Thank you for all the amazing short stories, essays and poems we received for our competition. We hope you enjoy reading through them as much as we did.

Netra .V

MINISTER’S KNOWLEDGE

In the past, Emperor Godwin visited the country of a short-lived king. It was

very well received in the country the emperor was talking happily With The

King.

Then the emperor said your mister is the best of the intellect…is that

true…”

that’s the truth …

“Then tell that minister to bring milk to drink”. I will find out if he is really

knowledgeable …’ said the Emperor. Immediately, the king ordered the

milk to be brought.

Beautiful silver plate brought into two bowls, Minister. There was the

confusion of who to extend the plate to first’.

‘First, to the short-lived king Tantal, angry that he had been insulted, would

kill the emperor, if you give it to the emperor the king will get angry and

take his head… what to do ” he hesitated as he thought. The king knew the

minister’s problem.

“Let’s see what he does,” he thought quietly.

Wise Minister stretching out the plate in front of the petty King said ‘ Manna

..you to your guest Emperor, it is not fitting to give milk by my hand: you will

not like it either; give with your hands and make the guests proud…”

The king was astonished at the minister’s ingenuity. and presented him

with many gifts.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY; Honey …do you know how good the

thinking ability is …think and act.

 

Roinee Banerjee

A World Without …..The Hope for Freedom

My eyes slowly adjusted to the quick shifting of bodies. I stretch myself. I shifted my cage

from one side to another. The same view, the same place. The world seemed to standstill.

As I age, I reminiscence about my past exploits. My hunting days with my family. How we

would stealthily approach the prey to attack and were venerated by our king. The days I

would spend endlessly running across the marshes and grasslands, under the stars. The

freedom I loved as I saw the sunset above the horizon. The day when I was foolish enough

to leave the cage and my sisters to quench a passing hunger. I remember how I lost my way

and had to survive near a human village and the sharp pain and dizziness which turned the

whole world black. Sometimes, I wince at the pain and terror I felt when I woke up in a cage.

The monkeys said it was a sharp poisonous pin, humans used to kill. My fellow inmates were

uninteresting yet made for tolerable acquaintances. The monkeys, giraffes, the hippos, all in

spacious yet cold ‘enclosures. Mine was a cold grey floor with no life. I have all these hopes

to escape this place, so I tend to observe human behaviours. The humans treated me better

than the hippos a little worse than the monkeys. They seemed to be entertained by them

making important. I could not be bothered to entertain, so I move around and yawn.

Occasionally, a man beats the metal bars to rile me up. It worked initially now it’s nothing

but a nuisance. I tend to lose myself in my memories in these bothering times. The feel of

sun scorched ground under my feet the smell of dust, dry grass, rain just before the

showers. The power and safety of family.

As the days went by my hopes were breaking so one day at night I asked the inmates,

” How do we escape?”

After an echoing silence there was a thunderous boom of laughter from even the quietest

corners .The monkey said,” Escape? Why would we? We are well fed well-kept, unlike you.

The only one who is blinded by illusionary pride is you! There is no escape, lioness. This is

the land of humans, to survive we need to do what the humans like if you want to survive

stop whining put your tail behind your legs and mewl. Put on a show, to get something.

After all you are nothing but an outcast.”

My hopes for escape were destroyed.That night I finally realised that I have nowhere to go,

and I was all alone. Not this cage and now, not my family. I howled in silence. I decided that

if death is the only escape, then I’ll fight for it. Next morning, the same routine. However,

much more visitors than any other day. I felt emptiness The man who beat the bars banged

ever so loudly. The jeering of the mob outside made the man braver. Brave enough to enter

my cage to beat me.

What humans will never realise is that they have no power over beasts like me who have

nothing to lose.

You want a show, I’ll give you one! I would rather die fighting in all the glory than cower in

my cage like a pathetic fool. Withthat, I lunged at him.

I left the cage with a cascade of blood trailing behind surrounded by the cacophony of

humans and animals. I am unbarred now. I am free.

Roinee Banerjee

 

Oyelakin Modupe

A World Without Peace

 

According to Wikipedia, peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony

in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used

to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom

from fear of violence between individuals or groups.

Peace is extremely vital for the smooth running of an economy. Peace is the

cornerstone of every nation’s development as it comes along with unity, positive

thinking, and collaboration for the common good of all. A world can definitely not

survive without peace. Peace is like a building block and without it, that building

or structure will collapse. It is pivotal in an economy.

Albert Einstein once said, “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be

achieved by understanding” To achieve peace in a society, there is need for

understanding. It cannot be achieved through fighting or creating unnecessary

wars.

The absence of peace leads to conflicts and disputes. The World War I and II

would have been avoided if there was peace. A world without peace will be

chaotic. Therefore, in ensuring peace, we must have some agencies and

organisations that encourage it.

The Commonwealth of Nations is an association of fifty-four member states. In

this association, everyone is considered equal. They help to strengthen

governance, build inclusive institutions and promote justice and human rights.

Their work helps to grow economies and boost trade, empower young people,

and address threats such as climate change, debt and inequality. At

Commonwealth summits, government leaders are brought together whose

decisions will have an enduring impact on all citizens. By uniting the member

countries in this way, they help to amplify their voices and achieve collective

action on global challenges. More of such associations should be encouraged.

A world without peace cannot survive. This is because we need the collective

effort of everyone to achieve our goals. We should have a sense of unity in

diversity.

 

Christina Stavrides

A WORLD WITHOUT THE ASTRAL SKY

Despite the long hours of seclusion I experienced as a child, I almost never felt lonely. The garden had always kept me company, though before, I never understood why it brought me so much joy. Was it the infinite sense of life within it? The never-ending splash of water heard whilst sitting by the pool, accompanied by the occasional happy croaking? Quiet days were feathers without hurry, moving this way and that in the air, happy to change direction according to the wind. Just as the feather would in its own sweet time be at rest upon the earth, so the sun would rise and set high in the sky. Even as it would disappear, reminding me the time has come to rest, life within the garden never ceased – oftentimes, as I awoke from a drowse, a gentle hooting could be heard from afar, lulling me back into a deep slumber.

As a teenager, the gentle reminder of nocturnal life beyond my bedroom window became a scene of comfort– I learned to eagerly anticipate the time of day that let the pale presence of the moon enter my home and rest its light upon my desk, gently illuminating the cacography of star positioning I had been jotting down for weeks at a time. Being so closely attached to the darkness associated with the moon, I strived to make sense of the astral sky surrounding it. I recall leaning onto my windowsill, mouthing goodbye to the garden of life I came to love so dearly, before packing my things for college. I sacrificed my relationship with the moon so I could study it, so I could study the darkness surrounding it – the twinkling pearls surrounded by a velvet cloud of dust.

I moved to a city full of blinding lights, a city priding itself in the irradiating hues that appeared at every corner. Light-up billboards and a streetlamp were encountered anywhere you looked. I moved to a city under the pretense of continuing to explore the idea of a career path I so desperately clung to as ‘my future.’ Little did I know of the ruin that was to soon follow. As technology and humans’ desire for their own nocturnal life increased, dusk stopped promising starlight, and the complete eradication of crepuscular animals became a reality. I think of the migrating birds, too often finding their end as they collide, panic stricken, into flood lighted buildings.

I often return to the place that awakened my intense love for the stars that solely appeared accompanied by a pleasant shade of jet black. I suppose I still expect to notice one among the toxic orange hues of sky glow. To no avail, of course. As I sit by the window, previously leading to a world full of life, I only discern feelings of raw abandonment entangled within a heavy silence.

A feather drops into my lap.

I have never felt lonelier.

 

Sophia Noh

 Searching For Hermit Crabs

I wiggle my toes in the sand to find a hermit crab in-between them. I scoop to pick it up and wonder at the way it quickly becomes accustomed to my hand after flailing so helplessly in the air. This one is soft-pink and small, with a simple spiral shell bleached white from the sun. It might have once been a deep brown, from the light colored streaks that band across the spiral.  It’s quite a simple creature, really. Its little stalky eyes and spiny claws are only mildly threatening, or maybe even charming, if you ask the right person.

But as I squat in the prickly-hot sand and hold the curious thing in my palm, I begin to wonder what it all means. Not life itself, but merely the simple existence of the hermit crab. They spend their entire lives in search of a new shell to protect a soft body hidden behind tough claws. They never stop growing, either. For a while, the shells must be a perfect fit; but inevitably, that perfect home becomes too small. Claustrophobic. And so the cycle continues, the search for a fitting home compounded with the daily struggle to survive.

Sometimes it seems like humans would like to be crabs, or that hermit crabs are exactly like humans: continuously searching for a perfectly fitting place to call their own, somewhere out there in the vast possibility of the world. We can scour the seas and traverse the most crowded of places, and maybe we may find a home, or a place for ourselves, somewhere in the middle of it all. But it seems to be an instinct to search for something greater that can fit us just right. Just as the crab is ever molting out of its skin, humans, in our impermanence of personality and continuous development of character, are as ever-shifting as the sand. Some might say that hermit crabs are perfectly irrelevant to the workings of the world; that if they disappeared, no one would notice them. But I beg to differ. The shell of a hermit crab is a container for that driving force called wanderlust, a desire that we call profoundly human. But maybe that desire isn’t quite restricted to humans, after all.

 

Idris Katib

A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE.

From whatever perspective one views the world today, one sees nothing butproblems upon

injustice upon war upon cultism upon problems which seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. Every part of the world is faced with different problems which arise as a result of lack of love. Therefore, the world in which we live in today can be described as A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE.

 

There is absolutely no denial of the fact that our world is stained with so many evil atrocities that

murdered love. Injustice, murder,hatred amidst others rule the world presently, thereby, sending love on an exile.

 

Love, in the recent past,used to be a normal thing. Everyone, then, used to experience love and at

the same time give it out;they were trained with it. But today, no one experiences love and shares it.

This, definitely, is the major cause of the problems of the world.

 

Many people have been killed unjustly, many have been punished severely for a crime they never

committed, many youths have been initiated into cultism; a secret society that goes against every act of love. A lot more have been maltreated for unjustified reasons. Many children have been turned into slaves , many have been abused psychologically, physically and emotionally. Some children have been denied their basic fundamental human rights and so many more. All these aforementioned cases are the most reported happenings all over the world and are all caused by lack of love.

 

Our beautiful world is gradually becoming a world of commotion and misery due to lack of love.

Our world is gradually changing into a nightmare due to the love it lacks. Love is the only tool that

conquers everything. Our world and love can be compared to a generator and fuel. If a generator is

unable to work as a result of lack of fuel, then, our world cannot experience peace without love.

 

Conclusively, love is life, love is happiness, love is peace,love promotes peaceful coexistence and

love is everything. It now depends on our decision;to promote love and turn our world into a paradise or discourage love and turn our world into a nightmare.

 

Nimisha Jain

A World Without…

 

A world without animals is like a world without life

Like a sky without clouds,

Like an ocean deprived of water.

 

Did you see those people living?

Without plants and animals, they were barely breathing!

Looking up at the starry night,

Hungry and starved, they couldn’t see the light.

The children had no friends,

The family kept hungry though the day

Without the plants in the bay.

But when the animals came, their eyes shone bright!

The children laughed and rejoiced,

For they had new friends too and they voiced

their excitement and happiness.

And they weren’t hungry anymore,

They had lots of food and they would grow more, more, more!

 

Archi Kanungo

A PUZZLING SELF

A world without “WOMEN” equals to bread without butter. Flowers often flourishes with rain, like ways the world wants women to flourish with pain. The day she is born, society wants her to be responsible. Once she grows up, becomes an inseparable part for her parents. Yet, she faces the harsh truth of leaving her parents to be committed to a new family. She works 365 days full time without getting paid. Sundays, paid leaves, and occasions seems equivalent to any other working day. I guess it’s one of the most respected jobs of the entire world where you get paid by love and support for one another. Everyone has to believe that ‘Daughter’, ‘Wife’, or ‘Mom’ is Women at last. Yet our society has planned something else for these women. Why it’s always the women who have to prove they are really perfect? Being skinny or obese, a basis which society makes at its own to judge them. She counts her calories to be that ideal fit which everyone wants. She doesn’t want to above men, below men, or empowered by men. She wants to be something called ‘EQUAL’. No worries she still adjusts but until violence and agitation turn a blind eye towards her. Finding a spot in tech jobs becomes her ultimate goal. Comparisons makes her more resilient, but those harsh words leave scars on her heart. She recollects all the wounds this world has contributed towards her soul from calling her gross to making fun of her goals. She has to be called strong, as these wounds can never extinguish her inner confidence. Society always pretends to be the mirror where it expects women to reflect their true selves. She tries a lot to whisper to the mirror to let it go, but gets failed. She expects an apology which she never gets. In this big wide world, she tends to comfort herself. She is indeed built with flaws, yet have a golden heart full of equity. She deserves to be noticed rather ignored. Society don’t have a heartbeat but she has which beats at every joy or sorrow the world has to offer her. She is innocent and delicate who feels broke after hearing unjustifiable words. She worked her whole life just to be considered right, yet allegations spoilt her assumptions. World will regret every single minute without women. She never wants to blame anyone in her entire life. Look at her she just wants to stop anyone who wants to pull her down. It’s sad it’s always been like that just for her. Everyone knows she heard enough as they just see what they want. No one will ever realize unless they switch to her position. It’s very easy to judge her. Darkness has its own way to engulf her so, she expects someone to be a barrier. To be honest she never wished for something ambiguous. She prefers to be in an awkward silence rather having useless conversations. That’s how ‘WOMEN’ is built.

 

Ralph Emmanuel C. Gozun

The Promised Land

 

Have you already traveled to the well-known province in the Philippines that was recognized as “The Last Frontier” and “Philippines’ Best Island”? Have you witnessed its spectacular white sand beaches, amazing rich biodiversity, and exceptional coral reefs? Well, you might wonder what place I am pertaining to right now.  Let me introduce to you the home of 232 endemic species and the promising land — Palawan!

 

Palawan is part of MIMAROPA Region (Region IV-B) in Luzon, Philippines. It is the province where you can find one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” — Puerto Princesa Subterranean River — in which as you are crossing a jaw-dropping cave, you will see a diverse species of animals like bats, sea cows, and swiftlets. The sounds in the river are relaxing, I swear. Aside from the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, there are places in Palawan that can tickle your feet.

 

Many places in Palawan are good to visit. Because Palawan is so large, you can discover more about the province. If you like to see animals and plants under the water like manta rays and clown fishes, dive into Tubbataha Reef National Park. The blue color of the reef is nice and you can clearly see different species and coral reefs that welcome you there.

If you wish to go swimming or snorkeling, I suggest you visit Kayangan Lake in Coron, Palawan and Nacpan Beach in El Nido, Palawan. Kayangan Lake, if you wouldn’t mind asking, is known to be the “cleanest lake in Asia”. It is the fact that when you swim to it, you will clearly see everything under the Kayangan Lake. Amazing, right? But, Nacpan Beach will make you wow again. Nacpan Beach features its white sand beach and pristine water. As you go to the beach, trees will be like saying hi to you as they follow the breeze of calm wind. Also, Nacpan Beach has a twin beach! Calitang Beach is a few walks away from Nacpan Beach.

After a long trip in Palawan, I was able to forget my problems and live a life freely. This is a place where you can find your happiness and the place where you will be reminded to take care of the world you are stepping into. Imagine, Palawan is where biodiversity of different species live together in the place they know to be their sanctuary. Killing their home is like killing them indirectly. A world without nature is a lifeless world. If we kill rivers, forests, and oceans will make different species go extinct. And humans will also die. My visit to Palawan touches my heart to share the love to animals that I used to give to my loved ones. Every time we visit a place, even local or foreign destinations, keep in mind to protect our nature as you might lose beautiful sceneries and views. Treat nature as how you treat others good and fairly. Happy visit to Palawan!

 

Joana Kusi Mensah

A World Without Colour.

Colour is lost when we lose light.

Without colour,

there will be no need for sight.

Gloomy and hopeless,

is what the world will be,

when it is colourless.

 

What will the world be without colour?

How will we see the beauty of every season?

How will we admire, when we have no reason?

 

Oh!, the rainbow.

Oh!, the beautiful flowers.

 

Won’t the world be dull?

 

Who needs them?

We all do.

To help us communicate.

To help them pollinate.

Birds and bugs adore them.

 

What will the world be without colour?

Which helps to attract mates.

Which helps to lure with baits.

 

Oh!, the camouflaging prey.

Oh!, the camouflaging predator.

 

Won’t the world be depressing?.

 

Who needs them?

We all do.

To perk us up.

To mellow us out.

The happy and sad need them.

 

What will the world be without colour?

Which gives value.

Which without withholds value.

 

Oh!, the red, orange and yellow.

Oh!, the green, blue and indigo.

 

Where are they?

 

Won’t the world be boring?

 

Who needs them?

We all do.

To attribute love, perfection, danger, luxury, loyalty and growth.

To attribute riches, power, wisdom,  peace,

authority and warmth.

Lightness and darkness distinguish them.

 

What will the world be without colour?

Just a world without colour.

 

What is a world without colour?

A world without hope.

A world without emotions.

 

How can there be no colour?

Everything has colour.

Black is a colour.

White is a colour.

Grey is also a colour.

 

A world without what colours attribute,

Is it a world without colour?

 

Maria Giulia Larcinese

A World Without Light

 

There is nothing but darkness to welcome me into this new day. Where before the sun greeted me, stars are now shining. Wearily, I clamber out of my sleeping-bag, with the odd feeling of still being in a dream. Having only arrived here, in Antarctica, last night, this room is still new to me, and I have to carefully feel around to reach the light switch.

I have always disliked darkness, because I am unable to see, and this insecurity is something I cannot bear. I would not say I am afraid, only that I feel suffocated by darkness, and that in its dimness I read an omen of danger.

Hastily, I put on my many layers of clothing. Everyone has already left …

I open the door, gateway between the predictability of the manmade and the unpredictable wilderness. In front of me, there lies only ice, and further away, a speck of light, the laboratory.

Taking a deep breath, I shut the door and plunge into the shadow.

I tread carefully on the ice that paves my way, in its unmoving placidity threatening my every step. The only noise I can hear in this deafening stillness is my heart beating. At first glance everything seems gloomy and uninviting. Yet as my eyes become accustomed to the dimness, I begin to see more. My surroundings are not the colour of coal, but painted in shades of greys, browns and blacks, the sombre palette of the night artist. Besides me the ocean, endless ink surface, stretches into the unknown. It is for this ocean, home to so many species still beyond our understanding that I came here. I gaze in awe at its vast expanse reflecting the glimmering stars. Around me, there is beauty  I would have never imagined. Instead of blinding like the fake light that men brought onto the earth to satisfy their constant need of productivity and comfort, darkness shows the world as it is meant to be seen. It has a place that is so often ignored in our lifestyle, and yet that is so precious to appreciate the world.

After much walking, I reach the laboratory, symbol of men’s desire to be omnipresent, almost disturbing in this landscape of shadow. The artificial light spills all over the immaculate ice, trickles on to the ocean, thus destroying the sense of wonder that reigned around me. Pulled out of my trance, I lift my arm to shed my eyes, I speed up my pace and I enter the laboratory.

A few hours later as I stand by the microscopes, a steaming cup of coffee in my hands, I crane my neck towards the window. Everything looks dark again outside.

 

Kaashavi Jatrana

A WORLD WITHOUT ME

Away blew the wind the hat atop my head which I attained from Germany but I was starting to

forget now. My memories were burning hollow and my emotions, daunting, not of love or comfort, I was certain. With every flickering conscious thought I yearned further to wear the blanket of elusive peace which seemed so near, yet so afar.

No longing ever reached satisfaction through facile, secure hands. Mine too assumes a laboriously discombobulating path.

Like torrents of water reality shoves its conclusive sequences in my memory, springing my mind into the scene present before me and inducing incertitude in my heart. My thoughts become flummoxed fragments as I stood there watching an event not of my own eyes, which I now desired to unseen because it was privy of sentiments unable to connect their chains in the isolated hemlock of a life I made mine to be.

There lay my beneficent wife with a child whose blood matched my own clutched gently in her arms. It was in Italy that my most engaging, winsome little girl who was later named ‘Elicia’ was born. I was absent on a business trip then, attending to my dreams of avarice. Now as I felt the love, affection, happiness and warmth encircling this joyous moment, I feel only pity for the cold bed on which I slept that  night.

A light engilded my vision, shifting to a time in England, again i was just an observer in another’s memory . Here I saw Elecia, a year or so, wobbling in an attempt to walk, slowly easing her clasp on the table and taking her first step. Her mother, Ella, exclaimed jubilantly with stars shining in her eyes and hands clapping wildly. it stole a laugh from my lips as i viewed it from another dimension. Yet again, this day I had been attending the glitziest of election night shindigs.

Steadily yet surely I perceived memories of such ardour and beauty circumscribed in an enchanting world so near me , all so innocent and sublime yet forever absent and unachievable in my austere life. Elicia’s credulous smiles, her wanderlusting queries, her first whispered word and pure delight, her proud achievements; All existed to be viewed in a world obscured to my own.

My fortunes of such worldly possessions could never have brought me the beatitude which unimaginable, boundless even; small gestures of the heart filled with my family’s love could have. Our bonds, our love and cherishments are the only defiers of gravity and time.

I dwelled in so many places yet never caught on to the one, most enchanting place I had dreamed to visit. It, I later realised, could only be reached from within and inside a heart so lonely as mine, i was too scared to search.The place created a veil around so many alongside me but never with me.  Yes, it was a world without me.

Aminath Dhuha Shareef

A World Without Turtles. A World With Hope.

 

Maldives is well-known for many reasons.

Flora, fauna and its unique culture.

As a Maldivian, I soon realized something,

That overshadowed my world of colour.

 

Slowly walked down the sandy shore,

Enjoying my trip without a worry.

But soon I spotted something far away,

And I ran towards it till I was weary.

 

Maanagalaa, an island and a location,

For hundreds of turtles to visit.

As luck would have it, I was standing there,

To witness the sight of one of it.

 

The gentle being made its way to the top,

“Probably to lay eggs” I think.

Then another notion crossed my mind.

“What if turtles were already extinct?”

 

Would people be less aware of litter?

Or would a few organisations not exist?

Would Marlin ever find Nemo?

Would all conservation programmes be missed?

 

I took a turn to picture a turtle, free.

Then all I saw were dead, misunderstood, animals.

So instead of disturbing the turtle laying eggs,

I went back to my tent, an act just natural.

 

If only our country was more aware,

If only the rest of the whole world was too.

If we don’t hurry up with some plans soon,

The extinction of the turtles would be due.

 

Kashia Dias

Blue Firefly

A leaf crunches underfoot.

I freeze in the dark.

It’s been five years since the light abandoned us. Scientists said it was a previously-undiscovered solar phenomenon that caused the moon to block sunlight. First our solar power ran out, then nuclear, lastly oil and gas. Their prices were rising till last month, when the news leaked out-our resources were over. We had no electricity. No connectivity. Worst of all, no light sources.

I’m here for two reasons.

The newspaper and broadcasting station I work at almost fired me to cut costs. When I offered to undertake this project, they decided that my job would depend on how successful I was. Seemed easy enough: an all-expenses paid trip to the Sinharaja rainforest to document how endemic species were affected by the loss of light. The one torch and two batteries in my weaponless rucksack-the last of our country’s meagre rations-are less reassuring.

I’ve been in the darkness long enough that my senses have acclimatized; I can make out the monochrome tints of the banana leaves in the lower canopy, drooping down to where they touch my head. The wind is cold and faintly scented of damp grass.

In the distance, a pinprick of light.

I tread closer, blinking, until I can make out the insect that was my second motive for coming. The soft glow of the Blue Firefly lights up the foliage around it, exposing feathery fuchsia petals and lime vines that twine around pillar-thick tree barks. The colours are almost foreign after weeks spent seeing things in shades of gray.

I reach up to touch it, but it darts away.

I run, leaves crunching under my feet. The firefly zigzags through curtains of leaves that get denser the deeper I go, but I can’t stop. It looks like the light is getting brighter, and the thought of finding an entire swarm of fireflies soothes the burn in my chest.

A branch breaks, and I feel the heavy shape blocking the wind before I see it. The fear reawakens in my gut: another human may be after my prize. Then the elephant trumpets, and I exhale in relief. I count my breaths until the animal moves, letting me pass.

I move aside a thick layer of ferns and gasp.

The light is so bright that I can hardly see. Hundreds of fireflies dance in rippling waves above a lake, their light reflecting on the water so the entire clearing lights up. The myriad of blue-tinged colours surrounds me. For the first time in years, I’m overwhelmed by what I see.

But as I watch, fireflies begin to drop. I kneel to the edge of the lake and realise it’s covered in fragile insect bodies. I look up at the fireflies, burning so brightly only to die as fiercely.

Sighing, I shove my netted jar back into my bag and pull out the notebook I hadn’t been planning on using. I jot down: Blue Firefly, critically endangered…

 

Miraya Borah

A World Without Clouds

 

I

Lying on the lawn,

Discerning shapes from the fluff,

Imagination.

 

II

Do clouds come and go?

That cloud on the horizon,

Won’t be returning.

 

III

We were on cloud nine,

Blithe at castles in the sky,

Clouding all issues.

 

IV

Bright and sunny days,

Warm perennial sunbeams,

Searing to the bone.

 

V

We leaped at the sun,

Now it melts more than just wax,

No cloud can save us.

 

Vi

I yearn for cool rain,

Silver rimming in my eyes,

Evaporating.

 

VII

Rain, rain go away,

If we had an idea,

Think before a wish.

 

VIII

There are no silver linings,

If there are no clouds,

If there are no clouds at all.

 

IX

A world without clouds,

I guess would probably mean

A world without me.

 

Jiyaa Sachdeva

France – where the sublime city of love resides, people are legally allowed to be in a posthumous relationship according to a law passed in 1950s, how much more love can there possibly be in any other place?

 

What would be a world without love?, dare i ask.

 

As i stood where every building has a history to tell, with more than half of the world’s roundabouts, various different cheese, champagnes, wine, where the language is said to be the most beautiful language, picturesque chateaux and castles all over the country where no pair of eyes would regret more that they have to blink — a place with which I fell in love — my constant thought was how lucky it’d be to be in Paris and in love?

When i see people boldly showing off their loved one in Parisian streets, I realise I’ve learned to see people i care about walk away, either by their own interests or someone else’s. Maybe that’s why I’m so inclined to move forward or maybe I’m just standing still in a moving path.

 

I see The Starry Night Over the Rhône at The Musée d’Orsay, I’m amazed by the magnificent creations dating decades back and how even today we can see so many emotions in those pieces of perfection.

 

So i ask, what has been the constant throughout the human existence? Something incapable of discriminating on the basis of petty norms made by us. Something unstoppable, absolute, divine.

 

I don’t know what is in store for me but I know if it’s not meant to be in that phase of my life it would come and go and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing. As I stand bewildered and in awe by the view in front of me from the top of the historic landmark beyond compare, The Eiffel Tower, I am content.

 

A theory of why anyone would want to fall in love — it’s all about the after effect. Like coffee, beneath it’s majestic aroma we crave for that bitterness at the end. So what is love? Is it just the possibility of having someone to hold or to care for or talk or share or is it a myth made for relationships to stand on? That maybe in reality it’s a concept so raw and full of ecstasy that no one ever has been able to touch it – so the endeavour goes on. Is it all about the brevity of reaching the point you don’t even know exists? Or if it does it’s an unknown milestone we sincerely devout ourselves to? It must be a feeling heady enough to be compelled to put all other factors away for that sole circumstance to exist. Or maybe is it the ephemeral idea of being in love for what they call “a drug” — a feeling so bewitched, humans have spent decades to solve the enigmatic problem that love is.

 

Praanvi Dwivedi

A World Without Love

 

The ocean tickles my toes

Annoying my rotten old shoes

Yet still leaving behind its mark.

 

The ocean yelps at my ankles

Soaking my socks completely

Yet touching me deeply.

 

The ocean backs away

Figuring out how to

Break through my strong defences.

 

The ocean returns

Proving its power

As it comes back stronger.

 

The ocean overwhelms me

Taking me by surprise

Yet affecting me so hugely.

 

The ocean hugs me

Teaching me the wrongs of my old world

My world without love.

 

Because when the ocean came

I hated it.

Hated it.

Hated it.

 

But I didn’t know the ocean

Would make me fall on my knees

Until I realised it full power.

 

Because the ocean was

Love.

 

Shabnam  Shajahan

A WORLD WITHOUT HIM

 

I gently took a sip of hot coffee from the metallic mug. I closed my eyes and let the bitter taste of the beverage take over my senses. I could feel people’s eyes on me as they muttered amongst themselves.

 

“Don’t mind them. It’s just unusual here if a girl visits the coffee shop late at night.” The pretty old worker smiled at me as she placed the receipt on the table.

 

“Aah,” I nodded and tucked my hair behind my ear.

 

“Where do you live young lady?” She asked me.

 

“Hmmm.. Let’s just say I’m on my way to meet someone special” I smiled at her.

 

The lady squinted her eyes and looked at me mischievously.

“So late! Kids these days!” she covered her mouth with her wrinkled palm, trying to suppress a giggle, and ran away.

 

I shook my head as I chuckled at her comment. I placed a few bills on the table and left the place.

 

Just a few more hours. I told myself as I walked through the town. It was late at night, but the roadside stalls were on a full spree. I wrapped myself up with a shawl and continued walking. On my way, I could see such beautiful paintings on the walls that were such a feast to the eyes.

 

I boarded my bus and made myself comfortable by the window. I was woken up by the sound of bangles and the smell of fresh jasmine flowers. A lady whom I presumed to be in her mid-thirties sat beside me. Her daughter sat on her lap. I patted her head.

 

“Where are you headed to?” the little girl asked.

 

“I’m on my way to meet the person whom I love the most and you know what’s the best part?” I squinted my eyes and smiled. “He doesn’t know that I have been travelling” The girl widened her eyes and said, “It’s a surprise then!”

 

“You look tired. For how long have you been travelling, dear?” The lady asked me.

 

“I have been travelling for months together now,” I smiled proudly.

 

“Aha, You must love him so much,” she sweetly smiled.

 

I smiled and looked outside the window. It was dawn. My heart beat fast at the excitement. Just a few minutes. The aroma of hot puris took over my olfactory system and I could hear my stomach growl with hunger. But I didn’t want to waste my time anymore.

 

“Coonoor,” the conductor shouted. Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

My destination was just a five-minute walk from the bus stop. I ran excitedly and bought a rose bouquet on my way.

 

I panted as I reached his place and I frantically searched for him. There he was. I walked over to him and placed the bouquet on the stone.

 

AMEER SHAH (1978-2010). 

 

“I would cross oceans and mountains, just to see you. Pappa.” I said and smiled.

 

GIRISHA

WORLD WITHOUT FRIENDS AND FEELING

 World is full of million things,

All of them are like different strings.

But, what’s that something that connects them all ?

“- Uh…, that’s hard to recall. “

 

If I give you some time,

What’s the word that would properly rhyme?

Okay! Take a break and let me know.

Is there something that can perfectly go?

 

Think! if one brick falls,

What happens to the large n long walls?

 

“Yes, there ‘is’ something that forms a connection,

‘Here’ one thing depends on the other.

If one goes missing from the whole collection,

The remaining could not be used further.”

 

That’s exactly what I wanted to tell.

If something goes missing, life seems to be like hell.

Now, let’s be even more precise.

Are friends the one without whom you can suffice ?

 

What do you think of a world without friends ?

Can you think it to be enjoying?

In adulthood when you would be employing.

“I can’t think of anything else but, a world without friends?

-Completely annoying ! ”

 

“Do you literally mean a world without friends !!!

Then who would inform us of the latest trends?

Who would be there upon whom we can depend?

No one would be left whom at times we can offend.”

 

“With whom will we be happy when our holiday extends?

Who would be the one birthday gifts we would send?

No one would be there with whom we can blend.

How would we really meet a happy end ? ”

 

“In afterlife, when we will become ghosts.

Who would be the one with whom we will roam around?

When at night we would fly near the coast,

Who would help us create spooky sounds? “

 

“There would be no feelings,

No love around,

No squealing,

No happy sounds.”

 

“Thus, I can still bear a world without trends and squealing,

But it’s too hard to have a world without friends and feelings.”

 

 

Shahza Iqbal

A World Without Wildlife

 

Wildlife is a precious gift from God for this planet. The term “fauna” is not only for wild animals but also for all non-domesticated life forms including birds, insects, plants, fungi and even microscopic organisms. To maintain a healthy ecological balance on this land, animals, plants and marine species are as important as humans. Every organism on this earth has a unique place in the food chain that contributes to the ecosystem in its own way. But, unfortunately today, many animals and birds are endangered.

 

Natural habitats of animals and plants are destroyed for land development and agriculture by humans. Poaching and hunting of animals for fur, jewellery, meat and leather are other important factors contributing to the extinction of wildlife. If soon, no rigorous measures are taken to save the fauna, it would not be long when they find a place on the list of extinct species. And that would not be all! The extinction of wild species will certainly have a fatal impact on the human race. So, for us as human beings, it becomes a great responsibility to save the wildlife, our planet and, most importantly, ourselves. Here are some other reasons for deep understanding why wildlife plays such an important role in maintaining an ecological balance on Earth.

 

The human population depends largely on agricultural crops and plants for their food needs. Do you know that wildlife plays an important role in the growth of these crops? If not, we will understand the concept. The fruits and vegetables that we get from plants are the result of a process called pollination, a reproductive system in plants where the pollen grains of the male flower are transferred to the female flower, resulting in the production of seeds. Now, for pollination to occur, birds, bees and insects, some of the smallest species on this planet, play an important role. It is through these insects and birds that pollens are transferred between the flowers as they pass from one flower to another. Crop growth can be significantly affected if the number of birds and insects carried by the pollen decreases in number for any reason. You would be surprised to know that 90% of the world’s apple production depends on the pollination of bees.

 

The ecosystem is entirely based on the relationships between different organisms linked by food webs and food chains. Even if a single wild species dies out of the ecosystem, it can disrupt the entire food chain and lead to disastrous results. Consider a simple example of a bee that is vital for the growth of some crops because of their pollen transport roles. If bees are reduced in number, the growth of food crops would decrease significantly due to lack of pollination. In addition to pollination, many birds also play an important role in pest control by feeding on them.

 

Similarly, if a species becomes larger, it may again have a negative effect on the ecological balance. Consider another simple case of carnivores that is shrinking every day because of human poaching and hunting. The reduction of these carnivores leads to an increase in the number of herbivores that depend on forest vegetation for their survival. It would not be long, when the number of herbivores in the forests would rise to such an extent that they would move to farmland and villages for their food needs. Thus, saving wildlife plays a big role in controlling the ecological balance, maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

 

Manna Ephraim

 A World without you….

Life was be a  mystery ,

Until we meet  in  history.

 

You are the best,

And Dopamine in my stress.

 

Though our blood is not familiar,

But I know our genes are similar.

 

You mean the world to me,

Whenever i see you it’s like gee.

 

Friendship wasn’t taught in school,

But we learnt how to fight like a fool.

 

You know me as I am,

Our friendship is like butter and jam.

 

My world would end,

Without you my friend.

 

I would be left alone,

As chilled as a mossy stone.

 

I couldn’t imagine my world without you,

Oh! My friend, what am I in a world without you?

 

TULIKA RAJPUT

A WORLD WITHOUT…

 

They leap, they fly!

They reside up in sky…

Those midget with fluffy white cheeks

You see their furry fragile bodies soaring up the peaks;

Their eyes so small and their lil’ black bib!

Their chirp so moreish like babbling of a kid.

And you see the flock of passer crossing the ether hem

Can you picture a world without them?

Their dark gray head lined with streaks of vibrant chestnut

Maybe you could spot the male on top of a hut;

Or female with dusty brown fur…

But they dislike the alley cur!

They flap and they flutter in the wind so cool

Misty, frosty air and warmth of sun that’s what they rule,

In sky so high like illuminating gem

Can you picture a world without them?

O birdie! The gilders of heavens

Conquerer of horizon and rainbow,of every cloud even.

You sweep and swim in the blue so quiet

While the world of ours is caught in riot;

Of endless commotion, wails and cries

Trespassing the peace of the skies.

We hunt, we tame them down

Of harnessing the nature

Would we take the crown?

And when God has given us cosmos so good

The devastation caused, will it withstood?

Cause it’s our world that the feathered friends begem

Can you picture a world without them?

Each tree that we cut,every wildfire we cause:

We snatch a habitat without a pause.

And when time will come we will realise

It’s with our lives with which we’d penalize.

Because it’s not just the avifauna that’s clanging

It’s Mother Nature that’s wailing.

For God’s creation when we’re harm

Can you picture a world without them?

 

Thrisha.B

A WORLD WITHOUT ”FEELINGS”

 

Introduction:

“A WORLD WITHOUT FEELINGS IS A RAINBOW

WITHOUT COLOURS”. Because even a plant have a

feeling towards Sun and grow towards it, which

means it is stimulated. ‘Feelings’ play a supreme

role in this world. It can be exchanged among

humans, plants and animals. For example. Mimosa

pudica plant have feeling when we touch and it

defends themselves by shrinking. We can be

heard that horse is denoted for being very loyal to

their owners. Dog has the ability to feel the

earthquake. We, every living being had felt and

feeling many emotions throughout our entire life.

 

Feelings:

We have lots and lots of feelings with us. Our

parents and partner show us love, care, affection,

protection etc., When we claim attention of

 

people for a good thing we feel proud and same

for a bad one makes us feel shameful. When we

are ignored by others, we may get disappointed,

anger, depression, frustation, fear and so on, it

depends on the individual.

 

If we don’t have any feelings:

If each of us are without feelings, we don’t care

or react even we see a murder in front of us. No

one will care nothing. A pregnancy ‘pain’ of a

mother can give much more importance to their

child. Without feelings we can also be compared

to corpse.

 

Every feeling is interlinked:

If my father shows affection to my younger

sister in front of me, definitely I feel possessed.

Here they show affection but I feel unsecured. If

someone tries to get closer with my best friend

 

obviously I feel jealous. Likewise every feelings are

interconnected with each other.

A single word ‘Feeling’ have many hidden

incarnations in it like Love, Pain, Affection,

Depression, Loneliness, Fear, Angry, Pity,

Motivation, Disappointment etc., We used to

express it based on our situation. These are part of

our life that makes us valuable.

 

 

Conclusion:

God has created us and this world very

meaningfully with this much of feelings. I am sure

that we live a robotic life without any of these

feelings. As a teenager I try to express my feeling

with others, but in some circumstances we can be

get ignored by others. In today’s world many of us

try to seek at least a response from others. A

single response can sometimes be very effective or

 

may be important for others. So let’s try to give

response to others and make our life valuable.

‘EVERY RESPONSE HAVE A WORTH FOR IT’.

 

Lavinya Celly

Last Song of the Last Baby Dodo

 

I don’t know what to do without her

I don’t know where to sit when it’s cold

I’ve been trying to honor my dead mama

But all I know is how to sing.

 

I try to look for help, but unfairly

My limbs are frail and odd

I am all alone and my mama is gone

Did I do something to upset God?

 

Was I a bad baby who didn’t listen

When mama told me to stay by close?

Was I a bad baby to scream and run

When I saw the humans in the big bad shadows?

 

I was just scared so I ran away!

But I think I heard a loud scream

It didn’t belong to mama… it was a big pop!

I don’t sleep because I’m scared in the dreams.

 

When I went back to our lake

I saw some friends laying down to rest

I keep trying but they just won’t wake up

And everyone else I knew has just left.

 

You’re listening to my song, right?

Then, hello! My name is Dodo

I can’t find my family or anyone…

Can you tell me where did they go?

 

I walked a lot but couldn’t find anyone

Now I don’t know where I should go…

My wings are too small to fly with

And my feet are large and slow.

 

While other birds can hunt and fight

Only sunny days I can go out walking

I end up staring in the mirror droplets

I miss mama more than anything.

 

I went back to my nest

I checked every corner and door

I think they’re not here anymore…

I don’t want to be here anymore.

 

My story of living as the last of my kind

I don’t need this world to see

But, I don’t think I can stand to be

In a world where she can’t see me.

 

I give up on staying without mama

I don’t want to be alone and young

Tonight when I go to bed

Her only song will be left unsung.

 

I always wanted to hear her sing one last time

But at least I’ll go to sleep safe and tidy

Even if mama’s lullabies won’t lull me in

She’ll find me sleeping and take me kindly.

 

My story being lonely and unjust—

I don’t need this world to see me

I just don’t think I can stand to live

In a world where mama can’t see me.

 

 

Yazhini Sathiamoorthy

A World Without Aliens

“Catch the wind. Hitch a ride. Go with the flow.” Travel-lovers make these their motto. But when unsuspecting animals, plants or microorganisms accompany travelling humans, the face of the Earth changes. We are living through an enigmatic event propelled by ourselves – while overall biodiversity is spiralling downwards at an alarming rate, some places, especially tourist destinations are seeing a growth in their local biodiversity, accompanied by a loss in native species –  all due to biological invasions. Our planet is so diverse that species which are not native to a place have to be called ‘alien’ species – as if they are from an entirely different planet! These aliens sometimes turn out nasty.

Animals inevitably get transported with humans. Ballast tanks of ships are responsible for carrying 10,000 marine species every day. If not emptied in the middle of the ocean where they will eventually die, they reach ports, which become hotspots of alien species. I live in a city in India and we often travel to my village which is about 200 kilometres away, by car. The village has a variety of arthropods, including endangered tarantulas. I noticed two non-human travellers along with us inside the car – a Huntsman spider and a gecko. They probably lived off other insects already in the car. This is a small real-life example. If the car was an island ecosystem (which are most invaded and threatened) and the insects inside are native species, then the spider and the gecko are alien species.

While wildlife trade is hugely responsible for the introduction of alien species, authorities usually track it down since it is illegal. But a large number of biological invasions are unintentional. A fungus on the sole of your shoe, a beetle in your backpack, seeds in your suitcase, creepy-crawlies in the car, often go undetected. In fact, White-nose syndrome, an emergent fatal disease for bats, probably originated from a cave which was a tourist spot. The disease has killed millions of insectivorous bats in the United States. Currently, according to the IUCN Red List, 2127 species are threatened due to recreational activities by humans.

Charles Elton, an ecologist and quite a traveller himself who had been on four Arctic expeditions, was probably the first to study invasive species. He mentions in his 1931 study, “In view of the increasing speed and perfection of modern transport, there are growing up new opportunities for the spread of diseases capable of finding fresh reservoirs in wild animal populations.” I feel that a similar thing happened with the coronavirus too.

As a matter of fact, humans have been the worst invaders in the history of the Earth. One of the most iconic extinct species, the Dodo, was hunted down to extinction by humans who came to settle in Mauritius. While we cannot completely undo the biological invasions caused by us, we can prevent new ones. Cleaning travel gear, especially footwear properly and not bringing along plants and natural souvenirs from other places could stop the spread of ‘aliens’.

 

Jureyl John Camba

Missing Piece: A World Without Travelling

 

A puzzle would not be complete without finding the missing piece, as in the travelling industry, to many, it seems superficial that a virus, no matter how deadly, is enough to completely end the leisure travel.

Life is beautiful as we live it. However, over the years of human lifecycle humans go through many unexpected different ups and down. And to deal with them every human looks for certain celebrations or distractions. One of the things that humans do is to travel to new places, to people they love or with friends they want have a get away with. If we have to give a random thought to what a life and this beautiful world be without traveling. It would be quite hard to imagine such a vague thought as over the time travelling has become an important part of our everyday lives.

Travelling is an escape to a lot of travellers around the world. It allows these travellers to not only travel and explore but also put together the memories with their friends, family and even strangers. It is uncanny to believe the number of bonds, memories and stories the world has created just because of travelling. Every travel is an unexpected story and an experience that allows the travellers, to have a feeling, to life free.

A world without travelling would not only be physiologically upsetting but also it would mean the nonexistence of a very high and earning sectors of the industry that is the tours and travel industry. Tours and travel industry is a backbone of the economy of a lot of countries around the world. It’s is not only the largest earning sectors but also the sector responsible for the employment of more than 10% in the entire world. Hence we can easily say that this is the source of income to one tenth of the world population.

Thus, thinking to have a world without something so naturally human like that of travelling would be more of a nightmare than a beautiful dream. As travelling is not just a hobby, a way of earning or even an escape. It is a lifestyle and way for humans to find their true self and happiness. It encourages their wonder lust and fulfils their physiological state of mind, it allows then to be active and explore new things and enhances their state of health and also it takes care of the emotional state by allowing humans to make memories and develop the emotions with friends, family and strangers.

