Before taking a puff, a drink or a shot – it is your decision whether you would like to make a healthy choice or go the unhealthy path. Making a healthy choice can be hard because of the pressure from your peers and the need to de-stress .

Are you willing to put your health at stake for a few minutes of fun and companionship?

Learning and understanding the health hazards of drugs, cigarettes and alcohol can help one make informed choices about your health.

The words ‘ SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH’ is written in bold on cigarette packets, movie halls and other public places. These are warnings that serve as reminders to the public about the hazards of smoking. 

Nicotine, a highly addictive substance, is the main culprit in cigarettes and other forms of tobacco like E-cigarettes and shisha.

Do you know that nicotine enters your brain within 10 seconds of entering your body?

Nicotine is a drug that affects many parts of your body including your heart. Over time, a smoker’s body and brain gets used to receiving a steady and regular dose of nicotine. Their body will be able to build up a high tolerance to this drug so they will need to increase their frequency of smoking to keep up with this resistance.  That is what leads to addiction. When regular smokers stop smoking they are sure to have withdrawal symptoms which include feelings of depression, trouble sleeping and feeling restless or jumpy. These withdrawal symptoms are the body’s craving for the drug that it has been deprived of.

For some people consuming alcohol is part of their daily routine and for others it is simply because they enjoy the taste among many other reasons. People generally tend to consume alcohol as a tool to socialise with their peers and companions during parties and at other times as a means to relieve stress. Being under the influence of alcohol causes you to lose your consciousness and gives you a false sense of being carefree and brave. For the younger crowd that mostly includes teens and college students, it is mostly about their curiosity to taste and experience the feeling of getting drunk. Young people often fall into the pressures of their peers and decide to join their friends for a drink so that they are not the odd one out. A fun evening with friends and alcohol can slowly and steadily become a habit that one cannot get rid of easily.

The value that a person attaches to using drugs is strongly influenced by the community in which the person lives. Drugs are commonly used by teenagers. The addicts are usually depressed and lacking positive human contact to sustain happiness that they resort to drugs in order to escape reality, some use it as a means for a pleasurable experience while others use it because they are curious to know how it feels. Peer pressure is once again another reason to fall into the trap of drug addiction.

We, the students at schools, are in a very powerful position to eradicate or at least reduce the serious problem of smoking and tobacco use. 

Studies have shown that 90% of adult smokers begin smoking at or before the age of 18.  Considering that cigarette smoking is at the epitome of all things cool and with easy access to cigarettes, the young generation finds smoking to be the easiest means of addiction. However, today schools in Dubai are encouraging students to preach smoking to be a hazard and not a ‘cool’ habit in order to ensure that students in the UAE do not fall into the trap of peer pressure and pick up this habit.  Also selling any tobacco product to anyone below the age of 18 years is a violation of the Federal Anti-Tobacco Law, hence restricting access to easy availability of cigarettes. So as students, if we restrict the use of cigarettes and work against using them, we can easily reduce the number of nicotine addicts of the future.

While it is not harmful to occasionally consume alcohol, an occasional drink often leads to dependence and abuse.  However, drug abuse must be absolutely and completely eradicated. The biggest reason why teenagers and the young generation resort to consuming alcohol or abuse drugs is due to peer pressure. It is no secret that every student must deal with peer pressure, so it takes a lot of effort and guts to have the ability to say NO! We can instead educate our peers on the ill effects of the misuse of alcohol and drugs explaining the adverse effects of its regular consumption and abuse respectively.  Using skits, motivational speeches that challenge consumers, peer counselling and making posters that pictorially depict the ill effects of consumption can help consumers rethink their choices. In this world where students and adults feel pressured and stressed alike, it is important to understand that alcohol dependence and substance abuse can only make life more stressful for them as well as the people around them. As students we must abide by the law that restricts the age limit for access to alcohol and encourage others to do so too. Using social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter that will give constant reminders as well as do regular rounds of circulation of videos and messages against smoking, alcohol and substance abuse that will prevent students from following their peers and falling into the trap of addiction.

Educating the young generation of today about the adversities of smoking, alcohol and substance abuse and its long-term ill effects on our health is the best way to prevent consumers of the future. The young generation can become a standing example for the adult consumers of today. After all yoga, running marathons and relaxing with family are better ways to combat stress and relieve pressures. 

As for keeping up with the pressures of your peers, keeping away from smoking, alcohol and substance abuse is the cool of this day!

Come the 20th century, humankind is proud of their conquests. From robots that can replace humans to making Mars our home, we have come a long way from the cavemen’s days. As we rejoice in our victories, are we ignoring the pile of rubble and garbage that we leave for nature to mend for us?

Will the victory of Mankind be the end of the victor itself?

Hi mate! My name is Luke, an Australian Koala. Let me tell you my survival story.  

