disgraced. 

I like to make my exam papers fun, though maybe that's not a good practice (I think it is, though). When I'm sad about my bad marks I don't even have the heart to try writing in an upbeat way, give my own examples, make up interesting answers. I've also noticed that I remember things better if I enjoy my exam (slightly, but that's enough. After all, it is an exam.) 

No.3: (I don't remember no.3, you'll need to wait a little bit) No. I don't remember. But, I'll just say, good marks do matter, but understanding your subject is more important. Obviously the marks will matter in your future, but we don't just study to get a job, right? We need education to help our society. So, don't worry, enjoy your subject (science, math, languages, etc.) and work hard! I think you'll be okay. 

Oh, yeah! Now I remember no.3! Our schools give so many exams, first you have your regular term exams (this is my school) twice a year, then you have your checkpoints (they're more like assessment tests, so they don't really count), then there's the send-up, then there's the pre-board and finally the board. Maybe you have it worse. But we are all in this together!😉 I think one day, we will make education more interesting and rewarding for all students (and teachers). The reform is already underway! Let's help it!

P.S. Don't be fooled by my title, I came up with it afterwards.

The Elves and the Shoemaker

I write silly posts usually, nothing that would make any difference to any one. But a blog is about sharing your ideas with people, and apparently my poetry and stories are the things I can create. But I lost the page of my newest poems. On the bright side, I have the first chapter of  a serial story I started. Hope you like it!

The Elves and the Shoemaker 

Chapter:1

'Where shall we go next?', asked Fennel to no one in particular. Fern sat on the ground, apparently thinking hard, but actually playing hard on an iLeaf, created by Dewdrop. Suddenly there was a clatter and with a sound like a hurricane Fog appeared. 'Cheep was ready to fight Chick and I got a prize for the winner (cause I was going to fight the winner and win and become the ultimate winner and have the prize) but that Masti the imp stole it and I followed him but then nobody would tell me who won and Chick and Cheep ganged up on me so I fought them like this-' and he made lots of motions with his hands and ran around making sounds. He spoke fast and loud and made a lot of noise. 'Shut up!' Fern screamed at him. But Fog wouldn't. He just went on until Fern and Fennel put their hands over his mouth. But even then he went on chattering so Fern slapped him smartly across the face. 'Owww, hey!' Fog touched the cheek where he had been slapped and stopped talking for a moment. Fennel, meanwhile, had gone to get some tape to tape his mouth shut. 'That'll teach you' said Fern darkly. He went back to his game. Fog would have attacked him if another person hadn't just arrived. 'Are you ready?' asked their sister. 'For what?'asked Fennel, walking over. 'You wanted an adventure, didn't you?' 'Yes!' 'So I found you one!'

A Joke (if you can call it that) (I didn't want to call it that anyway, for fear of giving it away)

Here's a true story. I'm no good at telling jokes so it might not be all that dramatic or funny.
In 1994 my grandfather was posted as Commandant at the Army Aviation Engineering School Dhamial Camp, Rawalpindi. He didn't like all the rubbish that everyone had thrown about all over the place, because he is a very neat person. He installed several large dustbins at suitable locations in the school and living quarters, especially near the kitchen and the mess hall. In a follow-up inspection visit, he saw that a lot of garbage had been dumped near the dustbins, but not in them, even though they'd been put there for that purpose. When he asked the kitchen staff why they hadn't thrown the garbage in the dustbins, they (probably shifted uncomfortably and) said: ''They're so pretty. They'd get dirty''.

Smells (I can't write this with a straight face :) hee hee hee)

This may seem weird, but I have a theory that everyone has their own characteristic smell. I guess it might also be influenced by their surroundings as well, like the smell of their house or whatever (homes probably have characteristic smells too!). I don't mean that the smell should necessarily be a bad one. It can usually be a good one. But now that I think of it, everyone probably has a characteristic nasty smell as well. This is a very weird sort of idea, right? But very little babies recognise their mother by her smell, because they can't see well. Hey, a rhyme! I'm not a little baby, so my sense of smell is not that good, but there are two smells I can recognise. The first is my grandfather's. He declares that he has a nasty smell, but I think it's quite pleasant. The other is my great - aunt's, my mother's aunt's. She smells rather nice too, and her house faintly smells the same. You can all laugh at my silliness, but I'm serious. And anyway, most of the reason I wrote this is because it's all I could think of, and I had nothing much to do except read "Pride and Prejudice", which I've already read before. So Sayonara everyone!

Book lovers

It seems to me like there aren't many book lovers outside my family. I mean, I'm sure there are, it's a huge world, but I just haven't met them yet. From my family, the people who are crazy about books, and I mean crazy, are me, of course, my mother, my lala (my aunt, my mother's sister. It's what we call her), my cousin Izma, and Hazo, who is my mother's cousin and Izma's cousin. I've got these people to thank for introducing me to different writers, and, in my mother's case, to introduce me to reading books. If anybody reading this is a book lover, please write a comment. I'd like to have a conversation with you. This could be an opportunity for me to meet people like me. Right? When I said I can't find many book lovers outside my family (it's really not like everyone loves books in my family anyway, I'm talking about a couple of my cousins) it's because at school, in my class, I'm different from everyone, in a way. I don't mean to brag, but, I bet I've read more books than anyone in my class. (I'm sorry if I sound too braggy everyone, especially my classmates). You know, there's a really good idea that my mother and my brothers and I found on somewhere called babble.com. You can make a spreadsheet with the number of books you have read, the name of the author, the title of the book, and the pages of the book. Write down all the story books or other kinds of books you have read and then you can see how many pages you've gone through. I think I'm probably on 6000 or more. I can't remember the exact figure. I'll check it out and let you know.

Note:

Any book lovers out there? Winter vacations will be coming soon and I'm wondering what new books to read. I'm already on Eid vacations so I'm free for a week. Somebody please post a comment and recommend some books. It'll help me make a reading list and probably know about some great writers I never heard of before.

Autumn

Autumn

Winter will Autumn greet,

For the last dance the trees will meet

They change their leaves from green to brown,

To red and yellow and gold

They will dance in the gentle breeze

All will shake and hop and flutter

The leaves will rustle and mutter

Enjoying themselves are the trees

The bird minstrels shall sing

The lovely dryads are dancing, dancing,

Dancing are the trees

Making merry in the festivities

The grasshoppers shall play the harp,

The birds shall play the flute,

The trees shall dance and shake themselves,

Even though they are mute

But right before the autumn ends,

the trees take off their clothes

And the grasshoppers, they go to sleep

The birds do stop their songs,

They all get ready to fly away,

On wings so strong and fleet,

Eyes bright, and

Heads down against the cold

When winter comes, 

The drowsy trees, tired with all their dancing,

He covers with a soft blanket of snow,

And the snowflakes softly, lovingly, kiss them 

 goodnight.

(Note: this was meant to be a free verse poem but I have added some rhyming words as well. I think it could do better with some rearranging and some deleting of some lines (probably unnecessary, but they're all  necessary to me). Give me some feedback, tell me your ideas, and I will (probably) fix or change my poem)