 

Mohima Ali

Title — Numb to pain

The animated tweeting of birds , the exhilarated noises from the unknown , the blaring music from the neighbor’s sound box, the screams and squeals of laughter from everywhere penetrated the safely guarded quiet of my house . I kept my eyes  shut and pretended as if I hadn’t noticed the trespassers . Snuggling deeper into my blanket , I  pressed my ears to obstruct the hullabaloo . But like the insignificant fish in the mighty ocean , I was defenseless against the  “world of life.”
I jerked out of the bed ,  ran to the bathroom and splashed icy – cold water on to my face .  The  freezing water had long ago ceased to sent shivers down my spine but I still missed its burning sensation across my palms —- the bite of cold used to make me feel “awake” .
Pushing aside the drapes , I opened the windows with drowsy eyes .The eager sunrays soaked up my room with their vibrance and sunshine  as soon as I opened the prison – walls for the outside world. The chitter – chatter of birds became louder , all the suppressed noises and sounds became magnified by thousand . I was trapped in an abyss of euphoria and ebullience but I felt hollow .
I got dressed and went out for a walk . The city was bustling with life : restaurants and road – side cafes were inundated with  cheerful customers  ;  joggers had filled the parks with giggles and tittle- tattle  ; people with sunken eyes were out with their dogs for weekend morning walks and as they passed me , they flashed their broadest smiles at me. Music was roaring out of every cafe and  house . Guffaws and chortles had filled the air . Nothing could be heard clearly but the happy smiles on everyone’s faces pierced through all the commotion .
I went inside one of the cafes and screamed at the counter , ” One cappuccino and one vegetable sandwich . ”
The lady at the counter grinned at me and screamed back , ” Ma’am your order will be ready in 15 minutes . You have to pay 500 taka . ”
I paid the money and went to sit in the corner. A newspaper was kept on the table before me . I took the paper and started flipping through the pages . The pages were filled with the same , clichéd news :  a middle-aged man beat himself to death to experience pain ! lack of sadness drove a teenager to insanity ! a mother of two killed her children to feel pain ! a scientist drank poison because of never facing failure !  Marine life on the bridge of extinction due to plastic pollution ! 10000 children brutally murdered in the war ! I kept the paper down on the table and looked around :  a couple sitting on the table beside me was laughing and giggling , reading the newspaper ; a bald – headed , heavily freckled man spilled the scalding hot coffee on his hand but he seemed too engrossed in a conversation to notice the deepening red burn on his hand . He kept smiling and laughing as he conversed .
The waiter served the food . I ate the sandwich and took a sip of the coffee . I could see the hot smoke coming off the coffee but it didn’t burn my tongue . I took the coffee and went out .
The road was filled with a sea of faces , masked with the same expression : happiness . The monochrome sight made me question if the smiles only just a disguise .
Word cup final : Brazil vs Argentina was being displayed on the huge LED screen in the middle of the road but noone even looked at it once , not even when Brazil missed their penalty shot and lost the match. Even the players seemed indifferent by the loss —– they were smiling and making jokes with their opponents . Pahela Baishakh was just around the corner but the city no longer adorned itself in its festive colours. The first day of the new year had become just another day .

 

Bhumika

A World Without Freedom

Planned to visit

The Delhi zoo,

The best place where

Animal lovers can go to.

 

Sitting on the backseat

Of my brother’s scooty,

Hidden among tall trees

The entrance gate was a beauty.

 

Saw chinkara, sambar,

Spotted and hog deer.

Many of them were ill,

By their face, it was clear.

 

Pythons, anacondas and cobras

Seemed quite raged.

Surrounded by glass walls,

Hissing venom-bearers were caged.

 

For their massive size

Gaurs have got their fame.

Still enslaved by humans,

It’s such a shame.

 

Those birds who are

Born to fly,

Are caged forever.

In loneliness, they’ll die.

 

Moving further, two elephants

Stood still while it rained.

Looking at their feet, I found

Those gentle giants were chained.

 

Suffering from zoochosis,

A jackal was circling his cage.

Read about his demise the next day

In a national daily’s page.

 

The next moment,

I was taken aback.

Saw a lone wolf

Eagerly looking for a pack.

 

Found a white Royal Bengal tiger

Whose freedom was disallowed.

Felt empathetic for our national animal

Instead of being proud.

 

Hooting visitors’ greed

Has risen to such degrees,

Unseen is animal suffering,

Unheard are their pleas.

 

The only quote I remember

For the place where I went,

“Zoos are the only places

Where all prisoners are innocent.”

 

Syeda Urwa Nafees

A World Without Trees

 

For scientists, trees are plants, which look bigger with lots of branches and leaves. Still, there is no proper scientific definition of a tree. Usually, a plant is considered a tree if its height reaches more than 13 feet, has a woody stem, and lives for many years. Authors define trees in their way.

 

So for me, trees are a magnificent creation of the living world, a charm that inspires the spirit to glide through words, for trees are not just some bits of brown and green standing high everywhere, they are vital means of life. If only people looked, they would understand the uses trees provide and the goods they offer.

 

30% of the earth’s land consists of trees and forests. That’s a little higher than a quarter of the planet (that’s a lot compared to the whole world). Trees are present in a vast amount everywhere. They play their part beautifully by contributing to the world. How? Trees help their surroundings by providing oxygen, enhancing air quality, climate amelioration, maintaining water, preserving soil, and nourishing wildlife. During the process of photosynthesis, trees take in carbon dioxide while producing the oxygen we breathe. They clean the air, making it easier for us to inhale. They provide us with wood for furniture. They provide us fruit, pulp for making paper, shade from the sunlight, and much more.

 

Even though trees satisfy our requirements and necessities, the number of trees across the world is decreasing sharply because we are destroying them for acquiring land, wood, and agriculture. As a result, forests are perishing and many animals have become extinct. Air pollution has also increased. We must realize the fact that trees are crucial members of the ecosystem. They help us in many ways and make our planet a place to live.

 

If we don’t end our movements against the trees, they will go extinct until the world becomes barren. A world without trees is going to be full of chaos and mayhem. Without trees, humans would not last because the air would be unfit for breathing. Hence, the deficiency of trees would result in a significantly greater volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a lower volume of oxygen. In the lack of trees and plants, the animals will not get food and shelter. The soil will not hold water which will cause floods. The world is going to reek of disaster and disorder. It will be like the debris after an enormous natural disaster.

 

Trees were created and given to us as a huge blessing from our creator. We should appreciate it and be thankful for every single blessing we have been bestowed upon as long as we are in this beautiful, wondrous, breathtaking place that we live in. We should take care of trees because a world without trees is an incomplete world.

 “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

Jacqueline Emerson

Chasing Petals into the Future

 

Every spring, Japan is transported back centuries.

In modern-day Tokyo, skyscrapers and office buildings fill the landscape, creating a distinctly futuristic atmosphere that attracts tourists from around the world.

With vibrant lights and pop-up screens that animate the streets of Shibuya, and colorful taxis streaking across the city, Tokyo is at the very center of urban life. Some days, though, especially rainy days, the city seems unbearably gray. It’s a place that I often think might be more fit for robots than humans.

Then spring arrives, bringing with it the dainty, baby-pink flowers of cherry blossoms.

Treasured by the Japanese people since the early Heian period, cherry blossoms, known as Sakura, are symbolic of the nation’s long history. Poets centuries ago would look at the Sakura trees and sing of past lovers and broken promises. There’s something eerily nostalgic to the flowers, even if you’re seeing them for the first time. And for the brief period of time when the cherry blossoms return, Tokyo is every bit the land of ancient samurai, temperamental deities, and beautiful princesses. From late March to early April, the city hangs up its usually busy front and gives way to some much-needed respite. The Sakura trees are not only a  keen reminder of Japan’s rich culture but a reminder to take a few steps back from the mundane struggles of daily life.

Every year, families and groups of friends crowd the parks, spreading out their picnic sheets and enjoying onigiri (Japanese rice-ball) under the gentle shade of the Sakura trees. Often, I would accompany my grandparents on long walks around the city to look at the blossoming flowers– laughing as they attempted to take shaky selfies with the trees.

This year, with COVID-19, these walks were cut short. But every now and then, when I’d walk through my neighborhood and come across the pink flowers, I would pick up my phone and give them a call.

It’s funny, how in the short two week life-span of the Sakura, Tokyo seems like an entirely different place from the one I’m used to.

A world without cherry blossoms would likely be a world I couldn’t recognize, and, quite frankly, one I wouldn’t want to be a part of.

 

R.S.Varsha

A WORLD WITHOUT UTERUS

 

“A world without women, Is a world without craziness,

Fun, adventure, love, care, emotions, and everything.”

 

If strength is meant to be a moral power, then women are immeasurable

than men. Women have been regarded as a symbol of love and bravery in our

scriptures. Women are gaining success in each and every field, but still,

women are treated as mood lifters or mood stimulants.

 

THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD:

In an interview, Pakistan Prime Minister said if a woman wears fewer

clothes it will impact men unless they are emotionless robots. In his view,

women are mood stimulants. Clothes are just to cover the body and it has no

point in tempting the person. In ancient days, our ancestors wore only short

clothes at that time men thought of women as sacred ones. She is the one who

brings the next generation. In many south Indian temples, there will be a naked

woman statue at that time it was a common thing. Men and women both are

from their mothers’ uterus then where this gender discrimination arose. In

North Korea, there is an official group called the Pleasure Squad. This group

consists of women and young girls just to entertain the government officials.

They said to the girls they are helping to lift up the moods of government

officials, so they are working for their nation’s well-being. Even though there

is still a substantial amount of evolution that happened in humans, women are

just mood lifters to men.

 

RECENT RESEARCHS:

In recent Australian stem cell research, they found that the stem cells

from women are sufficient to give birth to an infant. The research group

explains the artificial gestation of lambs in an artificial womb. In the upcoming

years, babies will also grow. Recently, Netherlands researchers working on a

project of growing premature babies.

 

CONCULSION:

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its

women. “Once women’s body will no longer capable of doing what a woman’s

body was evolution and transition in human life made to do that?” So soon

there will be no uterus exist in this world.

“Women’s are the creators so

Men should be a defender not be a destroyer.”

 

Indika

Title- A World Without Sona

The baby was crying all alone. The mud hut was protecting her from the scorching heat of Thar Desert. The moment she saw Sona, her tears vanished. A wide smile sparkled up her face.

***

After a long journey to Jaisalmer, our bus stopped under a huge banyan tree. I got off the bus and looked around. The place was deserted. Tree’s cool shade was filled with clattering sounds of the colliding leaves in the loo. I was very tired but still enthusiastic. I quenched my thirst from the earthen pots kept on a high stand and then, found myself a comfortable root to rest.

“What a blessing in disguise,” I thought.

After a short break, I decided to recce the area as I didn’t want to waste a single second of my first solo trip. As the sun was raging, the loos were becoming rougher and it became hard to see. I could feel the sand crushing under my teeth.

I walked a bit and spotted a group of nomadic blacksmiths a few meters away. In that blazing weather, two men were beating the iron, probably trying to make a sieve. Few women were chit-chatting in their cart tents, but what snatched away my attention was a cage with sparrows hanging on a khejri tree.

This reminded me of Sona, our house sparrow. ‘Sona’ means gold. She was golden with light brown feathers. My mother always said, “She was your best friend.”

I was an infant at that time. All day long, my parents worked on a farm and I slept inside the hut. Whenever I cried, Sona came and played with me. She grew with me. When I was 4, she became a mom of two. We ate, slept and enjoyed ourselves together.

A year later, we shifted to Delhi leaving Sona and her kids behind. We had a single room and didn’t want to keep them incarcerated.

When I went to the village again, they were gone. I was devastated.

In the city, there were only pigeons. I found solace in them and regretted why I left Sona but was happy that she was free.

Later, I learnt that sparrows are an endangered species. I also figured out why cities don’t have them, why they’re dying each day and why no one cares.

I decided to do something. I joined a local organization that aimed to save birds, especially red-listed sparrows.

Every Sunday, we go around the city and make people aware about the issue. We install bird-houses and make sure grains and water are available for birds. I collect donations and take part in street-plays and door-to-door awareness marches.

***

I went up to them and asked if I could buy those sparrows. They agreed.

Once again, I had to choose between their freedom and my love. I chose none.

I handed them to a zoo. Now, every time I visit the zoo, I see them healthy and increasing in number.

I feel satisfied.

 

Hikaru Watanabe

 Point of View

“Be yourself,” they say. Have your own opinions, style, thoughts, methods, personality, looks, lifestyle, etc. However, sometimes it’s essential for us to be others by thinking and seeing things from your peers perspective. This human quality is called Empathy. Without it, our world would be shredded because no one could have relationships with one another. No friends, close families, co-workers. Instead of agreements, we have our own opinions. Instead of sorrys, it’s accusations and finger-pointing. Instead of comforting them when crying, it’s not my problem.

Many global issues, thanks to empathy, are taking baby steps. My second-grade teacher told us about how he gave ¥1000 to a homeless man on the streets. Told him to buy some food for himself. That was an act out of empathy. Youtubers and influencers buying food or essentials for people suffering in poverty are seen or heard in many stories all of which were acted out because of empathy. So though some of the things given are temporary, the actions we take because of empathy gives a person a meal, some warmth, some hygiene. They could have saved a person and that is how empathy could save a human.

My friend has a dog. I asked which pet store she bought the dog from. “Oh, it was from the shelter. We adopted him,” they replied. Dogs, cats, birds, animals that would have been left out onto the streets were saved by humans. Humans rescued animals who were abused or abandoned. That is also an act of empathy. Without our ability to empathize with animals, my friend’s dog could have been left on the streets, starving right now. Yet he now has a loving home. This goes for humans too. Kids who were in abusive and toxic homes moved to love ones because some other human adopted them.

Empathy creates miracles. A human bond is created through empathy. A better world is created through empathy. Hopes of one day every human helping each other out to solve the global crisis. Safety is created through empathy. Rescued animals and humans are given a safe place. Second chances are created through empathy. Apologies are created through empathy. A world without empathy would be a world without humans. We would all lose our own identities. With it, it brings together people and helps build a community in which people have the ability to understand and connect with one another. It might even be the key to world peace. So, next time when you are in an argument, consider looking at the situation from their point of view.

 

Farah Ulfat Tabassum

A World Without

Introduction:
The existence of wildlife and wildlife life has separated our earth from other planets. The relationship between wildlife and wildlife has been inseparable since the beginning of creation. Just as the forest environment is a perfect field for the development of the beauty of wildlife, the fullness of the beauty of the forest is never possible without wildlife.

Endangered:
In 2012, the IUCN Red List listed 3,069 endangered species and 2,755 endangered species (ENs) worldwide. The figures for 1998 were 1,102 and 1,198, respectively. Therefore, some scientists estimate that half of the existing plant and animal species could become extinct by 2100.

Causes of Wildlife and Wildlife Extinction:
The direct exploitation of human beings is largely responsible for the extinction of wildlife and wildlife. Because of lack of self-awareness, unscrupulous people have become addicted to deforestation for their own petty interests. Animals. In addition, deforestation, conversion of forests into agricultural lands, hunting of wild animals and smuggling of wild animals are leading to the extinction of one animal after another. Preservation Purpose: Civilization is still directly and indirectly dependent on wildlife and wildlife. Therefore, it is not possible to explain the purpose of conservation of wildlife and wildlife to the extent of specific words. We need to be proactive in this great sacrifice of conservation for multifaceted reasons all over the world. For example: Protect the food chain, protect the ecological balance, protect the balance of human civilization, protect the environment.

Save:
The above discussion proves how important it is for our planet to preserve wildlife and wildlife. For this purpose, the national and international level must unite and take special measures. The development of forests and wildlife sanctuaries must be identified by identifying the various intermediate regions of the country. Because this need is not limited to any one country or region; Of the whole human civilization. We have to make various kinds of laws, which are mandatory for every country. Moreover, various international personalities can also inspire the world in this work.

Awareness of wildlife and wildlife threats:
Many wild animals have become extinct in the last few decades due to our ignorance and negligence. But these wild animals are part of our environment and nature. In order to ensure the health of the world, we have to protect the wild animals as well. Therefore, we have to increase public awareness. We have to create more and more forests for the conservation of wild animals. Appropriate measures have to be taken for forest care and maintenance. We need to create mass awareness by highlighting the harmful aspects of wildlife extinction. In order to conserve wildlife, forests must first be created and all existing forests must be properly cared for. If there is no forest, there will be no shelter for wildlife. If the common man is aware, it is possible to protect the wildlife easily. It is possible to build a safe habitat for the wildlife through forest creation and maintenance on individual initiative. Wildlife needs to be conserved in the interest of mankind. It is very important for everyone to pay attention so that the wildlife does not become extinct.

Conclusion:
Finally, we need to remember that we, as human beings, have the same rights to wildlife and wildlife in this world. Therefore, in the interest of civilization, human beings have to be pioneers in the conservation of wildlife and wildlife. In the words of the poet-
“I will make this world livable for this child;
This is my firm commitment to the newborn. ”

 

Fredireck Benitez

     Incessancy: A World Without and With Pandemic

No restrictions, no chains, no agonies —  just a smile from within.

 

Staggering with so much amazement, perceiving the inexplicable experience, and, ineludibly, reverting the deemed precious memories at the northern part of Cebu Philippines,  Samboan, Cebu, City where I was deluged by fun and delectation before this cataclysmic coronavirus pandemic cursed the world.

 

Little by little, I was gazing the white sand beaches and astounding water falls, trekking towards the peak of mountain, and riding bicycles— seemed no one could thwart me from the smile I wholeheartedly put in all adventures. As I commemorated, it was in the 21st day of February 2020 when I elicited this joy I once had,  with my family and classmates.

 

Unfortunate as it was, a month after the exquisite and aesthetic travel, everything has changed— the way people perceive the world and the way they handle their outlooks for the happiness, caused by this apocalyptic pandemic. Notwithstanding this hap, I stood and remained as who I was ere.

 

Delectably, I found time to tighten the grip for the newest adventure and truest plethora of smiles, ahead. I did it. I gaped the mind-blowing sceneries of Mount Volcano, approaching nearby and enjoying the another chapter of its adventure. It was, indisputably, a remarkable expertise that, again, needed to be nestled and cuddled with all my heart. Moreover, it seemed like I evanesced  all my cravings in life as I ventured a gradual spots of places that I adored most.

 

Without any ambiguity, it literally captured and honed my sanity— exploring new places for my mind and residing those features with my heart. After all, it was me who could impart my life beautifully more than everyone anticipated and or the peculiarity.

 

Hence, what matters most is that, undeniably, in spite of the pandemic, my mind is not restricted and my smile can make a greater difference.

 

R. H. Sandip

A WORLD WITHOUT HER BOTH:

It was a sunny evening somewhere in the dense woods; I was getting my bow and arrow toughened on a tree stand, to hunt for the evening. Suddenly I saw some movement behind the shrubs down there in front of me, stretching the bow waiting for it to come. Something heavy was on its way; I could hear my heart pumping heavily. And then came a calf with its mother rhino grazing into the open land of the forests. I kept my bow down quietly; I had a mixed feeling of joy and peace while watching them showing their love to each other. It did not last long; birds from the nearby surrounding suddenly flew away. There was something else, not one but a group.  Suddenly I felt uneasy while breathing, the rhinos were afraid of something and the mother rhino tried to protect its calf. A group of poachers surrounded her and her calf, having some guns and ropes. The rhino was shot dead, her calf was frightened, it did not want to leave her mother. The calf did have the horn which the poachers wanted, and it ran away into the woods. I was scared after seeing her dead. The poachers took her horn and left her dead.
But I suddenly felt like I had something in my hands that seemed to be like a horn. An unburnt particle fell on that horn, and I looked above, tiny unburnt particles sprinkled from the sky. One of those touched my left cheek, I felt the heat, removed off, and I opened my eyes, could see the unburnt particles flying above me. Until I was coming to consciousness, my mother woke me up with fear on her face. Our wooden house was surrounded by fire. I came out, helped my father to neutralize the fire. But it was too late; my mother was taking up some basic necessities from the house. The fire was in some parts of the house, and suddenly the house collapsed. I lost her. I cried out loud, ran towards the house. My father cried, pulled me back, and held me until I could control myself.
We lived by the woods of Portugal, my father had farmland. Built a house close to it, lived there for years like nomads in our homeland due to frequent forest fires. We had to shift from one place to another for a living. To date, the only thought which runs in my mind is “We are not able to live a world without them and we lost her both”.

 

Christine Beth Cabrejas

“Unsung Heroes”

A gleam of sunshine piercing through the window had woken me up from a dreamless nap. I sat upright and looked over my side, the bags under my eyes slightly visible as I confusingly stared at my blurry reflection. The bus drew near to my destination and I snapped out of a trance as I caught a glimpse of a familiar scenery: Trees. Cows. Farmlands. Blue skies. Trees. I carefully examined the surroundings, let out a small squeal, and whispered to myself “I am home.” During the holidays, my mom would take me to Bukidnon where the rest of my family had settled, and then we’d celebrate with the usual delicacies together during dinner. That day, we were on our way home to watch our harvest.  Almost every area we passed through was brimming with bright-green rice paddies, a primary source of income for farmers who dedicate their lives in the fields. In the whole region, Bukidnon is known to be the “Food Basket of Mindanao” where the majority of rice and corn products are produced.  Most of my family members also work as farmers and I respect them more than anyone else in this world. When I had arrived at our place, my cousins greeted me with glee and it was as if every exhaustion that seeped through my body had vanished. We strolled around the field while the other farmers were preparing for the harvesting equipment. The sun was at its peak so we situated ourselves under a shady tree at the side of the field. Meanwhile, my aunt was busy preparing food for the farmers. Out of all the countless places I had visited, not one had managed to get close to Bukidnon. The place exuded enthusiasm, and I could tell everyone was looking forward to the harvest just by the radiant smiles plastered across their faces. With much anticipation, the time had finally arrived. For most farmers, the period of the harvest is one of the most awaited times of the year – a time where they could ultimately witness the result of their hard work and immense efforts. Indeed, it is truly the most exhilarating reward considering they had cultivated the fields for months drenched with blood, sweat, and tears under extreme heat. They are the people behind the production of rice which we put on our tables and the reason for the increase of the country’s economic growth. With this, I dare say that a world without farmers is a world deprived of necessities and progression. They are the world’s backbone, our unsung heroes. Had they not existed, every part of the globe would fall into devastation and starvation. Without our farmers, my home would not be considered as a home and every trip to Bukidnon would not be as breath-taking as it should be.  To say they are of great importance would be such an understatement. As a daughter of a farmer, I am more than grateful for their hard work.

 

Nanditha Kannan

A world without…

I am Kamaria, an elephant. It doesn’t matter where I’m from; what matters is this story I’m going to tell you. I was taught a valuable lesson from this incident, and I hope you will too.

It all began on a stormy morning. I was a baby elephant, and so was my brother, barely a year older than me. We’d roam around every morning as a family, but today was not such a day. Mumma told me to be careful today, to stay inside our warm shelter. I was adamant, and oh, what a big mistake that was. Quite single-minded about my decision to sneak out, I made plans with my tentative brother, who was two minds about siding with me. After a while, we crept out together anyway, as Mumma’s back was turned, and hustled away from home. A few miles into the thick lush of trees, we realized we were in deep

trouble. We spotted a host of armed people, just about the time they spotted us. We could hear jubilant cries from their end, and a few broad-shouldered individuals started making their way toward us. Panic-stricken, we turned back and made a beeline toward home, but we were rather late in doing so. We did not perceive a trap on the forest floor, and my brother was caught in it. I trumpeted and cried loudly- but all in vain. My brother hollered at me in the turmoil to turn back and get help before they would catch me too. I escaped right on time, but my poor, sweet brother- they took him away, away from me, away from us.

The days following our loss were increasingly difficult for our family, our herd. Mumma, who was our matriarch, consoled her sisters- it appeared that on the same day, they had lost four other elephants. It was that day that I realized that we needed one another to survive. I remember then what my auntie had told me, about a species of rhinoceros that had lived even a few years ago. Now, they are extinct. I learned that such a thing called poaching existed. These wiped out populaces of animals, whose body parts were considered vital for one or other things. I wish to talk to a human, to tell them to be mindful. Without us, they cannot live, just as without them, we cannot. Today, we all live interconnected lives. Just like I still need my brother, you still need us. Like Mumma says to me, ‘Imagine a world without, Kamaria. Imagine a world without bees, without fish, without lions, without the tiny, tiny bugs. Imagine a life without elephants like us, and without humans. Can you imagine it?’ I cannot. I don’t think you can either, can you? That is the lesson we all should learn at the end of the day- to live a harmonious life because we are inevitably dependent on one another. So, is a world without….anything possible?

 

Mary Rose G. Balcarse

Theme: A World Without…

Title: A Legendary Way Not to Forget

Memorizing a certain line will eventually fade in our own mind as the time goes by. Imagine a world without documentation which leads to a world without history. Documentation for news, journal, school projects, requirements and many more which have been used for communicating in order to preserve something important that the next generation will find useful. Documentations seem interesting but tiring at the same time. Brainstorming, listing, organizing and evaluating are considered as a step for us to conduct a certain documentation.

Documentation is one of the valuable things in this living world. This is where our history begins such as evidence of evolution, theories about the solar system, beliefs in different religions and many more which leads us to know how things happen. It is maybe tiring for those other students why we still need to inform ourselves about history with these documentations but for those people who are concern in this kind of situation where we are currently experiencing pandemic, documentation is relevant for us to share our own history in the next generation for them to be aware and avoid this kind of situation. Learning, goal, information and understanding-oriented documentation are the center of the reason why we still need to improve not only for ourselves but also for everybody. As a student who still needs to learn and experience more in this world, all I can say is that documentation is a must.

Traditional senses can’t remember every smell, sound, visuals, taste and feeling without using our mind, but this brain can’t handle every single memory that must be preserved. That’s why documentation happens, this is where it started, for us not to forget.

 

Alysa Marcellus

Title: A World Without Love

I read about ‘vandalism’ in a book – I first witnessed it in Kuala Lumpur when I was seven. Spray paint clung tightly on filthy brick, the vibrant colours not wanting to flee the scene. The blend was cacophonous, showing the talent of too many people who contributed to the wall’s appearance over the past ten, fifteen, fifty years. The national flag, once hoisted high above the brick building as a sign of government property, lay dormant on the gravel road. Fresh lime green liquid ran atop the piece of cloth, maliciously destroying the flag’s significance. A caricature of the prime minister on a wall stared deep into my young soul, mocking me in a condescending fashion. My cowardice was only heightened at the bright red paint smudged unscrupulously over the minister’s eyes. I was happy the surgical mask I wore could hide my terror. Afraid and intimidated, I clutched my mother’s hand as she presented a euphemism: “Some people just don’t like our government. But you’re not allowed to join them. Understand?” I nodded quickly in agreement, before dragging my mother all the way back to the comfort of our home. It was 2027 then.

 

I read about ‘stealing’ in a book – I first witnessed it in Kuala Lumpur when I was nine. We systematically lined up like school children heading to assembly at the government centre, eager to finally receive our vaccine. Two surly men, with purpose in their stride, stomped then surpassed the check-in booth. Government officials began to calmly inform the men that registration was necessary, and fees needed to be paid – nonetheless, the men ignored authority. As the situation started to escalate and aggravate, a nurse was then pushed over behind the booth, dropping a box of life-saving vaccines. The men resisted the officials; punches were thrown as I lost my innocence. The box of vaccines, accompanied by the thieves, fled the scene and were never seen again, leaving us deprived for the day. “Mommy, we have to chase them! We can’t let them get away!” I yelled, tugging her hand with all the intent of the universe. “No, don’t dance with the enemy. Show them mercy,” she said, which I  reluctantly nodded to. It was 2029 then.

 

I now live in a world without love – without mercy, without compassion. A world of chaos and disorder. Perhaps, not even a world at all. But, my parents taught me love since day one, starting in our Kuala Lumpur home.

 

Janaranjani Gnanaprakash

TITLE: Muted Honours

A world without parasites would be indeed quite a sad one, I thought, silently traipsing down the trail in Khao Yai National Park. As a former biologist, I thought I knew the world about mammals, reptilians and the sort of creatures. Yet, one day in my science class, when a classmate cut up a fish, I was rudely awakened to the real truth – that an entire portion of my education had been neglected when I discovered a whole host of little organisms in the fish! And it’s that one thought that led me here today,’ This has got to change; parasitism needs to receive more attention’.

There hasn’t been even once my gaze has been free of parasites. I have been jungle trekking for about 2 hours now, and my boot is absolutely caked with mud, and among it, a few wriggly worms and lithe leeches. And like what many others would not have done, I left them there. It is not that I am romantically involved with these creatures, but it is just the raw true fact that they are present almost everywhere we go. Of course, having been the host to one of their distant relatives, I can surely say anyone who has tolerated them would have felt nothing close to love. My fellow trail-mates have continuously hushed each other, a task they have taken on where they are seeing fruit, because almost everyone is eager to rake their eyes over another animal. And at the same time, I was on an undercover mission, to photograph as many parasites as I could, in this brilliant tropical weather before I had to head back to my home country.

Three hours in, we have stopped to admire the tranquility and serendipity of the forest around me. I swivel my head from side to side, taking in the lush dark leaves that hang overhead like clumps of mistletoe. At the slightest rustle and thump, our eyes immediately zoom in that direction, almost manually peeling away the many leaves that obstruct our view from any direction. The number of leaves here is truly scary. If there were to be an avalanche of leaves, we would all die.

And suddenly, to my keen eyes, I spotted a third creepy crawly, of a completely different genus – Hemiptera, Scorpionflies. Being trampled by an elephant is scary, but poison being injected into you without you knowing is even scarier. I am just being a bit tad too dramatic. Don’t worry, Scorpionflies are harmless. You’ll probably do more harm to them anyway. You know, ever heard of the serial killers named ‘Humanity’?

Gently fishing out my phone, I quickly snap a picture of the innocent looking creäture going about its day and turn my attention elsewhere. This is exactly why I love to travel. The guarantee that I will learn something new never fails to set me on my feet, bouncing to just go out there, and conquer the world. It’s euphoria, a drive and a craze.

And as my little poem describes it,

Travel wide and never hide

you’ll never fail to return wise!

Thank you everyone, I see you in my next post very, very soon!

 

Valluru Raani Ananya Bhaaskar

A world without ethical zeal

Zeal is a heel that heals the real deal of life. Life without strife is the most surreal wildlife. So, all of us got to be the heroes in the meadows who quiver the structure of life to gradually become the wildlife. Zeal begins as the child in each of us gets gradually affected by the environment around us and so, zeal turns into a wild version. For example, let me consider myself in the most condensed way of expressing myself.Not been spoon-fed or parented in common ways. Imagine being a real example on your own, such that those who are growing up can’t have any better example than what they observe in their everyday life.Could constantly and consistently observe the elements of a human being selfish for the welfare of everybody and everything in the presence of expressing emotion due to situation ‘A’ in situation ‘B’ and prioritizing others than yours since others = yours,i.e.untypical enough. This kind of being is my father who expresses ethical zeal in everything he does with morals, values, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, perfectionism, adaptability, management and perseverance.So, could I ever favor the teaching of half-knowledge? No. So, intentionally faced opportunity costs and Marginal Private Cost(due to significant others’ inefficiencies)by living in nCr and nPr(no rushing towards Calculus for time-being outcomes, please!), when many ran sprints thinking they were marathons instead of sheer turnover of pages of chapters and what could dy/dx of tan(theta) be (i.e. 0),when Calculus already came to a dearly near end,say.Due to this mindset, amid a humongous series I’ve been working on for long(had to halt an year ago),my experience with the equation amongst ego and ineptness & severe disc protrusions I’ve got, attaining academic success in math and physics exams wasn’t quixotic.Simply summarizing the experience with that equation, imagine you are explaining how to find the area and perimeter of the intersected region amongst an unrotated ellipse and an ellipse rotated by some angle of rotation. There’s no fun they see in finding these.Is there any fun in knowing the perimeters, areas and volumes of rectangle, sphere and so on? Imagine you are trying to explain Laplace transform and the listener firmly says integration is just about the area under the curves(why not above, besides, or between?) by always asking for high-level content used. For individuals who know the nature of math, you start with a problem, and would the approach be of high-level or smooth content is of no control until it is approached in some way, not pre-conceived to be too hard or too easy. So, the philosophy of learning is also unknown.Corrupt By Ego & Fear in Disclosure Of Ineptness is henceforth the crux of this experience, in tackling which, I have remained a keen observant so silent and answered in the most real, wild/rebellious manner by assessing the crux before concluding that way.In the process of doing so, I’ve been officially disadvantaged but the ethical zeal with which this work originated needs an ethical response too!

 

Sangam Koundal

UTOPIAN JOURNEY WHICH BREAKS and starts

When I was born, I saw a beautiful young lady holding me and a handsome man beside her gazing at me with happiness, my parents.

We were in front of a clean road with facilities and guides at every corner, with our ancestors beside us telling us to go walk till the end of the road and you would find happiness without any EFFORT. We started to walk, a guide came out and promised the handsome man walking beside me a good life with great income and peace of mind if we went with him. My father agreed. Soon my father was accepted for a high pay job. My virtuous mother, seeing my father work, decided to learn something to support our journey. She was a natural! After some time there came a new member, the core of our family, my sister, a cute angel. We both joined a great a school, studied great things, exceled at many things and were the pride of our parents and our teachers.

We grew up healthy and happy without any worries. My parents grew old with grace.

As we all were walking together, holding hands, talking about our interests and laughing merrily, my mother stopped and with a wry on her face she said, ‘that’s it, the happiness is all yours, I have lived fully, Goodbye’.

I woke up! The utopian nightmare just broke!

 

The real LIFE we were leading was not so much happy.

My handsome father had to change jobs as his humongous efforts were not paid well. There were times when he hit rock bottom yet, to my surprise, never felt discouraged. Same was my mother, she also started to work to support us. She would study day and night whilst taking care of me and my sister, failed a lot of times, learned herself by being her own teacher and letting herself learn the hard way but never gave up, that’s how virtuous she was. My little sister also was as diligent as my parents.

Working for days and nights alone in a foreign country, my father constantly wished to be with his family but when my father was about to come to us, to our shock, my mother left this world. To put up a brave front, my father says, ‘It’s alright, we can get through it’.

Sigh…. How wonderful was that UTOPIAN dream… And the real life?? Is that also wonderful?? Of course, it is…My mother may not be here with us but would have wanted all three of us to always persevere and never give up and that’ s something we will always do to keep her memory alive. Life is all about the lessons we learn. My mother has left her legacy that needs to be valued and we certainly value it; and we START with another journey.

 

But still if I had to choose a world to live in, I would choose the World Without Sorrow and Sacrifices.

 

LANISHA A/P MOGANA VIJAYARETNAM

A couple of years ago we heard news that 50% of all vertebrate species had disappeared in 40 years. On Thursday, we were greeted with news that by 2020 the figure is likely to rise to 66% of all vertebrates. It is no wonder that the conservationists are shouting. It is no wonder that they are so desperate to get their message heard. Animals, it seems, are on the way out. And no one appears to much care.

So, allow me to entertain the idea of a post-animal Britain. Could we make the best of this world, in true Theresa May fashion? Are animals, perhaps, all a bit overrated? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?

Sure, there would be some tough choices at first. One particularly pressing matter would be finding a way to cross-pollinate flowering crops. As is well known, trees and insects co-evolved, the plants offering a sugary reward to insects in return for their pollination services. How might we achieve this without bees and flies? Simple. The problem of cross-fertilisation could quite simply be solved by robots or people on day release from jail (or even children who don’t get into grammar schools). They could be made to hand-fertilise flowers. They could be like little unthinking bees.

Indeed, hand-fertilisation is already common practice in some parts of the world, where invertebrate populations have already been ravaged. Think of the savings of such a plan! Robots don’t need sugary water produced by plants, after all. They run on cheap oil and gas, which there’s plenty of, forever. Without invertebrates, everyone wins, right?

More seriously, there could be other benefits. Think of climate change. Global emissions of CO2 would be greatly reduced without them, seeing that the gas that sprouts forth from farm animals accounts for 15% of human-caused global CO2 emissions. So that would be good. We won’t even miss the farm animals either, since it seems increasingly likely that we will be 3D printing our dinners in the future. Indeed, lab-grown meat is already becoming a very real prospect, which means that sheep and pigs and chickens, all very costly to run, could disappear quite happily.

And pets, too. Pets can go. They contribute to global emissions as well. If we were to get rid of them, within two generations the very notion of having a pet would probably end up being absurd. The very idea that some houses had cats that would warm a person’s lap while they watched Netflix could seem almost perverted to our great-great-grandchildren whose idea of having a meaningful relationship with an animal would, by then, involve tossing 35 Pokéballs at an imaginary one while sitting on the toilet.

It’s not all rosy, however. I’m the first to admit that there would be problems in a post-animal world. Sure, green algal blooms would cover the entire face of the planet – most of the land and sea – and all plants would remain uncropped and there would be the stench of scavenging fungus which would come to fill the niche left by Earth’s animal decomposers. But we can handle a bit of a whiff or maybe get a man in to fix this for us or something. Oh, and the crops wouldn’t grow because there would be no worms to oxygenate the soil. And the soil communities – tiny nematode worms and mites – would die so the soil would essentially be dead and likely to blow away, being completely unsuitable for any forms of crops. But … let’s not get bogged down in the details, OK? Again, children and robots can probably fill this role. It’ll be fine.

For there is another bonus to living in a world without animals. It is simple. Imagine the ego-boost that would come from being the only animals to survive a mass extinction event. Imagine being the pinch point. You and me. We could be the masters of a mass extinction so enormous that all future life on Earth might be a descendent of us. Imagine, in 50m years, little rat humans and little pig humans and little humans that feast upon wetland grasses poisoned by a film of toxic bacteria. Imagine little fungus-eating humans, gorging upon the silent forests of stinking colourless mushrooms that thrive on rotting, uneaten trees. Imagine little cat humans that can warm your lap while watching Netflix. That sounds great, doesn’t it? We could be surrounded by animals shaped in our own image. We could be gods, essentially.

It may sound surreal, but conservationists, I believe, imagine this world quite a bit. They consider this human world, and what it would be like without animals in it. A silent world where it’s all about us and what industry can do – where there’s no escape from humanity. A world where the only sounds are human-made and the only colours are factory-made is not an Earthly place, to me at least.

So perhaps it’s time, finally, that we started considering the worst if only for a few moments every now and then. Perhaps it will make us listen that bit harder the next time statistics like these are published by conservationists. Because this is a real decline. This is a real trend. This is what mass extinctions look like from the inside. An animal world becoming less animal by the day. So, which world do you like best: ours or theirs?

 

Rhythm Bhetwal

A World Without Worries

With the beautiful snow capped mountains in the north, high and low valleys and the plain, fertile land of Terai, all these have been proved to be a boon of nature for Nepal. Very few places on earth can rival the beauty and rarity of Nepal. With thousands of aesthetic places in its lap, Nepal has become one of the famous tourist destinations in the world. Kalinchowk is one of such winsome places of Nepal situated in Dolakha district of Bagmati Pradesh of north-eastern Nepal. People visit Kalinchowk due to its religious and pilgrimage significance.

I too visited Kalinchowk with my family of four (mom, dad, brother and me). It was an indelible journey. Since I heard of the plan to visit Kalinchowk, I was over the moon. We started our journey at about 4 AM in the morning. It was freezing cold (the month of December) as Christmas was near that’s why we all had our burdensome jackets put on for saving us from chilling cold weather. We left our Baneshwor area and through Dhulikhel we headed all the way to Charikot which was 4 hours drive passing through heavenly rivers, streams, hills and mountains. It was dreamy to have a window seat and relish the landscape. We stopped at Kharedhunga and had a refreshing time there. After a light breakfast we continued our journey towards Kalinchowk Bhagwati Temple. The locals advised us to walk on foot rather than vehicle as it was snowy and the path was slippery. We admired their suggestion and trekked the snowy hill. The path was way more slippery than I had expected. My brother stumbled numerous times. He took mom’s support while I took dad’s. We had a lovely family time. We could spot some people lying unconscious on the way due to high altitude. Some people had nausea and vomiting too as it was in very great altitude. I was petrified if my condition would happen the same but by god’s grace nothing happened. There were countless people who were trekking like us. My legs were exhausted but my eyes were in search of wonderful scenery. I was kind of lost in the magnificent panorama of the hills that’s why I didn’t complain. I can still visualize  some glimpse of that beautiful snow which I had seen the very first time. I could feel the cold, soft and fluffy nature of it. In the fullness of time, we reached the base of another light green hill. The view was mesmerizing. The clustered houses with colorful and designed roofs just took my breath. To reach Kalinchowk, we had to travel another straight hill which looked much more difficult than the first one. Me, my brother and my mom were literally exhausted. That’s why we chose the cable car but my dad travelled the hill on foot. It was 12,095 ft above the sea level. The temple was crowded with people. We worshipped the temple with a lot of admiration and honor. Travelling is not just about enjoyment and fun but also about grabbing knowledge and experience. I think it’s the best way to learn. I got to know that Kalinchowk is named after goddess Kali which is related to power and destruction. She is believed to be one of the powerful goddesses of Hinduism. People say that Pandavas had also come here for meditation. The water pond in the top of Kalinchowk is believed to be holy and pure after showering and taking water from Kunda. From the religious treatises of Durga Puran, it was said that Kalinchowk is the place where Devi’s right arm was downfall that’s why people’s desires come true or get fulfilled after worshipping goddess Durga with pure soul. After that, we moved towards the lodge we had booked. We had a lot of leisure time there. We had a campfire, watched the cultural program and had a gratified night there.

The next morning we went to see the first light of the day. I can’t explain how alluring, ravishing, heavenly and glamorous it was to contemplate the view of sunrise. The glimpse of sunrise still sets in my mind. Whenever I close my eyes, I still can feel the fresh view of sunrise. After the view of sunrise, we went to our cousin’s house and headed towards Dolakha Bhimsen Temple, one of the prominent places of Dolakha district. The artistic view of the temple overjoyed me. It was about 4 km east from Charikot. The temple was roofless and there was a stone idol of Bhimsen in the center. The idol of Bhimsen resembles three deities: Bhimeshwor in the morning, Mahadeva throughout the day and Narayana in the evening. According to the mythology, the temple is devoted to Bhimsen, the second brother among the Pandavas.

The Bhimsen statue perspires in the form of fluid like drops from time to time. Perspiration is considered a bad omen for the country. This has already happened thrice in Nepal. During the change of Rana Regime, the idol is believed to have sweated. The idol sweated in 1934 AD before a devastating earthquake which killed 8500 people. It was also reported that the idol sweated a few days ahead of the royal massacre that killed King Birendra and his family. We couldn’t stay there for long as my dad had some work. Therefore, we returned to our own place, Kathmandu.

I believe Travelling is a very crucial part of life as it’s the best way to get out of a busy schedule. It is also to experience life in different ways. Travelling is actually a good remedy for stress, anxiety and depression. We also travel because distance and difference are the secret toxic of learning and creativity which cannot be observed by sitting at home. Travelling in itself has a lot of advantages, as it makes one forget all worries, problems and fear. This helps broaden your horizon to move in a new direction, unplugging ourselves from the pulls and pushes of daily life.

 

Selam Bantidagn

A World Without Elephants

Pick up the dung of the gods

Who breathe-

Among us like Enkai in his true form

An elephant

We lather our children and kindle our fires

The wet and earthy

Richness, that was once ours

But never will be.

Enclosed in the fists of those who

Snicker at our sombre savannahs

Deprived of the true king of beasts

They shut one eye and

Say through the other

Another for the inlay.

 

Humayra Tasnim

Goodbye

It was a decision taken out of the blue. I was bored with my monotonous life; the same soggy cereals for breakfast, the same beige walls of my office, the same paperwork every day. I needed a vacation. But, to where? My eyes fell on the newspaper on my table, wherein bold stood out the letters-‘Galapagos Islands’. Well, here I was, in the iconic Pinta Island, a member of the renowned archipelagos.

It was abrupt but unquestionably the best decision I’ve made in my life. The picturesque landscape and the azure waters surrounding the land were breathtaking, in every sense of the word. The island boasted of a myriad of species; from swallow-tailed gull to fur seals, but what really caught my eye were the Giant Tortoises. My guide, Guillermo had taken me to see them one evening. He was so enthusiastic about the prospect of seeing the creatures that I didn’t have the heart to say no. We traveled by bus so I was quite sick after the ride. However, the chilly wind wiped out my nausea like waves washing away sand.

After a short stroll, we saw a crawl of tortoises leisurely basking in the setting sun’s radiance. Guillermo and I crawled behind a few dense bushes and sat there enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Among the group were a mother and her two hatchlings. The mother covered her young with her yellow dusky body like a blanket from our prying eyes. Her shell reflected the sun’s rays and created a hallow. She then started to walk away which was proving to be difficult the way her young nestled up to her. She set out to gather leaves from nearby shrubs, all the while glancing back as if afraid someone might steal her hatchlings though we were quite well hidden and there were only members of her own creep around her. With a bunch of foliage in her mouth, she slowly walked back and fed them to her youngsters. The baby tortoises munched greedily. I felt I was intruding on something sacred. All too soon the sun was half dipped in the horizon and we had to leave.

Who would have thought that the Giant Pinta tortoises would meet the same fate as dinosaurs? Well, I certainly didn’t; ‘’Poachers,’’ a government official said, almost a decade after my visit, his voice laced with indifference. My head was pounding and I felt as if I was spiraling through a black hole. I tried to comprehend this heinous deed against the tortoises. Gone. Wiped out of the face of the earth. I was living in a world without those tortoises, yet there was no observable change. Children were playing soccer in the park. A woman was promenading with her dog. Everything was normal, but it wasn’t. I could feel the telltale signs of tears as the picture of the mother tortoise and her babies flashed through my mind. ‘’Goodbye,’’ I whispered though they couldn’t hear me. They were far away in some promised land, a land without poachers.