My home is in Queensland, in the lush greenEucalyptus forest. My mouth still waters when I think of the yummy eucalyptus leaves. These Eucalyptus forests are also home to my wonderful relatives and amazing friends. I could lazily snoozeall day with my belly stuffed with food, and that was my daily routine. This seemingly perfect life of mine was snatched away from the time the Great Australian Bushfires, as it was known, begun.

“Luke, come on get up,” cried Annabeth, my sister. 

I could feel sweat profusely dripping through my head. It was so hot. I hoped my Koalish thermometer would not burst from the heat.

Then, I saw it. Bright red flames, the colour of ripetomatoes. These flames were devouring up my relatives and their houses. The deadly flames danced with all their wrath and fury, swallowing up all that was there on their way. Everything that stood between the flames were being gobbled up. It filled the whole forest with dread. The flaming fire rummaged their way to my den. What a feast it would have been for the licking flames! The flames sent up thick black smoke and ran toward me withall their strength. I jumped with all my might to the other side. And Boom! There was nothing left in front of me. My house and my den had been devoured by the fire as if it was no more than a small piece of Koalish cake at a birthday party.

Then I heard a voice. A voice so sweet yet stern, gentle yet hissing with anger. The voice radiated strength and power. Who was she?

Kestia, the Koalish Mother of the Earth stood amidst the flames with a stern face. She hissed heatedly,“The humans have destroyed the world that I have made for you and they have destroyed nature,” she said. “Now I will destroy the humankind. I will make this one of the worst bushfires in the world so that they will think again before they dumpindustrial waste into the ocean, cut trees or pollute the air with the engine smoke. Be prepared for the worst,” she shrieked in anger, her face red with fury. Then with one flash she ran about gobbling everything in her path.

Suddenly, I was picked up by something or …someone…..The red hot  flames had caught hold of me!

Now I am sitting in a room filled with a fewrelatives of mine. Some kindhearted humans had saved me from the grip of the raging fire.  I was injured in the battle against the flames. The bushfire had died off. 

I think Lord Kestia had all the right to be angry withmankind. The humans should not have harmed the Earth with toxic gasses and other harm full materials. Mankind should take this lesson and stop“destruction” and begin efforts of “preservation” of the creations of Mother Earth. She has created a world where everything that we need is available. After all, the Earth is the only planet which is known to support life. This message needs to be shared with everyone around. 

Even a Koala can make a difference.

For now, it is Luke signing off!

Author‘s Note: This piece was written during the Australian Bushfires 🔥which was from 2019 to 2020.

In the year 2020, two people had first made the impossible, possible. Fifty years post the discovery of Genome Editing, the world has never been the same. But this was our normal – a world free of disease, crime, sorrow, and sadness, but the most hostile society that ever lived!

I shot a look at my sister, a sister for whom I had no emotion. We were playing a game of Tangram. Although it had been 250 years since this mind-bending “family game” was introduced in Europe, governments of countries encouraged kids to play the game to sharpen young minds, the citizens of tomorrow, who would take the country to greater heights. All countries were on a never-ending global race. The definition of “family game” evolved and changed every decade. What was once a game where players would be in good spirits even when they lost but enjoyed the fun of playing, is now one of the most competitive games, that would determine our future. Then the bell rang. The competition had begun…

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna had introduced Genome scissors to the world in the year 2020 – an amazing discovery that even won a Nobel in Chemistry. However, the world’s superpowers first encouraged and then coerced its people to pay the high price to remove unhealthy genes and make their children perfect. This made the country perfect and hence powerful – first in every field.

We are told to create a rabbit, now an extinct animal. I got to know about this animal when we studied about it in class. During e-class, we open our e-textbooks and learn it all by-brain for we, my so-called ‘friends’ included, had photographic memory. It was easy, for it was in our genes. We were devoid of emotions even towards our blood family. People with emotions were shunned in our society. Emotions, we were told, clouded judgements, and meddled with perfection. Perfection in our world is- ‘to have absolutely all the possible characteristics that were necessary to become successful, and most importantly TO NEVER EVER MAKE A MISTAKE.’

I placed my second piece on my board, my clock already showed one second. I had to finish it within seven seconds. Beads of sweat turned into a tiny stream trickling down my head. My brain could not afford to waver. No. Never! My future dangled precariously in these seven seconds. I stole a glance at my sister who was sitting across me. I had to focus. I placed my next piece. Was my mind wavering? No. No. What would my parents say? What would my teacher say? Most of all, what would society say?

I place my fourth piece. Three more to go. Somewhere else in the background another bell rang, another Tangram competition had begun. The ring faded leaving just the thought…

I remember going out on a walk with my grandfather. It was winter. The roads were clean, the bricks placed perfectly, no self-driving cars honking at each other and the wind was a gentle caress, perfectly tailored for the winter. Green trees lined the corner of the sidewalk, populated with artificial birds chirping the perfect melody. Our perfect world. That is when he said, his mind lost in another time.

