Aainaism

Ye Waqt na thehra hai, ye waqt na thehre ga.
Yun chalta rahega, himmat se kaam lelo.
Himmat se kaam lelo, ghabrana kaisa.

The fantastic new ad from New York Life! It shows pictures of the disaster caused by rain in Mumbai and in the background the voice of a little girl sings the song. It’s a very sweet as well as powerful commercial. I am always fascinated by New York Life’s advertising skills.

Speaking of advertising, I am no longer planning on majoring in Journalism in college. I have decided that I will major in Marketing and minor in Journalism. Hope that my decision will prove to be a fruitful one.

I am so sleepy…bonne nuit tout le monde!

- Aaina.

Yes, I graduated on Thursday, June 9th 2005 from Pinole Valley High School. I know I was supposed to be very excited but to my surprise, I wasn’t that enthusiastic. In India, high school graduation is not considered to be that big of a deal but here, in USA, high school graduation is BIG! I wonder why people get so overjoyed…

Anyway, I was happy to graduate and leave the school that is declining at an alarmingly rapid rate. That school has lost some amazing students this year (like me! :P) and also some of the finest and most experienced teachers. I don’t know what will happen to the incoming students. God Bless Them!

When I came to the US in 2001, I was told that PVHS is one of the finest schools of the district but ever since then, its condition has been worsening. So, I am lucky to be out of the school this year because I have a feeling that it’s going to be really crappy next year.

I will be off to college (California State University, East Bay [Hayward]) in fall with a full scholarship (Yoo Hoo!). I am planning on majoring in Mass Communication. I am gonna have two majors - Journalism and Advertising and one minor - Graphic Design. I hope it works out fine.

The best thing of all the great things happening is that there is no more school! YES!

Au revoir…
- Aaina.

The trip to The Modern Art Museum at SF was great. I had a fantastic time. We reached the museum at about 10:00 in the morning and started at the ‘tech place’ for half an hour. After that, we went on to seeing the museum. Our leader was my French teacher’s sister-in-law, Heather and our guide, Bejamin, was an old guy, who has been working as a guide at the museum for over 10 years. Impressive!

We went on the fifth floor first, in the elevator and I started to feel sick. My heart was sinking in the elevator. But when we got out of the elevator, I just ignored the sick feeling and went on to looking at the amazing modern art of the twentieth century. There were so many abstract paintings and pieces of art, I enjoyed them emmensely. Anyway, after looking at a few of the paintings, we proceeded back on to the second floor, in the elevator, again. It stopped at the fourth floor first and I started to get that sick feeling again. Then it stopped at the third floor and after that, the second. The feeling was strong by now and my heart was sinking more. I tried to put everything aside and enjoy the art but I was still getting extremely uneasy. When we came to the end of the tour, I leaned against the wall and felt very dizzy. I almost couldn’t see anything by then and I slouched, my hands on my knees.

Right then, Heather noticed my strange behavior and took me to sit on a bench. My friends gave me water and a tylenol and I rested on the bench for about five minutes. I was getting better and I told Heather that I can go on to looking at the paintings since I felt better. But she told me to rest some more so that I was completely okay and not just fine. I agreed and stayed seated. Heather said that she will be right back. She went to a guard and asked her if there was a place where there was a more comfortable sofa or seat for me to sit on, so that I could put my legs up and rest more. The guard sent us to ‘The Lounge.’ It was a very pleasant place. Heather advised me to sit on the big sofa and put my feet up. I didn’t want to because I thought the sofa would get dirty because of my shoes. Heather laid down her jacket on the sofa and told me to put my feet up on her jacket. I thought that was very sweet of her! She sat on the sofa next to me and told me that I can rest for as long as I wanted to and that she was going to wait for me there.

After about five minutes, I told Heather that I was fine and I could go and look at the art work. She insisted that I stayed there a little more but I told her that I was better. Heather said that she was going to sit in The Lounge and if I needed something or felt sick again, I could go back there. I thanked her and went back to the gallery.

Later on, when we all met at the gift shop, Heather asked me again if I felt okay. I appreciated her concern.

Fast forwarding, I told Gaurav to go to Target (a store) with me to buy a ‘Thank you’ card for Heather since she was so nice to me and helped me a lot. I got some other stuff too. The total was $6.44 and I gave the cashier $ 6.54, a five dollar bill, a one dollar bill, two quarters and four pennies. The cashier looked confused. Considering himself intelligent, he retuned four pennies and deducted the amount from $6.50 and gave me 6 cents back. I gave him $6.54 so he could just give me a dime and get rid of some of my change. But no, the cashier was…dumb!

Well, that was about all of my day…it was nice.

Au revoir…
~Aaina.

The interview went just fine.

I arrived at the Stiles Hall at 10:08 A.M. and signed in on the sign-in sheet right next to my name in bold letters - Aaina Sharma - Pinole Valley High School. I picked my name tag, which was on the table, third row, second to the last. This lady (I forgot her name) told me to wait in the ‘waiting room’ and so I did. There were about ten other people from different schools who were also waiting there. The scholars from past years were also present there to make us feel ‘relaxed’ and ‘un-nervous’. I personally don’t think it helped.

After about twenty minutes of wait, it was finally time for me to go in. I stood up with shivering legs (because of cold, NOT nervousness ). One of the scholars led the way to a passage. She knocked at a door, which was filled with flyers and papers that were stuck on it. About 20 seconds later, someone opened the door and asked me to go in.

There were three people in all. Two ladies and one guy. The first question before I even sat down was, “How do you pronounce your first name?” I tried to explain it by first saying my name the way it’s pronounced and then by saying that it rhymes with “China” and one of the intreviewers said that that was a better way to remember it. I sat down and felt the warm air from the heater, which was right next to where I was sitting.

They said they are going to ask me three main question and two sub-questions. The questions were very similar to what I had answered in the six short essay questions and hence, I didn’t have problems answering the questions but I must admit, I studdered a little. But overall, I think the interview went all right.

I’ll get the result at the end of march. And now to answer Abhi’s question, ‘what is this scholarship all about?’ The Incentive Awards Program gives scholarships to one student from every school in California. The total amount of the scholarship being awarded to each student is $30,000 for the four years of college. Five students from each school are short-listed to go for the interview and then one student out of those five is chosen.

All I can do is pray to god till march when the results come out. And thanks a lot for all your wishes, they truly helped me.

Au revoir…
~Aaina.

I will be going for an interview for a very competitive scholarship, the Incentive Awards Program. This Scholarship is exclusively for University of California, Berkeley. That means, one has to get into UCB in order to be a reciepient of this scholarship. There are five people from our school that were selected for the interview, out of which, one will be chosen. I am pretty hopeful for this.

Well, I just hope it goes fine tomorrow. I’ll update on how it went.

Wish me luck!

Au revoir…
~Aaina.