 

MD. Miraz Hossain Chowdhury

Poem ★

————-

 

Thoughts lead mankind

Will destroy life,

Grow day by day

Catastrophic plastic pollution.

 

In the pollution of the flora and fauna

That one day will be over,

When will we wake up?

I will see a plastic-free; pollution-free country.

 

Oh man, remember

Increased secretion of typhoid hormones,

Know, all these things

The reason for the plastic.

 

Used by mankind

Always plastic bags,

They build a transparent life

Have to give up.

 

Recycling takes time

Massive damage to the balance of the environment,

If you do not remove this ‘waste’

The world will one day be poor.

 

The country is full of plastic

Who will remove it?  Who has tried!

If not removed, the environment will be destroyed

Will become part of hell.

 

Sewers drain closed

Stink, frozen plastic

River seawater is polluted

All will become inferior.

 

Piles of dirt everywhere

Many are silent when they see this,

Find a way to liberate everyone

What people have forgotten, but the argument!

 

Light and thin in plastic mould

Carrying so many benefits,

How much more useful use

The book does not weigh.

 

So what will be forgotten is its form

Due to which the animals and plants are dying,

People are also weak in disease

Plastic is chirping around!

 

One chemical in plastic varieties

The sun does not perish in the water,

People are observing everything every day

Thinking and realizing there is no fear of danger.

 

Forget this slowly one day

Plastic will take many lives,

Science will cry with folded hands

Nowhere to be found.

 

The practice of death from the earth

Dissolve,

The custom of the death of love

Let it be turned on.

 

When death happens in love

People will die,

People will die in extreme cruelty

The birds will howl.

 

The trees will cry silently

The ground will feel the pain,

Only people will not know the reason

The animals of the forest will roar with difficulty.

 

No more trials

There will be no more injustice,

The world will be beautiful one day

Just a little love will be lost.

 

Some memories will be lost

With it, the human being will lose,

Zero will be the love of all the world

The world will be beautiful one day.

 

 

NUR SHAHEERAH BINTI SHAHIDAN

A WORLD WITHOUT SELF-LOVE

The moment I don’t believe in myself, the second when insecurities took me

as its acquaintance, the minute when I lose my hope,

is the worst nightmare that I ever had

The pain was too unbearable, the pain that people cannot see from outside

 

Now, the pain have become memories that I won’t keep

I learn, study and gain on how I could love myself

Loving myself might be harder than loving someone else

But, no one can obstruct me then

 

Yesterday I could be me that used to be sad, used to be mad, used to be hurt

But not for me today, tomorrow and forever

I’ll show you what I got and I’m not afraid because it’s me

And because loving myself is a key

 

Finally, my nightmare had met its end

My life is shining with the moon and the sun

I bear the storm, walking on my path

It was not so perfect but it is beautiful

And I finally realized

I’m the one I should love

 

Vidhi Verma

Health for Earth

Have you ever questioned what the world would look like without trees? I’m sure you would get a feeling that it would be catastrophic. Trees play an important role in every species’s life including humans, animals, and even plants. They give oxygen, help plants grow, provide shade, assist animals, and many more. However, can you imagine if there were not a single tree on Earth? Practically every species would be impacted. Important human factors to live such as water, air, and soil would go down majorly. In addition, climate change would worsen, animal populations would be on the verge of dying, rain forests would be blistered by the sun. In other words, Earth would be a monotonous place. All these examples are the least of what would happen without trees. I’m sure that no human would want the Earth to turn into a dying place.  Trees hold an important factor in keeping the Earth alive but the rate of trees is decreasing. As the human population expands the number of trees decreases. Well, you might say that it’s not a big deal since trees are also planted every year. Despite that, approximately 1.9 billion trees are planted while 15 billion trees are cut which makes the ratio of planting trees to cutting trees disproportional. These are just statistics of the reduction of trees however It is also very visible to see how trees decrease. As a kid, I see how gradually yet abruptly trees decrease. I first spotted this in my travels to Charlotte, NC. The first few times I went there I was completely dazzled and amazed at how many trees, forests, greenery, and animals there were. It was a change for me because I lived in more of a crowded area with more people than nature. But slowly the rate of trees started to decrease right under my nose as I did not realize it. I found out when I took a break from visiting Charlotte. After about two years I traveled again. As soon as I came I noticed that there was less greenery and trees than before. This was surprising to me therefore I started to compare photos and analyzed how in the past 10 years (maybe even more because this is as far as I know) how the rate of trees decreased due to population growth. Population growth is not a bad thing and it is necessary that trees are cut down for construction, but the point is that if we humans cut down trees then we should also make the effort to plant trees.  This way all trees thrive for a long time, supporting the environment and continue to keep the Earth. Therefore as humans, we have to prevent trees from decreasing by taking the effort to plant and maintain a tree. It is our job as humans to keep the Earth healthy and planting trees it could help climate change, global warming, animal extinction, and even ourselves. Trees are one of the most important factors that affect the environment (animals, plants, humans, etc) the most. Now it’s up to humans if we want to keep Earth healthy and live for long periods of time or have the Earth rot.

 

Abhinav Bhashyam

Clouded Past to a Boundless Future

Our world is ruled by desire. We hear the age-old quote: “if you don’t have interest in something, don’t pursue it.” When we look at our past, our history is clouded by sin, oppression, and greed. Very few people have had the courage, ability, and willingness to change the course of action of a damaged populace. However, out of a stormy past emerges individuals who have defied all odds, all obstacles to their success. As we study the catalyst of one’s success, we seem to immediately jump to their privilege as the driving force.

 

“Presidents like Obama had education, I’d never be able to afford Harvard tuition.”

 

We give ourselves excuses to discredit the true ability we have to achieve greatness. Now, privilege does indeed provide a necessary foundation on which to build one’s legacy. So now that we have the foundation for success, how can we elevate grassroots ideas into generational enterprises? Well, I guess talent is enough to motivate someone. Athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Mike Tyson could only achieve what they did because of talent, right? It seems counterintuitive to think otherwise. Nevertheless, when we look beyond the facade of “talent,” we discover the true catalyst to success: a burning passion. A passion so powerful, it shreds feelings of doubts and uncertainty into meaningless pieces of trash. A desire so intoxicating, it puts you into autopilot. This may seem dangerous at first, almost as if you can’t control your own life. But when the going gets tough, what could possibly give us an extra edge, motivation, and drive? We search ourselves thoroughly to find the answer: a desire. When Obama was working multiple minimum wage jobs to pay for his Harvard tuition, what gave him hope? A burning desire to help those around him and give a voice to those who couldn’t speak for themselves. A scintillating passion to empower those who couldn’t even envision their next step. But, didn’t dictators like Hitler, Moussolini, and Stalin also have a desire? Why did these people fail to achieve greatness and instead create devastating empires that nearly eradicated entire religious groups and countries off the face of the Earth? It’s a simple answer. In order to produce beneficial feats, one must hold a desire that can be upheld by generations. A desire for short-term power, money, and superstardom hinders one’s ability to chase their dreams. At the core of a person’s success resides their ability to truly better not only themselves, but others as well. True desire involves viewing life as an elevator. Should we choose to not escalate together, we will leave the most needy, helpless, and powerless people alone. A society is judged not based on how it helps the rich and privileged, but the poor and unprivileged. A world without true desire leaves us open to fall into a trap of greed, and if we truly want to leave this world a better place, we must be ever so cautious to avoid it.

 

Jessiqa Jamizan

 The Horizon Occurrences During The Day and Night

 

A world without empathy and sympathy

Will just be like dead leaves blown at Hyde Park

The air voices become rhythms

Through the days passed it remains silent

Where it’s gone and vanished

None of sight could see any

 

Meeting up at 9 in the morning

And grab a cup of signature hot chocolate

Sitting on a wooden chair across the street

Catching up with some group activities

In the making of united societies

 

Kids and Teens at the playground

Can you imagine the world without?

Laugh and tears

Encompassing the neighbourhood

The reflected mirror of ours

Who enjoys the begun of the sphere

Bouquet of sunflowers above roses

Wrapped with color or clear

Yellowish against Reddish

Both are still shine bright together

Like a valuable diamond

For loved one

Appreciating each other

Time and space

Where we grow

Where we think

Where we develop

Where we fight for,

Is when

Journey recorded

In a leather journal

That rarely being opened

High notes of RnB’s

The unique structura

Classic one like Beethoven’s

Boundaries but connected

As how they need to fulfilled each other

Completed the rule of music

So human could

Have a whale of time

Listen and deepen

The implicit written

 

Pandas and Koalas

Enchanting yet adorable

Humankind combines

Living together as community

Taking care with blessings

 

Would you be grateful?

Or still denying the greatness

Able to experience

Over little things that matter

World is not going anywhere

You decide.

 

 

Sarah Oprah Traore

You had booked the safari 3 days earlier. A well travelled path, the guide had said. A very fine path indeed.

An old woman and a man were taking the ride along with you. The man’s LED wraparound glasses seemed to be perpetually slipping down his nose.

The woman mumbled something about the heat and her hair in correlation to it as the man shifted in his seat uncertainly.

The guide slid into the front. He was wearing a loud cyan bodysuit with a glowing band on the right arm.

Helix, it read in a harsh script. The text rearranged itself now and then, showing images  of a tall ghastly blue pyramid. Headquarters.

Vile.

You recalled seeing the name plastered all over the walls of your day to day life. Helix’s All Use Teleportation Devices! Helix’s Screens. Helix’s Trusty Ship Lubricant.

It made you want to bludgeon your head in.

You hovered over the gray savannah. Was this how it was in the books? You reach for your brochure. It flutters away to the ground. Litterbug.

A thickskinned quadraped stood before the hovercraft, glowering. The curious thing about it were the folds of its skin. They were coated with blue particles that hissed and bleeped.

“Those animals were called rhinoceroses. They were a real breathing species. 200 years ago, they died out,” the guide wistfully said.

The thick-skinned animal was a rhinoceros. It does not exist anymore.

The man had been feverently pushing his glasses up his face, teeth gritted.
“To rot with that!” he interjected suddenly, writhing. “To rot with that. That’s not possible, it is not.” He was flailing about in his seat. “Another flaming conspiracy theory!”

“Yes, yes!” The woman exclaimed.

“Died out? With all the tech-na-lo-gie round here these days, you’d think they woulda stopped that.” She took a mirror out of her handbag and studied her face. She wondered why technology hadn’t stopped her aging yet.

“Sir, Missus,” the guide wavered. Fear and disgust.

“You don’t understand.

Humanity failed at their job of keeping wildlife safe.

Forests were torn down for more buildings. Pets, as they called them, were turned out for the more attractive android personal assistants.

We thought only about ourselves. We were wrong. It is too late to fix our errors. And now?”

The guide waved at the abyss below, the tangles of glowing skyscrapers and screens among the piles of rubbish and waste behind fences.

“But, I do understand this. I do understand clearly. You are getting paid to feed us lies,” the man bellowed. “They smoke in your belly and rise up through your esophagus to your mouth.”

That is when you realized that the man’s spectacles were like the pursuit of fixing the errors of humanity. The pang of this thought held you by the chin and struck you on each cheek.

The hovercraft reeled against the hurdled words of the passengers.
You felt as if you were the travel brochure that had fluttered out with the wind. —-

 

Anat Bogomolov

Our Blue Ball

 

I believe life is built of moments. Some are moments we forget in a few hours, some stay with us for a few days, and some are captured in us, affect us, and without us even noticing, they outline our way in the world. Those trips, that we expect so much, are just our desire to experience different moments. Crazy moments that a huge part of them will become memories that bring a smile to our face.

I would like to share with you one moment I experienced, a moment of so pure and true freedom in the nature of our beautiful planet. I was traveling in wonderful places, full of people who are seeking special moments during the holiday season. I lived just near the orchard, and there was always the smell of bloom, blossom, and life. Every single breath there was accompanied by endless admiration. One evening, I decided to go for a walk in the orchard. After I passed all the colorful, fragrant trees, I came to a field. Maybe this was wheat or barley, and maybe these were just different plants that decided unanimously that this is the perfect place to spend their lives in. It was a huge field surrounded by trees that haven’t yet grown their leaves after the winter. And this was a powerful moment. In my favourite twilight hours, I found myself in such a calm and peaceful place, and at the same time so lively. Wheat was dancing slowly to the music of the wind, bugs were singing freely, and clouds were running in the sky waiting for the stars to come out and light everything in their magical glamour. I felt really happy! It was a moment where you understood how small you are in relation to the world,  and how small your troubles are in relation to the huge nature that continues in its way no matter what.

And today I’m thinking about how lucky we are. We’re all living in a small blue ball and look how much we’ve got. That’s awesome! Just think about it, we could live in a world without nature. A world where we can’t enjoy the wonders of our earth, the colorful rainbows, the warm sun.  A world made up of glass, plastic, and concrete.

So now, realizing how lucky we are to have this option at all, to enjoy nature, let’s do so! Let’s be happy! Smell flowers, run over fields, and preserve our amazing nature, because it is so, so beautiful.

 

Syedah Qarniah Qandeel

(Poem)

A World without the beauty that’s raw

 

Me being in a pensive mood, thinking of my own

Me and my scattered thoughts how could I be alone?

The beauty I witnessed flashed in my solitude

The Flora the fauna sounds me a fluet

My inward eye recalling all that I saw

How will a world be without the beauty that’s raw

 

The starry sky, ambitious mountains, and crystal ocean

But why is this world still in commotion?

Mother nature showed how to show gratitude

Being on altitude or even latitude

How will a word be without the beauty that’s raw

 

On my window little night and gale

Gave me life to inhale

Nature offers life on sale

But none listens to this fairy tale

Enlightens me a dancing cloud

The mesmerizing beauty of the tulip crowd

My soul imagines what I saw

How will a world be without the beauty that’s raw

 

Sasha Nicole Mahawanniarachchi

A WORLD WITHOUT NATURE

Now think a world as dark as night

No sun no moon no stars that shine bright

Now think no animals or green plants just drought

What’s life if its dull and there’s nothing about

No food no water just hunger and strife

No life no purpose just blackness and time

The world just empty no nature to see

What’s the point of living if its just you and me?

But wait no nature how did we live?

This means its just chaos with nothing even you or me!

Nature a force greater than man

So complex yet simple

And unexplained by man

So vast and around us

Affecting us all

Take one thing and

Pay the price and lose it all

Forests and animals and even a small man

All belong to nature

And under it we stand

Harm it, destroy it and face its wrath

Because we might just need it

But us? it sure as hell don’t

We are nothing, unimportant and small

Yet we try fight it and loose

like we never Faught at all

Endanger nature and jeopardies us all

Because it will fight back like we never existed at all

We are all bound together like a mother to a child

You make a move and pray that you will survive

Nature is powerful and retaliation is harsh

But it will win because it knows how it’s sharp

Harm even one thing get caught in its trap

Beware since its fate awaiting intact

All animals, plants and even the stars

All belong to nature the mother of her cares

 

So now what we build Reciprocate and help

By growing a tree and collecting the trash

Save the animals and you and me work hard save lives

The world and its green

The waters the sand dunes the ice caps and trees

All parts of nature and beauty to see

Help save our planet and respect our mother

Because we too are her children and need her and others

Respect protect and fight for our future

Earn your respect and enjoy the weather

This is for us this is for our children and nature

The mother of that needs us to love and protect her

So work with her highness the ultimate mother

 

Ria Raul

A world without justice

 

Shoot, shoot, shoot

The guns had been fired.

The secrets of the world were now transpired,

The diversity in people had become visible,

What we had created was now irreversible.

Justice was no longer found,

Not in the deaths of innocent people,

Nor on the broken compounds.

 

The long forgotten justice building still stood there, but only silence consumed all the walls of hope.

Mery greetings were replaced with hushed whispers of despair.

The suffering of the poor were ignored

The blacks were abhorred.

 

The rich abandoned and then consolidated

Their rules meant for people to be executed.

Equality was not found,

No sign of solidarity or rebound.

A world were freedom didn’t exist,

Where conversations ended with bloody fists.

 

What kind of a world were we living in?

Where education was not a right,

Where children could do nothing but live in fright.

Only if the shadows lurking behind closed doors were discovered back,

Only if they didn’t hear the screams,

If the chains were untangled and broken free,

Could I call this world a better place to be?

 

Aryan Raul

A world without empathy

 

The woodpecker’s gone, all that remains is a untamed home

I was a crow, moved away when they pointed a raised hand.

Every feather marked with fear and trust

But they did not see the eyes of innocence and loneliness.

Haven’t gone no powerful claws or rainbow colours,

I didn’t fit on the top but I had a light spark in those black eyes.

 

Standing wide open on the road as the rain pours and wets me

No one sees a scared little heart filling with despair

A wounded leg, bleeding with no support

My soul was build from broken branches of hope

A spirit made of tenderness to please others,

A wounded heart calling out for help,

All the receive a raised hand full of danger

 

Samantha Quintans Viray

A World Without A Smile From Poverty

 

I saw a timid boy in broad daylight holding the hand of his scorched mother. Literally. His mother was drenched in sweat and painted brown by the sun’s artistic soul. He wore a blue shirt stained with brown margins and had dirt smeared on his face. His fingers mingled with saliva as he violently sucked on it. He had no shorts. Everything was exposed for everyone to see. However, no one even looked twice the moment their eyes feasted on it. As if it were a regular advertisement on a billboard. I asked myself why I didn’t stop and look twice. This is the journey my soul’s stitched with forever—this is poverty in its truest form hiding in the meager streets of the Philippines.

I believe that poverty in each country is different and sadistically exquisite. Although, nothing comes close to the eloquence of the ill-fated Filipinos. I dare you to travel to the dark and twisted alleys of the Philippines where the loveliest gems you’ll find are smiles. Despite having their heart dipped into the feeling of arms being wrung and shriveled under the sun, just like the rags they wear. A mother smiles. Everything is golden in her eyes. She’s certain it’s a happy life. To me, it’s chaos in beauty. They live a life without the fear of being thrown into the streets to fight for their lives. Because they’ve been fighting.

I shouldn’t forget to paint the picture of young Filipinos sleeping soundly on top of a wooden box. Or the piles of metal roofs piled upon each other to form a home. Or the sea of plastic bottles, wires, wrappers, and glass shards on a Filipino’s feet as he scavenges for food to eat. Their anatomy baked under the sunlight, pronouncing their bones. They look so hungry and skinny. This sea of plastic is their playground; their turf. Bring a couple of kids together and they’ve already flown to the moon. They’d be sprinting in the streets while laughing louder than any clown. They are happy. A life without poverty might take away the best smiles I’ve ever come across.

Have you heard their laugh? If not, you must.

Oh! Have you seen the beaches in this lovely country? I’m not talking about beaches with fine sand and crystal water. I’m talking about a beach with water as dark as the night. On the shore, you would discover a diaper, rubber, metal, plates, and a bra. What a sight! You’ll also see children playing and plowing through all the garbage. This is an expedition as terrifying as love. It is a coma that seeps into your life. A leech of death on you. Think twice before welcoming yourself into this country, and ask yourself if you’re willing to pay a life of ignorance to this magnitude. Can you sleep? Because we have grown with it, basking in the precious smiles of poverty.

 

Ranaa Rahuman

If, by nature, you mean ‘great outdoor’-I can’t imagine living without access to it.

Nature in real life as in plants, animals, rain, heat, sky, sun, moon, poison, oak,

and all the rest of what constitutes outdoors. We are weaker when we are

separate but together we take on the world literally! Nature works

simultaneously with humans, and humans work simultaneously with nature to

produce an ongoing output and input of life on earth. Whether we realize it or not

humans are interconnected with nature. Humans cannot survive without nature.

Have you ever wondered what a world without nature would look like?

A world without nature? This is not about to exist. There are more and

forest in the world thanks to highest concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Why is nature so important to human beings? because we are part of nature and

it’s all around us, we take it for granted. Nature is us, it’s everything around us

and without it we are nothing at all. The natural world is why I get up in the

morning and why I live the way I do, as a vegan with a garden full of flowers who

loves our poor planet

There is so much we love about nature but also so much we stand to lose if

we don’t take action. In less than half a century, human activity has resulted in

wildlife populations plummeting by an average of 68 %. Our destruction of nature

is putting one million species at risk of extinction, driving the emergence of

pandemics and exacerbating climate change. We are nature, we are animals. If we

over step our boundaries, nature will put us back in our place, despite our best

efforts to overcome that. Its life without it, we don’t exist. Everything we have,

the stuff come from nature, manufactured, from our natural resources. The

health and availability of all that we eat comes from nature. The clean water and

air is dependent on nature. The natural environment Is our only life support.

Unfortunately, humans take for granted the great things that nature has to

offer. People ignore the simplicity of nature, even when nature is a fundamental

to our everyday life. Even when people eat from nature, they are better health

wise. Overall, nature plays huge role in the human life span. Being surrounded by

nature has a better result. When humans are part of nature, thing are a million

time better.

 

Jimmy Bhatia

A World Without Crime

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The other day I had to fly all the way down to America for spending my summer vacations. For the very first time I was nervous and frightened of the fact that any mis happening can follow me through my journey. India is a country where even it’s own citizens are not free even when it is a liberal country. We desire to have a country where children would not have to warned against predators. A World where individuals can fly , walk , run or do whatever they want without fear or prejudice. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred ; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and          narrow-mindedness. One is not truly free if he/she is taking away someone else’s freedom just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. Once I was traveling in the plane by myself but to my surprise my gut feeling came true. The plane was hijacked by three men in their early 20s, equipped with guns and grenades etc. They looked experienced as I looked at their body structure and the passion in their eyes to achieve success in their mission. They were masculine , had huge chest and looked like a bodyguard. We all know they are brainwashed in the name of lord, but this is nothing to be proud of . The young men were full of contempt of ignorance of the conditions in which they live in , the `rubbish’ communities from which they came from. We never expect them to live with humanity. We were ordered to zip our mouth unless asked. I witnessed that I was the only scared one on the plane. All the passengers had already experienced such a hijack before. This came as such a strange thing to me . I could not believe the situation playing infront of me. But I was relieved after they left us safe . This incident opened my eyes. After this incident when I started to live my regular life , I witnessed that my surroundings had a change. I started to see things differently. That is when I thought how it would be if crime did not exist. In a world without crime, people can move freely in a world offered to us people by All Mighty. People won’t get encountered with a horror news everytime they read newspaper. People won’t need any locks or keys for security. No insurance against theft; no need for all those passwords at the main door. With trust as a default setting, how much more relaxed the world would be. I desire to have a world like this. Never, never shall it be that this beautiful world should experience the fear of oppression. I wish to pursue a utopian dream of world prosperity.

 

Md. Saifullah Bahar

A World Without ‘True Gavial‘

A Short Story:

In September 2018, a 2-year-old gavial was caught by a fishing net while the fishermen were catching fish in Jamuna River, Shahzadpur, Bangladesh. A lot of people crowded there to see this creature. The spot was barely one kilometer away from my home, and I was also in the crowd. Interestingly, I found people calling the gavial a crocodile.

 

About Gavials:

Having the scientific name of Gavialis gangeticus, the gavials are crocodilian predatory animals.

The male member is 6.5 meters and the female member is 4.5 meters long.

The gavials have been identified as Critically Endangered Species by IUCN after 1996.

 

The vulnerable history:

Once, the gavials were found in the river of the Brahmaputra, the Sindh, the Ganges adequately. But they are very rare to see now. According to IUCN, only 200 members of wild gavials are alive throughout the world. Gharial Conservation of Bangladesh (2010) reported that they assume the possibility of 40 gavials are alive in Bangladesh.

 

The reasons behind its being critically endangered:

– The main reason is the fishing net of a fisherman. Gavials get caught by the nets and couldn’t escape themselves easily.

 

– Unconsciousness of our fisherman is another reason. Our fishermen treat gavial as a harmful animal. So whenever it gets caught, they kill it.

 

– Gavials are reptiles. Female gavials lay eggs on the sands of the river shore. But over habitats of people causes hindrances to them to find proper places to lay their eggs.

 

– Water pollution, river erosion, and ruling of the river by humans create difficulties to their normal life cycle.

 

Without Gavials:

Every living species has an important impact on the ecosystem. Gavial stays top in the food chain as a predator. Its extinction will break the food cycle and will affect the ecosystem negatively.

We should remember that once a species is lost, it is lost forever. Perhaps, we don’t know many positive sides of gavials. Perhaps, the gavials contain a gene from which we can be able to progress in the field of medical science, which we can’t deny.

 

Preserving the Gavials:

Steps should be taken by both authorities and common people.

– Creating awareness among people about this animal and its significance to the ecosystem.

 

– Declaring some preserved areas and sanctuary for this animal.

According to Gharial Conservation in Bangladesh(2010), Pauba of Rajshahi, Godagari, Char Khijirpur, the Northern part of the Jamuna river should be declared as preserved places for gavials to save them from extinction.

 

– Finding out all the logical reasons behind their extinction and trying to solve out.

In the end, we, the humans should not be a dictator to rule this earth. We need to be kind to other species.

 

Gargi Gupta

Few moments of solitude!

As I breathed in the crisp air with earphones in, listening to jazz beats feeling alive after a long time, it felt as if a bird was released from the cage, the cage of the vicious city life which has engulfed all of us and has left us feeling anxious most of the time. The feeling of being liberated had set in again!

I had learned quite a lot about not only myself but had gotten the chance to get hands-on experience of the real world when I went out of the country for the first time with a couple of my schoolmates and teacher-in-charge to Lithuania. It felt like the first and last time I would get to go out of the country but who knew that I would get Déjà-vu from the same expedition in a year’s time.

We were told that we would be visiting a heritage site on the third day of the week-long trip to Slovakia, I was quite excited to be honest, heritage sites and  knowing about life in the past had always amused me. The plan was to explore this abandoned train tunnel which was built at the beginning of the war but had never been completed as the war had broken out, and then hiking to a place which connected a village to the town of Roznava.

I think a lot of us are so addicted to the adrenaline rushes we experience during our fast the paced day that we have become so numb to the feeling of solitude, peace one can find in the lap of nature! That hike and being surrounded by the pleasant silence of nature and its elements had helped me connect to my higher self and feel alive every passing moment!

I think that one should at least once in a lifetime try to take out time from their busy schedule and experience this feeling of being satisfied with how they are using these precious seconds of their lives surrounded by the beautiful elements created by that supernatural force!

 

NUR FADILAH BINTI MOHAMMAD ZAIDI

A world without electricity

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A world without electricity have you ever thought about it? Maybe you have or maybe you never thought about it . As you already know electricity is very important for daily life, with electricity we can do anything for example we can turn on the television, we can charge the phone and we can illuminate the house with the light of a lamp.But have you ever imagined if one day there was no electricity what will happen to the world  and to those who live in it.

 

If one day there is no electricity in this world then immediately all technology is no longer useful for humans because to watch television we need electricity, to surf social media we need to have internet network if there is no electricity then internet network will also not exist, radio too will not work.But if all the technology doesn’t work we can find other ways to entertain the heart by having fun outdoors playing with friends and spending time with beloved family.

 

If  there is no electricity then the lights in our house will not come on. Besides that the tap water in our house will also not come out because it also needs electricity to function.It’s okay if all this thing is not functioning.It doesn’t matter if all these things don’t work we just have to do all the work the old way by lighting a fire using candles to light the house and burning wood for cooking. To get a clean source of water to drink and to clean ourselves we just need to find a well or a nearby river.

 

In conclusion is not a problem if there is no electricity in this world we can do things the old way even if it takes a long time to finish the job but you don’t have to feel desperate to live, in fact you should feel grateful because god only takes one favor you feel in the world you should be thankful that god did not take the lives of your loved ones. if in this world there is no more electricity you should not panic and should think wisely. you have to believe in yourself that you can do whatever you want.

 

Muneeb ur Rehman

A World Without…
While reading this theme A World Without… Several thoughts and possibilities pop up in one’s mind. It’s hard to choose because there are multiple possibilities but hey, what would the world be without me in this world? Would it be any different than the way it is? This theme made me question my existence in this world.
Everything is made for a purpose. A world without that thing would be useless. And I am also a tiny part of this big vast world. So, I guess I am also made for something special. I mean look at this world It is so big but yet one cannot do the whole work. It is all due to the contribution of mankind. So, it is kind of hard to imagine the world without something in it.
We all make this world. This world is because of us. Everyone has a part to play in it. I have often doubted my existence and almost everyone does that at some point in their lives. But let’s imagine you do not have the door in the room in which you are sitting I mean it’s just a door but if it is not there It would mess the whole thing up So, even that door has a contribution in this world and you would not want to imagine the world without it as well and look at you. You are alive you can do stuff imagine how much you mean to this world how much you can have an impact on this world. But yet you are doubting your existence.
We all have a purpose to serve in this life. The odds of you being born is one in 400 trillion. I mean look at this quite a big number, right? But here you are alive and reading my (well I don’t know what should I call it).
But hey you can imagine the world without COVID-19. I am kidding well I have started to look more at the positive side of the stuff rather than depressing stuff. And as I wrote above everything has a purpose and so does COVID-19. What positive changes did it bring to your life? Yeah, start thinking and I know the list is long. Even if it is short, you can make it longer.
So, I would like to conclude by saying that I am grateful that you introduced this theme. I mean by writing this article I am feeling very pleasant. I think I have achieved a new purpose in my life.
And Hey, please get up enjoy life, watch the sunrise till you can, Knock at your favorite person’s door and tell them how much you love them. Live life to its full because you mean something to someone you were made to do wonders.

—————–

 

Zainab Ali Azmatullah

Topic:A World Without….
ROUTINE DIARY ENTRIES.

Day #1 .
The sword in my father’s voice was now flashing.His silence sent a chill down my spine;I was scared.Fear engulfed me and I felt like I was trapped in a cage.Unable to escape,unable to break free from the dangerous clutches of my father’s cruel  behaviour.
All he think’s about is himself,I used to think.What if I’m wrong?.What if he is wrong?.
______________________________________
Day #2.
The birds fluttered in the leaves of the old,neem tree which was  situated at the back of my grandfather’s house for the last 10 years.The cold mist touched my face and I heaved a sight of relief.The relief which was the  outcome of my new-freedom.How could I know what freedom really meant as I had never experienced it.
________________________________
#Day 3.
Today,I felt as free as a bird and as happy as a lark.My body didn’t freeze on it’s spot after hearing my once -dear father’s voice . “I escaped,I am free !”,I cried loudly on the streets of Dubai.As his absence made me realize that freedom is every  person’s right.No matter how far I tried to run,I feared that the dark shadows of my past would follow me everywhere;even in the dark allys .No ,I tried to convince myself.I will try to lead a new,normal life and try to be as a jovial as I had been in the in the past.
________________________________________

 

Shah Mantra Umeshchandra

A World Without Technological Devices

 

“Phones, Laptops, Kindle”. These are just a few examples of electronic devices. One cannot live without it. We have become so reliant on these small things that they have become inseparable from us. However, imagine one day, we are separated from our gadgets, our best friends. How will our lives be? We will not be able to communicate with our loved ones living apart and not be able to text one another. Instead, we will have to write letters to our friends! It sounds astonishing even though this was the case just a few decades ago.

 

Decades ago, there were no such things as technological devices or if there were, then there were very few who could afford it. Imagine if technological devices were not even created? How would one be living right now? Our day would start with an alarm clock instead of a mobile phone – No video games, tv channels or movies. One will only have a radio to listen to news or songs and will entertain themselves with outdoor activities. The choice pool for entertainment will be limited at best and life will be very dull.

 

There are numerous advantages to technological devices and without them our lives would be greatly affected. Firstly without them, there would be a lack of communication between people. People will not be able to talk with their loved ones regularly. They will have to travel and physically meet with their loved ones which may take them months or years. Secondly, without electronic devices, one has to flip hundreds of books to access information for his or her assignment instead of a few convenient clicks on the internet. Lastly, if these gadgets had not been invented, then education and work would be hindered during the pandemic as there are no other ways of communication and professional life would come to a halt. However, overuse of electronic devices causes many disadvantages but the most prominent is health problems. Due to these gadgets, people would look at it for a prolonged period of time which will cause strain in eyes causing eye problems. Not only that, many will start to refrain from exercise which may result in obesity. Obesity has become a pertinent issue in the world and due to obesity, there is a higher risk of suffering from heart problems or even diabetes. Therefore, there are some prominent disadvantages that arise from overuse of gadgets.

 

In a nutshell, a world without gadgets is inconceivable. It is almost impossible to live without them. Without them, life would become very difficult especially during this pandemic as we are heavily dependent on it to continue to pursue education or continue with our work. Even though there are some disadvantages to electronic gadgets such as health problems, they are more beneficial than harmful. In addition to it, the disadvantages only arise due to overuse of gadgets. Overall, electronic gadgets have actually enriched our lives and also made it more comfortable and dynamic.

 

Aeriadne Naomi Tay

Dare I Imagine?

 

The blazing African sun beats down on dry grasslands. Ambling across the savanna, a giraffe gazes tenderly at the foal capering ahead of her, bending her long neck now and then to affectionately nudge him when he falls, helping him back to his feet. Confident in her care, he regains his composure and skips along.

 

Rumbling softly, her large ears flapping to and fro, an Indian elephant makes her way through the tropical rainforest, delicately pushing branches aside with a deft trunk. Tagging along, her calf wraps his small trunk tightly around her tail, trotting to match her pace.

 

Refracted sunlight dances through the deep, flickering mystically onto the graceful figures of a blue whale and her calf. She sings to him as they surface, the water from her blowhole painting a rainbow above her for a fraction of a second.

 

Peeking through the 7th letter of the alphabet poster on my bedroom wall, prancing through my mother’s drawings for me, ever-present from my cradle to my textbooks, giraffes have always found their way into my life.

 

Elephants, too, earned their spot in my childhood memories as soft toys, storybook characters and beloved cartoons.

 

As I grew, blue whales became fondly entrenched in my mind as paradigmatic symbols of the Blue Planet, swimming through the depths of National Geographic spreads and surfacing onto the silver screen in Finding Nemo.

 

Yet the importance of these fascinating creatures is not, and never has been, limited to my personal journey with them.

 

Beyond just their kind, knowing eyes, exceptional size and nurturing motherly instincts, these three remarkable animals have another thing in common — they each play vital roles in their respective ecosystems. Giraffes aid the growth of foliage by eating leaves no other primary consumer can reach, while elephants tramp paths and nests for other forest-floor dwellers. Both giraffes and elephants also promote seed dispersal. Meanwhile, whales stir up the seas, creating a flow which allows fresh phytoplankton to photosynthesise each day (a crucial contribution, as these surfaced phytoplankton subsequently absorb and remove millions of tonnes of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they eventually sink to the bottom of the ocean).

 

Tragically, there is one more thing these three beautiful creatures share: their endangered status. Threatened mainly by humans via habitat loss and climate change, their numbers sadly continue to fall in the wild. Dare I imagine my world without them?

 

Somewhere on the planet, the blazing African sun shines down on a giraffe and her foal; the lush, leafy rainforests of Thailand shade an Indian elephant and her baby; and refracted sunlight dances, through cerulean Pacific waters, off a blue whale and her calf. Sometimes the story ends with the sharp crack of a hunter’s gunshot. Sometimes it ends in a deafening collision with a boat propeller. Sometimes, too rarely, it doesn’t. In any case, one thing is certain — that the world would be, in so many ways, a far smaller place without these gentle giants.

(498 words)

Jasper V. Parayao

The Start of Sombre Winters

In this ever-merry, vast world, so sheeny-bright that tinkles, tingles, jingles:
Where motley people [like to] mingle,
From the abyss of heaven…
I had found my kindle.

In moonlit midnight, shone your ivory pallor;
With dauntless, ocean eyes that striked with valor.
Ballistic billows, hushed by her melodious voice,
A colorful statement, made with alluring poise.

Snap, snap, snapping! From reverie,
An evocative dream—it fled from reality.
The end of russet Autumns; the start of sombre Winters:
A winsome world that dreadingly hinders…

A world without you is a predicament I can’t bear:
A vivacious planet without its atmosphere.
This world, once full of color, perturbingly becomes stale.
A world without you is indiscernibly pale.

 

Fatima Hossini

Title:The world without…Music

 

Entry:

This essay will be about the importance and power of music and how the world simply can’t live without music.

 

Science has proven that music releases mood enhancing chemicals into our body which music therapists suggest that music can aid us,human beings,mentally and physically in numerous ways.This shows that music is very powerful.And how is it proven to be powerful?

 

It is proven to be powerful by numerous scientific and psychological studies that music can lift our moods,combat depression,improve blood flow in ways similar to statins,ease pain and lower levels of stress-related hormones.For example,cortisol.Music can also improve outcomes for patients after surgery.Another reason,how music is powerful is that scientifically,a million of years ago the common ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans has the vocal anatomy to sing like us which is impossible to know if they did.And that rhythm was created by clapping their hands.The existence of music being created “a million of years ago” shows that it is still lasting after a long period of time and has become very popular to today’s society in many ways for most of human problems physically and mentally.Fact:Music came first and language came later and that language is just a special type of music.

 

Without music,life would be emotionless.Just like a blank white canvas,not expecting any sort of colour at any time.Life without music would be life without any sort of emotion.Feeling numb like all pain has hurt you too much for you too feel anything anymore.It is most likely to be impossible to imagine life without music as it accompanies us everyday throughout most our life.From small age we listen to music like nursery rhymes and as we get older we get into a wide range of music from the types we love like pop,hip hop,classical,folk etc.

 

Aarthi A

A WORLD WITHOUT CHANGE

 

Change is very important in our life . It may cause both positive and negative impact . Positive impact is without change there is no improvement . At the same time it can cause loses which is a negative impact . Change is everywhere there is restrictions for it . As the wold change we should also get used to it . Even a small change can make miracles and disasters .

Each and every moment there is a change . From a flower blooms to the global warming of Earth . We humans also make changes in our daily lives . From the position of a flower vase in a living room to the change in a genetic of an animal .

Change means a ” A Chance to make a Healthy And Nourished Generous Earth”

 

Chavi Agrawal

A World Without Art

 

In the most generic term, art is described as something that “moves us” in other words:

 

Art is something that causes us to feel better by appreciating the aesthetic qualities of a piece. Art lets

us connect with the artist’s personal story. Art is a form of escape. Art is something that lets us express.

Art is something that lets us feel. Etc. Art is also a force that binds the world together. It allows us to connect with emotions of others, ourselves, and the ones before us. It helps us realize that we are not

alone in this world, our problems aren’t that big, and it helps us feel part of a whole bigger universe than just ourselves. With art we can understand the concept of love, friendship, grieve, loyalty, faith, death,

truth, etc.

 

Now in a world without art, none of this could be possible.

 

Art is a big part of my life. I’m the typical bookworm, artist, music lover teenager girl in this world that uses art as a form of escape. Even though I wouldn’t even want to think about it I can imagine a world

without art. A world without art would be a very dull and boring place to live in. A world without creativity.

 

It is a world in which u are idle, you stick to the same pattern of everyday life, you follow patterns your family and society follows, you don’t encounter things that are out of your comfort zone, you can’t

connect with emotions of others or your own, you feel lonely, you feel a lack of belonging, the world is filled with unexplored trauma, the world has no continuity. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that the world would be filled with math, science, and other subjects. Creativity is needed for the discovery of a lot of subjects and concepts but let’s just investigate math, science, and language.

 

Science needs a lot of creativity and in a world with no art it means that most of the science we have discovered till now won’t be present in the world. Maybe no science at all. Math has patterns upon patterns and rules upon rules that could not be made in a world with no creativity. Language could

never have been birthed without creativity so there would be no talking or writing in the world.

 

Overall, the world without art is a world with no development. And with no development, we humans may not have even survived the first 1000 years on Earth if it wasn’t for the art back then and for the art  that continued till now. Even if we had survived, the world would truly be a boring one indeed.

 

Asmaa Barigo

A world without internet:

 

In our time, the mobile phone has become the closest friend of the majority of young people and teenagers.

 

The last thing they do before bed is to look at the phone, which is also the first thing that happens when they wake up to check their pages through social networks, email and messages in the “WhatsApp” application.

They are almost obsessed with getting more followers, ‘likes’ and visits to their pages, in what is called ‘super linking’ on the internet.

Nowadays it does not seem strange to him to see people sitting at the same table and not talking to each other, not caring about their lack of communication or even respect for companions; Because the other is doing the same thing.

In the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices, people who were unable to take their eyes off the mobile phone screen could be seen; The same thing happens in gyms.

The phone seems like a greater extension of the human being, but it’s not considered that for everyone; Because there are those who are called “disconnected” from the Internet, a new class has decided to curb technology addiction.

 

Philosophy of life .. more than fashion:

 

More and more people are joining this way of thinking and understanding life, and they are not strangers at all, but ordinary people who come to grips with the personality of 25-49 year old city dwellers with university degrees.

The “separated” from the Internet do not hope to get away from the world, quite the contrary, as they bet on closer relationships with people in reality, and this also does not mean their ignorance of the new technology, because they know that it is very good but refuses to use it on a large scale in their lives.

They just drop off on trivial things that do nothing but drain the mind and steal time too, even though they use the internet in a smart way, browsing the internet only to see what they really need.

Enrique Puig-Bonnet decided to join the trend when he wrote his latest work The Great Addiction, How to Survive Without the Internet and Isolation from the World.

To do this, he interviewed people who were cut off from technology for a variety of reasons, and in this way they learned another unpleasant truth of the Internet.

The writer explained that, “Initially, we embraced social networks without thinking.

They pledged to become an equal environment in which ideas and desires were freely exchanged.

But we realized that behind this was an infrastructure aimed at connecting us and making profit.

This was the first step in distrust and pursuit towards something greater.

Thus, it was like cleaning the phone until I finally stopped using it.

He continued, “At first it was difficult for those around me, but when they made sure that my communication was effective or better because communication is better, they appreciated it.” Since then, the young writer has asserted that the only tool he has not yet given up on is email, but he only uses it from his computer during working hours.

 

Internet in the pocket:

 

It has become inconceivable to have a home without computers, cell phones or tablets, so the Internet has come to accompany us everywhere, and it seems to dominate our lives.

Bonnet emphasized that the Internet “almost enslaves the person without feeling it or worse, and this happens when the person is in the service of the Internet and not the other way around.” “I’m not subject to constant notifications, because I choose when I want to receive information, and now I feel more comfortable,” he added. With a simple click, the state can access mobile and personal emails, control our consumption, know our fans, our religious faith, our political ideas, and our sexual tastes, according to Puig Bonnet. An individual’s fundamental right to freedom seems void when he surrenders to social networks, so in 2013 a statement was signed against internet surveillance and espionage.

Intellectuals from more than 80 countries are calling for the United Nations to create an international charter of digital rights.

 

No for WiFi:

 

Social networks evoke all kinds of sensations. Those who decide to abandon the web are affected by many social differences or are shocked to discover that violence against the weakest goes unchallenged. Pictures that show a mother breastfeeding her child but allowing an unwanted person to torture an animal to death, or some teens making fun of someone in need, are censored, and also the envy of those who cannot accept that others are happy. There is also a condition known as FOMO (fear of distancing), which is the feeling of frustration if a person does not know what is happening in the online community but does not feel comfortable knowing; This social fear of exclusion, internet outages or the absence of WhatsApp is a drama for those who feel it.

On the other hand, there is the “Jomo” movement inspired by the book “The Joy of Losing” by Kahn.

 

Naima Abbas Abdul Ali Ahmed Khudair

a day without my parents

living without your parents is not that easy .but it’s just a day so it will be awesome, but it could be horrible too, this day has pros and cons, but it doesn’t matter anyway because I have been waiting for this day .I always wanted to go for a run at 3am with my friends but I can’t because our customs and traditions do not allow us to do that so do my parents, but I can do whatever I want today because nobody will control me.

So the first thing I want to do is to go with my friends to the beach to watch the sunrise, play with the water and run like no one is watching us, it may look silly but it means a lot to me and it will be a lot of fun. Then I will go with my friends to eat breakfast in the park like a small picnic .After that, we will go on a trip to south Korea where there is the most entertainment city, my friend always wanted to go there it’s like features sunbeds adventures, harmonic adventures, flying balloons, animal theater, the world’s largest electric train, and many more ingenious imitations of world adventures .we will play every game there, try their food. when the sun goes down we will try the spinning wheel because it’s better at night, we will go shopping and we’ll eat dinner at a restaurant called” Maple Treehouse” it’s kinda famous for serving the best barbecues .next, at the end we will claim a little Mountain and we can sit there talking about our lives or what we like until the sun comes up.

I will have fun with my friends but if my parents aren’t with me for a day, who will give me the money, who will tell me to be careful at the dangerous games, who will give me hope, or who will tell me not to go to the Mountain by myself because I may get hurt. Yes, my friends can do that but its different when parents do it. At the end of the day I will be happy that I had a lot of fun but as soon as the day ends I will go to my parents to tell them what happened in my day. They have always been a part of my day, so I will miss them, but it will be the best day without my parents.

