EDITOR'S NOTE

Dear Readers,

With immense pleasure I present to you the second edition of the Middle School Grade 8 Blog! We have had another tremendous experience after the last issue, published in January. This journey would not have been completed without the huge amount of support from our mentors- Ms. Aprajita Ralli and Ms. Susan Mathew.

The middle school blog aims at giving the students a platform through which they can connect to the world. It is a space where they share their experiences & learnings not only from school, but also from their personal & social life. We would like to see more students express their creative ideas & perspectives to make this blog truly ‘Off the Cuff’.

We would be thankful for you to give your valuable feedback. Please email us at offthecuff2017@gmail.com.

Happy Reading,

Hrishik Jain

Editor-In-Chief

HOUSE OF BLOG

DIVISION AND INCLUSION

“Partition may be created by our leaders. But we all have played an important part in it by not questioning... The partition has not only been created in land but within people. It also divides us in terms of religion, cast system, nationality, class and gender. Partition is not between India and Pakistan, but in between us. We separate Hindu from Muslim, women from men and lower class from the upper class. It is not about India or Pakistan; it is about the partition we have created between ourselves.”

Physical Boundaries can impact social, political, economic and environmental aspects of human life. From January to March, we are investigating on ‘Division and Inclusion’ in our History unit. This unit is about building our perspectives.

We began with an activity. A line was put up and we were split into two groups of girls and boys. We were asked to play tug of war. We got to it, and in the following class discussion we realized that the entire ‘war’ wouldn’t have happened if we had just decided to pick up the border in between. This discussion led us to ponder on how much leaders influence the way we think and our mind-sets. They can make or break a mind-set according to their whims and fancies, especially if the crowd is fickle-minded.

As a part of our Unit we talked to Ms. Samina Mishra, who has written a story based on partition called ‘Hina in the Old City’. She helped us understand the influence of leaders in our life and gave us her perspective about some of the topics which we were investigating. She told us how some people aren’t the owners of their decisions but how they should be. “Influencing people through words is what changes life”. This concept is relevant 70 years ago, today and 70 years from now.

The unit explores how we look at incidents, and how people make us look at them. There is no perspective that can be deemed wrong, every opinion is influenced because the history that we learn or know can be subjective.

Tanvi Amrit- 8B

BREAKFAST SALE

In February, the interact club organized a breakfast sale, aiming to raise money for charity. The sale included a variety of snacks and drinks to choose from in reasonable rates. A few of the delicious items were: Pancakes, Donuts, Lemonade, Hot Chocolate, Mc Puff, etc.

On Tuesday morning, all students entered school with a huge smile over their faces, which was quite unusual as the week had only begun and there were three more days till weekend. There was a buzz in the school and everyone looked excited and talked about the sale during break-time and what all they would buy. All eyes during lessons were fixed to the watch, just waiting for the clock to hit 12. 40 and the bell to ring. Half an hour prior to lunch, people took out their money ready to just leap out their chair and run to the cafeteria to go get their food. Finally, the time had come.

The bell rang at exactly 12.40. No one waited for the teacher to say that class was over, rather everyone ran to the cafeteria with money in their hands tightly gripped like a pack of bulls. All of us lined up in the cafeteria to collect food coupons. The line got longer and longer as people rushed in to get their slip so they could get their favorite food.

The atmosphere was so joyful and everyone ate peacefully with their friends. Afterwards, we all left the cafeteria to go back to our classes. We think bake sale was a fantastic idea and a great way to enjoy food rather than the regular food from cafeteria. The food was great and the objective of this was greater. We look forward to more of these events.

Mitakshi Mathur- 8C & Himanshi Nair- 8B

HILLARY GOT TRUMPED

Hillary got Trumped, the world was shocked and we were stuck in a paradox. Yes, Donald J. Trump is the 45^th president of the United States of America. He has caused a stir, both before and after taking over the office. Most people consider him as a poor leader or an awful person, but some see him as a worthy one. Those are mostly the ones who do not want to see the culture of America fade away because of the immigrants.

Speaking of our country, ‘Trump can benefit India’ says Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani. Donald Trump has made many huge investments in India like the, Trump Towers Pune, Trump Tower Mumbai etc.

In general, the misconception that he likes Indians is not true; he likes Hindus, not Indians. The recent move made by trump to ban H-1B Visas was a huge blow to the Indians working in the IT sector. The move to ban citizens entering US from seven Muslims nations is a very absurd and random move, with no reasoning given to why this ban was initiated. Trump ticks all the boxes for a nationalist. His economic views are both in a way fascist and nationalist. Trump has showcased random, impulsive behavior and so we do not know what to expect of him. Some people fail to accept the fact that he is the President now. Well, what can we do now? We should just wait and see where time takes us.

Aditya Das- 8B 

DONALD TRUMP- A PERSPECTIVE

The support of people enable power to a human Being. Donald Trump is one of the most powerful person on earth today. Although, many rumors say that the Air force one may be a downgrade for him.

My mom says “having a well-established businessman running a country might be the key to a good government. However, on the other hand my role model- Filmmaker Casey Neistat exclaims his thoughts over Trump, He says “This is a megalomaniac who is driven by nothing more than his ego - a man who cares ZERO about the people of his country.”

According to me, Donald Trump as the president of USA is a risky assumption rather a fact now. He has been bankrupt numerous times, has abused women and has dealt with these obligations, by successfully being able to get newly elected as the president of the country. Today, many such anti-president videos are released throughout the country, and a huge percentage of population stands along with Hillary Clinton.

Although, when we look at a certain candidate there are positives and negatives to it. Similarly, Trump claims of a wall being built around Mexico in order to restrict illegal immigration. Amongst Americans, there are different sorts of people- who still support trump, and the others who don’t. Perspective, in this case is a very respectable character. America made this decision and there has to be a possible reason for that, a reason unknown which will be unfolded to the whole world sooner or later.

Arjun Naik- 8A