The Cricket Fever in India ……

Cricket- cricket- cricket…….!   I can’t count the number of people who literally worship cricket. It is the most famous and most played sport in India. India’s national sport is hockey, but now it looks like in a few years, cricket will be as good as the national sport of this country.

One of those who - as I said- worship cricket and follow it, is my own twin brother. He’s mad behind it and has an ambition to become a cricket player too. In his free time- either he does balling practise, batting practise or play something with the ball. Sometimes he even carries the ball while we are going out. But, I’ve never seen anybody like him who has detailed information of every match that was ever played. He writes a blog on cricket too. That is really worth appreciating!

People go crazy when especially during big tournaments like the World Cup or the IPL. When India won the World Cup in 2011, my family and I had gone to celebrate the victory, to Naturals ice cream parlour. There was already such a crowd there that people had come till the road! People in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan are also crazy about cricket.

Children and adults alike play cricket in some or the other way all over India. Mumbai's Gully Cricket is famous. This is played in all those small gullies where it is impossible even for cars to go. They break a lot of glass doors and windows, but they enjoy their game. I have even seen cricket tournaments in small compounds. And not just in gullies, but also in big societies, children play cricket. Shops are making a lot of money with the number of bats, balls and cricket kits they sell. My brother also plays very good cricket and has joined a club for it. Sometimes he also tells me to play with him. They have built separate grounds just to play cricket, and no other sport.

Cricket is appreciated a lot in Mumbai. If people cannot play the game, they just watch it and enjoy.  They wear t-shirts, those fake curly colourful hair, paint their faces, and what not! But, they enjoy the time of their lives while watching it.

Cricket is really worshiped in India! No wonder my brother has a blog on cricket named "Religion Called Cricket".

Our Participation in the Society

Just a few weeks back, I had a group activity in school regarding our Civics textbook. We were supposed to do a Role play on “Our Participation in the Society”.  First, we had to identify a local problem affecting the society and show how the problem could be solved by people’s participation. We showed this through a skit. We took a problem that the buildings of a colony were very old and were about to collapse. The skit showed how people could solve this problem by going to Government officials together. It was a nice idea. What if this really happened….

If our area or colony is facing a major problem – like the gutters dirty or the roads are not clean - we just say “That’s such a dirty road. Don’t go from there. It smells.”

Do WE ever do anything about it? Do we at least pick up the litter that we have thrown?   Instead of just leaving the roads and gutters smelling like that, we could participate in the problem and help solve it. We – the common people – can come together and go to government authorities who are responsible for the problem. If there is no response from the Government, people can come together and arrange a peaceful rally. We can also include the media if we want to. There are chances that the problem could be solved then.

Even the Government has taken initiative to help common people in such situations. It has introduced what is called the “Right to Information” (RTI).  For this, we have to fill a particular form and ask for the information that we need and post it to RTI department. After a few days, we get the information that we wanted. Though not many people are aware of this, but it is quite a successful initiative. Due to this, the people’s participation increases. Through RTI, common people can question various government departments and agencies and push them to solve our problems.

With this, we – common people- can bring about a great change in the society. All we have to do is take initiative to solve the problem, and things aren’t that hard then!

Pollutionless Diwali

Just recently, Diwali -  the festival of lights, which delights us all was celebrated. We all bring loads and loads of crackers and burst them on the roads.  We light many diyas and make our house very bright and colorful... We all meet our relatives and have loads of fun  and receive gifts from them.

But, do we even think how much damage we cause to the environment?  Do we know how these crackers are made?  We better start thinking about all this,  because we never know! As of now we are paying for food and water. After some years we will have to start paying for getting oxygen too!!!

 Due to the smoke which comes out of the crackers, air pollution is caused. Such high pollution ends up in Global Warming and  makes holes in the ozone layer.  It can cause breathing problems as well.

The factories where they produce these crackers employ little children to make the crackers.  These children not only suffer from harmful diseases but also miss education.  They should be playing with these crackers, and not make it.

Fire crackers cause noise pollution too. There are many old people and new born children staying in our society. Their eardrums are very weak. The eardrums can burst because of the loud noises. We must take care of that too.

If we want to buy some crackers, we can at least buy those which make no noise and buy them in limited quantity. This year even I celebrated a noiseless  short and sweet Diwali   And you know what? I felt much much better!!

I have specially written this blog  for the children like me and the youngsters  of our generation. If we will not take any action, then who will????

THE SUMMER CAMP FUN

Hey!
Do you like to go to summer camps, and especially the ones which are based on singing? You will really love them because you will spend the whole day in a Musical environment.

I know all this because I recently went to such a camp by Kalangan. It was at a  beautiful place near Karad. There was greenery all around. The weather wasn’t hot at all like Mumbai. It was very pleasant.
We went there by bus. It was a 6 to 7 hours journey full of fun from Mumbai. As soon as we reached there, it rained like cats and dogs! But we felt very pleasant there.

Every day, we had to get up at 6’o clock in the morning. It used to be really cold at that time. But then we did warm- ups and did some Yoga. After that, we had a session at 10’o clock. In that session, we learnt a bada khyaal. Then we had a break. After that we again had a session, in which we learnt the Theme song of Kalangan - Nirmano ke paavan yug mein. It is a very beautiful and touchy song. We also learnt Western Music. Kamlesh Dada taught us a very melodious Harmony and Akapela.

One day we went for trekking on a fort which was on a mountain nearby, named Vasant Gad. It was big fun.

In these eight days, we learnt lots of things. The people there were as good as a family.
We had lots of fun in the camp. On the last day, we had a grand program. We performed Raag Marubihag – Vilambit Bada Khayal, Bandish, Sargam and Tarana. We sang the harmony and Akapela aswell. After the program, everyone cried a lot because they did not want to go back home. My brother and I will never forget this camp. I have decided that I will go to this camp every year.

Would you like to come along with me?

Save our National Animal !

God has created many things on earth like the animals, birds, trees & plants, the jungles, etc. But now, the concrete jungles are replacing the green jungles! This has resulted into some of the animals being ENDANGERED!. This is a major problem for us.  We should try to save these animals.


So, let me tell you something about the ENDANGERED species. There are many animals that are endangered, which means that their number has reduced drastically and they may not exist in future. One of them is the Tiger. In   India, Tiger is the national animal and it is getting ENDANGERED! Once there were 14000 tigers, and now they are only 1400 left!! We are trying hard to save them. The Government is putting efforts to create awareness about them and running programs to save them.


It is a crime to hunt or kill the Tigers in India. There are many Tiger sanctuaries where Tigers are given special care. In these sanctuaries, the tigers are treated well and given food on the right time and they are set free.
Also, there are national parks all over India. Here, all the animals, including the tigers, are taken care of and kept for the people to watch. I recently visited Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali and watched two tigers and their cubs. It was fascinating to watch a tiger roaming free in the jungle.


Just last week, I read in the newspaper that the number of tigers has increased by 20%! My classmates and I were very happy to hear this great news.


The ‘Endangered Tigers’ is a major problem all over the world, as of now. Although the number of Tigers has increased, we should continue our efforts to save the pride of jungle.


In future, will the tiger remain as an endangered species or will it grow more and become a common animal like the monkeys, elephants and rabbits???

SAVE TIGERS, KEEP THE PRIDE!!