 

Grace Howell

Fallen Order

“Help me…please…”

 

The only words came from desperate souls trying to survive among the midst of commotion and calamity. They won’t escape this place. Or their nightmares fueled through the clamour of bullets ricocheting.

 

As I slept, I clutched my gun while the icy air wrapped around my skin.

 

“We destroyed the earth long before you were born.”

 

That was the story I grew up with. My mother mentioned governments that could not fight both famine and the parching heat. So different nations, groups, families took from each other to fight for their own survival. My family and I were different; we were an unbreakable pack who were surviving together at the end of the world. Until we were split apart when we lost… Only now I feel what it means to be lonely; to have nothing else but the shadows and your own mind for company.

 

The natural order has fallen and humans with it.

 

Silence reigned that night. I didn’t like it much. It was like never knowing when a play will begin, startling you. As I got up to glance at the street beneath me, I saw them. The Night Prowlers. Their aim was to preserve the little that’s left on the planet and obliterate its greatest threat – humans. Black masks covered their faces with different chalk drawings on them; most had a skull ingrained on it, or a drawing of the devil, but one had a drawing of a wolf- the leader of the pack. Death crawled behind them snatching souls of slaughtered people.

 

Silently, I clambered down and landed behind a small pillar. Soon I was racing the shadows, dancing against flames, jumping across roofs concealed by the night. I was so close before it happened. Like a fire consuming me agony devoured me. I collapsed on the glass ridden floor which tore through my skin. My hand flew to my mouth as I held in a scream. Bullets chased after me as I climbed broken stairs coated with my blood.

 

Crumbling on the roof I drew my gun. Against the sheet of the night, I could barely see but soon the firing of a gun signified where they were. I swore. It was a Night Prowler. Frantically, I fired towards them, but they had a better aim. Soon my shoulder cried and spat out blood. With the gun now in my left hand I fired blankly- too anxious to look up. Bang bang bang. Dead silence. Apprehensively, I lifted my head, and no shots came. I killed it.

 

But I needed more weapons, I was going to take what they had. I dragged my leg and my bloodied shoulder until I reached the corpse. Their heart bled out on the roof. I stole from the dead Prowler, their blood staining my hands.

 

But something inside me desperately wanted to know who this killer was. With my red soaked hands, I lifted the mask off. I looked into my dead brother’s eyes.

 

Salwa Khan

A World Without Air Conditioners

Barren sand stretched for miles as I peered out of the airplane window. The sun cast a golden glow over the land and I stared in awe as people around me began to clap. Unsure, I began to join in, then stopped once I caught a few people side-eyeing me.

 

People began to grab their stuff, exiting in a flurry of motion and my family and I followed suit. Signs written in both Arabic and English guided us to luggage claim, leading us past fancy shops and restaurants, each one gleaming and boasting of foods and items I had never heard of. Even McDonalds seemed of a higher class, or perhaps that was my imagination coming into play. The airport floors were polished clean and large windows displayed the continuing expanse of sand outside. We grabbed our baggage and went outside, where our cousins were waiting to greet us. A couple hundred hugs later, we began to head outside.

 

I felt giddy with excitement. This was it: we were in Dubai. The city of luxury and glamour. Maybe we would catch a sight of the Burj Khalifa. Oh, or maybe we would go to Dubai Mall. Plans began to form in my mind of all the places we would go and all the food we would eat, but they all came to a halt once the doors of the airport opened.

 

An immense wave of heat hit me and sweat began to pool on my forehead. I heard my sister exclaim beside me and a few choice words entered my head, which I will choose to omit here, but I am sure you can let your imagination guess what they may be. The sun was piercing and it felt like all the moisture had been sucked out of the air. We stood for a few minutes there until my uncle brought his car around. Maybe we talked, maybe we were silent, but all I remember is the uncomfortable feeling of standing there, pools of moisture accumulating on my body, as I struggled to adjust to the extreme desert heat.

 

There was no sight prettier than my uncle’s car rolling around and no feeling better than the cool draft of the air conditioner hitting our faces once we settled in.

 

Sophia Allison A. Villafuerte

A World Without Covid

 

Pandemic, a word we hardly ever heard before until last March 2020 when multiple countries entered a state of lockdown. I claim that it was a unique experience since students including myself were required to stay home and do online classes for months. I still distinctly remember talking to my friends and planning what was supposed to be a fun and unforgettable summer break, however, things completely turned the other way around. I wouldn’t exactly say last summer was fun, but instead, it was truly unforgettable. During the first couple weeks of quarantine, I still remember being confused about how the whole online school system works, I still remember scrolling through Tiktok and doing the trendy dances, baking banana bread with my mother, and I also recall tasting the failed whipped coffee my dad and I made.

 

I’ve discovered who I truly am, I’m not saying that I loved the lockdown, because I most definitely did not, although, I am grateful for the spare time I had for myself and my family. Quarantine had a significant impact on my mental health, there were times where I felt lonely and depressed, but there were also times where I was jolly and grateful. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine myself living in the midst of a global pandemic.

 

Personally, I believe that quarantine was a time of realization. I learned a lot throughout this whole pandemic including appreciating the little things in life, spending your time wisely, and that change is inevitable. After all this, I can confidently say that it was a learning experience and a period of growth. Until now, I’m quite sure we’re all still wondering when things will return to normal, when will we get to visit our relatives again, when will we hang out with friends, and when will we explore other places without the fear of contracting a deadly virus. No one knows exactly when, but we are in the process of getting back to our pre-covid life as vaccines are now being distributed, cases are slowly going down in some countries, and people are finally being more cautious. All I can say is to have faith and trust the process for things will eventually get better. Thank you and always stay safe!

 

Tilottama Chowdhury

Violent Delights

A world without end;
There’s nothing left to defend.
The flowers will never wither,
And the oceans will never dry.

A world without sorrow;
And no one waits for ‘morrow.
Dawn has lost its allure,
And time is no more obscure.

A world without night;
Everything a glowing white.
The light blinds us all,
As we squint through life.

Bring back the nights,
The sorrows and the deaths.
The words forever and always,
Aren’t meant for mortal treads.

Life is made sweeter,
By these violent delights.
For how would we know spring,
Without the descending rain.

 

 

Ummay Maimona Chaman

The life of the animals and birds of Zoo

 

Hornbills are confined to the Old World regions of sub-Saharan Africa and of Asia east to the Philippines and New Guinea.There are fifty six species in the whole world. Bangladesh has five species.They are: Rufous-necked Hornbill,Wreathed Hornbill,Oriental Pied Hornbill,Great Hornbill,Indian Grey Hornbill.

Now I am going to write the story of a Great Hornbill from my travel experience.

 

Buceros bicornis 

Great Hornbill [Great Pied Hornbill]: size c. 130 cm. Bill large, horn shaped yellow and black with concave shaped casque. Wings black with two white bars, tail white with a black subterminal band. In Bangladesh its name is “Dhanesh”.

 

When I was 13 years old, I went to a picnic with some of my classmates and their families at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, Gazipur,Bangladesh. There is a 5 years old boy who is the youngest brother of my friend. He was quite naughty indeed.

While visiting the whole park there are various kinds of birds and animals surrounded by shekels. After visiting all the cages we visited the cage of the Hornbill bird. There we found GREAT HORNBILL in that area. That bird was too old to fly. We all are clicking photos of that as usual but that naughty boy started to kick the cage without any reason. I asked him what happened,he told me that that bird was screaming and wanted to be free from the cage. That’s why he was trying to break the lock of the cage. The security guard prohibited him from doing this. But Dhanesh was really screaming and crying because just for a while Dhanesh thought that the boy is his life savior and will make him free from this caged life. When we were leaving from that area, the boy was crying because he couldn’t make that bird free, Dhanesh was also screaming and we all were just watching. The screaming of that Hornbill is still in my mind. It wants to be free but it can’t do anything and we also can’t do anything.

 

In this wonderful earth every country has many zoos and also safari parks so that the animals don’t need to be caged,but still they live in a certain closed area. After that incident I have realised that everyone cherished freedom. The animals and birds also wanted to be free,walking in the forest,flying in the open sky without any boundaries. But when just for our need or just to save wildlife we are just making them caged or locked we are also torturing them mentally. Just for the sake of saving us from wild animals and saving them from being losted we are not only saving them but also locking them with shekels.

 

We should do something for their sake. They are animals but they have their own life. They also have rights to live with freedom. We can’t always make them our slave or make them caged for our sake. They also have freedom to live.

 

 

Sara Jaafar Isa Hasan Jawad

A day without restrictions

 

Being suffocated by the iron chains that surrounded my neck, behind the bars I can’t run out of, I can’t scream for help, and I can just wait for the time to pass, waiting for the hours of freedom, the hours when we will not be controlled by the retro culture, not be judged by the society and not be facing the inconvenience of double standards. But all we have now is our imagination, dreaming about that day we’ll live without restrictions. Restrictions my community sentenced for women. So let me keep dreaming, hoping that one day it will come true.

 

 

Waking up at 4am in the morning to go running, reaching the beach and starting to run as fast as I can, not being afraid that someone would judge me for it, or that someone will harassed me for it, returning to my apartment, having the breakfast I prepared for myself .Then, taking a shower and getting dressed and when I had finished I got into my BMW car and headed to the airport. Today I will be heading to Italy with my friends.

 

It is 2 pm now in Italy, our flight has just landed, I am the happiest person in the world. We head to the hotel. My friends were tired, so they took a nap. In the meantime, I did not want to waste any time in Italy, so I went to the most beautiful place in Italy “Italia Endurance Stables & Academy”, it’s wonderful there. I’ve always enjoyed riding horses and can’t wait to ride one. A group of horse riders and I took a short trip for an hour around the academy.

 

It is 6pm now, my friends and I are getting dressed because we are going to meet our virtual Italian friends, we met on twitter though we never thought we would ever meet in person. This is awesome.

We met over dinner in a fancy restaurant. We enjoyed the pizza and the pasta, it’s like I’m tasting it for the first time. I guess Italy has its own taste of everything.

Enjoying the view, enjoying the sounds of the waves, walking with my friends on the beach, talking about how great the evening was, how fast it passed. Knowing there is just one hour till it ends, till all this will fade away. We decided to do one last crazy thing, swimming at the beach and playing with water. Our dresses were getting wet, but it didn’t matter as long as we were happy.

 

It is 12 am, this great day is over but deep in my heart, I know I will be living it again one day. This may sound normal in your world, going out at 4 am to walk, having your own place, travelling with friends, or riding horses but not in mine. We are dedicating our lives fighting for the day these restrictions will end, the day when all of us will be freed.

 

Ester Martins Oliveira Viana

A World Without Bullying.                                                                                                                                                        When I moved from my home in one city to another city in the countryside, my first instinct was fear: fear of not being able to adapt, not being able to make new friends, not being able to do well in school. So I was surprised in many ways, when I entered the new school I managed to make some friends and adapt to them, and soon I was improving in relation to my studies, because in the old school I didn’t do very well, because I had difficulty understanding the subjects. But as a saying goes “all good things don’t last forever”, and that’s exactly what happened to me, it was as if my life changed from water to wine in a negative way, as if it were the saying “Expect the best, prepare for the worst, and accept whatever comes”. Suddenly the people who claimed to be my best friends along with other boys in my class started with a simple joke about my clothes not being very feminine (like the girls in my class who wore very tight jeans, and I hated tight clothes) and then turned to insults and soon it couldn’t be considered a simple joke anymore, because it was affecting me. My first instinct was to get away from these people and seek protection from my only best friend who was like my shield, so after a while she had to move to another city that was much further inland and put another guardian angel to take care of me that today I consider as my best friend and sister of consideration, and thanks to her I managed to ignore the insults and not let my grades be affected either. Despite having overcome all of this, the bullying still left a big scar on me, which was the loss of trust in people, even in people close to me who had nothing to do with the bullying and who never committed such an act, and there is also the social phobia that before only existed when I was a baby. With this I came to the conclusion that there are many people right now who are going through what I went through, and others in worse situations without any help or protection. So what I wish is that there is a world without bullying, so that lives are not affected by a simple joke/insult that soon ends up in aggression, that everyone learns to accept the differences in people, that being different is what makes us unique and special, that they have more empathy and put themselves in the other’s shoes before doing something, because it could be happening to them too.

 

Fawziah Nabiha

A world without…

Racism!

 

Looking at the real world through a biological lens, It is abundantly visible that there are numerous variations of the same entity. There is an entire field of study in the science that is biology tasked with understanding shared characteristics among living organisms. This is sufficient evidence from the natural world that diversity is a critical component of biological life. If this is the scenario, Why is racism such a long-standing phenomenon among a species that is thought to be the most intellectual of all living creatures?

 

It is near impossible for a lover of flowers to desire to plant and nurture only one color of a given species, say, magnolias. Such an individual is naturally inspired to gather as many different colors of magnolias as they can possibly acquire. the beauty in diversity is, therefore, undeniable. In the natural order of thing, skin color variations that bring about the term race is fundamentally a good thing. White, yellow, brown, or black skin is simply a result of the natural dispensation chosen by nature and not the inhabitant of the biological body with the quest of illustrating the beauty of diversity among the members of the human race.

 

While it is wildly clear that nature chose the different shades of skin color in an effort to generate more delicacy in the original world through such diversity, it is essentially a curse to some and a blessing to others. In certain human societies, having the “wrong” skin color often results in all possible types of oppressive discrimination, taunts, bully, etc. This is indeed a tragic result, yet the initial intention of such complexity was to make life manifest in as many different and magnificent ways as possible. It suffices to opine that a world free of prejudice would be far more wonderful than what we’re seeing now.

 

Najifa Maliat Najah

A Journey by The train I Have Recently Enjoyed

The journey is an experience for one and all. For a student, it is all the more attractive, because it provides him with an escape from the daily routine of books and the classroom. I was, therefore, looking forward to the commencement of the summer vacation. I had also decided to spend this vacation with my aunt at Chittagong.

 

As the day of my journey drew near, my excitement ran high. At last, the day came when I had to start for Chittagong. Traveling with luggage is rather boring to me. It becomes all the more tedious if the train happens to be crowded. I, therefore, made up my mind to make the ensuring journey as light as possible.

 

I reached the station about half an hour before the departure of the train. The station offered a scene of great activity. Rickshaws, motor cars, and all other conveyances were coming to the station with passengers. Coolies were running behind them. There was a long queue before the booking window. I  had to stand In the queue for some time I could buy my ticket.

I was traveling in the second-class compartment. I occupied a comfortable seat in a small compartment. After half an hour the train started and I heaved a sigh of relief.  The train ran on. A pleasant breeze of the open space cooled the compartment to the great relief of the passengers.

 

When the train left Tongi, the proverbial greenery of Bangladesh came into our view. The train was running through green paddy fields. There were jute and sugarcane plants here and there. They were tossing their heads in the breeze. The other passengers in my compartment had either gone to sleep or applied themselves to books or newspapers. But the attraction of nature’s beauty on both sides was so great for me that I could not turn my eyes from it.

 

Then the train stopped only at important stations as it was a mail train. The scenes at all the stops were the same and I had a look at the passengers boarding the train or getting down. The excitement and the hurry of the passengers boarding the train or getting down. The excitement and the hurry of the passengers, the noise of the hawkers, and the movement of the railway staff were an interesting sight. The slow approach of darkness, the gradual and majestic setting of the sun, the flying flock of birds in search of nightly shelters, and the return of cattle to the sheds, are all charming sights. I was so absorbed in them that I did not notice when the light in the compartments was switched on… Nothing was visible except some darker patches at intervals.

 

It was about 9 o’clock when the train reached Chittagong railway station. The train slowed down and finally stopped by the platform. One of my cousins was present at the station to receive me. The journey was really pleasant for me.

 

Harshika

A    WORLD     WITHOUT     HOPE

Ryan, a young and lively traveler, wished to follow his father’s footsteps who was a very renowned traveler in the UK. For his next adventure, he decided to go to Tetepare Island which was the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific. He wasn’t very experienced but he was quite determined to prove himself worthy. Ryan boarded his flight to the Munda Airport. From there, he took a boat to reach the island. Upon reaching there, he was completely blown away by its beauty and serenity. Tetepare was beyond his imagination. It was the perfect example of ‘simplicity is perfection’. The still blue waters, the clear skies and the mighty forests made that place heaven on earth for Ryan. He was quite thrilled to start his adventure. He made a shelter using some wood, twigs and leaves. His next task was to collect some firewood to build a fire. His first meal on the island included some wild berries and mushrooms foraged from the dense forest and some freshly caught fish. It was quite a satisfactory supper. His first night was a sleepless one. He gazed at the mesmerizing stars that twinkled brightly in the darkness of the skies. He listened to the buzzing of insects and the chirping of birds. He had never felt so connected to any other place. Ryan’s next few days were quite challenging but he handled everything with sheer determination and grit. He even managed to find some herbs which acted as insect repellants. Everything was going well as he had hoped. But he didn’t know what was in store for him next. On 13 June, a malicious storm hit the island. The sky was filled with dark-bellied clouds and within an hour it began raining cats and dogs. The atrocious waves in the sea were up to 12m high. Strong gales of wind uprooted multiple trees. Many animals lost their lives and the forest was affected terribly. Ryan’s shelter was completely devastated and his boat was tremendously damaged. The storm calmed down in a few hours but an ominous silence filled Tetepare. Ryan was now stranded alone on the island. He was completely shaken. A wave of despair and sadness rushed through him. With no way to get out of the isle, he was quite sure that he was stuck there. He accepted that this was the end of the road for him and his end was near. He had lost all his hope. One day, when he was lying on the ground, his father’s last words echoed in his mind. He remembered “My dear son, Ryan….life is full of ups and downs. When there is happiness, there shall be sorrow. There will be times when you feel defeated and lost but never give up. You must fight and never lose hope because  A WORLD WITHOUT HOPE IS A WORLD WITHOUT MEANING.“ His words were like a ray of light in darkness for Ryan. He was filled with a renewed sense of confidence and determination. He was sure that he would find a way out. “Mr. Ryan, are you sure you want to go to Tetepare Island knowing all the risks involved? Mr. Ryan, Mr. Ryan are you listening?”- said Mr. James Arthur, the Chairman of the UK Traveler Organization. Arthur’s words seemed to break him from his trance. Ryan realized he had been imagining about the isle. He was quite relieved knowing that none of it was true but there was a big decision ahead of him whether he wanted to go there or not. He replied with a radiant and confident smile on his face, “I am ready to venture out into the unknown Mr. James.” After his journey, Ryan went on to become one of the most successful travelers in not only the UK but the entire world.

 

“HOPE CAN BE A POWERFUL FORCE. MAYBE THERE’S NO ACTUAL MAGIC IN IT, BUT WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HOPE FOR MOST AND HOLD IT LIKE A LIGHT WITHIN YOU, YOU CAN MAKE THINGS HAPPEN LIKE MAGIC.” – Laini Taylor

 

EBISIKE DOROTHY OKWUCHI

A World without,
Humanity, visions it like the ocean which runs dry and leaves an unfillable hole, void with loneliness and emptiness.

A World without,
Survival and life as humans, animals and even plants graves our world with black, when they aren’t there to lighten it up, Even the Sun will lose it hope.

A World without,
Good Leadership, gives a ticket to destruction among the gifts of nature and mother Earth.
It’s like a blunt sword that has no sharp effect on the trunk of a tree ruling with force that leaves no option but to bow low in submission for fear of unknown torture.

A World without,
Better Power, imprints a mark of mockery and shame perpetually on us even without integration of it.

A World without,
Beauty hold nothing but insecurity and Jealousy as one has no say in where lies the truth of pure beauty.

A World without,
Hope, make the flesh hunger for the inexorable of death itself, crumbling the last piece of it to dust and ashes.

A World without,
Animals, deprives it of an experience of a life growing in the wild ignoring how they move with no care of the world and anticipate migration and discovery of new environment. But now they live in innumerable fear, placed in the edge for never knowing when the next pull of trigger and sound of bang will come from, decreasing their numbers giving their existence a red card.
Even skin trade recedes the quality of reliance nature has entrusted to us but I tell you she cries daily for how her home has turned out to be.
We must fight to defeat the war against extinction and uphold Justice for the wild

A World without,
The art of poetry lies an emotionless face and depriving the planet our inner feelings through the relationship we share with our pen and script.
It lacks our opinions, presence, smiles and productivity to how we truly mirror them

A World without,
Challenge, buries us inside our setbacks letting us snuggly in our weak spot but the liquid of opportunity is poured out to unlock the secret which holds the gift to persistence and perseverance,
It really pays.

A World without,
Justice leaves open a door for my murderers to roam free and my home wallow in constant pain aching for my presence that never will come as my grave soaks up with tears and just maybe justice is held for me.

A World without,
Blacks puts the world in debt of the beauty the night holds with the stars and the glorious dimming of the moon.

A World without,
Whites deprives the planet of daylight and perfect relationship the sun holds with the clouds.

A World without,
Rain,hardens the heart of the soil snatching life into a river of starvation and suffering.
Just somewhere the burial of productivity is held.
O’ great rain,hold not in pouring the blessings deserved as anticipation is held to taste you again.

A World without,
Trust, owes a debt of many doubt strapped around the waist of the mind increasing the rate to which heads are held behind the shoulder consciousness lay bare when sounds passes by.

A World without,
Song, relives the biography of a dead soul.
Kills the last drop of humming and melody as it was never known turning the world a walking zombie.

A World without,
Smiles and laughter, conceals the mind with darkness and negligence.
Injects pain on the weak and deprives the heart of happiness.

We believe our world is blessed and by means of it we survive
Casting a life worth living for those who feel they lack a piece of these
Come, take a walk with me.

 

Anosh Haleemi

A World Without Fish

In sea life animals fish is one of the beneficial and important animal because of meat which is white and one of the pure and healthy meats in the world today about 32000 kinds of fish are known to humans, fish like common carp lived for 20 years but nowadays their life’s become too short and we are responsible for that, because we throw junk and trash in rivers and seas which make it dirty and poisonous for the small and big creature in the sea. Fishing is a good hobby but killing sea life creatures for no reason is a big crime, I have seen a boy killing a fish for no reason and enjoying killing it.I am on that side of people who are against extinction and killing sea life animals and other animals for no reason. Killing animals without any reason is a big crime that we are doing. Killing thousands of animals every day is not hunting or hobby it is the beginning of extinction of both animals and humans. It is the animals that breakdown the dead bodies of the other animals. I want to recommend some ways of protecting sea life animals and protecting them from extinction:

1-Keep the river clean as mush as you can.

2-Don’t let anyone throw anything in water, river or in the sea.

3-Put recycle bins everywhere around the water, river or sea.

4-Give sea life animals good food. And etc..

These are only a few ways but we can do more things to protect sea life and other animals from extinction if we hunt or kill one animal, The next day we will try to kill more animals of that kind. All animals are connected to each others and it is not fair to kill them for no reason, killing animals without any reason are like killing humans. I want to support every child, teen and adult to protect every animals from dying without no reason and protect them from extinction. Believe me protecting each live no matter if it is a human life or animal life it is a good deed and no matter how old you are, you are able to save a fish and that will be the beginning of saving any animal from extinction.

 

Maryanne Wairimu Kimani

A DROP OF LIFE

A world without water was all that was echoed in the radios. The earth around us all dried up. I was among the few left volunteers who had traveled to the National Park to tell the tales of the traumatic happenings that followed us. I would sit in the scorching sun, my skin cracked as I swallowed my saliva in pain and hunger. Being the few animal rights volunteers who had been recently recruited in a local National Park, every living thing looked up to us both man and animals for help and hope. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do. I watched as the hippopotamus lay on their backs slowly dying and all that was left of them were memories of them covering up themselves in mud as a layer of protection. All boreholes dried up and dirt was left, never had the water been scarce like that.

I cried in anger as I watched a series of wildfires ravaging acres of land, consuming our precious wildlife and the few shrubs that reminded us of the trees we once had. Destroying the only history our ancestors had left us as proof of their existence. Days passed, and there was no sign of help. The ecosystem was now getting imbalanced more than ever. The world was turning against each other. We had drifted from the face of seeing each other as friends, kins, and neighbors to the phase of seeing each other as an opportunity of giving one another life, meaning both man and animals were now enemies.

The wildlife outnumbered us as the drought had found us in a national park. They were more of a threat than a tourist attraction. The carnivores tore humans apart leaving no bones untouched. The humans ate the herbivorous animals as they were easy to catch. At that moment I stood with the wildlife more than ever as I knew even through the hardest times the wildlife voices needed to be heard. Animals such as elephants were now running extinct in the national park. I could vividly remember how the elephants sucked water with their trunks and poured it on my head washing off all my dirt away and at that moment it proved that humans could live peacefully in animals.

I could no longer offer my services effectively. I had grown thin; my legs were feeble and I could barely stand.  I crawled on my stomach eating the earth’s dirt as I waited for my death. Just as I was about to lose hope, I saw clean water trunks speeding in our direction. Men alighted and ran to us with water bottles and stuck them in our mouths.  I had gotten a drop of life. We received the help we needed but the animals were left to die. The rescue team sent was only enough for the humans. Truly water is life and as much as humans need water even wildlife voices need to be heard too.

 

Bhavya Dixit

A world Without Nature

Iceland held an impromptu funeral for the loss of its first glacier to climate change. The fallen glacier is named Ok and it’s ironic because what happened to it wasn’t ok at all. I hiked up to the place where the 700-year-old glacier once existed as the many natural wonders of mother Earth.

“A letter to the future.” It read on the memorial plaque. “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done.

Only you know if we did it.

August 2019

415ppm CO2” [1]

The glacier used to measure 16 km^2 before it became extinct. The glacier, in fact, had been stripped off its title as a glacier since 2014. However, before it still had dead ice in it. Now it is just a barren hole, forever reminding us of its cruel fate and one of man’s many failures.

“By memorializing a fallen glacier, we want to emphasize what is being lost-or dying- the world over, and also draw attention to the fact that this is something that humans have accomplished. Although it is not something we should be proud of.” [2] said a professor there.

I walk around the remnants of the glacier, thinking. If we continue wandering aimlessly down this path, we’ll be putting up 400 more plaques in the next 200 years for glaciers just in Iceland. We may as well turn the world into a graveyard for everything it will lose to climate change. Humans are drastically intelligent and imaginative creatures, but they won’t be able to invent their way out of this one.

Extinction isn’t just about animals, it’s about what is being lost in all of nature. Species of plants and natural wonders such as glaciers and icebergs and everything nature has to offer. Climate change isn’t only going to take away animals that we keep caged up anyway; it’s going to take away our home and everything single thing that comes with it.

Statistics aren’t enough to make us more alert about climate change. The ‘annual average temperature is rising 0.08 degrees Celsius every year’ [3], now that didn’t sound very alarming, did it? It’s, by far, a lot more alarming to see the very last animal of the lion species die right in front of your eyes.

Imagine it, the strangled cry of the old, wild beast struggling, gasping to take its last breath. The helplessness you feel, the guilt rising up inside you like bile urging you to change the past, the anger towards the humans for letting it die. There was nothing that you could have done in that moment, yet everything you could have done before it. While the beast laid utterly silent beside you. The monstrous king of the jungle, feared by all animals, yet it couldn’t survive the monstrosity of humans.

This is going to continue except that the next time it would be us as the lion, however there would be no one left to see us die.

 

Rimsha Ali

A world without me

“I may be a supporting character in others’ lives but in my life I am the main

character”. I cannot imagine a world without me though it doesn’t bring much of a change to

the world. For a things to disappear it must exist. I am not one of the public figure with a lot of

fan following,the world wouldn’t even notice even if I’m gone but there are still some people

whose life will be changed with me gone. The real change will be for me who will not get to

witness the wonders of the world. For people the world without me is nothing but for me the

world is nothing without me.

 

“The winter exists to bring thethe beautiful spring and the darkness exists to bring light”. All the

memories of mine starts with me and end with me. A world without me is useless for me.

Eventually persons disappear without living a trace and they are soon forgotten.

 

The person who are tormented are the family. The only place where life starts and love never

ends. Everyone knows that they will disappear without a trace and it’s hurt to lose someone.

The world is designed in such a way to torment you but some call it fate to console themselves.

The disappearance and the world without is a different things it will become a whole different

story. I think my disappearance will cause a bigger problem in my life than any rich person like

Bill Gates disappearing. A world without phone can be lived as well but a world without you has

no explanation for you to imagine it. This is not as simple as it seems to be.

 

My life would be turned upside down without me in this world. Every memories of my journey will

be erased from everyone memories in this world. There would be no reason for me to dream.

The nostalgic feeling of being happy will also not be there for me. No person to communicate

with me and no reason for them to judge me. My happy and sad moments will be myth for me.

False hope to fulfill my dream will be gone too. Some days I wonder if the world would be a

better off without me but when it will happen it will be horrible for sure.

 

My place in this world will be taken by someone else or there would be no place for me in this

world. It would definitely be a loss to world anyway to lose a pretty person. A world without me is

a world with less confident persons. I admit some people life would be boring without me.

Therefore, it is necessary to live for yourself because people will forget eventually but it is you

who always remember you.

 

TASHWINII A/P DHAYALAN

A WORLD WITHOUT WILDLIFE

Have you ever imagined or even thought about living a life without the presence of animals?Without the sounds of the bird chirping in the early morning?Or even the buzzing of a bee on a flower?The green plants that once used to be a magnificent sight are now going into an extreme extinction.The kingdom of animals is now being devastated by irresponsible people.And I can’t imagine any of this to happen until one day when I woke up,I was in the Amazon forest without realizing how I have got there.

I couldn’t believe my eyes and was startled by what  I witnessed. And if you think it was because of how I got there,then you are absolutely wrong.I witnessed something that shouldn’t be happening ;the forest is not like what I read or saw anymore! How is it possible that Amazon forest is like the saying  don’t judge a book by it’s cover?

As I walked through,the jaguars were dying and some were trying their best to save their young ones.The cheetahs were eating their own species and  had to compete with each other to live in a desperate situation.The plants and trees are no longer there anymore.  Trees have been cut down and plants such as orchids which are epiphytes could not survive as their dependents have been destroyed. Birds are no longer chirping and monkeys are not swinging on the branches.The blooming  and beautiful flourishing flowers are now withered.Astonishingly,the whole ecosystem has been disrupted!

As I was revolving about the  mystify, my nose sniffed a flaming,blazing fire from somewhere in the forest.Without my consciousness,it took a turn for the worse as I started to feel the heat of the fire warming up my body.The fires are just around the corner! The flame burned up the whole forest;the trees were descending,the animals were running in fear,and some couldn’t save themselves! Terrified of the situation,I yelled,”Help!Help!” even though I knew that no one could save me nor the wildlifes.

As I was screaming at the top of my voice,a soft lullaby voice jiggled my body.As I opened my eyelid ,I saw  my mum and she said,” You must be having nightmares again my dear!”.And all that happened was a nightmare and I could say that  it was my worst nightmare ever.Yet,one thing I acknowledge  is that it is not too late for us to save the wildlife from extinction.Not only wildlife but wildspaces are also the one that needs  to be protected and rescued.Together we save the nature for the future generation!

 

Cassandra On Li Ting

A World WIthout the Bluefin Tuna

 

Roaming the serene body of the Atlantic Ocean, its skin glints a metallic blue, contrasting its silver underbelly. Its gigantic frame stalks through the dark abyss, relying on its keen eyesight to seize and devour a variety of small fishes, crustaceans, squids and eels. Aside from its size, its unmatched speed and thought processing earned this exotic species the title of one of the ocean’s top predators. This is what gives the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna such a formidable presence.

 

A world without Bluefin Tuna would be a world with a dead sea. The Bluefin Tuna’s place at the top of the marine food chain plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance of the marine environment. However, humans are disrupting this balance by fishing the Bluefin Tuna into extinction. The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is a highly demanded delicacy in several Asian countries and its high price of over $10,000 is what encourages fishermen to develop more refined methods to capture this rapid creature. Its high demand in Asian markets is what makes the Bluefin a victim to a crucial yet ignored topic – overfishing. Overfishing is the process of catching too many fishes at once, resulting in the breeding population being too depleted to recover. Bluefin tuna is also a victim to a wasteful type of commercial fishing which basically hauls in massive amounts of marine animals, and then separates the desired species with the unwanted ones. Those that are unwanted are then discarded and thrown back into the ocean, but most of  these creatures die before they even hit the water’s surface. Furthermore, its low production rate and late maturity is what makes the Bluefin so vulnerable to overfishing. This ultimately means that most Bluefin Tunas die before even getting the chance to mate.

 

If we continue to stand by and do nothing, it won’t be long before the Bluefin becomes another victim to fall into extinction. Even though the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna as endangered, little has been done to ensure that these unique creatures are protected. International regulators have also refused to adopt fishing quotas to protect bluefin, so now it’s up to us, the consumers, to eliminate any demand of the Tunas. A secondary consequence of the overfishing of Bluefin Tuna is the endangerment of many other marine wildlife. Each year, over 100,000 marine mammals die after ingesting debris or becoming entangled in the discarded fishing ropes, nets and lines. Not only does overfishing endanger the Bluefin, it also causes irreversible damage to the balance of the marine ecosystem.

 

It is hard to believe that something as little as a 4 meter long and 907kg fish could somehow jeopardize the future of our planet, but in reality it can. The marine ecosystem is a fragile balance that should be void of human interaction in order to remain healthy and stable, so I urge all of us to take a stand in protecting this unique habitat.

 

Esha Shahzad

“A world without Twilight”

 

From far above it came,

In a single ray of perfection.

On our hearts it lay its aim,

To the soul’s deepest section.

 

Landing on a sublime spot,

Giving it an innate shimmer;

Of all the things for which I’ve fought,

It does much more than just differ.

 

Hours before breaking dawn,

I came to catch a glimpse;

Sorrows and grief, all have gone,

But deep down I know, the light always dims.

 

Rezaul Karim Fahim, 17

A World Without Sun

According to scientist the sun is the nearest star to earth the only planet believed to be inhabited by the living creatures. This natural alignment is mysterious and it is hard to explain why the star is placed in such a position. The earth is a planet and it revolves around the sun leading to a series of seasonal changes. Science tells us that the gravity of the sun is the one responsible in holding the earth in its current position. The seasonal changes caused by the revolution of the earth have had tremendous effects in the lives of creatures living on earth as well as the physical terrain of the planet.Plants on earth which are the primary producers in the food chain rely on the light from the sun to manufacture their own food through the process of photosynthesis. In these case the light from the together with chlorophyll a pigment in green plants undergo a series of some chemical reactions that lead to manufacturing of food by the plants.

Consumers which are made of various animals and micro organisms rely entirely on plants for food. The sense we get here shows that without plants, it is difficult for consumers to live. Since the sun is the primary source of light that is needed by plants to survive, then it is very important because plants apparently form the basis for life here on earth. Plants which make up forests will attract rainfall that will ensure that human beings survive. Water is a very important requirement to all animals and plants in this world. People need water for both domestic and industrial uses. Without water it will be impossible to cook food, wash bath and drink. Plants need water to grow well and to produce the best yields. Food crops like fruits beans potatoes and corn need water in order to grow well.

Water is also needed for industrial use like generation of hydro electric power, supplying industries that engage in very important activities like manufacturing and processing of various products that we may need in our every day life situation. Water from the rain can also be harvested to be used in irrigating dry lands to produce subsistence food. Animals also need water whether domestic or wild. Pastoral communities rely on livestock as a lively hood and if these animals do not get enough water the live of the pastoral communities in danger.

Apart from these effects on plants, the sun also has some direct benefits on animals. For instance it provides warmth, source of vitamin D, source of light, source of solar energy, act as a stellar cue to migrating birds and animals. The sun also has let to economic benefits especially in the tropics where tourist allover the world troop to these places to enjoy the warmth provided by the sun. Tourists earns foreign income to a country that will create employment opportunities to the locals of tropical countries.

In conclusion, the sun is has a lot of benefits that if there was no sun then it means that life could not be there. In simple terms the sun is life.

 

 

A World Without WATER

Oh my child

Thou art precious in my sight

Thy pure heart

Filled with love

Thou art my child

The chosen one

 

Came from the future

Where water is no more

Thou art chosen

To convey the message

Oh my child

Lead the peer group to rescue the globe

 

Look, my child

Look at the lake

Look at the river

Look at the reservoir

Look at the sea

This my child is the

The purest gift from the universe

 

She comes from heaven

Through the sky to the ground

Oh my child cherish her

For she is pure

For she is flexible

For she is caring

For she is unstoppable

For she is nourishing

For she keeps the sphere together

 

Oh my child

For I’m from the future

Walked all the way

From East to West

For the sea is shriveled

 

Oh my child

No more Blue

No more Green

Only the dreadful echo of dying birds

No more kingdoms

But the rise of fiends

For no more rainfall

 

Oh my child

Thou art precious in my sight

Look around

For you will see no more pastoral

In coming times

 

So thou my child

The chosen one

Raise your voice

Protect your lake

Protect your river

Protect our reservoirs

Protect our ocean

Protect our sacred cloudburst

Take your lead

To change the world

Aim to crown as the cohort of change

 

Oh my child

Thou art precious in my sight

Thy pure heart

Filled with love

Thou art my child

The chosen one

Take your step

For we still have time

 

~~ THE END ~~

 

Suleiman Muhammad

Here in the Himalayas

We have climbed the mountain.

There’s nothing more to do.

It is terrible to come down  

To the valley

Where, amidst many flowers,

One thinks of snow.

 

Donald Justice “Here in Katmandu”

 

The roads are rocky. The cold is intense. The altitude is dangerous. And yet, the view is—and has always remained—spectacular. That is the life for someone like me, someone who lives in the mountainous terrain of Pakistan’s northern region, Gilgit-Baltistan. Being over 7,500 feet above sea level in the Hunza Valley, I have been raised by my family to bear such deadly conditions, because…well, our lives depend on it. But Hunza is not the place where I am originally from.

My family is from Skardu located down south—a beautiful valley with a unique mixture of deserts, plains, forests, and snow. The family business in fishing runs deep within our ancestry, for the fish in the nearby freshwater River Indus, are of great use for our well-being. So it is no surprise that just five years after my birth, I was trained by my older brother on how to use fishing rods and small nets–now I am sixteen, and I am able to do all that with ease and perfection. Our small village was located right beside the giant, sixty-three kilometer long Baltoro Glacier—a magnificent structure of pure, snowy-white ice. This glacier has been the reason we made our house in this village, for us being here for two decades living in peace and minimal interference from the outside world. However, in the past three years the situation with the glacier had been getting worse.

Baltoro is melting. The melted ice from the glacier had seeped into the River Indus and the tributary River Shigar, making it overflow. It had been flowing right into our village, our schools, and our market, causing damages in the process. Perhaps worst of all, the fish which we catch—the palla, rahu, thalla, and trout—were starting to decrease in quantity. Our livelihood and our well-being was slowly starting to fade. All simply due to the fact that global warming was causing the Baltoro Glacier to melt.

Therefore, the majority of our village, including my family, made the decision last year to migrate to Hunza further up north, and start afresh with a new village next to Hunza’s Batura Glacier. It was not an easy trek, using the route of the Karakoram Highway, what with all our belongings, our livestock, the vastness of our group, and the sheer danger of migrating up in an uneven, rocky land. Yet with the grace of Allah, and the power of our will, we all managed to make it to Hunza Valley in one piece. We have now laid the basic foundations for our new village, and The Indus remains within our reach. Yet, despite all this relief and success, it does not take much to see that Batura will slowly suffer the same fate as Baltoro Glacier in Skardu.

As I write this memoir down, I begin to think….if all these problems were happening just in Pakistan, then what of the rest of the world? What of the glaciers in Antarctica, in Greenland, in the Arctic—all melting due to global warming? What of the lands near them, all under threat from the rising sea levels brought upon by the melting? What of the flow of the freshwater rivers and streams—dramatically stopping the world’s freshwater supply? What then, will happen to this Earth and everyone on it?

I shall write more on this subject in the future. For now, my mother is calling me to help remove some flood water that has leaked into our new house.

 

Amanda Michelle Setiawan

a world without you

 

a world without you

seems so hard to grasp

since you’re meant to be

a part of my future, present and past

 

sadly true and sadly so

a world with you I had to let go

you left this world as your world turned dark

not realizing that you had my heart

 

my heart was shattered

my efforts in vain

how could I ever live through this pain?

 

a world without you

is a world i despise

yet that’s the world

where my two feet lie

 

a world without you

is where i live my life

and though the pain still aches

i still manage to get by

 

 

SRI CHAITANYAMOI CHETIA

A World Without Tigers
I sometimes imagine what had happened if there would have been no tigers in the wild! One thing is for sure, in that case there would have been no joy while going for a trip in a jeep safari or in an elephant ride inside the dense jungles.
The combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power has earned the tiger, its pride of place as the national animal of India.
Coming to the Kaziranga National Park in Assam (India), which is a UNESCO world heritage site, there has been a growth of the population in tigers. The Kaziranga National Park is known for its population of Indian Tigers. At present, the Kaziranga National Park has the highest population density of tigers in any protected area in the world and has the third highest population of tigers in India. With a huge population of buffalos, swamp deer, hog deer, wild boars the tigers here never have to go hungry.
With only around 2500 surviving species, the tiger species of Kaziranga National Park concentrated in the Agaratali range of the park has been classified in the IUCN list.
While Royal Bengal Tiger is in itself an endangered species in India: Golden Tiger is the only one of its kind recorded in the wild in the entire world. Although Golden Tigers are found in the zoos across the world, this is the first time that they have been spotted in the wild. This tiger was spotted by a wildlife photographer who clicked pictures of it, which was later shared by a Divisional Forest Officer on Twitter. It has gone viral since then and received worldwide acclamation.
Tigers are found in 13 range states across Asia. In 2010, the 13 Tiger Range Countries adopted a Global Tiger Recovery Programme with the aim of doubling the numbers of wild tigers by 2022, through combatting threats, engaging with local communities and improving tiger habitat management.
The End

 

Radiyah Nouman

 

22^nd June: World Rainforest Day

Perhaps the bell will toll for us. You, all of us, are part of a generation which in our own persecution complex we have termed, “the plagued generation”.

Early Morning: Remembering my father – William Stafford by Kim Stafford

It’s when one is wrapped in the thick, comforting blanket of the night that one has the most unfiltered thoughts. I lie with my mind intertwined with the tendrils of sleep, twirling my fingers in the leaf nest that holds my body atop the tree branches. The coils of humidity curl tightly around the forest, unrelenting even in the night. I flick my hand to ward off yet another blood sucking insect, lazily turning my head to spot the numerous lumps in the surrounding trees. The family sleeps deeply with the knowledge that we are first to arrive at this luxurious spot. Rival troops are bound to come screeching in a few days’ time. For now, however, this is our place -complete with fruits hanging heavy with ripeness from the trees and a gurgling stream just a short space away.

The surrounding greenery looks alive even in the damp darkness and the thick layer of the canopy above is a comfort. One can breathe in the moisture laden air and in that single sniff the berries’ intoxicating sweetness waters the mouth, the smell of rain on dirt awakens the spirit and the scent of fellow species brings one to life. My face twitches as I pick up the endless sounds of the jungle. Howler monkeys call out to each other while the birds drowsily sing their tunes amongst the rustling leaves. The occasional predator can be heard growling in the distance; panic would ensue if the ears picked up the footsteps of death nearby. My bottom teeth stick out in a relaxed smile as I take in the feel of my home. I can’t imagine a world without this wondrous place, providing for our every need but also keeping us on our feet.

An unwelcome thought pries its way into my peaceful musing as my mind conjures up images of blackened forest floors and barren ash-white trees. Hadn’t there been searing hot flames burning everything at the last spot we settled in? Not at all like the warm embrace of the ball of flames in the sky, from which rays would peek through the gaps of trees offering sparks of light to play in. No, those flames spread rapidly, devouring without pause for reconsideration. Had it not been those few days where our numbers dropped? Some were singed with their hairless mottled skin as a reminder and then there were those who we mourned. The screams had echoed in the forest and in our dreams for weeks on end. But they weren’t louder than those who were dragged away limp and helpless, riddled with holes leaking silver. The arms that took them away, just like ours but with less hair, more defined features and on two legs. Were they not the same arms that flung the balls of fire high into the trees and fanned the flames along its path of destruction? Why did they want to take my home away? There had to be reasoning behind it. After all, is this not their home too? What will they do when the world is deprived of life?

I turn to face my mother and cling to her. A chimpanzee like me would rather be eaten by the sharp teeth of the flames than see a world without forests. A world with life is a world worth living for and better than all the scrumptious berries, however much ripe they may be.

 

Ayushi Ladha

Begin Caring

 

Could we stumble back in time? When

Shoulders were packed, when cafes were jammed, when

Jobs and dreams clouded our minds, when

Isolation was by choice, and socializing was a tactical game…

When friends with boisterous laughs would

Crowd school corridors, when cars packed the roads,

And the forests were tourism, when

We owned the world, and everything in it?

