I Too Had a Love Story

Once upon a time, I fell in love,

But now I'm only falling apart.

I gave you all my heart,

And all you did was tore it up.

I'm sorry that I was such a fool,

I did not know that love could ever be so cruel.

Look into my eyes and you’ll see,

Those memories-sweet and sugary

That heavenly unforgettable time,

When your hand was on mine,

And those tough days that I went through,

When I had non except you,

You said “we make such an adorable pair”

And that you would never leave,

But you gave away the things you loved

And one of them was unknowingly me.

You had my heart with you; I have loved, but only a few.

“Sweetheart is it your fault or mine”,

Of course! I am not keeping fine.

I wish I could go back in time,

Back to where I had first met you.

I wish I had seen through your lies

I wish I had known the reason behind our fight

I could have been alert and chose the right.

But now I only carry a fake smile,

‘Cause I can't escape the pain inside,

I'm shattered, and I tremble at night.

Oh! So many nights I have spent, you and me apart

Crying myself to sleep,

Using all my strength,

To mend the broken pieces of my heart,

I realized, fairy tales always don’t have a happy ending, does it?

So yes! I’m not breaking,

I should keep going.

I should be strong, ‘Because life goes on’

Upasana Biswas

Ex-student (ICSE 2013)

Sordid tale of Gaza

Gaza and bloodshed have been synonymous. Bloodstained streets and torn up corpses being published every day on the news. But nothing seems to be fine with life there. Has humanity been lost into oblivion's curse? What's more shocking is, one in every five deaths is a child. Do they even understand what bombs are? Gaza and Palestine are burning... with human wails of anguish echoing in the air, poisoned by hatred. Hatred of Humans. For humans. A nineteen year old boy wrote on his social network page on the 13th of July that he could not fall asleep for a single night fearing when a bomb would finish his home and family.

He ate in fear. He roamed around inside the house in fear. High schools have been shut down and his life had no hope. On the 15th of July, his apprehensions proved true. His home was bombed. Into ashes. The last post of his social network page remained with a few comments of consolation and hope from friends from around the world. They all were proved wrong. Humanity is being proved a joke every single day in Gaza.

The sky is grey with the smoke of the bomber planes and the streets are scarlet with human blood. There is no other colour left in that part of the world now. A little boy was shot dead and the last five words he uttered when the gun was pointed at him were, "I'm going to tell God everything."

By Aryani Banerjee

Ex-student (ISC 2006) & Author of the book Little Longer Than Forever.

St. Paul’s Boarding & Day School conducts ‘Bengali elocution contest’

Dishari Chakraborty

Class 9 Sec A

The words of Tagore recited by a student of Class XII echoed in the hall, announced the inauguration of the Bengali Elocution of St. Paul’s Boarding & Day School on 23rd June, 2014. The competition was divided into 4 groups- Class IV - VI, Class VII-VIII, and Class IX-X & Class XI & XII. As the inauguration was declared, the competetents all sat with their back straight. All tried to take a glance of the poem. The judges’ names were announced. The hall burst into a round of applause. The judges walked down to take their seats. The sheets were given to each of them by the coordinating students. There were 32 participants in total. 1 from each of the four houses- Churchill(Green), Gandhi(Red), Kennedy(Blue) & Tagore(Yellow) and 4 students from each class. Gradually, all were called for delivering there poems. The words of the poets like Tagore, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Subodh Sarkar, Nazrul and many others echoed in the hall. Every participants performed a mind blowing performance, which could be well understood by the thunder of applause by the entire hall. When all were done with their performances, it was really a tough time for the audience as well as the participants. The coordinators were seen counting the results. All sat with crossed fingers. All desired of securing the first position in the contest, as these would add to their house points. And finally when they were done, a pin drop silence prevailed in the hall. After the results were all, declared and the certificates were awarded to each of them, again the whole hall burst with the rounds of applause. And then the final house positions were declared. In the first position was secured by-Churchill House, second position- Gandhi House, third position- Tagore House, fourth position- Kennedy House. One of the judges said a fabulous speech declaring the end of the program.

A Day Light's Dream

Natasha Ahmed

Class 10 Sec A

I was aroused suddenly from sleep. The night was intensely dark and quiet. I felt that there was someone else in the room. I tried to switch on the light, but my wrist was seized……….

And at once I knew it was him.

The little moonlight that strayed in from somewhere made him look like the perfect sculpture ever. His eyes were down, with a deep touch of dismay. A long silence bore down between us, sometimes interrupted by the heavy rustle of grass. I kept staring at his face, and he fixed his gaze on the floor. His lips twitched a bit at the corners, and he finally began, “It’s hard for me to do this, terribly hard, but I’m persevering this time.” He let out a sigh.

Moving his eyes towards the edge of my bed, he couldn't withhold his chuckle, “You‘re reading this again?” He raised his brows. There, at the edge of my bed laid carelessly my torn legacy of “The Notebook.”

“Yeah.. Um, I jus- I just cannot go on without it.”

“It’s good that you think of going on.”

“Just trying to be a little Optimistic..” my voice broke at the last word.

“I think I should leave now. It’s almost dawn .”

He advanced towards the balcony, ready to leave. I couldn't help but say, “Are you coming back again?”

He turned to look at me, a heavy look of grief on his face.

“No” he said. And then he was nowhere.

I sat there on my bed, in dim moonlight, breathing in the scent he had left behind… The coming back of Soviets to power, achievements of the big ideas of the Czechs, the political disturbance at Budapest, today had caused my love, refugee from Communist Hungary, to come meet me for the last time. He had just announced his departure forever.