He had explained. Before the Genome scissors became the normal, the Earth was a polluted garbage house where thick, black particles would envelope human bodies, invade lungs if you ever stepped outside your home. A pandemic had engulfed the world and shun them into their homes. Isolation had bred silent killers like depression and anxiety. After the Genome scissors were introduced to the world, prevalent problems vanished. However, he said, the Post-scissors era, as we call it, was the most cold- blooded society to have walked the soil of this planet. Killing emotions had done that. NO EMOTIONS, they said but he explained – emotion is what drives society. Right decisions are born from them. The lack of it made us vulnerable, mere puppets, in the hands of the government of the country we lived in, he argued. Were we any different from robots?

I listened to him but was not sure if I agreed, for it could be a figment of his imagination, but often a feeble voice in the back of my head said that he was right. How could I be sure? I had not lived in another world other than this perfect place where emotions were a taboo.

I placed my fifth and then the sixth piece. I can do it. Come on. Three milliseconds to go. 1…2….3. Then I placed my hand as fast and quickly as possible on the mini, polished bell and its shrill resounded loud. The sound was sweet candy to my ears. I closed my eyes, squeezed it shut and placed my cold, frosted hand on my face as per the rules of Tangram. Who won? Thoughts flashed through my head. Did I win? What if she won? No. She cannot win. I practiced more than she did. Then they announced the winners.

I jumped with joy. Tears rained down my eyes, my fists flying up in the frenzy of joy and victory. I did a whole lot of crazy things at the spur of the moment. My emotions had been let loose and why did I still not regret doing it.
People who stood near me, their practiced faces drained of the joy of victory, the sorrow of loss or graceful acceptance, clapped in a dull chorus ignoring my emotional diarrhea. My sister gave a sly smirk, the most she allowed her face to show what a disappointment I was, despite my win.

Amid them all, stood my grandfather, the only person who continued clapping harder and harder, a beatific smile crowing his face, as beautiful as the morning sun. On that day, an imperfect emotional outburst had made those moments perfect, human even!

I want to fly high,

Above the fluffy soft cotton balls☁️,

Above the twinkling stars⭐️,

Above the planet of life🌏,

Above the shining crescent🌙,

Above the giant ball of brightness🔆

And into the outer universe, looking at the starry spiral of our Galaxy🌌.

But that is not the limit.

,

What if you woke up one morning and found that your taps have run dry or if you had to run out of the space that you call home because the lashing rains have flooded its insides with nothing but the dress you currently have on and your brand-new PlayStation has drowned in its waters.

As of today, the Earth is the only home we have, and our selfish acts of negligence have worn her patience thin.  We are at the brink of a climatic catastrophe and we have no choice but to act NOW! 

Every year I look forward to spending my vacations with my extended family who live in a little hamlet in the Indian state of Kerala. The joy of witnessing the golden hues of sunrise and sunsets amidst the lush greenery and the healthy company of loved ones is inexplicable. But the last two years (2018-2019) have been different and difficult for all of us. The rains lashed fury as it pelted mercilessly for days and nights with no signs of abating. At first it felt fun to watch the heavy droplets hit the parched Earth, but the worrying rise in water levels, fluctuating electricity and being cut off from the world in spite of the technology we owned, that had run out of charge, had given our exciting vacation a terrifying twist.

After a fortnight of rains and floods and managing to take a roundabout journey to the city of Bengaluru, we had landed ourselves in our grandparents’ home where incessant drought had caused the borewells and hence their taps had run absolutely dry!    

Our generation have been witness to technological wonders that were unimaginable on another day in the past but we are also the generation who has got a taste of the Earth’s fury.

The Amazon is burning, the coral reefs are dying, glaziers are melting, ecosystems are collapsing, and can we still be in denial?

The Earth is our home and we need to use technology effectively, tweak our lifestyles and plant more trees to repair the damage we have done.

Quoting Greta Thunberg, “The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have the facts and the solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.”

I am Siddharth Menon from Grade 6F. I chose ‘at the brink of a climatic catastrophe’ because I believe that we, as a generation, who are witnessing rising temperatures, droughts and floods raging our planet cannot continue to believe that we will not be affected by it. Climate change has the power to scramble everything we do and achieve and will transform and touch every aspect of our lives. Each one of us needs to address it, act upon it because the Earth is our home and we, the residents of this home, must do it NOW!

Note from Author: This story was written for TedEx Modern in 2019 for the topic ‘At the brink of climatic catastrophe.’