But maybe it is better this way…

 

There is a shroud of smoke covering a world dying,

A fire on the brink of burning this suffering,

A pitiful sight created by us to cater to ourselves,

Without once thinking of our consequences

And one day, all those things of beauty,

Talked about and written about in poetry,

In prose, in paintings, in songs,

They will no longer exist, because of horrors

Like pollution, deforestation, hunting, extinction,

Words brought to life, much like those bedtime stories,

Which scared us and bribed us into sleep, lest the beast awaken

 

What of the great beasts of wisdom, peaceful elephants

Roaming the earth, and the alligators and the tigers

And the forests, where reside all forms of power,

A game of predator and prey, disturbed by us,

What of those white rhinos, thundering

Across green lush fields, which will

Sooner rather than later be burned to the roots

Taking out guns and matches and kerosene

We stomp forward, never once looking back

At the world crushed beneath us, at

All those elements which gave us life

At the air, the land, the water,

At the demand of the life cycle,

Never wondering when essential,

Soon become the extinct, when the stars

Soon blink out under a coat of smoke,

When the beautiful sunshine begins to burn,

And when, we curse ourselves for the unseen which was right there

 

Dead bodies litter our histories,

Those who went naturally, following the orders,

Which nature so meticulously gives out,

What upends the conscience, guilts us,

Perhaps far little than we should be feeling,

Is the skin shed and blood spilt because we willed it,

Because we dealt the cards, leading to our own demarcation,

Because our commitment to our “pride” overshadowed

What should have been common sense

Hunting and pillaging our own forests,

Foraging, not a living, but for a hobby of killing,

Beasts and leaves alike, we burnt,

To furnish with ivory pianos, skin rugs, wooden walls

 

Stop. Say it to yourself every time you cut down a tree,

Say it to those who construct highways in exchange for nature

Say it to those, who gloat after lifting a weapon,

Creating a black line of soot and self-absorption,

While everything in their wake dies,

Let us create more of protection,

To revive what we let die,

To give the world a chance to be reborn,

Let us look at those around us,

For once taking attention away from ourselves,

Glean the beauty that is this world,

A boon and a fortune in its own right…

 

EZE MMESOMA (

A world without…us?

If I wasn’t me

Who else would I be or who else would want to be me?

If we think about it

Maybe we are the only ones that can cope with ourselves.

Maybe we are unique because we are the only ones that can live our lives.

That can endure our personal troubles

That can fight our coming challenges.

That makes our world burst with energy

Maybe our lives were especially destined for us.

Our victory awaits us

And that victory can only exist if we also exist

How else can we exist if we are not us?

Our victory can only be won by us, personally.

We have to choose to be us, only then can we be

Only then can we have a world of diversity

A world of beauty

If i wasn’t me, and you weren’t you, there would not be an us

What would our world then be without us?

If we all did not want ourselves

Or we all change who we are

Would this our world exist?

 

 

Keerti Koya

A World Without A Sun

 

On days with scorching heat,

We wish for the sun to go away.

Yet on days with a frosty chill,

We wish for the sun to return.

 

We learn that promises should be kept

And our sun, our only one,

Promised to rise and fall everyday.

But what if that secret was broken and our world was left without a sun?

 

A mother without her son,

Is like a world without a sun.

Both lost–their head up in space,

Weary and afraid of what awaits.

 

In the world I live in,

If we were to see the great fireball thin,

It would be chaos,

And all would panic.

 

Some would scramble,

And others would run.

Some would travel,

To meet their love,

Or, their last taste of fun.

 

Plants would start to die,

Temperatures would drop,

And in reply,

All life would soon stop.

 

All the while, everyone and everything,

From humans to animals to plants,

All will whisper their goodbyes,

As our world plunges into darkness.

 

Now gender, ethnicity, class,

Species, habitat, or mass,

Do not matter.

For all have fallen to the absence of the fiery ball of gas.

 

For these reasons and more,

We must thank our Sun,

For keeping its promise everyday,

And be grateful,

That our world is with a Sun today!

 

Eesha Imran

A World Without

Basic etiquette requires a guest to not cause disturbance, to be polite and mindful of their surroundings, and to not overburden the host and when we think about it, we’re really just guests on this planet. However, while the Earth has remained a good host and kept courtesy and hospitality in mind, we seem to have forgotten it. The planet is currently facing a crisis as up to one million species are facing extinction due to human activities.

But why should we care about these species? Especially the ones that don’t directly benefit us. Why should we spend money on conservation programs when we could be spending it elsewhere? After all, certain species have been naturally wiped out before without humans interfering. Would it really make a difference if we lived in a world without any sort of protection programs for endangered species, where we just let them go extinct?

Well, while animals have gone extinct before, the current rate of extinction is 100 to 1,000 times faster! Meaning 100 to 1,000 species go extinct each year varying from micro-organisms to large animals. Therefore, the current extinction rate is a cause for concern. And while it is true that some plants and animals don’t benefit us directly, they do provide advantages through “ecosystems services”. A few examples include plants providing oxygen, pollinating insects etc. Although it does cost a lot, conserving species and preserving ecosystems only turns out to be a good investment in the long run since the tourism industry depends heavily on ecosystems. We can also add in the fact that by protecting one species, we end up preserving a majority of other species living alongside them.

Let’s take the Gopher Tortoise as an example. They are seen as a keystone species and are presently threatened by predation and habitat destruction due to urban development and are now on the IUCN list as “vulnerable to extinction”. These tortoises dig burrows that provide shelter for at least 360 other animal species including endangered ones such as indigo snakes and burrowing owls. The burrows are used for feeding, resting, reproduction, protection from temperature extremes, escaping predators and as a refuge from forest fires. Sometimes different species even hide alongside the tortoise! Hence, it’s safe to say that if this seemingly trivial creature died out, it would have a tremendous impact on its ecosystem and many species benefiting from it would be unable to survive on their own. Alternatively, if we chose to save the Gopher Tortoise we would, by extension, also end up assisting over 360 other species and preserving their habitat.

Organisms are connected through food webs and food chains so the extinction of even a single species will have an impact. Of course, it’s not possible to save every single species but the goal is to make ecosystems as diverse and balanced as possible since each organism contributes in its own way. We can’t save every species but we can slow down the alarming extinction rates.

 

Afra Samsudeen

A world without me

 

If I’m gone,

Will the world be in lone?

 

There certainly are a lot

of people in this world

So if I’ve pushed up the daisies (not the ones in the pot)

They’d say ‘Dead’, just one word

 

But I don’t think that it is all

that happens if I fall

 

In all my life-travelling,

I had to do a lot of chuckling and snivelling

Sometimes, when I think of these travels, I feel my head swirling

 

If the world doesn’t realize I’m gone

Then at the first place, why was I born?

 

I was born for a reason, I guess

But to think of it, my mind is a higgledy-piggledy mess

The actual reason is, I don’t know. I’ve to confess

 

The earth says,

‘You are born as a part of my population’

while the Stupid Society does confess,

‘If you’re gone, there won’t be any less

as none will notice you in the population’

 

God told me that I was created to

be a human of the earth, like an animal in the zoo

and travel my journey of life without complains or boo-hoo

 

I understood that I was one of a kind

And always had a beady-eyed mind

The answer to every key, I wanted to find

 

Was I born to just have these?

Eyes, as black as dirty grease

Hair, as smooth as cheese

which in the future would be as white as mayonnaise

 

Or a nose, as pointed as uncle’s

Or ears, as clear as the wind in jungles

in which sways my earrings just like jingles

Or my eye lashes which are like crazy mingles

 

Or lips as pink as a compliment

Or nails which scrape every sentiment

Or a heart filled with absolute contentment

 

Was I born to just look ‘somewhat’ attractive?

Or was I born to be under the feet of each superlative?

 

I cannot understand! I cannot!

 

But when I think of life without me,

I sight my parents; they’re unhappy

My teachers, they’re dissatisfied, oh no!

My acquaintances, they’re missing something, whoa oh!

My siblings’ smile! Where is it? Ho ho!

 

Everything is changed, why is that?

Even my lanky man, he is grown fat

 

Am I Behind every above-mentioned misfortune?

Yes, to the life of everyone I met, I was a tune

It’s like to their world, I’ve been sewn

 

I can understand! I can now!

 

If I am lost, their change is too,

because I am the one who changed them and you

 

You have your own identity to this world

You are born for a reason that’s my word

So, use your wings and soar like a bird

 

If I’m gone, the future president is gone too

There won’t be a teacher to guide you

No mother to stick into you like glue

Neither a future detective to help you find a clue

Nor a zookeeper, in the public zoo

Never a doctor to cure your flu

Never an explorer to go travelling around with his crew

 

This world without me

is like, a waterless sea,

a bird who can’t be free,

a flower without a bee,

a forest without a tree,

a biriyani with no salt or ghee,

a padlock without a key,

a tea-party without tea,

the twenty-six letters of alphabet without Z

 

All I know is, I was born for a reason, I’d see

and know it in the future, when this world is without me

 

Shaneal Mitchell

A World Without Questions

 

It’s much too easy to apprehend what will never occur,
Than it is to misanticipate the expectations of what could be.
What we ask, I’d much like to differ,
Has the ability to tell a thousand stories.
Whether it be obtuse, feckless, or buried in the category of the answerable,
The simple punctuation at the end of the sentence is more than acutely admirable.

We must never allow others to formulate what we’re supposed to know.
If that was the case, we’d never have satisfactory room to grow;
So answer away, be merry while you’re at it
Because a world without answers
Is much like an unpronounceable phonetic.

But what if the answer shifts or changes?
As they can indeed be temporary.
Does that still indicate its importance?

Even though a simple response can compose a needless adversary,

It’s not difficult to tell.
Not intricate at all.
Whether the inquiry proffer a bellow, scream or yell,
We’ll eventually have another provisional answer to post up on our answerable wall.

With all my mused allusions,
Which causes me to think I’ve perceived wrong with my interpretations,
Maybe there are no threats in a world without answers,
But perhaps uncertainty lies in a world without questions.

 

Keziah Palmer

A World Without Words

This is a little hard for me to write, given that I’m considering the possibility of this platform; words, writing, a form of expression conveying much more than it is given credit for, not existing. Completely and inexplicably non-existent.

Despite my anxiety, consider it; What would a World Without Words be like?

Pictures. Indeed, Leonardo da Vinci said it, “A poet would be overcome by sleep and hunger before being able to describe with words what a painter is able to depict in an instant.”

Pictures are profoundly powerful pieces of art. They convey indescribable thoughts intricately. They express an impression whilst simultaneously evoking another. That’s bizarre and amazing!  But how do we manipulate a picture to express our daily emotions? Our minutely spontaneous reactions? Our charismas? A picture can deeply express a thought, but can it express you?

What about facial and bodily expressions? Without these, communication would often be incomplete. Maybe we can manipulate this form of communication in substitute for words. Using our eyes can express emotions deeper than verbal denotation. But for how long can we effectively express ourselves through this medium?  It would very quickly become frustrating, and lead to confusion which often brings about forms of horrible implications. Even mimes use their words at some point. So, how would we properly express ourselves without our words?

Maybe Sign Language? Or Braille? No, because even whilst it is not verbal, words are being used.

Maybe we could practice a tacit lifestyle? No, for even that is explicitly unattainable.

There isn’t any other ultimatum, for words are beyond intrinsic to living life. Words bind us. Without words there wouldn’t be this: Me, writing this piece and you being able to understand it. With this common need for words, why do we abuse the power we are bestowed by words?

We see just how very important words are. Our existence depends massively on it as it is an integral part of our civilization. Yet, why do we not use them effectively to express ourselves? More than often, words are used to denigrate, or to destroy. Sometimes it’s not used at all and leaves room for misinterpretation which streamlines negative insinuations.

More than often friendships die because of words. Relationships- family or otherwise- perish because of words or the lack thereof. Words destroy nations and people. They separate the inseparable. They negate good situations. Words separate us. Without words there wouldn’t be this: a child considering suicide because of what mommy said earlier that night.

Agreeably, without words there wouldn’t be an active way of expressing ourselves but at the same time, we can all agree that without words there wouldn’t be so much hatred, sadness, inhumanity, and cold-heartedness. As much as we need words, many of us despise the effects of them. Words aren’t equivocal, they are of certain significance yet; it is as good as it is bad.

There isn’t a world if there aren’t words. But maybe we can try to make a better world with them. It’s never too late to try and fix what words have broken for we can use words to heal.

Words are important, they are intrinsically us, humans. 

 

Mingjia Wang

A World Without Wild Animals

From the perspective of ecology, ecosystem diversity can improve prevent soil erosion, maintain fertility in the soil and adjust the global climate, which provides basic resources for human agricultural production and improves people’s quality of life in all aspects. In nature, the organisms and the environments restrict each other and also depend on each other, which is like an ecological balance. Heteropoda venatoria which is a kind of indoor spider captures the common pests such flies and mosquitoes. Relevant information shows that the number of pests eaten by spiders every year is larger than the population of the United Kingdom. Therefore, if spiders disappear, the biological chain will be destroyed and pests will spread, which will severely affect the production of food. If the most basic needs of human beings are threatened, the human beings will have the risk of extinction.

From the perspective of sociology, the excessive killing of human beings leads to the extinction of wild animals. To be specific, in 1986, although IWC ( International Whaling Commission) enacted a ban on commercial whaling, a year later, whaling for research purposes still existed and the the number of killing of dolphins and whales in Japan had been tripled. Every year, an average of 23000 dolphins are legally killed by Japanese. This kind of killing is caused by the defects of human cognition, morality and law. If human beings continue to selfishly and indiscriminately catch and kill wild animals, it will lead to a series of disputes and turmoil of society to a certain degree, which will objectively accelerate the self-extinction of human beings.

From the perspective of bionics, wild animals have the contributions that cannot be ignored. For example, Crab-eating macaque can be a animal model that is used to produce vaccine which prevents the virus from reproducing. Also human simulate the feature of generating the ultrasonic waves of bat to create radar, which allows human to travel through clouds without collision. Wild animals have brought bionics, and bionics has brought the development of science and technology which not only improves people’s quality of life, but also satisfies people’s desire to explore the unknown.

In a nutshell, the protection of wild animals is to protect ourselves. Let humans and wild animals become the ornament of the earth together.

 

 

Rebecca Jane Lee

“A world without….” – Post COVID

In a world where travel is restricted,
And hard times we’ve had to face
Its nothing compared to the pain inflicted,
at the hands of the human race

We have had a year of tears and sadness,
Where many people have suffered
But through it all “ironically”, the wildlife has slowly recovered

I wish I’d had more experiences but for now, it’s just simply in my mind
And when I ever get to travel again, then not a trace of my presence will I leave behind

We must learn from all our errors
And start to put things right
We have too many endangered species, we can’t lose without a fight

We are losing countless animals, who live in our trees and seas
From the largest African elephants to the ecologically important bees

My dream is to research and photograph the world in which we stand,
Camp out, swim, explore… live in harmony with the land

The planet is in our hands
That’s how it was meant to be
So it’s up to us to stop destroying, every single animal and tree

We have been given this chance, so let’s take it
And put a stop to this awful mess
I don’t want to be the one responsible for any more distress

I want to travel and explore my world
And hopefully I can one day
So Stop killing, destroying and contaminating ….is all I have to say

“A world without” ALL life is not how it’s meant to be
I’m sure we can make this happen
But it’s not just down to me!

 

Joseph Maria Nigel

Who is Right? Elephants that turn out to be dangerous or those who misuse them and make them so? 

Elephants trained for entertainment are through violence and torture. When these animals snap or strike back, it becomes the headlines in the newspapers. With elephants becoming endangered or extinct, using elephants for selfish needs is madness and needs to stop.

Elephants are the largest land animal and have remarkable intelligence and memory. In early history, elephants were used in war times and later for transportation and logistics due to their big-boned physique. However, in the present times, elephants are made to perform actions in deliberations.

Elephants become neurotic, unhealthy, depressed, and aggressive owing to the inhumane conditions in their captivity. Travel to India, South Africa, Thailand, or any other country with elephants, one would witness tourist attractions that include animal rides or perform tricks in a venue. A score of tragedies below is proof that forcing elephants to interact with people is dangerous and disastrous.

Here is a short parable! In a village, an elephant passes by a tailor’s shop to the river for a bath. On its return, the tailor would give it something to eat. One day the elephant came to the tailor’s shop on its way from the river. The tailor was in a bad mood. Instead of giving the elephant something to eat, he pricked the elephant’s trunk with a needle. The pain made the elephant move away, saddened by the tailor’s act. The next day, the elephant went to the river, bathed, and then filled up its trunk with muddy water. He stopped at the tailor’s shop and splashed all the mud water on the garments in the shop. The tailor suffered a loss, and he regretted his actions, but it was too late. So, moral is whether human or animal, pain is universal.

During a religious event at a temple, an elephant snapped and killed a mahout. In the run-for-life stampede, four people smashed, and several bystanders were injured.

In another incident, two elephant handlers reportedly fell asleep after drinking alcohol during a temple festival and “forgot” to feed the captive elephant in their care. The elephant was forced to take part in the festival, snapped, attacked one handler, and killed the second. These were manifestations shown by the animal due to starvation.

At a zoo, a young elephant performed unsafe acts with a person handling the performance riding on its back. The elephant’s back legs snapped while performing a trick. His leg was broken for three days before taken to the hospital.

We can only be overwhelmed by the incidents. By the end of another century, the elephant population would become extinct, leaving us with elephants in pictures and stories narrated to future generations. Without these intelligent animals, the forest is incomplete. The earth would have an imbalance in its ecosystem due to this extinction.

(Word Count: 481)

Ross Macefield Hiroshima Blossom

The wind rides the branches through blossom red and pink

Soon the place would be levelled in a blink

A Hiroshima blossom falls over the city

Everything captured timeless still pretty.

 

The plane appears a silver speck in the sky

Gentle hum of the engines an eerie war cry

Steel death glides from the bomb bay

A small child kneels and prays

 

The sound of silence is all that is heard

Nothing occurs nothing stirs

Rising overhead the destroyer of the crowds

Rising overhead a sinister mushroom cloud.

 

The cherry blossom stands charred and snapped.

A single branch remains intact.

 

Wee Cheng En Mathieu

A World Without Poison Gases

                                 Context: This was when the Germans used poison gases. However, in my story, poison gases are non-existent. Instead of investing resources to weaponize gas warfare, they can be diverted to develop other more humane weapons.

August 6, 1915

Osowiec Fortress

It was a hot and humid afternoon, while both sides were anticipating action. It was one of those days where the eerie silence signified the beginning of a battle. However, the Russians were prepared for what was going to probably happen: artillery bombardment. For the past few months, the Russians had been bravely defending the fort but the Germans were resilient, and kept on either shelling artillery fire on the Russians or hurling the fort with grenades.

Suddenly, a loud boom was heard coming from the invader’s side. The battle had resumed. In immediate response, the Russians whipped out their rifles and opened fire. However, the Germans had a trick up their sleeves. Soon enough, a rumbling, slow behemoth of metal appeared on the horizon. It had multiple guns sticking out but most importantly, it seemed immune to the Russian’s gunfire.

“What is that?” A soldier shrieked.

The Russians looked on in bewilderment as the tank (A7V) crossed trenches with ease and crushed barbed wire effortlessly.

“It must be what they call a tank! The Brits also have them, and I think they are going to send some here to improve the situation!” His comrade answered anxiously.

“Fire!” yelled the Russian battalion commander.

Soon all the cannons shot at the tank. Most of the shells missed the target as it was a concentrated fire but one round hit the tank’s tracks, thus immobilising it. Repairmen emerged from the tank in a hasty attempt to fix the tracks but they were swiftly cut down by Russian gunfire. An eagle-eyed soldier saw the tank’s main gun moving and he knew what it meant: Fire.

“Take cover!” He screamed as the tank shot and made a large hole in the fortress.

The falling debris of the fortress knocked out a nearby artillery gun, reverting back to the initial eerie silence….

…. A swift death is better than a torturous one by poison gas.

 

Sampada Wagle

A WORLD WITHOUT SECRETS 

 

Life is an oblique prism. The edges are never the right angles. With time, the values guide us, fight us and delight us. The mere memory of getting lost in a moment, the perseverance of actual happiness, that’s sanity and that weird sanity is what being alive is all about. The day I learnt the secret about the seaming horizon that binds the reality with solemn felicity of what’s great within a place is the day I began to explore and then, everything started to make sense. Everything.

 

It’s not about the sunrise over the Himalayas, it’s not the fall of the cherished autumn, neither it is about the desolate sidewalks of France and nor the road not chosen. There are secrets everywhere. Maybe the forest feels, the leaves want to flee, maybe the rivulets are in pain and maybe the cries of the cloud is what we enjoy. Exploring isn’t about booking a ticket, it’s a journey of the mile and maybe the journey is the secret. Maybe the steps are or maybe even the place. Beauty doesn’t lie in the eyes of the beholder, beauty is to behold. Travelling to places is fun. Kicking the rolling stones in the empty street, the walk of solitude, the talk of nature, that requiem for the silliest details in the architecture, and those are the secrets between us.

 

I don’t have a favorite place or a diary with pictures of everywhere I went. Memories are best when they are carved in mind, and every place on this beautiful planet is worth the remembrance. I guess that’s the secret- you don’t need cameras to explore. When I thought of travel writing, I started to think about every place I ever went, every bus I ever took and was hoping I would get to a conclusion that this is the place I want to write about. But, I guess travelling is merely adjusting. There is life everywhere and maybe touching the lives of the unknown is what travelling is about. Travelling through abandoned places and corridors of abandoned people is the beauty of exploration. While I write this piece of writing, I am in my room, having glimpses of the smile I gave to the waterfalls, how back in 2018, when I went to my anticipated place and that cool breeze got me going. That’s a secret- you only remember what’s important. To me, the smallest approaches are important and not the place, but what takes us there. It’s the moments you travel for and not every journey ends well. Maybe that’s the secret, the world is vague and we are creatures breathing in the remaining. Maybe the secret is to remain.

 

Travelling is not about destination, it’s the journey. Into the wild is bewildered, chambers mystified, amusement is not an assumption and maybe the secret is the world. So, let it be a world without secrets and let a truth blend in, a truth that every road has its own miles to go, reach its place, any place but real, reach home. Let me be that road today.

 

Alex Mora

+a world without……

 

no potential…. no goals…. no trying…. a world without effort is a world with failure, because we let failure define us unknowingly that failure is what we aren’t.

 

no talking….no expressions….no emotion. we put on a face to cover up what we really feel. we know we shouldn’t keep it in but it feels so wrong to let it out. you don’t want to burden anybody. they don’t even listen when you talk so why do any of us try

 

“well i….” they probably just didn’t hear me the first time?

“so basically…” Maybe I’m not speaking loud enough?

“but i think…” They keep going and I realize they just don’t care.

 

a world without a care for others but them, leads to what the world has become today, turning people into what they see themselves as. half the time that’s not even what they are. but they drag the blade across their wrist thinking “I deserve the pain. i don’t deserve to be loved, or held close”

 

a world without fear. We pretend to be brave, so in a way we are without fear, but scared of everything at the same time. the blade goes back to the wrist. ” I deserve the pain. i don’t deserve to be loved, or held close”

 

This statement is like a mantra in the heads of the youth, the elderly, minors, and so many more.” I deserve the pain. i don’t deserve to be loved, or held close”

 

this lifetime has turned into a world without……

 

this earth is the world without.

 

Alvin Ankunda

SHROUD OF PEACE

The refugees that fill up the camps leave tears   in your eyes as you can’t bear the sight of the pain they go through, the suffering and torment that is seen on their faces. The sad part is that they have to live with the memories of bloodshed and death of their loved ones all because of wars that they may or may not have been involved in. Wars have brought many nations to their knees and destroyed them. According to the survey by Matthew O. Jackson and Massimo Morelli  that was revised in December 2009, these wars are caused by decision makers who see a possibility of benefiting from them in terms of resources, power, glory, territory, and so forth forgetting that there are innocent people that are completely unaware of the conflict coming their way. We have seen children’s futures get destroyed as they are forced to join armies and take part in wars. You look at the case of Joseph Kony, a leader of the Lord Resistance Army in Uganda that is made up of rebels. This man would attack villages in Northern Uganda and capture teenage boys that he would force to join his army and then he would kill the elderly who would be of no use to him. His gang raped young girls and made holes through their lips and put padlocks to ensure they don’t report. Can you imagine all that brutality being imposed on innocent citizens? There have been wars in Mozambique and Sri Lanka in the previous years that haven’t been given attention and this leaves me in a state of bewilderment as I can’t imagine what happened to the poor casualties that weren’t noticed at all. It is generally accepted that eighty five to ninety percent of war casualties are military and the remainder being non-combatant civilians who were caught in the cross fire or killed in atrocities. To sum it up, if we had complete peace in our world we would have a very comfortable place for generations to come. If enemy states cooperated with each other, our economy would be booming and our infrastructure perfected beyond perfection as our governments would be investing in development instead of spending huge sums of money on wars. We would not have worried families waiting for their loved ones to return from wars. We would have empty refugee camps as there would be no wars. Right now, it might not be possible to fully get rid of conflicts or wars but all I can say is that if our governments could make an effort to make life easy for the victims of the wars and also try to come down with different ways of making friends with their enemies. It is not that simple but if our states try and unite, then nothing is impossible. It all takes compassion for the innocent men and women. United we stand; divided we fall. I live to dream of a world without wars.

 

Emma Mohammad

A world without

 

Since the origin, without skill we would rally

A festoon of reign in the marshes, it tally

A fair few companions deranging in site

Of all in their glory did not wisdom contrite

 

Emerging from apes, for the tree trunks did shelter

None whom silted the soil, nor did welter

Farm lands pervaded, farm people persuaded

Dense beneath borrows would creatures lay sunder

The lentils of perish, preemptive in thunder

 

Without turning refuge, all else but humane

Without full opinions, we dwelled land to wane

Short sprouts of turnip, tomato and weed

Without that land was a dead era decreed

 

Haunters were rumored that tribes, could they curse

An heir line of royals, a lineage to worse

So stainless rummage of their land and treasure

Was destined to flaming a mass, could none measure

 

Theories of conduct and values distort

The fashioned betrayals of fame would comport

Without warning, nor lavish of culture

The origin huntsmen return as they vulture

A bounty, it seduced the simple, it served to the sly

It pardoned none, did it’s service deny

To nurture and nourish, for fiends could it flourish

A well-intended man benign

Those ill-intended clandestine

 

An honest man defined as bliss

To opportune moments of lie, did he miss

Deceptive and keen, would none have foreseen

The shadowed redeem of distrust

Expended across, in vain did it lust

 

A man festered all, had yet seen defeat

For every step home was a shrine made in pleat

Trailing behind him his relish, he thought divine

Yet every step home was a milled, morose shrine.

 

A fair few companions deranging in site

Of all in their glory did not wisdom contrite.

 

 

Ayesha Ehtesham

A WORLD WITHOUT…

Envision a world without relationships, where no one has parents, siblings, relatives, and friends, including you… won’t you feel lonely?

When you go astray, there will be no one to guide you, neither anyone who you can trust blindly. Decisions will solely depend on you; AWESOME! That’s a wish of every growing teenager…but what if your choice leads you to a wrong path from where you can’t take a turn, and you wish someone were there to give you advice at that time, but all you can do now is regret. We all need someone to be with us and give us moral and emotional support.

For a moment, imagine you somehow appeared in this world with no family. You don’t have anyone in this world who will be by your side whenever you feel down, you can’t share your happiness with someone and nor you can lay your head on someone shoulder and cry out loud complaining about the ups and downs of life. Waking up in the morning yourself, then making up your own breakfast and eating on a table which only got a seat for one. Celebrating your good grades or jobs promotions yourself. Singing yourself a birthday song because no one is even there to give a birthday surprise and appreciate your existence. Singing yourself a lullaby and crying yourself to sleep when you are sad, and all you got is a pillow to hug; unbelievable, right? I can’t even depict survival in this world. We are humans, and for continuity, we need to contact other humans, nature, animals, and other creatures to develop a lively environment for ourselves and everyone around us. This is what life is…. We need to go through many challenges and meet many new people, and experience life in this world. There is no way one can stay hopeful without any relationship as there are occasions when we surrender to our emotions, and to get back our strength, we all need a kind of support which we get through a relationship. We cannot just think about ourselves; we need to think and care about the ones closest to us because it’s nice to experience a feeling of happiness when you are thinking about someone and without realizing your face lit up with a smile.

                                                                                                                                                Words: 383 

 

 

 

Wondzi Precious Khan

A WORLD WITHOUT THE INTERNET.

 

“We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain”, Said Stephen Hawk. Can the world exist without the internet? That’s a million dollar question. The internet is a decisive technology of the information age, just as the electrical engine was of the industrial age. Imagine you woke up to an unexpected internet breakdown?, with no WhatsApp to chat with friends and no Google maps to find your way?. Sounds like a catastrophe!

 

 

Should this happen, the world wouldn’t crumble given that about four billion people have no access to Internet. Thus half of humanity wouldn’t notice the difference in the short run but not an internet user. Should the internet suddenly croak, we would go back to writing letters. E-transfers would become impossible. Students could as well kiss goodbye to online research. Countries that rely heavily on the internet to boost their economic growth would face economic crisis.

 

 

Also, companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon  would go out of business losing billions of dollars. This could further lead to unemployment ad Google has about 80,000 full-time staff. Advert companies that use internet would equally be affected. Moreover, paper consumption will skyrocket as we have to go back to tracking goods on paper. There will be a large spike in crime wave with no CCTV, digital locks or alarm systems. Worthy of note is the fact that the health sector will be seriously shacked as no telemedicine platforms will be available.

 

Whether or not the internet is a necessity or should be wiped off, is quite a potential debatable topic. Nonetheless, the internet is not the be all and end all of services available to mankind but its disappearance would instantly change the world.

 

Muhammad Asif bin Mohamed Ali Jinnah

A world without books

 

A world without books is a world without knowledge and imagination. Books let us learn new words and lets our imagination go wild. Books were created to tell stories and to store and pass information such as history to future generations. Now, books are everything from young to old, from kindergarten to university, we use books to learn new things. Without books, we wouldn’t be able to get this information, this knowledge, without books, talented authors could not have shown their talent and show their stories to the world. Without books, schools wouldn’t be as advanced as today, history wouldn’t be a thing, science wouldn’t be a thing and civilisation could have been impossible. Our imagination would not be able to grow if it wasn’t for books. Medicine to cure diseases had to be researched again and again because they weren’t written down in books for future generations. If our imagination couldn’t grow, we would not be able to improve bicycles to cars, computers to phones, houses to skyscrapers. We wouldn’t be able to think as much as we can today if it wasn’t for books. We think a computer knows everything, but in reality, the computer got all its information from books. We wouldn’t be able to communicate with one another if we didn’t write down how we did it in books to pass to future generations. There won’t be an improvement of technology with no books. In reality, if books weren’t a thing, we would still be 100 years in the past in civilisation. A world without books is a world with no improvement.

 

Dimanya Lasandi Bihara Ekanayaka

A world without marine life.

 

“When it comes to marine life ,our existence depends upon their existence.”

-June  Stoyer

 

How a royal sword is important to an Emperor, Marine life is very important to an Island like Sri Lanka . You will watch my country with the use of a hand lens  in a world map but still I haven’t  completed watching the wonder of the alive sea all around my country with my tiny eyes .The rich biodiversity which lies under the strong blue waves that has been penetrated by the goddess nature is a gift for each and every living and non –living matter.

People spend money for cultural festivals, concerts and various kinds of exhibitions but  the colourfulness,  wonder and the admirable sceneries in the ecosystem under the sea is a natural theatre. The schools of fish swim through the curtains of coral Polyps, the luminous sea  creatures  light up the darkness , the turtles move according to the rhythm of  water  and the sharks, whales and dolphins act as the respectable chief guests  etc .  But we, people, should watch this without disturbing them as we aren’t  the organizers of nature ;only a part of nature.

By the way, I have paved the way to imagine the world  without marine life because first you should  see the wonder of marine life to be sensitive when it is destroyed.  No one can compare the sky and the sea as both of them are blue in colour. Like that no one can compare the ancient eco –friendly humans with the  present robotic humans who  hyperbole about intelligence ,money  and designations. Media men convey and leaders speak  about the wonder of marine life and how to save them on those specific days.  More than one million of sea creatures die due to human activities and polythene in a day.

I can remember the day that I released some baby turtles to the sea when I was a kid and  now I see those turtles  have returned to the beach without their eyes, damaged bodies and  deactivated hearts. Most of the  marine creatures  of Sri Lanka  are now only in social media and memory books. All those things happened due to a single chemical transporting ship (  which caught fire in June 2021 ).The paradise of the underwater is a cemetery now. If one ship is enough for such a disaster , people need only 10/20 such ships to suicide themselves, as  if there is no marine life in Earth anyone can’t survive .

People are already  aware  about the conservation of  marine life .But the thing that we must do is to start conserving marine life by ourselves. If people can’t follow those steps ,people should make more museums for the extinction of  marine creatures , for humans and other organisms too. We should  either  save these innocent marine creatures as intelligent  members of Earth  or think about a world with a lifeless ocean.

 

Emaani Sakina

In The Reality Of Now.

I went to a country where everything was green

Large areas of land, untouched and almost unseen

Trees tall and stretching upwards as far as your eyes could go

Climbing them would be frightening

And it made me think of long, long ago

But I live in the reality of now

8000 trees are threatened to wipe out

For some people, that makes them scared

Others just want to shout

A world without trees is one without air

We need to be the people who care

A world without air is a world without us

77 species are already gone, zero fuss

Trees make our planet

Which I think you already knew

Breathing is a necessity

Save the trees and they’ll save you.

 

Adeena Noushad

A World Without…Nature

A Journey Worth It

 

I once travelled through a long-lost  bridleway

Filled with warblers and creepers lay

I didn’t know what waited for me

Though I felt the locus wanted me to see

 

I was despondent with my involuntary life

Which had neither sides nor tides

Thus I finally decided to open my eyes

To what I call the beguiling sights

 

I got to the edge of the passageway

I opened my eyes to the panorama lay

There I saw an enormous paddock which never waned

And far away I saw the silhouette of the great mountain

 

The weather was humid and damp

The hedgehogs hopped out of the swamp

The flame tree rose above the skyline

The locusts were jumping and they were in lines

 

Soon came the mellow drizzle

The chill breeze passed and I was tickled

Slowly, the sun came out to shine

My mind and soul were now only mine

 

The fresh air, the emerging buds and the tiny beasts

They taught me to piece myself and I was seized

I realised what I had missed in my lifetime

I didn’t discern as I was engrossed in the collected dime

Nature is alive and so are we

The moment she goes we’ll never be

Caring for her is not so pricey

The duty only lies upon thee

 

The essence of creation and the virtue of nature

She is the greatest of all and she is our future

There was a unique sensation of tranquillity

And throughout I celebrated the gracility

 

Atiqah Raihan binti Raim Azli

A World Without Peace

“If this world had no peace, then what would it be?” I ask the person next to me who happens to be my older sister. She looks outside the car’s window, pondering about the question for a moment. My dad interrupts her wild-running thoughts. Because of that, I’ve never got the answer. Until now.

A world without peace. A simple title yet an intriguing subject that needs to be talked about. Can you just imagine if we have a parallel universe where peace doesn’t exist? For example, the people don’t take interest in building the UN. What would unfold, or what tragic events would happen. I want to talk about it today. But before we jump further, let’s put ourselves in that parallel universe I was mentioning before.

Firstly, if peace is gone, the obvious scenarios of the world would be chaos. People running amok. The world’s problem that people are ignoring, even now, is one hundred percent working. That is terrorism and genocide. Death is here and there. The people who are caught in the line suffer from it. Terribly.

Other than that, racism would be another one on the list. It doesn’t matter what races, ethnicities, colour skin and even where you’re born, people that are in the same community where you are different from others, are going to judge you. Mock you, bully you and worse, you would meet your end line. Pardon me, it doesn’t matter if those people are from the same community. They would fight against each other too.

Next, there’s no equality between people. We are following the tradition of old times. Women are only allowed to work in the kitchen and at home, whereas men would need to get out and get a job. And if something happens in that tiny house, no one is speaking a word about it.  Killing, raping, mugging, mass murder and many more crimes that you could think of is the norm.

Besides that, corruption. Corruption would be everywhere. Unsurprisingly, the people who are supposed to protect you are also involved in this. This is also a normal thing for us. In the end, we didn’t believe in them and depend on ourselves to protect the people that we loved.

Lastly, the world leaders are tyrants after tyrants. The leaders that we choose is an oppressor. They oppress people from speaking their rights and ‘take care’ of the rebel groups that are trying to fight back. The power would be theirs to hold. This would lead to violent battles against leaders of the world. This leader wouldn’t even make improvements in the countries they’re leading. The nations are going to fall one day or another, so why should we act?

This isn’t even fit to write all the things that would happen if there’s no peace. The world will end before we get to see the changes. Still, this is a theoretical world. Our world too needs changes and I wish to see that.

 

 

Satvika Rajesh Kamath

A World Without Development, A World With Prosperity

Have you ever been in a field full of crops? I was fortunate enough to have grown up around them. But the best example of what agriculture is truly about is that of Hiware Bazaar, a tiny village in Maharashtra, India.

Some decades ago, this village in a rain shadow region was facing a terrible drought, intensified by mismanagement of water resources. Most able-bodied men had departed for urban slums to try and eke out a living in the city. Normally, farmers would have been bribed or forced to sell their fertile land to builders and industrialists, who claimed to be able to ‘develop’ it. And they too would have ended up in a slum in a city that was not their own. This happens even today, because we have equated development with urbanisation instead of spiritual upliftment. ‘Development’ is a tricky word; one has to be sure one does not simply mean ‘our convenience’ when using it.

Normally this is what would have happened, but thanks to their able leader, Popatrao Pawar, today the millet fields are green, as are the lemon and onion plants. The hills are golden instead of a dead brown, and the forests around have regenerated. Villagers are used to seeing leopards and peacocks (not to mention scorpions!), which have all but vanished from nearby cities. These came back in succession once the water started coming back. That’s because Hiware Bazaar is about prosperity! And prosperity is about decent living, not convenience. It won’t give you a barrage of wealth, but it will ensure that the needs of all, now and in the future, are fulfilled.

Prosperity has to be maintained though. It would have been all too easy to deplete all the water again by growing cash crops like sugarcane. And it would have given builders more motive to clutter up the view with high rises. The reason this does not happen is an epitome of community living. If a builder’s car is seen at any one villager’s house, the other villagers try to find out what it’s about. They dissuade that villager from selling it, and all of them pitch in to try to solve his problems. This means they make him self-sufficient, not dependent. Thus, these farmers live in an ecosystem with Nature as well as with each other.

Hiware Bazaar causes us to question ourselves and our notions of development. How developed are we as people? Are we developed enough to share land and resources with today’s people as well as tomorrow’s, not to mention countless animals and plants? Are we evolved enough to respect our resources? A final testimony to this is the temple they have built dedicated to Jaldevi, a water goddess, on top of a nearby hill. Water, for them, is a mother, fit to be worshipped. That’s what one’s parting glimpse of this village is- a temple dedicated to water.

 

Toader Carmen Marcela

A world without poetry

I do not want you to live in a world like mine,

Where the sun cries together with the moon

And the only relief is the barred window

Through which I seek myself.

 

That is my world, one without poetry

Which feeds from my pain

And it makes crystals on my cheeks,

Burning my skin.

 

Such is a world without poetry

A large fire, an acid rain, an earthquake

And it does not kill you fast,

But it lets you suffer until you get tired of living.

 

You would not want to live in this world,

Where everything is born withered

And your scars are phosphorescent

So you can differentiate yourself from those who live.

 

Peculiar Haoma John

“A WORLD WITHOUT US ALL”

POEM BY: PECULIAR JOHN.

 

Far and wide I see, a world that will not wait for me

The Rivers and treasure will sway

The mountains will not their head in approval

The time will not slow down in my respect

Delectable cultures

Not polished, uncolonized

Without my presence, the sand at the river bank

Will dip, when the child steps in it.

The soil will open it’s mouth

When the farmer digs it, with seed.

The world would be alone, affected only by itself

I can’t seem to imagine

A world without us all.

So i will take the train no matter where

To become a young fool some more.

I’ll smell the flowers planted by the lazy student

The periwinkle, of golden hands

The watermelon lying lazily atop it’s vine

When the train stops, I’ll look around

Letting all the silence ring in my head

I’ll close my eyes to imagine, A world without us all.

The water would wave at the shining sun

It has no one to run in it anyways,

Trees will dance to music not heard

The sand would be parched, and thirsty

No pounding feet, no spills of drinks or water

The rain would be but could it will be yet warm.

What  a world this would without us all.

So I seat on the tip of the mountains

After my hike of so many adventures

I sip the water the world gave me

Then I tip my bottle, and pour some down

Water molecules, moving in ombre, I can’t see it anymore, as it rund down

The steep steep edges of this cold cold hill.

 

Rishaa Sen

Topic: A World Without…

 

Title: The World Through Her Eyes!

 

I didn’t know what it felt like to be away from home. I didn’t know if you felt exhilarating to be somewhere that is not known to you. If you felt recharged to finally stop breathing the same old air, stop filling your nose with the same old smells, and stop hearing the same old sounds. I did not know. I had never stepped out of the home before. I always used to wonder if the grass was as green as Nani described it to be, in her stories. I wondered if truly the birds chirped so sweetly, the rivers flowed so steadily, and the butterflies truly danced on the many-colored petals of flowers as Nani described in her fairy tales.

But today I know. Today I’ve come to know all of it! Because today, Nani has taken me out for a walk, for the first time! It’s the way you feel after you take a shower and change your clothes at the end of a week of wearing the same clothes due to the flu. It’s that kind of freshness. The air doesn’t smell stale, my breath doesn’t feel dirty, and I feel like I’m finally able to feel. To truly feel! I can’t describe the feeling, exactly. One wouldn’t know if one hasn’t felt it.

I can see the snow-capped mountains in front of me. I didn’t know we stayed in the hills, before. They look so exquisite! The stream is flowing steadily as I walk on its bank. Wow!

It feels so… I feel so… My eyes fill with tears. Do you know what it feels like to not be able to express exactly how you feel? What does it feel like to experience overwhelming emotions in your heart but not be able to explain them through words? You feel helpless! Utterly helpless!

I crumble on the grass as my emotions overwhelm me. Almost choke me. I breathe in the fresh, chilly air through my nose. I look up at the clear blue sky as I circle my hands around my body cocooning myself. Tears stream steadily down my cheeks but I fail to take in all the beauty nature has to give, all at once!

You still wouldn’t know how I feel… because the world has never appeared as beautiful to you as it appears to me!

Because you have no idea what it feels to have nothing other than your Grandma’s tales to compare your world to for 20 long years! Because… You have never had to experience a world without your eyesight!

 

ERISPE, CHRISTINE BERNADETTE A. Universe

 

A world without a world.

There are hundreds of definition of world.

Do you consider the world you’re in as your home?

But then, home comes with the ton of definition.

 

A world without peace.

Doesn’t mean it was noisy and chaotic.

Sometimes, it was the silence that urge us to kill.

Sometimes, it was the noise that keep us alive.

 

A world without faith.

T’was funny how faith make us lose ourselves.

The longer we pull the ropes,

The farther we fall.

 

Child, take a step backwards.

There will be worlds in a world.

You can always choose to one of them.

But remember, you can also make one.

 

Savvoulidou Makrina

A WORLD WITHOUT HUMANS

“Run!”, a familiar voice sounded in the distance. Its sharp, piercing echo filled the blue sky as a dazzling light suddenly appeared. So close, yet so far. A gust of wind started sweeping the fine dust of the desert. It was relentlessly drifting everything on its brittle path as it approached me. Before I realized, a man I once knew appeared like a moon, timidly emerging in a sky full of clouds.  He was one of us. In his frantic, panic-stricken look, I could see despair and sorrow. Ι was flustered.

And all my life flashed before my blurry eyes. I remembered our clumsy huts, constructed in all the areas we passed; even upon trees in order to escape the Hunters. I remembered my deceased friends, victims of gunshots. As they were left behind, their bodies were the only prey for the vultures. I remembered my father, who had to abandon his own wife when she died. I remembered myself, struggling alone to dig her grave. Then, I remembered the missile going through my left leg and the hysterical terrified crowd, evacuating the area in haste.

Being left behind, I was trying to scream for them to come back, but no voice would come out.

I was alive, but they were leaving without me. All the stories about the Hunters crossed my mind. Would they kill me as if I were a mere animal, like they did to thousands of us? So many incoherent thoughts, only half an hour after they departed. But then, how could I save myself?

Do I even deserve salvation?

I feel grief, only because I will never be able to spread the truth!

They thought we were nothing special. That we didn’t love or care. That we were mistreating and ignoring other existences to ensure our survival. That we would only obey primitive instincts. But then, why did that man leave the others, who should be seeking for shelter, only to find me?

They must have been wrong about all of us.

This whole time I’ve been believing there were no humans on Earth. But now, watching this desperate face –supposed to warn me but actually being burned with me amid the explosion– I come to realize that there is no world without humans. This man decided to come back for me, while the others were looking for a secure place! This man sacrificed his safety to ensure that I wouldn’t fall into hostile callous hands. This man was and will forever be human. Because it is our own nature to love, regardless.