Silent tears rolled down my cheeks, and I looked at my wrist which had been under his hold a few minutes ago, the feelings still not very comprehensible. But there was one thing , which I was totally certain of now…

“No more hallucination. No more pills.”

Abstract Immortalities

I look at the random frames on the wall,
Each of them a different story in itself;

The feminine silhouettes come alive,

In the melancholic nights of insomnia.

I wonder staring at them for hours,

What if they really come to life someday?

Their sketched edges with new breathing cells, 

I move into a trance finding adjectives in my mind.

The scarlet hue of the wall...

Reminds me of that dark dusk,

When I failed to find any left-over colour in the paint tube

And given life to my canvas with blood.

As it oozed out of the tip of my right thumb,

I drew abstract lines that turned blackish red in a while.

Very wisely they have said...

To create something,

You have to destroy yourself.

I'm waiting for the night when...

I fall asleep somehow,

And the mysterious silhouettes wake up.

Someday I too shall become immortal,

In a frame like that on some wall;

Only to wake up on nights when...

The rest of the world is lost in slumber.

By Aryani Banerjee

Ex-Student (ISC 2006) & Author of the book Little Longer Than Forever.

Go For It Bablu!

Laiba Hassan

Class 7 Section B

It happened on the day school started after a heavenly two months of summer holidays. Shankar refused to wake up at 6 am. He wanted to dream more about his visit to his grandparents' home. They lived in Mysore. He actually wanted to remember his trips to the Bandipur National Park. It was a magical forest in the shade of the Nilgiri. Shankar had been lucky to see the Asian elephant, the Mugger crocodile, the four-horned antelope, and the leopard. “Next time,” Shankar told himself happy at the thought.

He wanted “next time” to be now! However, his mother’s and father’s voice forced him to get up though it seemed terrible but the Shankar felt happy to be back from his dreams once he saw his friends in his school bus.
When Shankar returned home he was surprised to see his mother in front of the gate as she didn’t go to the office. When his mother saw him she said “Shankar, I wanted to tell you that your father has met with an accident. But the good news is that he will be discharged in two weeks. He will be absolutely fine. But I think it is high time to get a driver. You and I shall find a fine young man to drive Appa carefully to office.”
Amma’s words calmed Shankar. In the next few days after many interview they selected a young man as a driver. His name was Raj. Finally Appa arrived back home and a lot of exciting things happened on Sunday. Raj’s family used to come and stay with them in the small flat in the small flat nearby. That’s how Shankar met Bablu, Raja’s son.
An eight year old boy with a monkey face, bright eye and spiky hair. From the day he met Shankar, he became his fan. He always used to follow Shankar. To eight year old Bablu, Shankar being of eleven year seemed a big boy. Whenever Shankar looked up to find his book, he used to see Bablu staring at him through the window. While brushing his teeth he would often get confused when he saw another face staring at him in the mirror! And when coming back from school he used to find two shadows– one was his own and the other shadow was Bablu walking a few paces behind!

Bablu did not go to school. Shankar felt sorry for him. One day, when Shankar went to the garage to take out his bicycle to go to his friend’s house, that when he saw Bablu sitting under a tree holding a book in his hands.When Shankar came closer he discovered that Bablu was holding one of his books and that too upside down. Since he could not read it, it did not matter whichever way he held it, Shankar took the book and turned it the right side up and told “This is how you are supposed to read,” affectionately. Two big tear droped rolled down Bablu’s cheeks. Bablu told Shankar, “I want to be like you but I can’t do anything.”
The bicycle went back into the garage. Shankar went inside the house and told  his parents they had to help Bablu get into a school. Though it was too hard to admit Bablu to a school as admissions were over.But somehow he got admitted. Wearing a new shirt, shorts and a tie,he was going to school proudly.
But when he returned he was sad."They all teased me; they all said I am much older than them. I don’t want to go to school."

Shankar said, “Don’t cry Bablu. I will teach you to read and write. Very soon you will be better than your classmates.” From the shelf he took out all the books -Hindi and in English, Shankar's favourites were Chandamana, Twinkle and Target. There were several fairy tale books also. Shankar read out to him, drew pictures in boards, and gave him a workbook.
Bablu would be rewarded by Shankar if he worked hard.
Two months later, Bablu returned from school with a beaming face. “Bhaiya, the principal praised me, everyone clapped for me”.
Shankar embraced Bablu with a tight hug.
Now Bablu has another wish. He wants to work on the computer like Shankar. He wants to visit websites for kids, and he wants to play the online treasure hunt games.
“Go for it, Bablu!”,that all Shankar can say.

THE TAJ MAHAL

SREJA CHAKRABORTY

CLASS -5 SECTION -A

India is very famous for her ancient temples and historical buildings all over the world and the Taj at Agra is the most famous among them. It was built by Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor, in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was built about three hundred years ago.  It was built in about twenty two years and about twenty two thousand masons and workers worked day and night. After the completion of the Taj mahal, it is said that their hands were chopped off, so that they could not build a replica of the Taj anymore.

It is enlisted in the Seven Wonders of the World. It is located outside Agra city on the banks of river Yamuna. The gateway of Taj Mahal is made of red stones. Symmetrical trees the Taj is built on raised marbel platform. The outstanding spiral minarets enhance its beauty. The marbel tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal are situated in the middle of the main building. They are inlaid with precious stones on the walls of the building and are carved with verses from the holy Quran. The eternal beauty of the Taj Mahal is on a moon lit night. One really feels that one has never seen such a charming spectacle before. Tagore hails the Taj as “a tear frozen on the cheek of eternity”. I visited the Taj two years ago.