The thing that brings unity,

To the majestic and proud mountains,

The hot beaches, filed with the fragrance of the briny waters,

The aged rivers that contain drops of wisdom, flowing through holy lands

The lively rivers, washing through lands that we call our “homeland,”

Is the flag made of the courage and sacrifice,

Is the flag made of truth and purity,

Is the flag made of progress and growth,

Is the flag made of the wheel of virtue.

Jai hind!

I was unable to sleep. I was very excited as the results for my exam were to be announced the next day. I looked out of the window into the night where the only lights were the twinkling stars. The darkness seemed very strange to me. Living in the city, I always have been used to a have the brownish-orange glow of the street lamp reflecting at the window.

I quietly tiptoed outside my room into the hall and took a step outside into the dark night. I sat down and looked up at the stars in strange patterns called constellations.  I find the constellation of Pegasus, the winged unicorn as I feel my eyelids getting heavy.

I feel myself lifted into the air and flying up – higher and higher. I open my eyes to notice I am galloping on Pegasus with Cancer, the constellation of a crab beside me. I had been pulled up from the planet Earth and brought outside it. It felt strange to look at my planet sitting on twinkling Pegasus. 

We stop and Pegasus and Cancer turn towards me. ” We are the representatives of the Solar System. We have been elected to talk about the problems facing the Solar System”, Cancer and Pegasus say. “Then why I am I here?” I asked. “You have been selected to represent the Earth,” Cancer replied. “I cannot even make a change in my classroom then how will I make a change outside Earth,” I questioned.  

“In today’s council meeting we are going to talk about the problems in planets of the Solar System. We are especially going to discuss about Earth,” explains Pegasus. After discussing other planets’ problems, they move onto discussing Earth.

“Earth was the most beautiful dressed in green and blue, my favourite colours”, told Pegasus and Cancer. “But recently we started noticing that Earth has asthma,” they explained seriously. “Earth with Asthma! That is weird!” I thought aloud.  “Now she is starting to look a suffocating black,” they explain sadly.

“Oh!  That is awful”, I cry. “She is covered with the things humans call poll-lu-tion”, says Cancer. 

“Look at the proud Mars. He was once a dry and sandy red land. Now humans want to make it their home. You have to do something,” cried Pegasus. 

“BEEP!  Next please!”  I was still lost in my previous night’s dream even while standing at a queue in the counter of a supermarket. The cashier loads my purchase into a fresh plastic bag.

Pegasus’s words are loud in my ears as I feel the Earth suffocating in plastic.

“No!,” I shout. 

I will do my bit by saying no to plastic and save the Earth from asthma.  If only everyone could refuse plastic, use reusable bags and help Earth. Earth is our own home and we must take care of it.

As I move out of the counter carrying my purchase, I look down at my shoes that are still sparkling with star dust!

Whooooosh…..I fly around my living room on my broom, an old shawl around my neck, wearing a pair of rounded 3D glasses that had been discarded after my last visit to the cinema, my hands around a chopstick that becomes my wand. I pretend to look down and enjoy the marvellous sight below.

And then.

Crash!

The sight below has been replaced with stars- some colourful, some gold and others a funny silver that dances around my hazy vision.

You must have guessed that I had become my favourite wizard, Harry Potter. As I progresses from Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone to his search for The Chamber of Secrets, I was drawn, hook, line and sinker into his magical journey with his friends Hermione and Ron.

However the crash, the coloured stars, my groans and a hurting ankle magically woke me up to realisation.

I am not Harry Potter. I am Siddharth Menon.

I am not with witches and wizards in Hogwarts but I am a proud Modernite from Gems Modern Academy.

I am at home in the company of the magic wand of books.

Sitting on the magical broom of hard work and ambition, I will reach high and touch my dreams.

But that I will do while I still read and enjoy the company of my favourite book – Harry Potter.

Authors Note: This is my first story for my blog. Hope to write more soon!😃

She left him, snuffing out the flames of happiness,

Dark clouds hung over his life,

He had lost it all,

There was no reason to live.

He set on a journey to retrieve her,

Through bumpy roads,

Through treacherous paths.

All this, for the love of his life.

He encountered sea monsters,

Inner devils,

And Satan himself,

But nothing could stop him, from his find for the love of his life.

He journeyed for 20 years,

Through heaven and hell,

Through sky and oceans,

All this, for the love of his life.

The Gods were shaken to see such devotion,

Of a young man,

In search for the love of his life.

Then while wading through a sea of lava,

An island rose from beneath it,

There stood a woman,

Surrounded by beautiful tulips, the love of his life.

She radiated Beauty, calm, wisdom and love,

Curls of hair dancing in the heat of the wind,

Her eyes were azure blue,

Just like that of the young man.

He looked at her with misty eyes,

After 20 years he had found her at last.

She smiled, a magical sight, much as a spring flower blooms open.

He managed to force out a word to the love of his life.

“Mom!”