***

 

Shikshya Paudel

A World Without Nature

 

‘Ahh! Here comes the west wind again’, screamed Mrs. Hazel downstairs wondering here and there.

‘Olyn! ……. Daughter?! Can you hear me?! Hello?!  Aren’t you there dear?’

(Goes upstairs and knocks the door of Olyn’s room)

Olyn! Open the door. (Puts all her force to open the door and succeeds)

Olyn! Where are you my dear daughter?

(A dreadful cyclone along with thunderstorm and earthquake comes up)

(NO!!!! ……Ohhhh!!!! Is anyone there? Crying…….  Screaming….)

‘Momma! Help)

And that’s where my story begins. I am Olyn from Hazels’ family in Ozama. The disaster on Wednesday evening changed my life which made me lose everything. As I heard ‘Everything happens for some reason’; it became quite true as the cyclone took me away to a new entire world.

 

The world where stars layered on the ground, where diamonds made the sky; neither any greenery nor any humans, it was a single me as an explorer. Pondering and marveling, I reached some familiar place after a month’s journey. There I saw some odd creatures which seemed like a mixture of birds and pigs, with tiny bodies, a huge trunk, long beaks, flat legs and robotic eyes.

Slowly and gradually, I came to know about those creatures as they were the pigbys who originated in ‘mofa’ (earth in their language) thousands of years ago. I told them my whole story and finally, they understood everything and decided to send a signal to mofa to take me home. But the days there weren’t as good as expected due to our different origins and lifestyles, so I left that place in a few days. For my survival, I cooked some small tibs (other small creatures) on low heated stars as they were the only edible biological ones. For about 20 years, I stayed the same, ate the tibs, played with the stars and diamonds, enjoyed the pearls’ rain and survived….

I became friends with the environment and got used to it and gradually I lost all my hope of returning to my mother earth but I missed it the most. The greenery there, the healing sound of nature, beautiful sights and natural phenomena of my planet which taught me a lot to be calm and fierce according to the situation kept me alive even today and forever.

Until one day, the same dreadful cyclones covered up our place and never let me see my mofa from the world without nature.

 

Rhea Nitin Naidu

A World Without…..Sun

 

Nobody really loves morning, until they wake up from their slumber and see just how beautiful the sunrise is.

The largest star in our solar system lies at the heart of it, with its core temperature being more than 15 billion Celsius, that is the sun. But for us, it is seen as the day-bringer.

Now imagine a world without it. No days, just nights. Cold and bleary. Feels odd, doesn’t it?

The idea of a planet existing without a sun or a host star isn’t that odd in the scientific capacity. When a nebula collapses, the core forms a hot star. The outer disk begins to form planets, as matter sticks together in an orbit around the core. But if the star and the planet form from the same mess, it seems rather odd for a planet to exist without a sun. However, it is possible that certain runaway planets broke away from their star after birth. But what happens when a planet doesn’t have a sun to guide the way? It won’t be able to harbour life on its frozen surface.

Sun doesn’t just bring the day with it. It also brings life.

Without the Sun’s heat and light, the Earth would be a lifeless ball of ice-coated rock; just like those runaway planets. The sun not only warms the sea but also generates weather patterns, giving energy to all kinds of life on earth, indirectly bringing food and oxygen with its light.

We know the Sun through its heat and light, but other, less obvious aspects of the Sun affect Earth and the societies that rest within it too. Energetic atomic particles and X-rays from solar flares and other disturbances on the Sun often affect radio waves travelling the Earth’s ionosphere, causing interference and even blackouts of long-distance radio communications. Disturbances of the Earth’s magnetic field by solar phenomena sometimes induce huge voltage fluctuations in power lines, threatening to blackout huge cities. Even such seemingly unrelated activities as the flight of songbirds, transatlantic cable traffic, and the control of oil flow in the Brazil pipeline apparently are interfered with by magnetic disturbances caused by events on the Sun.

Not only the earth itself but the world that inhabits it also revolves around the sun. The biodiversity we see around us has all formed and grown because of the sun. We subsist, because of the sun.

So the bottom line is, a world without the sun would be a world that no longer exists.

 

Khanak Singh

A World Without A Gender Wage Gap

 

So, what is gender pay gap, the gender pay gap or gender wage

gap is the average difference between the pay for men and

women who are working. That obviously is the Wikipedia version

of it, gender wage gap in simple terms is men and women being

paid differently for doing the same amount of work .If I am more

specific, women being paid less for doing the same amount of

work as the other gender. Gender pay gap is divided into 2 types:

• CONTROLLED- a man and women have similar employment characteristics and work similar jobs with the exact same

qualifications, the women is paid less than the man

• UNCONTROLLED-uncontrolled or “raw” gender pay gap, is

the median salary of men and women regardless of job type

or workplace seniority.

Basically women make 98 cents to a dollar every man makes in

the controlled gender pay gap and 81 cents to a dollar in the

uncontrolled pay gap. Now this might seem less, some people

might argue its only 2 cents, the issue here is not how much less

women are being paid its why are women paid less, why is a

person paid differently for doing the same work as someone else.

India has it even worse with women being paid only 85% of what

men are paid.

Even so, if we do consider how much less women are being paid,

if a man earns 150,000 dollars per annum, a women earns

121,500 dollars per annum for doing the same work, that’s a

significant amount less.

Women generally leave their careers for a brief time period

because of childbearing. They generally seek lower paying jobs

 

for more flexibility for managing a family. This is often called the

motherhood penalty or the childbearing penalty.

It basically all boils down to women expected to take leave for

childbearing. Men are not considered as the caregiver of a child.

It’s always women who are considered to take care of a child, men

are considered beard winners. If we do take that into

consideration, which does happen a lot you cannot blame a small

business owner to hire men or pay men more since shortage of

staff affects a small business. On the other hand a big company

does not get affected by such a thing as much.

Are there any solutions? Iceland has the smallest pay gap in the

world. How did it manage do to so? Iceland, in the start, implemented laws in

which women were given 3 months paid leave if pregnant. They

later changed it to 6 months. This though helped women still

imposed the idea of only women being caregivers. After a lot of consideration they implemented a law that said any person who is

going to become a parent is given a parental leave of 3 months. So

regardless of gender any person who is hired, if becomes a parent

will take a leave. Iceland is very near to closing it’s pay gap. It still

does have one which is purely based on the fact that the sex of the

employee is female.

Gender gap is way better now than it was 50 years ago and it’s

only getting better, slowly but it is getting better.

 

Petal Beharrylal

A world not meant for me-

 

A world without Feelings.

Would it even be a world at all? Would I be a robot in a factory programmed to act a certain way?

What would we feel?

Anger, Sadness, envy, happiness all strings from Human feelings.

And yes it’s a chemical reaction but its part of what makes us human. How we react to the actions we face, how we overcome them.

So what would a world be like without feelings?

Father told me, child, make sure you love and be loved. For love is the greatest feeling in the world. Money comes and goes, once it never existed and soon it may no longer exist but love, love my dear is forever. It beats odds without an explanation; it gives power to the soul. Its hope. Both Strength and weakness. So make sure who you love loves you back, as it can build you up it can break you down.

And freedom. Ensure your love gives you freedom.

Love isn’t meant to be caged. It’s meant to be free. Free like a bird so you can soar with open wings. Feel the wind hitting your face, feel the cold rain on your tender skin. Dive deep in the ocean and swim. Feel anger, feel joy, feel rebellious and courageous. Feel proud. Feel the love.

But remember, Love isn’t just a person. Maybe it’s a career, a dream that you’re chasing. A best friend or a soulmate. A furry dog you met at the park. That smile when eating your favourite food, holding a warm hand in the cold, white snow. A smile, a frown, show an emotion, because I’m telling you any feeling is better than feeling nothing at all. So love and be loved, laugh and cry do what you must for if its gone, I guarantee you are going to miss it.

A world without feelings isn’t a world meant for me.

I’ve been around the world and love is the language. Be it a kind smile from a stranger or a kiss in Times Square on the eve of New Year’s.

I’ve been to the city of love where my lover and I locked our names and threw away the key.

Danced in first November rain in Spain and ruined his white shirt with the colours of Holi in the streets of Mumbai.

We lit up the sky on the 4^th of July. We relaxed in the sand on the beaches of foreign land.

I felt free and loved and happy and I cannot imagine a world without feelings for

A world without feelings isn’t a world meant for me.

 

Nanditha Shyam Sivadas

TOUCHING HOME

I’m merely one out of the 36 million people of my country that live in a home away from home. I’ll be honest, I was raised here, I took my first steps here, I made my first friend here. In other words this is my home. The only connection I have to my origin country is the two months we go every year religiously to visit relatives. To say hello to the grandpas, grandmas, uncles and cousins. Other than that, it’s the geography and history lessons from school and the native tongue we speak with family that tells me, yes, that’s where you’re from.

I never realised that my home country mattered to me, I was brought up in this land of sand, sea and stones. A place of skyscrapers and marvels beyond thought. And home? Home is a messy place, with half naked children playing in streets and loud gossiping men and women. So, why must I particularly care if I don’t visit it for just one year especially since it wasn’t really in my control, a viral infection is not my fault.

Turns out, I do care. Very much.

I hadn’t realised it was onto me until the deal was done. Until the nostalgia hit. There are a lot of things I miss. The green mango tree my mother planted as a little girl. The red of the hibiscus flower I made sauces with in my gourmet restaurant, all the while bossing my little sister around. The yellow of the sun that blinded me every morning. Sounds of morning drivels from the temple nearby and the smell of wet land after a rain. Everything that I complained and wrote off as dirty and messy all comes rushing back to me with an unusual sense of fondness. Car rides there meant windows open, it meant watering eyes, worrying about water splashing into the car and the winds ruffling up my preciously styled hair. But now? Now I think of the eager leaning forward to see the next paddy field, the sweet scent of fried goodies from pop up tea shops and having wonderful new hairdos when stepping out of the car. So much better than the stifling, windows up, AC on way we travel here

.My world right now, the one without any of that, seems a bit everyday. It seems so very ordinary and perhaps even a bit bland. How strange to miss something I had always ignored, always thought of as a hindrance. Last year I couldn’t go back. This year, the plane tickets have been booked and I’ve chosen my outfits, but everyone knows that we might not be going in the end. I’m one of the 36 million people from our country who can’t go back to our origins due to the Covid -19 pandemic. My world is without the touch, smell and colours of everything I began with.

 

N.M.Y. Nethma Hettigedara

A world without ‘him’

 

I did not meet him down at the aisle. I met him elsewhere. When I say elsewhere, I cannot even remember where actually. Probably when I was swimming up and down inside the uterus. Or maybe when I had to listen to that stupid thing hung in my cot that sings so ‘beautifully’ as I thought back then. I do not know exactly where did I first meet him, however, I do know I got attached to him when I started  to understand what he meant.

 

Yes, I started residing in the land of music when those cunning eyes of loneliness, boredom started to stare at me waiting for the right moment to pull me into a long and tight hug that almost lasted forever. Never a hug by someone made me feel like I am diving into the ocean of extreme comfort I should say. I said I started to reside!! Not arrived. Of course, I arrived there when I listened to my first song!! Now imagine what I am going to say. I landed in this place a long time ago. At first, it was kind of, you know I loved his voice plus the rhythm. What he meant? I totally did not have an idea. I back and forth travelled between my home and this island to go out with him. But never considered building a little cottage there to stay over. Now I am happily living together with him. A world without everything would lead to chaos, yet a world without him? Oh my god, I cannot even imagine!!

 

Oxygen, water, food; we need to live. To live without arriving soon at the gate that leads to two roads;  one to God, other one to Satan. But how about living without knowing where you are going to go? A body without a soul that walks aimlessly towards a destination you do not know exists? That is horrible man! Imagine a world without music. We are in hell dude. We are literally in hell. If those seven notes were never found, to be specific twelve notes actually, with sharp and flat notes, we would be done!!

 

Let us return to my land, where my boyfriend is (One of my boyfriends out of many actually) to be honest. Oh his sweet voice, his deep voice; everything about him makes me go insane. When I am happy, my god the tune, melody of his voice is the best. However when I am like suffering from that major trauma not knowing what to do, just lying on my bed hugging my dear pillow, what he means along with the breathtaking melody that accompanies: about love, about how fast the night changes, how you never walk alone, how you have shown me I have reasons I should love my self, life being like a willow; then I lose it. I literally forget my existence and start to float in the air amidst the clouds high up above the land with him.

 

(500 words excluding the title)

 

Tarannum Hussain

A world without you

Atlas walks down an empty, dark hallway.  Slowly, he sat down on a white vintage chair. Still scarred from the past. A piece of him was gone. His mind drifts twenty years back into the past when he was just sixteen years old. The young Atlas was sitting on a hospital bed next to his mother who was fatally ill. Her eyes are big, kind and, most notably, sad; they look like bright flames luminously glowing in dark ocean blue water. “Everything is going to be just fine. We’ll pay for the surgery and you’ll be at home with me again. And we’ll cook your favourite meal together! I promise, just stay with me. Stay alive.” Atlas said with his innocent bright cerulean eyes radiating in the even brighter hospital room light. His face looked like that of a sad baby tiger. “Sweetheart, there’s no point. We don’t have enough money for the surgery.” Atlas’ mother, Maria, said with tears present in her eyes. She moved a piece of atlas’ messy glossy coffee-brown hair behind his right ear as a nurse walked into the room. “Visitor hours are over.” Said the nurse in a calm voice. “Right.” Replied Atlas as he got up. “Bye mom, love you.” He said in a disappointed voice. “I love you too, sweetheart.” Atlas’ mother said in a tone that perfectly reflected her loving and caring nature. As Atlas walked out of the hospital he promised himself that he would pay for his mother’s treatment even if he loses his fingers in the process. She was the only parent he had left since his mother and father had a divorce. Atlas had no connections to his father, they specifically moved to Australia to avoid him. To start a new, better, life.

The next day was Monday. Atlas was an amazing student. He always did his homework and never showed up late to class. He was active in all his lessons and always got straight A’s. All this made him well-liked by the teachers and earned him the titles of head boy and prefect. However, today he was acting a bit different. He dozed off in his math class and didn’t attend to any of his duties as prefect or head boy; he was very quiet and didn’t make eye contact with anyone, even his best friend, Connor. Some of his teachers noticed his weird behaviour and tried to question him. Atlas didn’t answer. At one point he thought about telling Connor about his situation but soon brushed it off with the argument ‘How will he help?’

After school atlas went to the dark alley behind his school. The day before, after he left the hospital, he went onto the dark web and was able to contact a gang near his area. Although he was sixteen then, he looked like a third-grader compared to the people in the alley. After several minutes of walking, he finally found the gang that he had contacted. “Hello?” Atlas said to the leader. He wasn’t really sure what to say or do and the innocent unclear tone in his voice highlighted that fact. “I’m Atlas Miller.” He continued. “So you’re finally here, kid?” Said the leader in an unsympathetic voice. “I’m sorry- I had school so,” Atlas said, tripping over his vocabulary and mispronouncing the simplest of words. “Here’s the money.” The leader said, “Pay back in a week or we’ll cut off your finger.” He continued in a threatening voice. Atlas rolled his eyes at the empty threat, but then politely nodded his head at him. Slowly, Atlas turned around and left the alley with two hundred thousand pounds in his hands.

On his commute to his house, he thought about how messed up what he just did was. He never in his life thought that he would have to take stolen money. Once he gets home, he eats lunch and changes out of his school uniform and wears a grey turtle-neck shirt and a pair of dusty blue jeans. After all of that, he immediately goes to the hospital. At the hospital, he pays for his mother’s surgery. He tells his mother that she can have her surgery. When she asked how Atlas got the money he said that it was from a local charity. On his way back to his house he sternly told himself how messed up this whole situation is. In a moment of sudden realization, he asked himself, “How will I pay them back?”

 

Two days later, Atlas’ mother gets her cancer surgery. However, Maria didn’t make it. She died two hours and seventeen minutes into the surgery. Atlas was distraught by this. When he heard the news his eyes started tearing up, and his heart was already one step ahead of him and had cried an ocean worth of tears seconds after he got the news. That night, Atlas laid on his bed with his eyes open “What am I supposed to do now?” He asked himself. He took his phone and called Connor. No reply. At that moment his heart sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean like the titanic. He had never felt so alone before. He wanted this to all just be a horrible dream. That’s when tears started falling down his cheeks like a water fountain and at that very moment, Connor called him. Atlas hesitantly picked up the phone. “Hey, Atlas! What happened? It’s literally one am.” Said Conner who was clearly concerned. “Nothing.” Atlas said with little to no emotion, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Atlas abruptly hung up. A world without her seemed impossible, unreal. It was a sinking point. Fear, anxiety. They moved to Australia for a better life, but it seemed to just get worse. A panic attack. He collapses under the pressure of everything.

Atlas woke up a few hours later. “You didn’t pay up.” Said the kidnapper. Atlas looked around the room. It wasn’t his. Two grown men were standing in front of him. The room looked like a dark basement. Atlas noticed some blood in the room too. There was a wooden door behind the second guy and a small square window, the only source of light, behind himself. “Are you deaf? I said you didn’t pay up!” Shouted the kidnapper in a threatening voice. Atlas was too scared to say anything. Even if he knew what to say it was pointless. His mouth was covered with duct tape. “I wasn’t joking when I said that I’ll cut off your finger you know?” Said the second man. Five hours later Atlas was sent back home with nine fingers and a death threat. They cut off his thumb on his left hand and placed it in a tin. One week later Atlas decided to rob a store to be able to pay off his debt. However, Atlas was an amateur at robberies so he quickly got caught by the police. Now Atlas, who was once a promising student, is just a criminal.

 

Megan Kwan

Think of a world without animal cruelty

For I am chained, for I am clipped, for I am shaved and kicked

For my screams and my cries, the humans don’t mind

They punch and they spit , they rip and they kick

But what does it matter, for I am no human franchise.

Time goes by, wings still tied, never to fly as my soul is marked with scars of the unkind.

For I am chained, for I am clipped, for I am shaved and kicked

My happiness slowly ripped from me as if it was cut off with knifes

But what does it matter, for they are my owner and incharge of my time

Even though they still punch and spit, even though they still rip and kick

It is my job to stick my their side, For this is my purpose, to make my owners satisfied

For I thankful that I am not ownerless or homeless with no sort of meaning to survive

Though I wish the humans know that I still feel pain as I am left alone bleeding from the lies as they race over in my brain

For I am still chained, For I am still clipped, For now there is nothing to shave but I am stilled kicked

These animals live life as a trick,  with humans who act like reckless ships

for they live their entire life being punched and spit on as their fur is ripped and their ribs are kicked.

Think of a world without animal cruelty

 

Carlos Manuel Eusoya

Title: A Hole in the Ecosystem

 

Savanna in Burundi, 2024

 

Something was missing. I just happened to know. There was a lacking piece – a hole in the ecosystem.

 

For years, I wished to present my documentation to ecological organizations out there, to prove that our world lacked something. I’ve journeyed to savannas, taigas, and rainforests.

 

I’ve been in Burundi since last month. The sunlight is piercing the dry and fractured soil. Trees towered in a supposed-to-be savanna, but the amount of grass in the fields was minuscule. The trees drained most nutrients from the soil, leaving the grass with nothing. The tree-to-grass ratio, as experts call it, is no longer balanced. It’s skewed farther than historical accounts state.

 

A herd of buffalos flocked by. Their underweight physique suggested they were starving. Poor animals; they barely have any meadow to graze on.

 

And the impalas, those slender and swift leaping antelopes, have nothing to gobble. The foliage of the trees was their meal, but they can’t reach the trees’ branches.

 

The savanna was dying. The animals are disappearing little by little. Perhaps the hole in the ecosystem was larger than I thought.

 

Ethiopian Forest, 2025

 

It’s been a while since I’ve documented my travels. Let’s say I did not want to write down the horrors I’ve seen.

 

The forests were not exempted from the hole. Thickets crowded the forest. The foliage was as thick as a five-foot-deep wall.

 

Small animals could not traverse beyond the foliage and this made them prone to flocking predators. Civets, gazelles, and reedbucks – they were all victims of the ever-growing thickets.

 

All of these imbalances in the ecosystem… had to be caused by a singular factor. What could it be? What was the one thing our world lacked, which led to an overturn of the ecosystem’s biodiverse nature?

 

Shores of Delhi, 2026

 

Today, I was sitting by the shores. The past years have been quite arduous, but today I have made an enlightening discovery.

 

An Indian merchant dropped by recently. Being fond of history, I scrolled through the textbooks he brought. That’s when I saw Ganesha, the elephant goddess. Elephant?

 

Could this creature be it? An elephant’s tremendous size is enough to knock over trees and help impalas reach their foliage meals. Its size is also capable of clearing out thickets and protecting preys from extinction.

 

Also, judging by their stomachs, they must eat a lot daily! This means that their foraging can tip the scales of the tree-to-grass ratio and save biodiversity!

 

Why were they missing this whole time? And how come ancient Indians knew of such creatures? Could it be possible… that the world’s elephants vanished due to humanity’s inhumane abuses? I’ve seen the same thing happen to a few panda and rhino species. Could this have happened to elephants too, causing them to completely vanish in history?

 

If this is true, then I now know what the hole in the ecosystem was. We are a world without elephants… and kindness towards animals.

 

______________________________

 

Aarushi Patnaik

A world without the ocean

 

I am what you see

I am dignified ferocious

I advance at my will

I am the crown

I am the creator.

 

I was what you once saw

I have become merciful

Now I advance at his will

I have become trivial

I am his slave

 

I am incessant

I am home to countless beasts

But still I never choke

My waves; I am harmonious

I am the unexplored

 

I am now insufficient

I am no more home to those beasts

But still I am choking

His ships; I am now bustling

He is investigating me.

 

I was once crystal clear

He turned me muddy

I gave living to fishes

But now it’s the plastic who live

I was his creator,now at his feet.

 

He is killing me, killing us

Why is he doing this

Has he not got enough

This greed is killing him too!

Time will come, he will plead.

 

Long gone, long gone

When all the salt will perish

No more flavoursome delicacy

Then I too will dry out

And you too will perish.

 

I am his father he is my child

Your father is now ebbing

There is still some time

But forever, forever

you will stay mine

I am ready to relinquish

For my child, for my child.

Elina Chakraborty

“A World Without…”

“A world without judgement and discrimination”. In this world, one has the liberty to be carefree. They don’t have to contemplate their next step because they do not need any stranger’s validation. One need not protest or create communities to fight for their well-deserved rights. Their gender, caste, religion do not dictate who they are in true sense. Nobody treats them like an inferior or a criminal because they have taken decisions of their own lives which doesn’t affect that of others. Millions of tweets, protests and constant justification is not required for someone innocent to be released from jail. Rules are not bended in this world for someone because of their surname or financial status. A girl is treated equally as a boy without the requirement of feminism campaigns, a guy can show his emotions in public, no outsider would label him to be not manly enough and make him forcefully suppress his emotions owing to this newly induced insecurity. In this world, one is responsible for his/her own choices. It’s not manipulated or molded by the society who doesn’t even know the individual’s interests and history. People here are not under the pressure to be someone they are not or don’t want to be just to please the aesthetics of the society. This world is truly independent because the people here speak their thoughts freely and not cage their original personalities but carry themselves confidently. An aspiring dancer or model is not rejected or taunted because of their body count, no one is beaten up here for choosing to be with someone of the same gender or different religions, a boy can put on makeup if he wants to and a girl can be as loud as she wants to be. This world is free from stereotypes and toxicity. One might think why will it be otherwise even? Why will strangers have any say upon someone else’s life choices? What right do they have? The answer is none, but unfortunately that aint the reality of the actual world where everything one does is scrutinized by a bunch of people who might not even know the person’s name. Even the world without judgement and discrimination isn’t a perfect world. People still will have their personal battles and insecurities but they won’t be forcefully initiated in them by the anonymous public to make them doubt themselves. At least here, people enjoy real freedom and not the pseudo kind of the real world. People here would still make mistakes but mistakes are better than regrets. It is easy to say to not be affected by some stranger’s comments but the world still is made of humans, not robots and it is human nature to be influenced and hence emotionally controlled by public opinions. Unfortunately, the people of the real world fearing all these man-made labels and tags are internally taciturn with a polished image of a person even they don’t recognize.

 

Fathima Shuaib

A World Without…

What would this world look like without Peace?

We would fight with each other looking for our other piece.

Judge others on how they appear, not on who they are.

We round on them every single time looking for a spar.

We shouldn’t just look up at the sky, we should reach past the sky to the stars.

Our dreams and hopes are gone only looking to face reality.

Every single time we wake up or go to sleep searching for a time to flee.

We don’t know who’s a friend or who’s a foe.

It’s like looking at the snow, it looks beautiful but it can be dangerous.

What would this world look like without Peace?

Instead of helping each other, we’d be running to be the first.

There would be a thirst for food, thirst for water, thirst for power, and thirst for greed.

When we sleep our dreams are flooded hoping to be freed from this nightmare that seems so real.

We would run from one place to another hoping for a place to forever call home.

It is said “Home is the place where your heart is” but if you don’t know what’s in your heart then where is your home?

We’d just roam wherever we want to and whenever we want to comb through our bruises as nothing happened.

Our bruises are what tell a story, our story.

We don’t care for it, only looking for glory.

What would this world look like without Peace?

We’d be lost searching to bring back time.

We’d be finding our purpose but it will be hard like “Finding Nemo”

But maybe all we need is a little demo.

How many friends would we have? Would they stay for our Money, Power, or Looks?

Whom would we trust? Our Neighbors, Co-Workers, Friends or Family?

Whom would we talk to? Our Teachers, Bosses, Classmates, or Strangers?

Without Peace, we have no Hope, without Hope we have no life.

Then what is our purpose in Life?

Our purpose is to change our future, to bring peace, hope, and life to our next generation.

So, What would this world look like without Peace?

 

Ciara Dillon

A World Without Life

A monster munches merrily.

It devours seemingly without thinking.

Crunching, cutting, crumbling,

The living and the dead.

The creatures once vibrantly populating,

Have now fallen into a dull state of death.

Nothing is left in the violence’s wake.

 

A delicately balanced ecosystem,

Created by predation and protection,

Ravaging and salvaging,

now gone in a vigorous, senseless action.

The monster continues its purge on the innocent.

A man-made atrocity.

 

So what will become of this place?

An emaciated landscape,

With an abundance of nothingness.

Will the short years of profit,

The unnatural additions of life to replace the old,

The loss of a world of its own,

Truly be worth it?

 

And when the monster turns on us,

Its creators, its carers, its feeders,

When we have nothing left to give,

Will we have the power to stop it?

Or have we sealed our fate,

In the killing, the lives we have taken,

To manufacture a real world without life?

 

Hannah McLaughlin

The Wall of Peace 

A scar of bright light appeared from between the curtains. Again, came the mangling and gashing of serried ranks under a starless sky. Through the terraced streets wove a river of deceit and lies, for it was possible for one wall to divide a nation.

The green light flooded the hearts of the many fighting for freedom. Though, green light also flooded the heads of the blue-blooded oppressors. People were made unrecognisable, begging for the predators to listen.

Luminescent smoke ignited the sky and filled the lungs of the innocent engulfing them in a cloud of greed. Mothers of young children were hiding in the foul, all too familiar, trenches. They were anticipating the gunshot that would rip them from this existence, that would silence their laughter and make dull their eyes. It was as if that sound itself had become a murderer, a brutal shout from the coldest of lungs.

It was if every death was planned, and they had numbered the bullets. Predators only have one instinct: to kill. The smoke retreated in fear at their presence. He was left defenceless against their volatile brutality. His last thoughts of his family who he could not protect, his fallen neighbours that lay buried under a carpet of green, the innocent who would never receive justice upon their death, but instead their names were to be soiled by the very people that pulled the trigger.

In the sorrow of death is the evidence of love, and the bonds that exist beyond our reality, beyond the spacetime, matter and energy that makes our world real. For this nation did not have a death penalty but allowed their law enforcement to be the judge, jury and executioner upon the streets of Ballymurphy.

His body, now blue from the blood of the enemy, lay limp amongst its neighbours. Blood spilled out from the fourteen bullet holes that were left on his body, caused by the gun of an Englishman. The lifeless body lay there amongst eight of its neighbours in a valley of peace, which even the wall could never achieve.

 

 

Ishani Mishra

Title : Land of Subtle Silver

A world without safety is the one I live in

Some parts maybe less so, but think

Do all these places seem that different?

No matter where, there’s blood on the sink

 

I know you and I don’t always see

There’s a reason for that, I tell you

We are not those who hurry to flee

Yes, there is a reason for that too

 

This colour of my skin sets me apart

These curves of my body never help

The threads of smiles snag on a heart

Pulling it apart till it can’t mend itself

 

I feel the taste of saccharine sweet on my tongue

Another area, and it’s switched with animals unsung

But no matter the taste, the scent, the place

The eyes always remain caught in an embrace

 

It’s a hug of chattering teeth and biting nails

The crackle, prickle and stab of dragon scales

Then the fire’s rising and snow replaced

With sweltering heat and clothes disgraced

 

It’s almost funny at this point, how the looks never change

I have travel magnets but experience is all that  I obtain

The quick glance, the physical flinch, the audible inhale

Hats or scarves or tank tops, the one inside is just so frail

 

Because the world is without security

And I don’t have to imagine the danger

Because each flight holds that impurity

And no new country feels like a stranger

 

I still clutch my purse, my phone, my laugh

I still scurry past the dark to stay in the light

I still make sure my soul is cut, sorted in half

Then at least one part won’t face moonlight

 

The men are the same, maybe the rules differ

Just a little, never enough to matter

Some countries, I’m forced to walk a bit quicker

Positioning my keys so danger scatters

 

I search, I explore and explore, because I still have hope

I won’t rest till I’ve found a space covered in soft silver glow

I will keep going and going and hoping and breathing

Till I finally maybe find a reason to stop leaving

 

DENISE DANIELLE MORAGA

A WORLD WITHOUT MAGIC

Have you ever seen a magic show? Amazing tricks surprise you. Astounding cheers from the crowd boost you. Then you’ll be wondering, how did it happen? Well, it’s because of the skills of the magician that makes it unbelievable. So how can you imagine world without magic?

Time flies so fast. It was 8 years ago when I first traveled outside the country. Me and my family went to Hongkong. And you know what excites me the most about Hongkong? Disneyland! As an avid Disney fan and a wandering child, Disneyland was “the dream”.

Can you remember the nostalgic goosebumps you feel whenever you hear the intro music of any Disney film? That was the exact same feeling I’ve experienced when I first took a step on the happiest place on earth. It was indeed an “eye candy” to finally meet my favorite Disney characters and princesses in the place they call home. We took the leap of faith when we rode extreme rides, and of course, we felt dizzy after.  I took a seat in the bench right across the castle as the iconic Disney parade passes by. At night, you’ll be dazed by the spectacular fireworks as its colors blast off the sky. I saw astonishing views that will remain in my heart forever. I saw the Disney castle up close, I saw couples taking pictures of each other and families that are cherishing every moment. I vividly saw smiles and laughter from every tourist that time.

For others, travelling might be a luxury or a waste of money. But for me, it is an opportunity. An opportunity to see the brighter side of life. Every second of it is worthwhile. You’ll gain experiences you’ll never forget. Experiences you’ll be forever grateful for. Travelling allows you to connect with people from different places and diversed races. Travelling is like experiencing magic. Our creator is the magician and we are the audience of his magic show and we are meant to enjoy and appreciate his masterpieces. The world is nothing without magic.

 

Alexandre Chan

A World Without Plankton

What do you first think of when someone mentions extinction? Most will likely relate this subject to animals like rhinos, pandas or possibly tigers. Although these certainly are pressing matters that the world is struggling to solve, I believe that more attention should be turned towards the tiny little organisms in the sea called plankton. At the thought of this, you may or may not think, “Pfft, what? No one even thinks of those insignificant little creatures.” However, there are actually many reasons to support this species along with the fact that its population is gradually dwindling over the years.

Firstly, a world without plankton would also mean a world without many other animals, especially those in the sea. Let’s take the blue whale as an example. Everyday, a blue whale consumes nearly 8,000 pounds of plankton! Imagine if plankton went extinct, all the blue whales in existence would starve to death and its species would be wiped off the earth. This would drag down other species of the food chain which feed on these whales, like sharks and orcas, along with its predators, and so on. Eventually, almost all of the predatory marine animals will die.

Planktons’ existence as food is also not the only factor that would change if plankton went extinct. Plankton are actually responsible for producing almost 70% of the world’s oxygen, so without all this oxygen, the earth’s carbon levels would increase faster, accelerating global warming which would wipe out many animal and plant species. And obviously, the absence of 70% of the earth’s oxygen would make it extremely difficult for humans to respire and breathe, and also contribute to wiping out even more animal and plant species.

As shown in these paragraphs, a world without plankton would be extremely tragic for the world’s animals, plants and even us humans. Due to this, I believe that we should start trying to maintain the plankton population of the ocean, so that the existence of all living things will be sustained for a much longer time.

 

Christia Lalson

A World Without Itself

The traveller sees Nothing.

Hears Nothing.

Smells Nothing.

Tastes Nothing.

Feels Nothing.

It’s lonesome. Wandering the edge of the Earth, trapped in a celestial fire.

What celestial fire?

There’s Nothing left.

Nothing, except the echoes of the traveller’s voice, calling in desperation, hoping to hear an answer.

Yet there’s Nothing.

What happened?

 

Humans.

The vile species, who were given a beautiful home, to take care of and to love. They were given animals to protect: birds, flying in the azure sky; fish, swimming in the crystal clear seas; all the land animals roaming through various landscapes, each beautiful in their own way.

But that’s all gone. All animals have been killed, for humans’ greed and want. Skies are polluted with suffocating smog, seas are covered with ever-lasting litter, and the land has become nothing more than a landfill site, uncared for and forgotten.

The traveller walks on a desolate planet, one which cannot be called Earth, as everything that ever made Earth has now been destroyed.

If only humans could have lived in peace with Mother Nature. Then maybe she wouldn’t have responded with hurricanes, fires, floods, droughts. If humans had been a little more sensitive, a little more caring, maybe everything would have ended with a dove holding an olive branch, and a rainbow.

 

Yet life isn’t that simple.

Nothing is ever black and white. At least it wasn’t before.

But what colour is there now?

Where is the happiness, sadness, satisfaction, worry, positivity, negativity, and everything in between which made the world so vibrant?

It dissolved one by one.

First, the skies, the seas, the land, ruined by the filth humans had produced and dumped.

Then the “low-level” animals and plants, those trying to live peacefully within the Earth, those at the bottom of the food chain, all wiped off.

Once the atmosphere and food chain had been disturbed, first signs of incoming disaster arrived.

Humans could have stopped it, but why didn’t they?

Who knows.

 

It was quiet. Then it grew louder.

And louder.

And louder.

Until havoc consumed the Earth, like an invisible noose, strangling it.

Mother Nature had had enough. She was distraught, and gave up on everything – including herself.

Everything was destroyed. All that was left was Nothing.

 

But the traveller?

 

I should have paid more attention. I was ignorant, and found out too late.

I’m sorry I failed you Mother Nature.

I didn’t protect you.

 

As a single tear fell down, a green bud peeked out of the ashes.

Just a small green bud.

Siya Bhasin

Poem name: A world without you

A world without you;

would be impossible to live in.

the sky wouldn’t be blue;

and the sun won’t warm my skin.

You affect people’s lives so much;

without even noticing.

your laugh is such a melodious one,

it causes the birds to sing.

 

You’re the reason someone smiles,

While listening to that one song on the radio,

It reminds them of your shining eyes,

And the silly way you pronounce adios!

 

Every room lights up,

When you walk in.

Every person takes a second to stop,

Just to see you smiling.

 

You’re the reason someone has that favourite mug of theirs;

Or the reason why your sister isn’t afraid of bears.

You warm people’s heart and make them fill up with giggles without even trying to;

Your kind words make even the coldest of hearths ablaze with a dark red hue.

 

From the dimple in your cheek to your flowing curly hair;

To that faded blue shirt you love to wear;

All these things are what make you so special;

The way you are always eager to sneak out and go on an adventure.

 

I still remember when we went to get some ice cream;

At Three in the morning.

We were laughing our lungs out, reciting our wildest of dreams;

Till alas we were tired and yawning.

 

And how can I forget that day;

When we went grocery shopping in the silliest of outfits.

wearing clown hats and our wrists adorned with silly bracelets;

Roller skating around the shop till the manager threw a fit.

 

It may not seem like it, I will admit;

A world without

you is unimaginable to be in.

You may be just ‘someone’ to the world;

But to the lives you’ve touched, you are the world.

 

Kalazani Neena Elsie

Theme: A world without…

Would we survive?

Imagine a world without oceans. Those beautiful, mysterious, wild and free water bodies that cover seventy percent of the planet’s entire surface. One may think that it is hard for a species that occupies roughly twelve percent of the earth’s land mass to mess up the oceans yet we humans are well on the way to wrecking the world’s oceans today.

If the oceans did not exist anymore, everything on the earth would run out of oxygen and eventually die. Oceans absorb fifty times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere and in return produces over half of the world’s oxygen. What horror it would be if we were not able to have enough oxygen to breathe all because of the lack of oceans.

Living without oceans would mean living in an extremely cold world with very low temperatures and cold harsh freezing winds. This is because oceans transport heat from the Equator to the poles to regulate the earth’s climate and weather patterns. Research carried out has shown that more than ninety percent of the earth’s warming that has happened over the past fifty years occurred in the oceans. This is because the oceans absorb huge amounts of heat from the sun.

Imagine having to never eat any form of sea food at all! All the nutrients like calcium, magnesium, sodium and iodine among others which are found in sea weed alone would be missing in the diets of very many individuals. Fish would never be on the menu for billions of people, making life harder for them. Products like peanut butter and soymilk which contain ingredients from the oceans would taste a whole lot different too.

And as if that is not the worst thing, there would be no sea creatures anymore. All the crabs, dolphins, jellyfish, turtles, sharks, whales and other water animals would be no more. Since ninety-one percent of the species in the oceans still have never been discovered, we would never be able to discover them and yet they would already be gone forever. It would be a global catastrophe to lose unique, lovely and innocent creatures.

A world without oceans would be cruel, boring, difficult and generally unbearable. The ocean’s quiet voice is calling out to each one of us, when we put our ears to the shells we find, it is telling us to listen and protect it, because even it knows that we cannot live without it. Therefore I call out to everyone to fight to save all the oceans and other water bodies worldwide otherwise we would risk living in a world without them.

 

Arush Sarang Desai

LOVE IS MONEY: BE RICHER

A world without hate would a world of God

Where we all would live our happily-ever-afters

Wearing golden sneakers and burgundy heels.

 

Our world would have love slumbering the air

From the  sweat-inducing air of Africa to the freezing air surrounding the Himalayas

We would all along and cement relationships to remember until the until of Time

We’d all remember that we all are beads in God’s necklace

Necklace, the universe wears proudly.

 

Without loathe, peace would flourish

Bloom, like fresh dandelions in spring

Crimes and death would plummet and die

As love and kindness usurps the throne

Throne of Life.

 

Without despise, we would live in a superior society

Like the ones we see in sci-fi movies

Brilliant societies

Where black is white

Gay is straight

Woman is a man

Animals are humans

Discrimination would be treason.

 

We would be superior to I

He is equal to she.

 

We would grow together

Build a civilization with foundations of trust, loyalty and love.

 

It is wonderful to dream a world without hate

But it is impossible to have residency in this quintessential land

If we don’t change ourselves

Be the Hermes of love, acceptance and glory.

 

We would all sit under Grandma’s tree

Where she would unfold stories written on leaves

We should write love letters on rose petals

Sing melodies about love and prosperity.

 

We would dance under the rain.

 

Golden is love

Darkness is hate

Don’t choose blind

You won’t be able to see the world’s beauty.

 

Muhammad Haris Zafran

A World Without Birds.

Somehow the very sentence seems alien; the sky has always been filled with feathered creatures (not counting bats). Some tiny, some huge. Some colourful, and some drab.

 

Most of them alive. Hopefully.

 

But to imagine a world without birds, one would have to imagine a lot of things suddenly disappearing. The family turkey dinner would have to be something a lot less light to eat, and a lot less easy to cook. No birds would tweet out at you from out the window, waking you up to a fresh and summer-breezed day. And an extension of that, perhaps, in that the iconic “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” of a rooster would never be heard again. No beautiful bird-talkers or whistlers, shutting away a branch of music that is nigh impossible to recreate with the human voice box. The very concept of feathers would become a well-kept myth, described later as “paper and thread floating on the wind.”

 

It would be a terrible world. But no, we’re still not done.

 

No more parrots swearing ridiculous insults they learned on the TV. No more eagles soaring about. The sky becoming an endless upside-down field of blue grass and cloudy flowers, no more being decorated with the dots of a falcon here, maybe a robin there, and so on. The seagulls flying around coasts, who alerted early sailors of land nearby, would also disappear. The noises of a jungle would dull down to the rhythmic chanting of insects and the lazy growls and yawns of a random tiger.

 

And speaking of insects: no birds to eat them when they got out of hand.

 

The egg breakfast so nostalgic and warm to many of us would never be again experienced by a child, and the nostalgia would die with us as we remember everything that has come to pass; the birds, and the things that are not birds.

 

No more crows cawing and being a general amusement/nuisance, depending on who you’re talking to.

 

You might say: “Well, you can’t say anything good about pigeons.”

 

And no I cannot, because I too, dislike pigeons.

 

But to make them a thing of the past; to have them die with the old of us; to never have their experiences paint a young person’s mind and eye: that is something far worse, and even pigeons wouldn’t deserve it. Nothing deserves to be forgotten. Not now, or ever.

 

So why would we even leave it as a possibility?

 

Moh Bhargava

A World without you

I don’t want to live, in a world without you

The sun won’t shine the same, and songs won’t play on que

I need you like, I need air to breathe

I need you like the ground, beneath my feet

You are the only thing, I need to have

The only one who, knows who I am

 

I would just be a soul, without a purpose

Searching the entire realm, for when there was an us

Every time I think, about a world without you

I feel like sinking into, an endless whirlwind of blues

 

Because I see your face, everywhere I go

And I hate to say it,but you’re all I know

 

Even when you’re with me, I dream about you

Everynight in my dreams, I can’t sleep because of you

And in a world without you, I know there won’t be hope

I know there won’t be sunshine, I know there won’t be rainbows

I know I wouldn’t care to wake, I know I wouldn’t ever smile

The world would be a lonely place, without you by my side

 

I’d probably live, for my friends and family

But I’d be dead inside, dreaming of what we could be

A world without you, is the hell that I fear

I know I’d perish, without you my dear

 

And if you weren’t there, with me everyday

I don’t know how I’d live, but I don’t really care

Because I don’t want to waste, a second of our time

Every second with you, is enough for a lifetime

A world without you, doesn’t exist

In a world without you, I hope I don’t exist

 

Muhammad Shahrin Alimin bin Azha

A WORLD WITHOUT CLOTHES

Have you ever wondered about hanging around the city without clothes on your body? To make it more bizarre, you’re not the only doing that! It’s just like a world wide wild party, maybe? That is seriously the first thing that come across my mind when talking about this case. Besides, the worst of the worst is parents have to change the lyrics for the wake-up song for their children in particular the part ‘put on your cloth’. Well, people won’t take this nauseaously because it is not your fault at all. Before calling me flirty, I am sincerely hoping that you can spend some of your time reading this article first!

 

You maybe do not realize this fact but human once lived in colony nakedly. Back to the old days when there are no proper languages or words, I strongly believe that our earliest ancestors had lived like that. I mean, they must need some of times to sort it how to make the cloth by leaves and animal skin to cover their privates. To be honest, I just saw this in the book, not via my own eyes! Whatever it is, surely they must be very strong to resist with such a severe chilly weather at the time due to the fact that there’s no any machine functioning to heat the body existed at that time. So here comes the question mark. How do they survive?

My mind is completely blank. If I were in their shoes, I am sure I’ll die due to the whole-body frosting. But there is a useful fact that I can use to break the dilemma. Our ancestors were way too stong to be compared to us! For instance, have you ever visited the great Firaun in Mesir? Did you ever think about his height? It is 1.98 meters! But he lived at time that clothes are already existed. What do you reckon about the height of human that lived before him? What about the one that wore leaves around their private? Crazily attractive to be explored isn’t it?

Nowadays, more and more style of clothes have been invented uniquely and for that, I am feeling really grateful. Clothes may look quite nothing to be taken seriously, but it can trigger huge impact if the tittle of this article becomes true. Therefore, appreciate your clothes!

 

Jana Šoškić

Mariana’s trench

On the bottom
of Mariana’s trench
lies a better side
of light and life.

Sunlight is destroying
our perception.

I took a trip
to the near bottom
of Marianas trench.

My experiences were new.
The hauntingly beautiful kiss
of two mermaids.

I want to repeat that,
above the water
where I cannot drown.

The hauntingly beautiful kiss
of two women.

We are sinking into
a brand new
Mariana’s trench.

 

Panuthula Sucharita

A WORLD WITHOUT CONSERVATORS

Conservators play a huge role in saving animals, without them we may have lost many species of beautiful animals due to human greed. Humans love showing dominance, as they are far more intelligent, and one way they do is by hunting. It’s been going on for generations, like during the 18^th century in India: the king must hunt a lion to show his ascendancy and capability of ruling the kingdom. This way we lost many species of lions and Bengal tigers.  During the 19^th century as medicine was coming to light, we used many animals to do tests upon, kill snakes and other reptiles for medicinal purposes and thus losing a wide range of animals.

Even now it’s common, the cosmetic industry uses animals to test their products. Not exotic ones but rather rabbits and rats, even though these species aren’t endangered it doesn’t mean they can’t live a peaceful life away from humans. Conservators have shown us the truth about how animals are being used for human purposes, through social media. Even now trees are being cut in amazon rainforest for paper which has healthy replacement, paper from trees can be replaced by paper from elephant dung. Conservators have taken the help of social media, and attracted celebrities which then attracted common people or the people following those celebrities to create different protests in order to save animals. This way they engrossed politicians to establish different rules and rights’ regarding animals and their habitats. Firstly, we can stop the establishment of zoos and rather use it for building sanctuaries, animals roaming freely is better than being locked in cages. The youth should be taught to take care of nature as the future depends on the state of lakes, mountains, hills etc. We can volunteer in cleaning lakes and oceans and even our nearby lands to establish parks instead of buildings. Mother nature knows how to take revenge, during covid many animals have revived including, turtles who have an increased breeding and survival rate due to undisturbed beaches and oceans where they lay eggs, Bengal tigers and many species of birds. This shows how much we hurt mother nature through pollution, plastic and so on.

 

Conservators can take part in teaching college students, high school and middle school students to save animals and their habitats before they go extinct. There are healthy alternatives to everything, only we need to find and encourage them.

 

Anushka Mukherjee

A World without Adults

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is The World without Adults,

Some call it The World of Fun, others call it The World of Mayhem,

But I guarantee, this heritage site is a real gem!

Now, let us begin our walk through the city,

Observe the gingerbread buildings; an idea most witty!

To your right, we now pass some primary schools,

I should inform you, our education system has few rules;

Exams are prohibited by law, as is homework,

School is optional, like any form of work-”

“Sir, please! Watch where you are going…

You may step into “a waste zone” without knowing.

You see, none of the kids here like to tidy up, and waste starts to pile,

So we hide the rubbish in waste zones” she explained with a smile.

“Our city is the most eco-friendly of its kind,

Mainly due to the way our transportation is designed.

We use life-sized wind-up trains, buses, and planes to fly,

And that is how we bid our carbon emissions goodbye!

Not a single piece of plastic is used,

Our main material is candy and chocolate fused.

 

“If I may interrupt, I have some questions, Miss Tour guide”

“I can answer any questions you have” she answered with pride,

“Isn’t it dangerous to have candy buildings, as they may collapse?

Or wind-up aeroplanes if they crash, perhaps?

Once the kids of your city grow up, where do they move?”

“To the Normal World, where you came from…what exactly are you trying to prove?”

“How do they survive out there if they aren’t educated?”

“I don’t know. Are you trying to insult us?” she asked irritated,

“All I’m saying is that the World without Adults needs adults, and that is a fact,

Children need grown-ups…your city is just an act!

A World without Adults is a fun thought at first,

But it would actually be a disaster at its worst!”

The flustered girl did not know how to reply,

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it is time we said goodbye,

I do hope you enjoyed your visit to the World without Adults”

 

Boodhun Kanchan Devi

A World Without Peace

It would be poignantly a utopia to imagine a peaceful world. From social conflagrations to economic wars, we are witnessing every grim bit of it. Had we ever been more tolerant towards each other, today would have been an entirely different destiny. These conflicts are meanwhile souring our human history and mercilessly strangling our countless glorious achievements. At present, these social tensions are alarmingly deemed to be a cliff-edge. They are triggering other breakneck crises particularly famine or even searing inequality. Eminent think tanks flag the numerous reasons behind our violent world.

Foremost, over the past few decades, race and religion have played essentially on this predicament. We predominantly recollect the chilling Jewish genocide during the World War ll by the ruthless Nazis. Currently, we  highlight the most abhorrent religious clash between Hindus and Muslims. Ironically, the very first value we learn as a child is unity. Should we hence question our conduct? Well the trenchant lyrics of John Lenon from Imagine hit hard under these circumstances.” Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life for peace”, it says. Jonathan Swift also stresses that we have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love each other.

For us, it is now more common to live in fear. Indeed, the nuclear war game is threatening our existence. North Korea is leading in this “contest”. It is increasingly buttressing its economy in this field. Its authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-Un seems to press that nuclear bomb button anytime. Some time back, the former President, Donald Trump, cleared his position on this war declaration too. He affirmed a nuclear war could result.  Moreover, nuclear power lies equally in the hands of Iran. Its surrounding war-torn areas are massively affected. Syrian father Abdullah al-Mohamed had to find a way to help his daughter to cope with distressing bombs falling- laughter. His videos have voraciously garnered empathy. In the end, it is these unapologetic leaders who are playing with millions of lives. John. F. Kennedy rightly summarised that unless men destroy violence, violence will ultimately destroy men.

We all regret the conflicts that are somehow “unnecessarily” arising everyday. While more great thinkers or compassionate people are stepping to work hard for a peaceful world, the journey appears to be too long. Yet, these determined Samaritans including Malala Yosufzai are optimistic. Signs of hope are believed to be the multilateral collaboration to combat climate change. The divided world would finally find a way to eliminate any bitter diplomatic relationship. As far as race and religion is concerned, our youth’s open mindset is gradually trying to bind us and terminate any form of ethnic wars. Till now, our modern world can only be perfectly described by Einstein. “So long as there are men, there will be wars.”, he says

 

Lianna Philisa P. Miranda

gone away.

scared to reach the light

nothing last to make it stay,

to bear the lonesome night.

 

starved for dawns.

thee esssense of life

feet walking on rosy thorns

an ephimeral strife

 

as formless as water

tears shaped into strength

memories never falter,

bittersweet like roses’ scent

 

embracing love again;

no longer see the same sky

living stronger among men,

velvet cloaks cry.

 

Amiel Ivan E. Diano

“Be the Change” 

Growing up in a highly urbanized area and only going to the province once or twice a year, I soon realized how alluring life is in rural areas. In rural areas, you’re exposed to both animals and nature; that allows you to channel your perplexing mind  and have a breath of fresh air. Out of the blue, trucks would pass the road surrounded by weeping meadows  to deliver goods to the city state and provide them food. Everytime I wake up in the morning, our first priority would always go to our farm to harvest food. In my native language we call the farm “uma”, in which not only plants, sources of food can be found, but also the breeze, the beauty  and its simplicity can be highly perceived. With this custom of having to go to provinces each year, I also noticed that modern technology is starting to surround its beauty. As much as I wanted to keep it a secret, I also wanted some people to witness the refinement of this place; but obviously not to the point that it gets overpopulated and squandered.

 

When my family and I temporarily settled in this area, it was quite difficult for me to adapt to the kind of living they have here.  Gadgets were the primary reason why it was hard for me to adjust. I had to transfer areas to catch signals. I would go to our relatives house just to connect to their internet. Two long months later, I decided to detoxify myself from technology and instead, invited my family to go to the beach. When we arrived at the beach, I quickly rolled down our mat and sat quickly as I inhaled the gust of sea’s air. The waves, the sand were starting to comfort my mind where it felt like I was touched by nature itself. After this, we’ve become accustomed to this kind of living; that every time we travel here, we would go to the beach just to mitigate the tension surrounding our body. For eight years it was nature that made me realize how beautiful life is. It foregrounded and channeled my emotions and created the best version of not only myself but each of us.

 

This journey taught me and opened my mind on how vital nature is for human survival. Without nature, our lives would be empty and like a gliding lizard. Nature is just too beautiful to experience, perceive and absorb. It’s a never-ending chain of blessings. With this platform that has been given to me, I finally have the opportunity and privilege to protect, promote,preserve and beautify Mother Earth. As humans, we should be an anchor of hope and light for each other. Be the change and the reason why the next generation could still experience the beauty and allure that nature has to offer. Together, as one citizen of the world, let us hold hands and express love, beauty, care to each other and our earth.

 

Amrutha Valli

FREEDOM

freedom is what I seeked

but rejection is what it reeked

under the ground in the dungeons

I remained chained and cuffed

for the charge of an unexplained bluff

searching an exit I wandered

but deeper into the hole I pondered

Laughter was lost so was the smile

As I was held hostile

I wish I could hide

but in the cages you had rules to abide

caging the body without the mind

is like explaining a color to the blind

 

Insha Hassan

     A WORLD WITHOUT CHEWING GUM.

The planet is filled with diverse matter. Throughout the time our planet has evolved and soon later organisms have evolved from it.

Chewing gum was first developed in the 1860s when chicle was brought from Mexico by the former President, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, to New York, where he gave it to Thomas Adams for use as a rubber substitute but who knew this can a enjoyable treat that can help you concentrate in work and help your brain in exercising.

In 2016 I traveled to Singapore it was such a beautiful country with 0% garbage and also something I noticed was that there no chewing gums on the streets and this happened at the time chewing a gum there wasn’t allowed and I kinda had that habit as it was like a substitute for fun if I found something boring I would chew a gum. So one day we were sitting in the tour bus and I was bored I had earphones plugged and was kinda enjoying music while chewing the bubble gum. The travel guide came and asked me not to chew it but I was like what could go wrong and I didn’t listened well I do regret it now but I wish I knew it back then but well I didn’t listen.

Fast forward:

We reached our destination and the security guard kind of said it really loudly more like screaming ” Madame you are not allowed to chew a gum in Singapore its your last chance if you get caught again you will be fined for it.” I thought wow thats rude but well I should stop doing it.

Fast forward after a week we came back home and I decided to search that why was that so that they didn’t allow me to chew a bubble gum what can a bubble gum do wrong I mean what was the worst that could happen and I found out alot like

“the ban was to prevent vandals from using spent chewing gums to disrupt Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)”

“The chewing gum ban was implemented to eradicate problems created by chewing-gum litter in public places like cinemas, parks and common areas of housing estates such as lifts, staircases and corridors, as well as the high costs involved to clean up the litter.”

No doubt that we are facing those problems too but till this day I imagine how do they survive all the lectures and everything without chewing gums because I remember that whole week I had a bad toothache and i felt really empty and sleepy whenever I was bored because chewing gum always kept me awake and it helped reduce stinky breath but still they don’t allow chewing gum in Singapore except for therapeutic, dental, and nicotine chewing gum, which can be bought from a doctor or registered pharmacist. I wish they would look upon this matter and find an alternative solution rather than banning it.

 

Monica Lyka Cañete Sangre

A World Without A Story

Extinction. What comes to mind first?
Human extinction, correct?
You, thyself.
I would not blame you for such a thought,
It’s how most of us think, afraid of self-extinction.

Think of this, my friend, for a second,
“What would it be like if humans and plants were the only ones living?”
Of course! There is still a story to be told,
Our most favorite as humans as well, there is something we can still control. There is enough paper to write everyone’s story.

“Therefore, does this mean animals are included?”
Asked by an egoistic individual, as most of the population already are,
“Yes, do you think otherwise?” I asked,
And replied, “If it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be existing.
In fact, we should be thanked.”

I hear buzzing in my ear,
“I beg your pardon?” I sneeringly said,
Here’s to the untold story of Earth,
What biased speech do people give?
How a raised storyteller they are in a fantasized life they live,

The promised Neverland of all,
What a dream these living creatures live in,
What a dream we are all diving in,
I speak up. What future do us people hold, exactly?
Technology that evolves dramatically.

Tell me they do good in our community,
But have you seen how they make that piece of modernity?
Enhanced factories, burning, and testing, killing our earth slowly.
Unseen damage that is beyond what our human eyes can see,
Tell me it all does good and holds our future steady.

Back up, reverse, and rewind please,
What story can all these animals tell?
“I live on a farm and that’s about it” “I live in the wild and survive my life” Bovine, sightless, blind as a bat, I will say.
Can you look at a mentally ill person not knowing she is and say she’s just living her life?

You would be destroyed by the public,
Alienated by all media, canceled by all who hears the action you did,
I am wondering what is the difference for these creatures we forbid,
They are not it but they are someone we have killed,
Go with the flow of the system.

Extraterrestrial life is a diverse field, If it is even being considered,
But imagine how would you feel to be a prey to those predators we can’t see,
How else can these endangered species feel to see their predators
Evolving, growing, advancing into this killing nightmare they dream,
Watching you put the bullet in, shoot them within.

I then ask, my friends, “Why do an animal’s needs get to
Have the second seat for priorities and have the first seat for the thoughts of how to easily preserve them and kill as we speak?”
Look again to see anew, anew destruction and killing we have all committed,
The Promised Neverland, never again.

Who are we calling savages when we act one ourselves,
Wars we make against each other, what a bunch of animals we can make out of ourselves,
The bombing of Israel, cruelty to men and women, violence against children,
The abortion of a clueless human being died in the scene.
Murder next door, hit and run, assassination, and a hitman,

Business taken too serious develops in rivalry and cheating,
Government stealing? That isn’t new, I speak the truth.
Manipulative human beings, being the devil themselves,
O what more could be hiding behind those cells,
Who are we calling savages when we act one ourselves.

Think, think for once Hunter,
They have instincts, where and how they should be living,
I will put 60 people in a jail cell and cut their limbs to fit,
Shave their head and give them surgeries without proper tools,
And without anesthesia, I’m playing by the rules. Then sue me. I will tell you it’s just business, you won’t outdo me.
“I’m with the system.”

Animal testing I’ve been hearing,
On rabbits? Making them suffer for the sake of cosmetic products, you say?
What an imbecile and dull-witted,
Are we not contempt with the rat testing that is already listed,
The future holds the great evolution and extinction of those we have ignored leading to their execution.

Now tell me that animals are nothing but a clueless living,
We are who make their stories, we are who make them tell their suffering,
We are all acting God on Earth, do we not?
Acting as if we own this celestial body as if we rule revolutionary,
Create what you crave.

This is our world that will always have stories for everyone,
For every single living, walking, crawling, digging, growing thing on this planet,
There will never be “A world without a story”,
We, humans, are the ones that make every story, history, cruelty.
This is our dying planet, we are one with power and one with greed and who empowers one another.

“We are who we fear. The 7 deadly sins that inhibit humankind, a brilliant being with a savage mind.”

 

Mohammad Owais

My Love

I was like a speck of dust,

In this vast old universe

Would have been left all alone,

In the dungeons of Howling Souls

Until she showed up as an angel,

Sent by my first love

And brought me up,

Yes! She brought me up.

 

As time seemed to pass by,

Like the calm breeze in the sky,

I forgot ‘bout her tender love,

And turned towards worldly lusts

But then she showed up as a Saviour,

Sent by my first love

And straightened my,

crooked path

 

I was always dispirited,

And pondered ‘bout future bread

Until she showed up as my Mother,

Sent by my Loving Lord

And lifted,

My forlorn soul

 

I am writing this piece of love,

With tears running down my eyes

I don’t know what would’ve been of me

If you hadn’t been half of me

 

My thoughts are acting like a dagger,

With the brain being an open wound,

It’s’ asking what would you be,

When your third love, would meet the first?

What will be your state of mind?

When the guiding moon will not be there to shine

 

With the ring of questions constricting,

My Heart trembled, body shuddered.

Then the Glorious one guided me,

To never leave his righteous way,

To remember his good Slave’s life

And live this life for the other world.

 

Kee Rui Ying Charlotte

A world without you:

I trudged along the river, holding my compass in one hand, a map in the other.

My therapist had told me travelling would take my mind off my grief however it wasn’t proving to be very helpful with how very lost I was.

I remember a time, we used to travel the world together. Nothing could ever stop us. There were never any boundaries.

You always used to guide me through the different locations, through the flower-dotted landscape of the Sunflower Fields in Italy to the Sagano Bamboo Forest in Japan.

Splashing in the creek was always your favourite, you used to say, grabbing onto a cod with your bare hands and a grin on your face.

Personally, I had loved to walk in the forests with the sound of cicadas and birds echoing around. It was in a forest where we first met, where we had first kissed and where I had first professed my love for you with acorns and tulips. I remember you had laughed and swept me up in your arms, promising we’d be together forever.

It simply wasn’t the same without you by my side.

Like a wild animal, I called out for you, desperate to hear you again, even if it was for one final time, I wanted to hear your voice. To feel you, to touch you, to just be able to see you would be enough but you slipped from my fingertips, like the water splashing through the creek, the sound of water and woodpeckers greeting me.

I fell to my knees, water soaking my clothes as I sat in the water, staring at nothing, compass and map forgotten.

You’re really gone…aren’t you?

Why…can’t I even remember your name?

What did you look like?

What did you smell like?

What did you feel like?

What was your voice like?

What….? Who were you?

I stayed deathly silent, water dripping into the river as I sat there, prompting me to look up.

How strange, it wasn’t raining.

I felt my warm cheeks, fingers becoming wet from the tears that rolled down my cheeks.

I almost laughed at my tears.

Crying would never bring you back, it was pointless.

What was the world…if it didn’t have you in it?

 

Jada Gamble

 A World Without Home. 

today i went for a walk

and when i came back to my neighborhood

all of the houses and its furniture

were gone.

the people of avalon and 94th were in panic

a sight to see indeed

four walls to none

treasured objects that had more significance

of higher power than

the human itself

they wanted their comfort back

how could this happen to the people

of avalon and 94th?

 

it couldn’t have been something that they did

right?

black and brown looked

good together in the same air

but they loved it more when they couldn’t smell it

the people of avalon and 94th missed their  houses

and when they held their community meeting

in the middle of the street

i did not attend.

i went for a walk instead

 

and when i came back to my neighborhood

the people of avalon and 94th cut me clean

with jealousy coating their eyes

i guess i didn’t look like i lost a home

and they were right to look so

the people of avalon and 94th lost

barriers

comfort

control

and since my family was alive

my home was fine.

 

i later saw my bestfriend

her house was gone too

we did not panic.

instead we drove to where our hearts desired

we felt safe

we felt at home

because home is about feeling

and if a house is where the heart is

then i am vacant everywhere

for my home is limitless,

mine,

and far beyond four walls

Riddhma Dhandaa

A WORLD WITHOUT HUMANS

Have you ever wondered how the world would have been today without humans? Yes the most domineering race of animals, “Humans”. You might have not, but today you can. I as an individual have thought about it. Let’s start with the typical starting of our fiction story.

One fine Sunday morning you wake up on your cozy bed from your perfect 12-hour sleep. You get ready for your school but today there is something fishy. You walk out of your house only to see a different world before your eyes. You see lush green forests. A crazily different air to breathe. It is so fresh. You can literally feel the oxygen molecules for once. You are astonished by what you are seeing. But something is way more wrong than all these. Where are all those noisy neighbors and morning walkers? There is so much silence. No horns honking. No television no radios no nothing at all. You are traumatized. You lookout for people like a mad man in a forest. It is no joke. It is all real. No human insight. You start weeping on a rock. When a voice from behind freezes you. An actual person’s voice. “I did not know you were so sober. Be a man. Come on stand up” You look behind and see your science teacher Mr. Ben standing there. You run to hug him and you feel good for a second. He explains the whole scenario. “So it happened last night I guess. You and me, we have slept for 30000 years. Humanity has vanished from the surface to the core of the earth. I cannot tell how this happened. But I think it happened for the best” You get annoyed a lot, too confused with so many questions but you  want to ask the most important question of all “How is this something for the best?” Your teacher chuckles and asks you to accompany him for a brisk walk. You and he are walking thoughtlessly in the open when your teacher starts with the answer to your question. “You see tom, we humans have always been selfish and greedy for ourselves. We started to destroy and use the earth one by one to its core for our useless needs. This earth wanted to relax, but we were not letting it. We were warned a lot by signs like Major earthquakes, Volcanic eruptions, Drop-in air quality, and Increase in CO2, Shortage of water everywhere but we were blinded by our wants, Not only was humanity only challenging the earth but also other organisms living here. We were killing animals to satisfy our needs like food and even accessory. We always forgot that those animals also have an equal right on this very planet and instead of stopping we continued and here we are today. Something happened to humanity and everyone got wiped out. But look on the better side. Earth is smiling. It is taking a breath of relief now. Look at all the animals how happy and content they are now with their families with no one to kill them. Isn’t it just an amazing sight to see?” This was so convincing that you had to agree with your teacher. But humans were still a part of the ecosystem and the food chains. But again, the earth did seem to feel better than ever before. As night arrives, you can see each and every galaxy. The air is so pure that every star is crystal clear. Seeing such an amazing sight, it was impossible for sleep to not tough you. You sleep within the next 2mins. You have had another perfect sleep. As you wake up, you are forced to convince yourself that this was another shocking morning. You were on your bed. All those annoying sounds were again audible. Crazy neighbors were shouting, as usual, trucks and cars honking. The air was again not fresh anymore. You are a bit unhappy but comfortable with this. You reach school and see your science teacher. He winks at you; this makes sure that it was not a dream.

Really a world without humans can be better but let’s try with humans. If we just make more precautions and contribute towards the earth wholeheartedly we can make the world a better place to live. Let us together make this earth better than ever before. We will prove that Humanity is not only created for destruction but elevation and betterment of this lovely WORLD.

 

nikhita singh

A Monotone World

This world can be seen as two,

One in color and the other monotone,

One as scintillating as day,

One as calamitous and dark as night.

 

Time is the ultimate arbiter of fate,

It is the secret assassin of optimistic spirits,

The merciless destroyer of heartfelt ambitions.

My silence conveys the reality,

That we have collectively lost our way in the world,

 

The world: One full of life yet the other is as empty and emptiness itself,

Reality screams into my silence,

Day cannot exist without night, and conversely,

Death cannot occur without life,

 

You can choose to see a heart or you can see the heartbreak,

You can see a store that supplied your clothes,

Or you can see the children in the factory that made them,

 

Unspoken words that are hidden, unspoken desires,

You can choose to see this world,

One is happy and one is sad,

One is full of colour, the other is colourless,

 

But I will always choose to see this world,

Not in colour but in monotone,

For one is to dream and the other is our reality.

 

Maybe the world without, is a poem.

 

 

Angel Mary Trishe T. Cabigas

A world without trees

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” The prospect of a world without trees would look very dull. Envisioning life and the world without forestry truly terrifies me. The difficult draw of breath, the scorching hot weather we would live in. The occurrence of extreme droughts and climate changes. And the absence of habitat moreover an ecosystem one can call home. According to royal parks.org, Trees are vital. As the biggest plants on the planet, covering 30% of the earth’s land. They give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilize the soil and give life to the world’s wildlife, and generally help and benefit us in our everyday lives.

“Forests are the lifeline of our world, without them, we lose extraordinary and essential functions for life on Earth.” says Meg Lowman, director of the Tree Foundation. As of 2019, the world has lost nearly 11.9 million hectares of trees that cover the tropics and a further 3.8 million hectares in the tropical primary forests. According to the BBC, if trees disappeared overnight, so would much of the planet’s biodiversity. Habitat loss is already the primary driver of extinction worldwide, so the destruction of all remaining forests would be “catastrophic” for plants, animals, fungi and more, says Jayme Prevedello, an ecologist at Rio de Janeiro State University in Brazil. “There would be massive extinctions of all groups of organisms, both locally and globally.” Throughout the world, about 900 million trees are cut down annually. This equates to about 2. 47 million trees, cut down every day. Deforestation is the action of clearing a wide area of trees. And as time flies this act has become more practiced all over the world, with 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. A world without trees can be conceptualized and have effects like the loss of biodiversity, loss of carbon and increase of climate change. The loss of land rights and livelihood, and the loss of life, the ecosystem, and the world as a whole.

A tree has several parts, like roots, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits and the like. Each and every part of a tree has beauty of it’s own. These scattered beauty makes the whole beauty with all these elements. And so, we should take action and respond to this desperately moreover earnestly. A world without trees is a world without life and colors. As trees are the world’s lungs and they are vital for our world and existence. For even in the smallest ways and acts, like donating, planting a tree in one’s backyard or even spreading news and educating fellow peers and the others. We can do something for the future generation and our world in which we live. “He who plants a tree, plants a hope.”

 

Charlene T. Cruz

A World Without Mathematics

Valuable but, not likable.

This would be the perfect phrase to describe Mathematics- a subject most students avoid for its difficult and complex topics. Although for me, instead of avoiding mathematics, I can feel the attraction between us.

Growing up, I have been exposed to both education and poverty. This is the reason why I wholeheartedly believe in the statement, “Education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty.” With this sentence, I always strive to understand different topics of different subjects with differing point of views. I try to adjust my way of understanding depending on how complex a topic is. During my entire early elementary years, I discovered my strength which was the weakness of many.

I enrolled with various lessons (whether it was academic, art or sport related) to find my strength in an early age but, I didn’t realize that breaking something was the only way for me to find the right path. As I break the boundary of my comfort zone through transferring to a different school and repeating grade 3, I discovered a guild or private organization that focuses on enhancing our Math skills and knowledge. What seemed to be a small group was actually an internationally- relevant association.

There were 3 stages to accomplish in order to compete in the international stage. Every year, I would always pass the first stage but, it took me 3 years to finally pass the second and get admitted to the third. Ironically, even it was the chance I was finally waiting for; I didn’t enter the last stage. I felt like I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to leave my home in the province for a month to live alone in Manila, where the training will initiate. I prayed so hard, pressured myself to the point of tears, and studied smart yet didn’t continue. The next year, I repeated the same process, though this time, I was braver and more determined. Thankfully, I was admitted again. I continued to train in the last stage.

Before all of this, before I met the organization, I felt like I was the best in this field. I felt like I can overcome any Math problem. Now, I realized that I’m not. What’s just left for me is to continually improve myself.

For the first time in years, I went to abroad to compete. I went to Indonesia and won a merit award. I wasn’t satisfied with it. I competed again the next year in Singapore and got into a harder competition where I won bronze. I realized that through Math I wasn’t only able to travel abroad. Moreover, I was able to explore myself. I earned acquaintances, friends, skills, knowledge and most importantly, life lessons I know I’ll be applying my whole life.

I remembered Dr. Seuss’ quote. For me, it isn’t reading but, solving Math problems that enabled me to go more places.

 

Enosh Solomon Earnest

A world without birds 

A world without birds

Is like earth’s song without a verse

For the air does not carry their rhyme

And neither do the flowers relish harvest time

 

Even the trees lay barren and grim

Almost as if they miss the birth of new kin

It was unfair, for their lungs were full to the brim

Not with the air through which they sang

But with oil that drowned them in the ocean span

 

Now we have our oil and plastic

But the earth’s song has changed- drastic

Yet one thing is certain

That when we draw heaven’s curtain

The missing verse shall be found

When once again we hear that cheerful sound

For the day we have a world without birds

Is the day where the sun frowned

 

Prince S. Delos Reyes

Butterflies 

Back then, when I was a kid, I had always loved to explore. Though, since due to my incapability as a minor, going far from my home wasn’t allowed so I had only used to wander around inside our village. I remember that while I was walking, I spotted this little bush of grass with wildflowers I sometimes passed by. Then, for the first time I saw it with lots of colorful butterflies. They were all glittering in my perspective. Myself, had suddenly been filled with unique enjoyment. I had stayed in the same place for an hour getting astonished at each and every little thing about what the butterflies were in that bush. Out of my delightfulness, I took a box and decided to put one butterfly inside that I most liked. I plucked a single wildflower too alongside. I excitedly went home and felt exhausted. I peeked slightly inside the box and saw the butterfly fluttering its wings. I closed the box then immediately jumped on the bed and took a nap. As I woke up, I quickly went to check the butterfly. On the spur of the moment, I felt terrified as I was staring at the butterfly. It wasn’t moving at all and realized it died.

Now, I am traveling on the mountains of Sierra Madre that come with thick fog, the sound the leaves make when air blows, heat of the sun, and random animal hums. Growing up, I’ve been able to bring my childhood’s adventurous spirit. I could see different types of animals here such as colored birds, foxes, bears, et cetera that reside within the mountains. Reminiscing the story that I have with the butterfly that day makes me think that the mountain I am on right now was the bush of grass with wildflowers and the animals that roam around here, resembles the butterflies. Nature is beautiful and it becomes more adoring by the creature that lives within it.

“I hated the day that I took that butterfly with me.”

“The bush would never glitter in my eyes without the butterflies.”

Imagine a world without these magnificent creatures. They’re here to appreciate nature and tell us that it is worth living for even if it has been damaged.

 

namrita dhyani

A world without light

I was walking on path were there was whole darkness nothing to see nothing to feel.

I was lonely it’s not like that their no life being but what ‘s the meaning of them to me they all are engage in their own world.

People want their profit they don’t consider me to be like them then that’s the reason why I come to conclusion that my world is without light.

I was a traveler whose path was predefined to be something who no one want who no one care. why was it? What’s my faults?

Have I killed someone or I had made someone life a miser then why I had to suffer in a place where I got suffocated?

you were the only one who taught me to fight back to wrong, you were the only ones who told me achieve which I don’t have you were the one on who played with my feeling, you were the only who made innocent people suffer then why when we came back to you who switched off our lights why?

Are we not allowed to see the brightness or we are not humans or you never consider different person like us same as you all give us a special certificate and a special treatment only on paper but in reality this special is nothing but a terror for us because we are pushed back in this dark array with not light to see around.

Even after all things you never came back on time for me asking for me where I am? or I am even alive?

Why what’s the matter when will you all understand that we are not dumb we also have feelings, what you consider yourself that you will come with a fake candle in your hand and consider yourself an angel who will bring back our happiness no never you were never among them.

My words are clear I am not taking about the fake lights invented by us humans what I am taking about is much clear to any one who consider us humans.

Its not like that i don’t have light before she was beautiful made me understand that we have to forgive someone, be kind to them but she is no more, even then I let you take her place but what have you did? you take away all what she had given me just thrown me back to darkness. I am not thief nor you are, I will not blame you but its true that my light want away.

I was not different it’s just I was suffering and fighting with my own mind, with my own darkness to make you happy. If you have left me then leave me alone because you can’t change the fact now that I was lonely sitting a dark room waiting for my pure nature light to take me with him.

 

Nur Amna Nafisa Husni binti Zairul Husni

A World Without Lies. 

A world without lies? Makes the jobs of detectives and policemen much easier, I should say. A world where people cannot deceive others, nor make up nonsense excuses and deliver the truth and nothing but the truth. What a nice world it would be. But would it really be that nice and lovely? It does make answers appear more direct, but in my opinion, it would make up a world filled with savage remarks and indirect insults that pops suddenly in the mind, flying out of the mouth and damaging the confidence and self-esteem of one’s self.  In a world only with truths, it is inevitable that you become blunter and more unable to soften the blow of your own remarks. Now, imagine a person suggesting an idea to a group of people, but the idea was not that well received and endures harsh criticism that sounds more like insults than constructive comments, repeatedly. The self-esteem of the person who suggested the idea will crumble and develop insecurities towards voicing out their opinions.

 

On the other hand, social construct in this particular world would be much cleaner, perhaps. The idea of sucking up to your boss to appeal might as well appear as non-existent. Lying about how handsome your boss is today, or about how he is such a kind and gracious boss are both two impossible things, as you will always, always blurt out the truth before your mouth could even utter the first alphabet of the lie that you’ll tell. Perhaps.

( 252 words)

 

samra fatima

Theme: A world without

Poem:

It was the summer eve;

The urge to go to the beach grows;

Sudden unexpected things happen in my life. Is it something new?

I wore the pink crop top grandma gifted me for my birthday last year. Who would’ve thought this year I would cherish all the memories I have of her and the fact that this pink crop top makes me feel her presence.

The scorching sun. I wish only if,  the sun would’ve been more cold and less warm.

Well then, what would make the sun different from the humans? I wonder.

The warm sand at the beach tinted my feet red.

The serene beauty of nature. How lovely the clouds were moving? Their movement only made the scene more blissful.

What is a world without the sun? A dreary, dark world? If only it didn’t exist, would humans ever know that nothing is forever? For the sun rises and sets.

The plastic bottles, the left-over food, the dirt some spots at the beach had made me wish if only,this beach would’ve been empty.

What is a world without humans?

Will now the beautiful resources made by God be safe and interchangeable?

Will the world be a place of survival for the peaceful living creations of God? A world where empathy would be preferred over sympathy? A world where the definition of stress wouldn’t have existed. With every possibility there are exceptions.

Will the world without humans be peaceful forever? Will the world without humans exist forever?

No honey. There’s nothing such forever. Everything is temporary. This world is too.

If only the mentioned world existed, wouldn’t it have been the epitome of heaven?

 

Boodhun Kanchan Devi

A World Without Peace

It would be poignantly a utopia to imagine a peaceful world. From social conflagrations to economic wars, we are witnessing every grim bit of it. Had we ever been more tolerant towards each other, today would have been an entirely different destiny. These conflicts are meanwhile souring our human history and mercilessly strangling our countless glorious achievements. At present, these social tensions are alarmingly deemed to be a cliff-edge. They are triggering other breakneck crises particularly famine or even searing inequality. Eminent think tanks flag the numerous reasons behind our violent world.

Foremost, over the past few decades, race and religion have played essentially on this predicament. We predominantly recollect the chilling Jewish genocide during the World War ll by the ruthless Nazis. Currently, we  highlight the most abhorrent religious clash between Hindus and Muslims. Ironically, the very first value we learn as a child is unity. Should we hence question our conduct? Well the trenchant lyrics of John Lenon from Imagine hit hard under these circumstances.” Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life for peace”, it says. Jonathan Swift also stresses that we have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love each other.

For us, it is now more common to live in fear. Indeed, the nuclear war game is threatening our existence. North Korea is leading in this “contest”. It is increasingly buttressing its economy in this field. Its authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-Un seems to press that nuclear bomb button anytime. Some time back, the former President, Donald Trump, cleared his position on this war declaration too. He affirmed a nuclear war could result.  Moreover, nuclear power lies equally in the hands of Iran. Its surrounding war-torn areas are massively affected. Syrian father Abdullah al-Mohamed had to find a way to help his daughter to cope with distressing bombs falling- laughter. His videos have voraciously garnered empathy. In the end, it is these unapologetic leaders who are playing with millions of lives. John. F. Kennedy rightly summarised that unless men destroy violence, violence will ultimately destroy men.

We all regret the conflicts that are somehow “unnecessarily” arising everyday. While more great thinkers or compassionate people are stepping to work hard for a peaceful world, the journey appears to be too long. Yet, these determined Samaritans including Malala Yosufzai are optimistic. Signs of hope are believed to be the multilateral collaboration to combat climate change. The divided world would finally find a way to eliminate any bitter diplomatic relationship. As far as race and religion is concerned, our youth’s open mindset is gradually trying to bind us and terminate any form of ethnic wars. Till now, our modern world can only be perfectly described by Einstein. “So long as there are men, there will be wars.”, he says

 

Asha sharif

A world without a place of peace.

A world without a place of peace, for your mind and soul is like a volcano consumed by its eruption of lava. Covered in a mass of ruin hidden under layers befouling the environment. So let’s make it clear, a world without a place of peace leaves you at a dismay. Crumbling, lonely, light as a feather and dealing with the sound of fear. My place of peace is anywhere that is aesthetically pleasing to my soul. If I can hear the waves crashing in my ears, with the seagulls calling upon me to rejoice with them, I will feel at peace. if I am in the middle of a small town fair, staring at the visible street lights with the wondrous luminescence and colours spreading festivity, I will then too, feel at home. But for me, the main attraction to my life would be the simple location that never required a distant travel nor stressful abode, that was what truly came to be the best experience. One train journey, headphones in and tuning out reality just for a second. Hearing the voice announcing my destination and running off the active, dynamic train just breathing in the fresh, summer air outside as though the wind was particularly favored in that specific area. The perfect day it was, keen to make the visitation spectacular. I took photos of the large statue and I felt inclined to want to know it’s history. So, me being passionate and driven, I found myself wandering into the largest museum I have ever been in and I completed laps learning about events that happened centuries ago. After this, I found myself in a park. But it wasn’t just any old park, it had lakes and ponds , ducks, geese and swans. You name it. It was entirely mesmerising , the grass was lush green and moist and the sky was ever so blue. The weather was breathtaking, and the breeze was so gentle, it wrapped its arms around me and led me inside the enchanting park. Almost as though it came out from a Disney movie. Afterwards, I decided to grab a bite to eat. It was most definitely my cup of tea. The most important thing for me was that I was largely at peace. I was united with that long feeling and desire for my body, mind and soul to feel it’s ultra capacity of happiness. I did that, I felt that through one trip. That one adventure. The travel, in which I did not have to abode on a plane to experience that ultimate sensation. I followed my heart , it did not require much money nor thought. I did what I desired in that moment, not a long thought process behind it. I want to go here, and so I did. This world is nothing, if it’s a world without peace.

 

Mitchell Weitkamp

A World Without Sports

Imagine a world without sports.

Imagine not being able to go to your favorite courts

All those games you play with your friends

Coming to a final end.

Imagine a world without sports

 

What is it like you may ask

Well the answer is not as simple as it sounds

While you will still have the glory to bask

It will eventually drive you back down to the ground.

Imagine a world without sports

 

All of these new friends you’ve made over the years

Now all that is left is tears and tears

All of the historic moments and memories

No all that is left is open fields and tragedies

Imagine a world without sports.

 

Umang Badhwar

A WORLD WITHOUT TIME

Have you ever read and understood the whole “Theory of Relativity” by Albert Einstein? Yeah… me neither. But according to that theory, in zero seconds, light travels zero meters. If time were stopped, zero seconds would be passing, and thus the speed of light would be zero. Got it now? Basically the world wouldn’t exist without time. If that were to happen, my title would become meaningless. So instead of pretending to be knowledgeable, let us think of it in a philosophical direction.

What if the “Concept” of Time was not a thing? Because from my minutes of research on Time from wikipedia and sciencefordummies.com, we now know that the world wouldn’t exist without time. Therefore, just for a moment, imagine a place where people are unaware about the concept of time. Sounds peaceful, doesn’t it?
From the time we are born, we are given specific deadlines for every task.”Start school by this time, finish school by this time, get married by this time, retire by this time etc.” Time, time, time! We are so bounded by these limitations that if we are not able to achieve something before the “specified deadline”, we are considered stupid. But that’s all for this world, not the one without time.

“Sublime” is the name I would like to give the place without time. A place where people are unaware of the concept of time and not bound by the useless time constraints made by the people of the outer world who the people of Sublime call , “Aliens”.Surprisingly the people living here look ever-young. And no one is curious enough to know about how time passes. Because let’s be honest, in this instagram addicted generation, fighting for animal rights and making dancing videos, it becomes a difficult task to find an Einstein amongst the crowd. They don’t think about what they will be doing five years down the lane or when they are going to die. All they do is live their life to the fullest.

It sounds a pretty fun place to live in, if you ask me. It’s kind of like Neverland, except the magic and the pixie dust and Tinker Bell and Peter Pan. Ok, it’s nothing like Neverland but you get the idea. It’s like your dreams, where time has no meaning, as one second you are riding a Camel and the next, you are swimming in an ocean. It’s weird and has no explanation but loads of fun to think about. In the end I would just like to say,

A world without Time
As peaceful as a windchime
No pain, no crime
I’m sorry, I got no more words that rhyme
But who cares as I still got time
For I am too, a citizen of Sublime.

 

Alloyce Lugoma

A World Without Malindi

Malindi is known to many for the Vasco da Gama pillar, Gedi ruins, sandy beaches among other tourist attraction sites. It is inhabited by the Swahili communities and as they love saying, “Pwani si Kenya.”

While I was in class 8 in Aga Khan Primary school, Nairobi, our school took us to Mombasa for an educational trip as it was the norm each year. I was so eager as I had never been to Mombasa. We were a group of 30 students with 5 teachers, as we all know, the fewer we are on a trip, the more fun we will have.

Arriving in Mombasa was one of the most ecstatic moments. At an altitude of about 5m above sea level, we were welcomed by a cool land breeze when we touched down at 7 pm.

“Hamjambo wanafunzi?” The hotel guide at the reception greeted us.

“Hatujambo.” We responded in unison.

We listened to the instructions from the guide then proceeded to check into the hotel, freshen up, and later having our dinner before going back to our rooms. The next day was going to be busy, we were going to Malindi.

People around Mombasa are not in any hurry, they enjoy every breath of their lives as displayed by how they talk and even how they walk. The weather was not too conducive for us city dwellers, 27 degrees was no joke with no cloud cover but we made it to Malindi.

Gedi Ruins was the first stop: Gedi a word from the Galla language meaning precious is a small town built entirely from rocks & stones. It was inhabited by the Swahili people. It consisted of dated tombs that were engraved beautifully with an Arabic scripture showing where the Great Mosque was. On one side of the mosque, there was a tomb for the Imam and the other had a place where the king would hold meetings to address marital problems. How amazing! There were trade relations among the Swahili people, Middle East and India.

While at Gedi ruins, the local brewers tried to sell to us “madafu” liquor since we were in home clothes making it hard for them to know that we were school kids but our teachers sent them away.

Vasco da Gama Pillar: Of course it was built in 1498 by Vasco da Gama a Portuguese national who was on a voyage to East Africa in his exploration journey. One amazing thing about this pillar is that if you go round it seven times, your gender will change. My classmates and I were good with our genders, we didn’t try going around it. The myth scared us immensely.

I can say Malindi was awesome but before we travelled back to Nairobi, we were humbled to re-name Nyali bridge connecting Mombasa mainland to inland Aga Khan bridge since we used to use it each day we moved around Mombasa( On a lighter note though).

 

 

Clydde Angelo Corpuz Agloco

A World Without Absurdity

A world without matter, moreover- a world without the self, detained, restrained and put to the test of extinction. Not the tragedy in itself nor the image behind the flame matters. The impending extinction, whether will be alleviated by transference of consciousness or being part of the cycle on non-monistic beginnings, a world where nothing matters, a world without absurdity is a world not worth living in.

 

Everything in life makes sense that it doesn’t. It is never the flow of the ripple that you cast but the waves correcting themselves around a shared understanding and environment. A world without boulders to push nor sines that signs is a curve not worth mapping. A fatal boredom. A fatal trial. A merciless tragedy.

 

As humanity self-destructs in the face of illogical consistencies and their counterparts, the vision impaired. A navigation instrument, the mind. The one that finds the way in a world filled with invisible intrusions and unreal threats, yet fights what is above fake. Courage, foolishness? or empathy and absurdity of the desire to live. The desire to live to see the end or to end? or is it like this always. That the beginning or end never mattered but the spaces in between colored, impressing in the canvas of eternity. The enemy in itself the self. Or the compulsions in itself the absurd gift?

 

A terrifying invisible enemy of hopelessness is in the face of accuracy but not precision. It is a beauty that we have yet to come to know infinity or eternity, a specifically designed function by mercy to remain uncertain, to leave behind the worries of the self and which way to go. Fate or freedom, totalitarian or democratic, the self or the mind. What matters is to know. And to know is to be nothing.

 

It seems as though it is remaining a fascination that the world without the mind- is just a world? Like sound to the never heard. Like light to the never seen. Like touch to the never felt? A world without the procurement of absurdity is just a world.

 

If never had heard, then never knew sound. If never saw, the never knew light. If never thought, then never alive. The existence of all of these feelings, the central piece of the puzzle of metaphysics- is it just the way it seems? Then if one was ever blank, how come one has ever known?

 

A world without nothing, is nothing.

 

The fact then is obvious. Without the self. Without consciousness. Then there may as well be no more world. A world without empathy and apathy is a world unfeeling. Yet there might be a way for all of it to be. If only the mind is open to negligibility of completion may it be complete.

 

It is not that chaos is of desirability but the animation in free will producing beautiful outcomes are the rounded object’s point. For the completion of wisdom is the ending of the instinctive compulsions. To not finish to finish. To remain afloat and subject to life’s destinies or determinism. To be incomplete to be absurd.

 

Madison Nesbit

A world without love

My search for

all the emotions, sensations,

and thrills of every experience possible in life

will be an eternal symphony

composed of all the voids

I can never fill

I am fleeting but my void is endless

 

Isabel Pereira

Title: Sounds of the Sea

I’m picturing a world without the sounds of the sea.

I’m picturing walking to the lookout and seeing nothing but grey waves lapping at the shore. The grey waves that used to be home to the whales. The whales that, much like us, travelled in their family groups. Together, they’d venture through the sea. They’d speak to one another, and they would cry together. They’d call when they found their next meal. Their feeling made up the sounds of the sea.

But today, the sea is getting quieter.

The family groups that travel together are getting separated. The food is becoming scarce. As is happiness.

No longer when I reach the lookout do I hear their cries as they breach the surface. The sounds of the sea are being silenced as more and more boats choose to kill off the noise. The whales have been here long before us, they’ve travelled further than we could ever hope to. They’ve experienced pain and suffering, happiness, and hope. We aren’t the only ones who feel. I need the killers to understand this. We are not the only ones that feel.

The ocean is their home. We aren’t only killing the inhabitants; we’re poisoning their lives with our pointless pollution. There’s only one end. The grey waters, which in summer shine a brilliant blue, will become darker. Jellyfish will be replaced with floating bags, turtles with tin cans, and the whales, the whales will be replaced with plastic. Mounds of it. Plastic does not make a sound.

Neither do the bones that rest on the ocean floor. The bones at the bottom of the sea are silent, they’re cold. They’re as useful as the plastic that dragged them down.

In the future, I will travel again to the lookout on the coast. I will appreciate the wind in my hair, the stones beneath my feet. It will feel nice, for me. I will approach the lookout on the hill, I will be ready to look upon the waters and smile. I will be ready to see and hear them. 

But they’re gone. The sea has grown cold and silent. I will no longer have a need for the lookout because we killed its purpose.

The sounds of the sea are silent. They will never return again.

 

Aditi Ostwal

Essay
“A WORLD WITHOUT COLOUR”
What would the world be like without the magical colours of the rainbow ? What would the world be like if people weren’t black, brown, yellow or white skinned? Would we be able to distinguish between Indians, Caucasians, Non-Caucasians, Africans, Mongolians, etc? What would the empyrean look like without the hue of the sun, moon and the dazzling stars? Would diversity exist without colours? Would the people come to know about the flabbergasting study of chromatics? Would the horizon exist? Will we be able to see the boundaries of the seas and oceans ?
Would the humans be able to appreciate our Mother Nature without any shades or colours? Will we anthropoids witness the broadcasting of any of the television industries like Hulu, Netflix?
Could we observe the alluring sunsets and sunrises? How will the recognition of different florals be done?
We cannot imagine a colourless world. Life without colours would be surreal. It would be an act of surrealism. Most people may never have thought about what a colourful world we are residing in, and a few may have never given a thought how a ‘world without colour would be’. This is because everyone was born with a visual ability to see and visualise colours. But some have colour blindness, some have cataract diseases, and some have glaucoma.
Colour makes nature, fashion, flags, food, makeup, and the other parts  of life interesting and diverse. Generally, a colourless world would be thought of as having no colour. When there is no colour, it will really be erroneous to concede in.
Colour is everywhere and the entirety is attractively colourful. The heterogeneity of colours are endless. The world will be filled with an atmosphere of melancholiness.
Example: the colours of some animals attract mates, while the colours of other animals help them to protect themselves. Chameleons can change their body colour to blend in with it surroundings, which causes foes to have a hard time finding them.
Animals would die. Birds, bugs, and insects wouldn’t be able to see the blossoms to pollinate or eat.
Colour helps in reliable communication and to communicate without actually verbally communicating.
In sports, differently coloured uniforms identify which team a player belongs to. The absence of traffic signals(red,green,yellow) would be really chaotic and would lead to traffic and accidents.
The colours of different snakes tells us which ones are venomous and which are not.
When we see food, we pick for its colour, but we wouldn’t notice it because everything would look monotonous and wearisome.
• COLOURS EXCITE US, PERK US UP, MELLOW US OUT ANS DEPRESS IS IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS.
Teachers use colours for teaching and educating, churches use them in ministry, artists use colours for replication of phenomenal art forms, and hospitals use them in healing, maps also use colours to plot seas, mountains and trees.
Colour is an essential component of human existence. It gives us happiness, calms our mind, fascinates us, and fills our void mind with optimism. Without hue everything would be in monochrome. The feeling of survival would be equivalent to living in a black and white television.
Oceanology would be really tedious. The adrenaline rush when one sees the magnificent coral reefs would be lost and replaced by the feeling of disappointment when they see a patch of clumpy corals with no colour. Photography would be of lacklustre. Forensic Anthropologists would be in a hard time finding out the cause of death for colourless skeletons. They won’t be able to decide whether a sharp knife or a blood bullet has caused a sharp force trauma or a blunt force trauma.Entomologists won’t be able to study the activities of bugs and treat them. Forensic pathologists won’t be able to autopsy the corpses and identify the human organs.
The ability to not see colour is a hypothetical situation. It would mean that colours are proscribed.
Conclusion: Colours make us cherish every moment of our lives. Without colour, appearance of human life would only be a monochromic film. Colours give us opportunity to see and explore things. It helps us to recognise and distinguish between objects, food, places, human body and what not! People would turn abrasive and gloomy without colour presence. So a ‘world without colour will be undesirable, unreliable , unpredictable and  unrecognisable’.

LIFE WITHOUT DREAMS IS LIKE A RAINBOW WITHOUT COLURS.
-Greyson Chance

 

Charlotte Thompson

A Darker Shade of Red

“Red is my favourite colour,” spoke a voice behind Willow. Startled, she spilled some of her drink onto the dark wood of the bar. “Sorry if I scared you,” the voice behind her repeated. With curiosity overwhelming her, Willow twisted her neck slightly to the side, only to find a handsome man towering over her. Tall, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile to die for, Willow knew in an instant that he was used to getting his way.

“So, you like my dress.” Before the man could utter another word, Willow continued on. “Try again. Maybe ask for my name first, that seems to have helped the boys before you.” At bars, Willow liked to play hard to get. She took great pleasure watching the smile drop from a man’s face, only to rise back up for attempt number two. This man was no different. Taken aback, he stared at her for a few moments before making his second attempt. He gave her an earth-shattering smile, just as she had hoped, and asked for her name. “Willow,” she told him. His name was Miles and Willow found after only a few minutes of conversation that he knew how to charm a lady.

After exchanging names, the two conversed for hours. They shared funny stories, rattled on about work and their horrible bosses, and even talked about their favourite numbers. His was seven. Before long, it was past midnight and although it was Friday night, Willow knew she had to go. “It was wonderful meeting you, Miles, but I’m afraid I have to head home.” A frown quickly appeared on his face.

“How about one more drink? It’s on me,” he insisted. Willow debated in her head but eventually decided that one more drink couldn’t hurt. Halfway through her drink, she excused herself and made her way to the bathroom. After refreshing her makeup, she headed back to the bar to down the rest of her drink. Only minutes later as she stood up to leave she found herself wobbling. Strange, she thought to herself. She swore she had only finished three drinks, not nearly enough to leave her staggering.

After saying her goodbyes to Miles, she started walking home to her studio apartment, only to find she had a hard time remembering which turns to take. Stumbling once more, Willow stopped and rested her hand on the rough brick of a restaurant building. “Hey, you okay there Willow?” She recognized the voice immediately. Miles. But what was he doing here?

“Why…” She tried to speak, tried to ask why Miles had followed her, but quickly concluded that she couldn’t move properly or utter a coherent word. It was then that she realized; she had been drugged. Miles ran toward her and caught her as she fell. Her hands slipped down the side of the building. Miles dragged her to the alleyway behind the restaurant and lowered her to the ground. Pinned her hands above her head. She tried to move. She couldn’t. Drugged and trapped in the alleyway, Willow could only release silent screams as Miles forced himself upon her. What felt like hours later, he got up and left. She was alone with her thoughts as the rain turned salty and the dusk turned to dawn.

The next morning, Willow had managed to make her way back to her apartment, water pooling in her eyes. For several moments, she cried. Later, all she felt was anger. At first, it felt juvenile. Like a friend had spilled their drink on her new clothes. Soon, however, her anger boiled over. She was seething. How dare he? How dare Miles make her a victim. Willow made a promise to herself that very day. She vowed to make him regret ever laying a hand on her or another woman. And that was a promise she intended to keep.

Willow was a creature of habit. She had eggs with toast every morning, took the same train to and from work each and every day, and went out to drink alone once a week. She did not intend to change her routine because of one measly man. So, she went to the same bar every Friday night, at the same time as she had met Miles. Each day, she wore the same dress and sat with her long brown hair facing away from the entrance. All in hopes of finding him once more. Soon, she started having conversations with the bartender. “You’re always wearing that red dress, don’t you get sick of the colour?” he asked. “You’re quite the observant one, aren’t you?” Willow told the man, ignoring his question.

Months passed, and nothing changed. She had the same old conversations with the bartender, wore the same shade of red, and took the same route home every day from the bar. It was not until months later that she had finally spotted him. Miles. It was now early September, two months after the assault. Willow was walking home, taking the same path she had every night. She turned onto Third Street and passed by an abundance of closed restaurants, the street bare with only two people in sight. This was normal. After all, it was well after midnight. What was not normal, was Miles – who was seemingly dragging a girl down the street and into an alleyway. Drugged. Just like Willow had been months prior. This girl was short and curvy with blonde hair, the exact opposite of Willow, whose long legs demanded a certain kind of presence when she walked into a room. Yet, this girl was wearing a red dress. It occurred to Willow that Miles had a type.

Without allowing herself time to think through the consequences, Willow stormed towards the two. She slapped Miles, temporarily distracting him. “Run, run far away,” Willow told the girl. Without checking to see if she complied, Willow attacked Miles. Her moves were sloppy, fueled by her emotions and adrenaline. She made a few mistakes. Deadly ones. Faster than the blink of an eye, she was thrown against the side of the building. Miles’ hand was around her throat. Panicking, Willow began flailing her arms and legs while her body begged for air. It was only when she had hit the side of his leg in her attempt to escape had an opportunity arisen to break free. A knife. Quickly, Miles dropped her and ran to get the knife that had flown out of his pocket and landed to the right of Willow. It was just under ten feet away. The desperation that seeped through her veins allowed Willow to get there first. It was a miracle. She grabbed the knife and turned towards Miles who was only just behind her. She stabbed him. Right in the stomach. Her anger intensified after every contact the knife made with his skin. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Willow stabbed Miles seven times, his favourite number. And she did not feel an ounce of regret.

His dark red blood soaked through his clothes and his eyes turned glassy as the life slowly drained out of him. She found he looked as beautiful as the night they first met. During Miles’ last moments, his eyes begged for her to give him mercy. Instead, Willow slit his throat. The cut she had made left him gurgling as his lungs searched for air. He coughed up blood and his once pleading face turned bitter. Miles was angry. At her, presumably. But she didn’t understand, shouldn’t he have thanked

 

M.G. Tanuri Thumbowita

A world without Humanity

I used to believe in

Human beings,

 

Their fabulous smile,

Their magical words,

Their quick promises,

 

Oh God!

I was a fool,

 

I searched the water

In a monstrous desert,

A desert where has

No sign of the rain.

 

M.G. Tanuri Thumbowita

To The Mother of Nature

Humans build the world,

But you, you create the humans,

The sun gives me light,

But you, you make me bright,

 

In my every breath

You are hidden,

But in most of lives,

You are forgotten,

 

Although they treat you

As a thrown stone,

To me,

You are the diamond

Called, ‘’The Nature’’.

 

Rhythm Gandhi

15 Years Before the Afterglow

 

The day i stepped in , I knew everything was just about win.

 

The day I cried, reason being lack of pride.

 

The day I stepped out, I knew there wasn’t any doubt.

 

The day I cried, reason being I was now full of pride.

 

Crazy stuff that happened, made my life so flattered.

 

memories that I made , shaped me to be afraid.

 

Things that I was taught , made me realize how I need to be fought.

 

Hardships that I went thru ,only reason I grew.

 

Friends that made everything sober to dirty, was part of the journey.

 

Teachers who scolded then , taught me how to write with pen.

 

Bunking classes made me a sneaker, and life a lot more happier.

 

Sports class that made me tan, but now I can accomplish any plan.

 

Time when I was in mood, recess wasn’t just about food.

 

The faces I saw daily , we did everything so bravely.

 

Boring classes that made me sleepy , were actually so creepy.

 

Going washroom was a task, because we didn’t even ask.

 

Eating food in middle of class, when everyone just tried to pass.

 

Leaving class just after teacher left, made us feel that we just did a theft.

 

Day that no one skipped, because its our trip.

 

The day in everyone’s imagination, the first day of summer vacation.

 

Assembly day when everybody’s mind was blown , it was no less than a cyclone.

 

Competitions day that made us anxious in other way.

 

Functions that built us as artist , with a different kind of twist.

 

Exams that we were all afraid of, sometimes make us go thru dramatic cough.

 

 

This is school, where everyone seemed to be a fool.

 

The happy place, where every dream was taught to chase.

Adya Aggarwal Title: A World without logic, a world without Humans

A Faustian
Bargain was made,
Underneath roundtables
A game was played.

The King of fools
Dealt our hands,
Built this house of cards
Where he sang, he danced.
But now the wind’s blowing
Blowing again.

Time was just
one of his slaves to kill
At councils and in palaces,
Underneath which
We all stood silent still
Defending him with our defeat
For after all, we were beneath.

We live and relive
the ravages, the mistakes
As seconds and minutes dilate.
Now clocks struck eternity,
We’re stuck in a loop of errors
Oh, end of certainty.

Inventions,
and new discoveries,
But no rhyme or reason
Just illogicality.
Science for wars,
Wars for peace,
Peace for calamity.
Can’t believe our reality
Is this our reality?

We hide and, he seeks.
Eyes on us,
But we can’t see
In realpolitik
Who’s the real enemy?

Now Lock me up,
Set me free.
Oh, with missiles
You set me free,
and changed my name
To save the guilty.

I’ll think I’ll be alright
But I wish that my son could see
That out here,
There aren’t any borders,
Only the wind blows
and whispers to trees.

We could fly,
Fly paper planes,
Race the moon
through terrains
and dream a hundred dreams.

Now that I am up here
The order then seems uncanny.
Thus today I conclude,
Reductio ad absurdum
Your truth is a fallacy
Reductio ad absurdum
His truth is a fallacy.

 

Meeruppage Dohansee Thisaranee

The Elephants, the Endangered

When I was little, I learnt,

“E” for Elephant, indeed my favourite animal;

Love to bath the golden rise of the twilight,

Sprinkling water from the longish trunk in delight!

With the endorsed innocent joy of gathering;

Of the little ones, having a fun worth of thousand,

Remind me how did they make my childhood days,

So special, being the best friends of wild for a lonely child.

 

The gentle giants, where I used to see,

My home, by the river; so far away from the jungle;

Where they used to live in harmony, with all their family,

Beneath the green canopy,

With the grace of glory of being,

The largest species on land, I wondered!

How did they cuddle the cuties, the calves?

Who try to keep little footsteps, amidst;

Endearing mommies of the herd,while

Hovering underneath;The cuties

Having the best childhood ever,

Having the best life ever, indeed;

The elephants gave me the best memories ever!

 

The canopy they used to stay beneath for pleasure,

The jungle we used to play for leisure,

Being captive of avarice humans in need of treasure;

The allure of enchanted beauty dismantled in the minutes,

Through the brutal blade of chain saw,

The jungle in vanish, I saw.

 

When I am a teen, I hear,

“E” for endangered, the elephants;

I wonder, how the herd I used to see,

Began to diminish one by one of its members;

I felt how they wept inside their heart,

Cause they hurt; But were voiceless to clamour;

“Don’t harm us. We also have feelings you humans bear”

I saw in their faces, which embedded in hopeless fear,

I witnessed the agony of mother elephants;

Who cried in loss of their loving cuties,

The calves…

 

The tuskers, graced in glory, now weep in grief agony,

Cause they are being poached for ivory;

Baby elephants used to smooch in maternal love,

Have to be in captive of ‘elephant tourism’ the abuse,

Bearing all the torture of losing the life they belong;

In capture of the elephant cruelty of hypocrite human,

Who is still blind to sorrow in an animal’s heart;

Cause empathy is apart.

 

The shameful elephant circus, where the gentle giants,

Have to be slave of human, doing all impossible in pain;

Training the tragedy, Forelimbs in chain,

Tears to claim, the sorrowful pain, that couldn’t explain;

Cause they couldn’t stand against,

The inhumane way they are being treated for so long.

 

When I will be an adult, won`t I hear?

’E’ for extinct, the elephants, who never forget,

The way human used to treat when they extant;

We should stand against the endangered elephants,

Just now… Yes, you should stand, if not;

Symbol of Africa, the heritage of Asia, won’t be again but,

In a museum with mammoth who did extinct,

Long ago from the earth…

Still, Don’t you believe ?

We will have to live,

In a world

Without,

Beloved Elephants.

Saanvi Aggarwal

A WORLD WITHOUT WARS

 This world speaks of something alien. Alien from what we think today. Alien from what is true today. A museum built in the heavenly city of Sirinagar, Kashmir…And a seven year old enters accidently.

“Mind my wheel!” growled the Pakistani Sharmani army tank swathed in golden dust as I accidentally stepped over it. “They are pretty aged now, the last time they arrayed their valour was at the battle of Phillora in 1965. They gave me a nationality also which doesn’t signify now so I have forgotten that.” “Yes that time it all mattered.. countries, ..States, borders that’s why they made me…. so spiny and full of barbs so that no one could stride over me.. You know? murmured a fence like broken iron extension.

Everything just crossed my encephalon and I was trying to analyze what just happened when suddenly I slipped over a corroded copper trunk. The lid of the trunk read “National Flags”. I knew what flags are but I didn’t know what “National” is. It had some really beautiful flags. Some had moons; some had stars while some had both. I picked a few but the trunk groaned, “Don’t touch them, they are fossilised. They do not hold any value now.” I dropped all in panic. Suddenly a voice came from the roof “Who let you inside? Normally they just watch us from behind the railing. I stammered, “I….I just came from….uhh… but who’s that?” There it was, an aeroplane-like huge vehicle. I said, “Can you still fly?” “I could” he laughed “…but now they say missiles are violent and that’s why they kept me here.” “What!? Are you a nissile?  What’s an aeroplane then? And why is “INDIA” written over you? Is that your name?”….  “Oh lord! Someone please kick this kid out” groaned the trunk again in irritation. “Don’t bother them. They are just too used to wars and ruthless language. Come to me.” A voice came from a huge piece of paper which read “world map” I know what world is I just didn’t know what “maps” are. It looked like the outline which we had in our temple but it had a lot of lines and unrequired divisions over which just made it look dirtier and congested. I was feeling very awful at this place, it had all the things that do not exist now. It had things which did war. What is war? I don’t know but now I know why this place is called the “Museum Of Extinct Ideologies, Concepts and Philosophies”

A voice came “Can you tell me where are we placed?” “In Sirinagar” I said. “What?  Sirinagar? Is Sirinagar in Pakistan or India? Who won the battle?”…endless questions swarmed over me. I shouted in utter fright, “Nowhere. Nowhere at all. Sirinagar is in the place where every other city is. It’s in the World.” I ran away and after panting for a while I boarded a bus back to my home in Islamabad from Sirinagar World bus stand.

 

Feechi Chinaecherem Onyenali Mgbeoduru

Metamorphosis, A Memoir…

      So many hard reflections gave my thinking a 180. It’s fathomless so don’t bother with how lucky I feel with the shards all over and around me, cause now it’s my turn to hide while the truth seeks for me.

I found myself tripping, till I slid out of memory lane. I didn’t wish to dish her but I felt betrayed. I became her shadow. In trying to lapse from her, I relapsed and then collapsed, mixing up my skin with my colon till I awoke from what I thought was a coma. I exited the bin we all lived in and briefly watched her slaves waste their lives and my former co-husbands (a jillion per gender) bowing to her. “Science” they soughed repeatedly. Their moans were rather confusing, seeing how they instantly repelled me for being unlike them and developed stronger bonds with one another. What sanctimony!

The shadows brought me into the fold and into the light. They follow and observe animate beings (who, without knowing it, are their mentors). They study and mimic people’s actions throughout the day, but in the absence of light, they conceal themselves; they know that that’s when a person’s derailed side emerges. When someone dies, they become their shadow and inherit all it has learnt from them, forgetting their past life. They then exist as the shadow of another living being – a living shadow. Their former shadow, having been corrupted, unconsciously passes on to the “dark realm”.

“Living shadows” occupy the edge of the dark realm. The rest of the realm is inhabited by “used shadows”, floating about in anguish, awaiting a new mate, searching for otiose people to take their place. A living shadow and its counterpart should always be of the same form. A person’s shadow increasing in size is a sign of a looming opportunity being monitored by a multitude of used shadows. Any fellow who understands this will make haste to capitalise on the occasion before the shadows do. The used shadows (if unsuccessful) will temporarily return to the dark realm in search of other spotlights to intercept. However, if the individual slacks, the swiftest shadow will take over their body while that person joins the other shadows in the dark realm.

Interacting with my peers has made me deeply comprehend our significance to the world, even though it doesn’t realize our true essence. Those sciolistic scientists rejected me; they isled me with knowledge by casting me into the shade, boosting their egos, but I laughed last. Becoming her umbrage was a step towards having her as mine and retiring her. We have been their compasses and their life support. If they knew what life without us would really be like, they would have us as gods and I swear by that. As a single parent about to adopt the earth, I feel so lucky with these shards. A switch is in order. A fresh start, a new Adam is on the way.

 

Afrah Kiani

A WORLD WITHOUT ANIMALS

 

Our system is overflowing with flaws,

A place we once called home,

A world we believed was just and equitable,

A place that is now lone,

 

A land that is now destroyed,

A globe that is no longer home,

What were all those laws for?

That now the species they were protecting,

Are gone.

 

Surviving, we are fighting, like they once did,

But more, we are regretting,

Dripping in guilt,

Smothered with labels of murderers.

 

Lone and silent, yet we are screaming, crying

and begging inside,

for a lavish, second chance.

 

We killed them, we vanished hope,

We surrendered to greed and rapacity,

And now we lost them.

 

We lost the core to our leather handbags,

We lost the meat we used to tear with our mouths,

We lost the milk we would feed ourselves with,

 

We can no longer find hope,

No longer search for astonishing captures of sheep

On our journeys among our land,

Our filthy, polluted, contaminated, poisonous land.

 

We are limited to seeing these towering buildings,

Lifeless and grey, dull and miserable,

We miss, the scent of the breeze,

The sight of green lushes leaves.

 

Yet now only left with a destroyed, exposed

And vulnerable home.

 

Home. Is this home?

Is this the world where numerous animals existed,

Where they lived, grew and reproduced?

 

No.

 

This is the world where they were slaughtered,

Auctioned, caged for display in zoos,

Skinned for fashion and shoved at the ends of our priority lists.

 

We are the cause of today,

We are dying,

We are suffering,

We are hit by extreme karma,

We deserve this.

 

Because we did not care and do enough,

In fact,

We did nothing to save them, yet,

We did everything to finish them.

And now, we are too, at the verge of extinction

 

Unnaati Roy

A  World without ….. Kolkata

Kolkata is a city of dreams and joy. It is the city I can say I am like. A paradise for all kinds of people with contrasting interest; this city has it all. I have visited it many times on various occasions but I feel a new kind of happiness each time. Kolkata has a special place in my heart and imagining a world without it is impossible because Kolkata plays a big role in all periods of Indian History, may it be ancient, medieval or modern. Kolkata contributed a lot in India’s fight for freedom and it was also a place of major importance to the British Government. Kolkata being the cultural capital of India, without it, not only will the world lose some of the most incredible once in a lifetime experiences, I will lose a part of myself. A smile appears on my face whenever I imagine ruffling through the pages of old books at College Street, sitting on one of the hand pulled Rickshaws or walking amidst the smell of fresh clay as the idols of Goddess Durga are shaped. Each and every part of Kolkata has a story of its own, waiting to be heard and understood.

Spread across 1.5 kms, the Boi Para or College Street is the world’s second largest secondhand book market.  There are book stores where if you search thoroughly, you will find the rare first editions of popular books and some of the books that disappeared in time. In 1817 when David Hare established the Hindu College on this street, roads were constructed in the area and named College Street, a name still used. But it’s not the books which make the place popular but the people who love this place wholeheartedly and still invest in books in the generation of Kindles. This place is the best example that Books are forever. Being an avid bookworm, I cannot afford to live in a world without these precious books.

Cricket, the most popular game in India has to thank Kolkata for the world’s second largest stadium, Eden garden while the foodies should thank Kolkata for the Indo-Chinese cuisine. Kolkata residents are one of the biggest football lovers. Roshogolla and Sandesh may be popular, but they are not the only highlight here. Heritage is one of the prominent themes in this mesmerizing city, seeing that trams still run on the streets of Kolkata and all kinds of heritage sites from Shantiniketan to Fort William and Victoria Memorial are preserved. The British were so captivated by this beautiful city that they made it their capital.

To sum everything that has been stated, I think the ethereal experience Kolkata provides is irreplaceable. To many, it is simply a city like many others, but those who have understood and felt Kolkata will know that it is not a city but a metaphor for the beautiful things in life.

 

Ruhi Hiren Doshi

TITLE-Oblivion

Oblivion is a world without anything.

It is something we humans simply fail to understand. We build and create in the hopes of being remembered forever, our name being written in the stars. Little do we know about our end or future. Perhaps the line ‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest was not spoken of our soul’ understands our desire more than what we believe. We labour and strive to achieve more, simply to preserve and protect our small portion of nothing in this world. Our lives are so short. Yet, we slave away for nothing. What a pity that reality rarely fulfils our dreams. But then again, maybe not. Perhaps others, from different worlds may come to seek other intelligent life, but in vain, as we are already on the path to destruction due to global warming. However, perhaps they’ll find our remains and learn so much more. But what of it? Learning about the past can only help so much, but will they be able to learn how to swerve away from obliteration, the very condition that we couldn’t escape?

 

Whatsoever may become of us, it may only be our present that truly matters. After all, we’re all here to make someone else happy, aren’t we? Be as that may, it still does not explain why we are genetically driven to leave an imprint of our lives behind. Oblivion still remains inevitable and all that we love and cherish will soon perish. The world will move on and our lives and accomplishments will be forgotten and written over. Lives will begin and end in the blink of an eye in the view of our gigantic cosmos. It does seem lonely, doesn’t it? All of this and then, nothing. I suppose we must take solace in the fact that this life is all we’ll ever get and that is why we must live them to the fullest. Life is only precious because it ends and if we’re going to be extinguished, we may as well burn bright.

 

Shradha Agarwal

A world Without Judgement

 

I need not undergo your judgement

I do not need your resentment

I do not need your advice

All these standards are lies

Let me live my life according to my standard

Let me fly higher than a bird

I will follow my passion and my choice

I will raise my own voice

I do not need your advise!

All your standards are lies!

I am beautiful in my own way

All your judgement? Please keep away

 

Do not make me feel low

It is my time to glow

My future is bright

My choices are right

Don’t look down upon me

Stop trying to put me on my knee

Yes I will fight yes I will cry

Yes I will shout yes I will try

Until I remove your so-called what will others think

Now I will glow without a blink!

Your advice?

Bruh! It’s my life

 

Shradha

The world without Beauty Standard

There is a very famous quote, *outer appearances are deceptive*

But the irony is you are always judged for how you look! In the modern world beauty is everything. The world has set some beauty standards and expect people to be accordingly. The use of makeup and outer beauty increased extensively. The reason is people are afraid to openly show their flaws because they are scared of the word judging them. Girls with acne, pimples and marks instantly lose their self confidence. Girls who are overweight are always bullied due to their weight! They undergo constant pressure to lose weight and match the outside worlds beauty standard. No matter how beautiful they are, they are termed as ugly because of their weight. Not only by their family but also by their friends there continuously body shamed! For others it may be just fun, but for the person who goes through it becomes a lifelong depression. People start losing hope in life , lose their self-confidence, lose their inner spark and become mentally weak! All this only because they did not match the standards. Girls exposing their bare skin is considered ugly and girls with heavy makeup on are considered beautiful!

Let the world know that people are beautiful no matter how they look! Be it acne pimples or any other marks! Let the world know that she’s beautiful and beyond standards. A world like this isn’t just an imagination! It can become a reality just by some efforts! Just be accepting the people around you are beautiful! By judging people by their hearts and not by their appearances! Let them know that the best jewellery is smiling! And only one beauty standard exist which is everyone is beautiful the way they are! Be confident in however you look! Love your body and love the way you are! Don’t let the world disgrace you!Let all beauty standards disappear the world will automatically become much more beautiful

 

Shradha Agarwal

A World Without Judgement

 

My form of ideal world is where people live openly without the fear of judgement. In today’s world, we are being judged for every little thing we do. People are more scared of what other people will think in the society. The society keeps judging others for every little move they make.

People are judged for the career they choose. Students want to pursue their passion but end up following the norms! This is because they are scared about the judgement of the other people. This is one of the main reasons why courses like arts, journalism, writing and several other careers are nearly vanishing in India. Because of the so-called “LOG KYA SOCHENGE?” Translated to be what will the world think? Though we want to pursue what we like, we will be under constant pressure if we let our family up. From the starting till the end of our career our main objective will be to make our people happy, but in this journey we usually forget our happiness. But the judgement only does not extend to your career choice it goes up to the clothes you wear.

For girls if they wear more fashionable clothes they are termed as sluts! If they wear traditional clothes they are termed as old fashioned! Instead of wearing what they like they always are buried under the pressure of what will the society think of me?

What has all the judgement lead to? It has led to the increase in depression and anxiety!

The irony is you are judged even more if you openly speak about depression! Teenagers who go through depression are called *mad*. Instead of understanding them and help them come out of it they are judged constantly and the blame is transferred to one person to another. At the end having no one to speak to the teenager ends his life!

Judging people is very fun for once but we never imagine what the other person has to go through.

Attaching one of my personal experiences, I was judged for being overweight all these years. My teenage was nearly destroyed for being overweight! People bullying you and making fun of you just because you do not match their beauty standards!

This is a reason why I want to create a world where you are not judged for how you look for what you wear and for what you pursue! I wish there was a world where every person is open to exhibit what they like without being judged! A world where you can openly express your feelings your likes and dislikes and the society will gladly accept you for who you are.

But this kind of world isnt just a dream. Remember it is we who create the standards! Let’s normalise the fact of people choosing what they like. Let’s try to understand somebody without judging them for who they are. One so world will be created where there is no judgement, automatically cases like depression and anxiety will go down

 

Parikshith Sharma

The Kalon Kumbhalgarh

The Kumbhalgarh Fort is situated 90 kilometres away from the nearest city, Udaipur. When you first have a look at the fort, you are left in awe. The magnificent architectural design and the strategic defensive cover make up this Mewari fort.

The walls of the fort seem to be never-ending as the wall stretches for 36 kilometres! It is considered the second longest wall in the world, only after The Great Wall of China.

The high altitude of the fort’s location provides you a perfect panoramic view of the surroundings rightly matched with the lush green hills located alongside the fort.

The Kumbhalgarh Fort is said to be built around the 15th century by the then Rana of Mewar, Rana Kumbha. The fort houses a number of shrines and temples in its palace complex with numerous residential rooms, various courtyards that you often find packed with monkeys.

The sight is a delight to the eye. It is said that the fort was attacked numerous times and was captured only once, that too because of a shortage of drinking water and being surrounded by Mughal Forces from all sides.

The fort acts as a symbol of the valour and glory of our ancestors. The fort was rightly given the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2013 because it reminds of the numerous sacrifices given by the defenders of the fort.

The fort enlightens a fire of pride inside the hearts of the new generation highlighting the urge to do something good for the nation.

 

Hati Bening Asy-Syahiidah

Earth’s Tale

Hello there. So, you are the last person that survived? I know, all of these are madness. I am already exhausted but I need to tell you a story. Are you ready?

Four-thousand-five-hundreds-forty-billion years ago, I was created through the explosion of the solar nebulae. After some time, I can be whatever I like! I was once a fireball then I was a water ball. I also develop some solid crusts made from volcanoes. That was fun but quite boring.

Finally, when I was one and a half billion years old, God gave His trust by giving me something that lived inside my body. It was just a tiny creature, but I felt proud. The living thing that resides in my body began to produce oxygen in the atmosphere, and it helps me a lot!

Then large creatures began to be born and born massively. Fishes, reptiles and insects, a ton of them! They make a lot of changes, hastily. These creatures never stop evolving. When some of them go extinct forever, some also change into new forms.

I was satisfied with these massive creatures. They play an essential role in the creation of the ozone layer, repeating the oxygen cycle and creating soil. For thousands of years, I’ve lived with them, watching their shape changes from time to time. I saw reptiles in the forests until mammals in the savanna.

When I got older, I felt a new dweller appeared. And they were different. They plant seeds in their settlements instead of moving around looking for new plants. That’s smart. They created tools, unlike the animals that use their body for everything. Ah, I remember being confused when they killed all the deers in the field when I thought a few were enough for a week.

They keep increasing and increasing. That means more building, more animals to kill, more forests to burn. More to get and more to waste. Their population is large, too large. They created junks that hurt me, that hurt others. Nothing is balanced anymore. Oh, how painful it is when they destroy the air layers I’ve made with my previous residents for millions of years! My ocean is full of disgusting stuff that will remain after years, harming all the corals and the wilds.

They are you, your people. I thought God gave you sense and intelligence. I thought you were supposed to be guarding me and other creatures, not wrecking it.

You don’t own me. You are only guests, like any other being. Water and air, plants and animals, would be just fine without you, without humans. You are the one that depends on these things. So why did you murder them?

But now it’s too late. I’m tired of giving out signs of my sadness, my anger. You never understand. That’s the end of my story. Everything is gone now. It’s time for me to rest. So it’s the end of your story too.

Fazila Nowshin

A World Without Borders  

How do you imagine a world with immense peace and happiness?; A world of equality is the real answer. For this, we need to demolish the numerous walls of hatred and self-seeking motives in order to acquire the aim. So, have you ever imagined a world without borders?

 

I imagine this as a journey of finding oneself lost into numerous mazes of wonders. A transition from region to region, losing our souls amongst beautiful nature, fascinating ancient artworks to astonishing modern developments. But only imagine this smoothly continuous and a never-ending vibe, it already sounds so amazing. So, let loose of your minds and imagine the world to be united, peaceful and sharing equality.

 

Starting from my beloved hometown, I would set on a journey around the globe. Sitting on the rooftop of the local bus, enjoying the cool breeze of air blowing, I would soon find myself lost into a world of greenery. The strong, crisp fragrance of the tea leaves provides a sort of calmness so rare to find. Traveling through the curved paths of Sylhet, for around four hours, soon the Meghalaya mountains would be visible to the eyes. As the bus drives towards the huge mountains, peaks covered in an ocean of clouds, the eyes are definitely blessed magnificent mountains, peaks completely covered in an ocean of clouds, it would truly bless the eyes to see such beauty! I believe that the vehicle would continue to advance along the narrow, extremely curved roads, surrounded by pits hundreds of metres deep; one would feel to find a seat inside the bus by now to experience a steady journey. The scenery of local people hustling in small shops, children playing and shouting around, it all appears to be so lively.

 

I wouldn’t want to stop here, but on another journey, set my foot into the dense forest of Amazon. As I would walk down the routes, I do not want to feel the immense heat anymore; the sparks of fire spilling from places. I want to feel the presence of immense peace, sweet bird chirping sounds and cherish the beautiful canopy of trees. I want to touch sparkling clean waters of the rivers, not disturbing the fierce kings and slightly slip away without damaging the biodiversity.

After a trip through the forests, now I would like to roam free around the African deserts where maybe, I can get the golden opportunity to spot the King. Without causing any sort of disturbance, I just want to observe these creatures and their stunning movements. But I am afraid if it is possible anymore since more of these innocent creatures are getting into the hands of some inhumane poachers.

 

Last but definitely not the least, I want to experience a peaceful sunset at the beach, my eyes getting dazzled by the blue ocean waters. Now, I want to feel the cold waters, crystal clear, without any presence of plastics.

 

Can we achieve such a beautiful world?

 

Angelina

A World Without Paper and Pennies

Money is banknotes alongside coins,

Both are inanimate objects possessing value.

 

Ironically, with value comes power,

The power to manipulate humanity with ease.

 

Imagine a world without it,

Will humanity ever be restored?

 

When will we be freed from despair,

The ones derived from desire?

 

Only when autumn leaves start to fall,

Humanity then realize that money is not all.

 

Come one, come all, share the delightfulness of life,

Whether it’s the gilded or the beggared.

 

 

Margarita Michailidi

ART IS MISSING

A world without art,

an empty place

where chaos prevails.

 

Your thoughts,

your dreams

all combined together

in the vortex of your brain

which is spinning incessantly,

drowning in finitude.

 

A world without art

my soul shatters

as i cry

hopelessly devoted to nothing.

 

Tell me

in a world without art

why do i keep suffering?

 

MIHIR BHATT

A World Without MONEY

The possibility of a world without money is outrageous and what sort of words would we use to portray a world with money, moderate or safe are these when we think about our relationship with money or the greater amount of it we need to meet our aim perhaps it’s to live life meeting our necessities. The substantiality is the majority of us don’t put an intrinsic worth on target we consider it an unfortunate obligation we additionally comprehend the sort of precocity we’d be in the event that we don’t make enough of it whatever that implies for us since we realize we need money we’re willing to cause penances over what we to do to get it we’ll take up positions we’re not content with take care of any outstanding issues with awful supervisors and associates we’ll take that neglected temporary job in the desires to find a paid line of work and a few of us will even take out educational loans to contemplate things we may not really need the things that we expectation will give us a superior possibility later on to make the living the thing is money doesn’t simply affect our own decisions and choices it likewise interconnects us all through the opposition we seek the chance to work and this opposition we’ve assembled a framework around it a framework we enjoyed with now consider it science we call it financial aspects however this that this opposition additionally implies that a large number of us will lose admittance to part of the essential necessities a few of us will so be pushed out through this opposition and afterward are we as a whole working with the expectations that at last we have enough money to repurchase our opportunity isn’t that the idea annuity of retirement. Believe it or not, our planet has a lot of assets to accommodate everybody the solitary it seems is money so why not simply make all that free hurl money inside and out why not it’s our reality we will make our guidelines the lone thing money makes is imbalance a scoring framework for Humanity that chooses who gets what without precedent for history. Our innovation permits us to get rid of this thought of haves and the poor and that is just the starting making our reality free would release our full specialized potential let us take advantage of clean fuel sources bring significant thriving and information all over the globe and surprisingly shut down war and unfairness perpetually envision food delivered to the best standards in copious inventory greater better medical clinics and schools with no spending issues clean energy and correspondences accessible to everybody space investigation submerged urban communities who knows remove costs and as far as possible is our creative mind and the crude materials expected to make anything we want in the present society these standards will eventually not need laws by marking the contract for to the liberated world.

 

Aliya Walji

IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT THE TORMENTING TOXICITY ON SOCIETY BASED ON HOW WE LOOK

We all live amongst society and are also part of it. The literal definition of society is a ‘group of people who have been brought together by a common goal and similar adjectives!’ But if you scrutinize the society we live in…are we actually maintaining the definition of society?

The barbaric reality is we contain classic acting skills in pretending as if we have similar adjectives and we have one common goal, while our insides are filled with nothing but extreme callous hate for each other! The only common goal we have is seeing each other fail and the similar adjectives we have are that we  heinously hate each other!

We are both victims and culprits of the creation of toxicity of society; what I mean by this is we can be victims as we have received brusque judgements based on how we look, act and what we wear from society, but do not forget we can also be culprits as we also have given brusque judgements or think brusquely about other people. This afflicting toxicity torments us to become slaves; everything we do, it is to fall on the good books of society.

The toxicity of Society forces us to look, act and dress according to their terms and even if we do it according to their liking we will still be given brutal judgements. Example: when you have a fat body society will bestow you with odious judgmental statements; “oh my you look like a heavy bag of flour!” or you will explode one day!’’ Etc. These judgements have the unfortunate ability to demolish your mental health terribly! It is no different if you contain a thin body since society will always consist of odious judgmental statements but in a slightly different version; “you look like a stick figure silicone doll!” or “you will easily fly away one day!” Etc. and this also has the unfortunate ability to demolish your mental health terribly!

The toxicity of society inaugurated a thought police; people with white skin carry a prestigious beauty status than people with dark skin! One of the main culprits of this thought police is skin cosmetics: there are certain abundant skin cosmetics’ that claim they “whiten skin!” Some also have names that refer to whitening skin, on the cover of some skin cosmetics’ they contain a person with white skin, there are some skin cosmetic commercials that literally have the audacity to put slogans such as “white forever” which brings the thought that having white skin is prestigious and dark skin is worthless and hence people should institute changes in their skin tone to have white skin! The toxicity of society has gone to such a disgusting racist extent; people with dark skin are treated unfairly and people with white skin are given more privilege! When people are casting actors for films; some films only cast white actors! The characters in children television cartoons such as princess cartoons; the prince wants the princess since she is beautiful specifically due to her white skin, this gives children the thought that having only white skin means you are considered beautiful! People with dark skin are told repulsive statements by society: “you should try applying *name of whitening skin cosmetic*” Etc. The mistreatment society has given people with dark skin is absolutely abhorrent!

We feel hurt about the repulsive judgements society has given but what about the repulsive judgements we give to other people and how we have thought about them, don’t you think it makes them feel awful? Giving others abhorrent judgements can cause someone to lose their life! What message the future generations receive?

The common goal we are brought by is to maintain a friendly, comfortable and safe environment! The similar adjectives we should have is having pure love and care for each other! Imagine a world without the toxicity of society; nobody cares about who you look because it is simply none of their business and no odious judgement, but just spreading and receiving gratifying compliments, just imagine all the positive love and care in the atmosphere and how everyone in society would be filled with pleasant glee and people would look forward to come out of their houses and interact with society! Tarnishing someone’s heart and making them feel absolutely worthless…do you think that is right?

Radha Kundu

A world without people would be like a world without air,

No one to talk to, no one that cares

See the world with people is not so great,

We are cutting down trees, and killing our mates,

I’m not saying we should live like this,

But, a world without people would be amiss,

We would fall into a hole, into an abyss,

Sink into a pit,

And say, “this is it”

“This is what life is about”

“You breathe, and you do what you are allowed”

But you have people,

Who will keep you away from the evil,

They will hold you tight and say,

“Everything will be alright”,

See people kill people,

People are fake,

People make mistakes,

People cry,

You’ll soon die,

But a world without people would be like a world without air,

No one to talk to, no one that cares,

You would come home, all alone,

No one to phone,

No one that says, “watch your tone”

No one that forces you to submit work,

No one that points out your quirks,

All this may seem nice,

However, when people are gone, you’ll want their advice,

You’ll want to know how their day has been,

You’ll want to know what’s under that grin,

You’ll want to know if they’re okay,

You’ll want to know if they’re in dismay,

See emotions are stronger when you are with people,

Trust, honesty, and commitment is not that simple,

Relationships are made with powerful bonds,

When two hearts correspond,

A world without people would be like a world without air,

No one to talk to, no one that cares,

People show you who you really are,

But then they say “au revoir”

You feel lost, you feel hurt,

You feel disconcert,

Then the cycle repeats itself,

You find more people who don’t care about themselves,

People are selfless,

People are considerate,

People are the ones,

Who are endless,

You cannot find an all-good person,

But goodness is what makes you part of a hood,

The warmth that you feel,

Is all-real,

When you find people that connect,

You find respect,

You cherish the ones around you,

You see the world with a broad view,

A world without people would be like a world without air,

No one to talk to, no one that cares.

 

Justine Morta Laganson

“A World Without Resilience”

By Justine Laganson

Resilience for me is the ability to recover from a sudden change or destruction, misfortune, and loss. It is very observed in my country, the Philippines where massive typhoons, earthquake, landslides, and floods occur resulting to casualties and even death. As I travel, as I wonder around my community is that I have witnessed how resilient the Pilipinos are when it comes in facing the misfortune given by these certain phenomenas. Genuine smiles and laughs can be seen in every Pilipinos’ faces even though they have lost their properties. It’s natural to observe that in our country because we know we have companions, a shoulder to lean on after the bad days of destruction tormented us. I believe that even the whole world is resilient. In my agony of anxiety, what is a world without “resilience”? Will we even cope up in the changing world if we don’t this kind of resilency?

As far as my mind and body travelled, I imagined a world full of mourning, grievance, and a literal sadness if the world, people of the world don’t have that resilience to cope up with the occuring problems in our lives. We won’t improve as a human if we won’t be able to surpass that feeling of loss and sadness. Unbalanced states and non-innovative quality of life will be observed and more heavy problems will occur, devouring the whole world into a unproductive one. And when we say unproductive, we can’t sustain the basic necessities we need for living. The world will become insufficient for living, leading many people to distress and conspicuous death. A non-resilient world that only have low-quality of living filled with sadness is what I ever imagined if that kind of world exist.

We, the people of the Earth will not ever let that happens. We have existed with the natural resilience in our minds, all we have to do is to make it grow as a strength to cope up with the situation just like how Pilipinos’ used to do. Let’s start it from ourselves, keep our mind focus, and positive in every ways we do. Negate that negative vibe in you, turn your problem into strength so that you can improve as an individual. Share the good virtue you have with others so that they can also learn and build resilience in their own. If we do this, we can create the ideal world to live on. More opportunities will arise and will lead the world in the most innovative way we will ever know. As far as I travel, as far as we travel, always have that resilience in mind. Be productive and enjoy life!

 

Aabid Ahmed Chowdhury

A World Without…

Many people are more afraid of imagining a world without police than one without prisons. This seems especially true for people who consider themselves to be progressive. I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to write in depth about abolishing the police right now. But I’ve been asked a lot for ‘resources’ on the topic. To be honest, I’m crabby about offering those too. This is because what people usually mean by “resources” is a step-by-step guide or program. Well, that doesn’t exist because building a world without police is actually a collective project that will also mean that many, many other things will need to change too. That’s not a satisfying answer for people who don’t actually want to think and most importantly who think it’s “other people’s” responsibility to come up with “alternatives.”

1,146 people killed by police in 2015.¹ 97% of killer officers unindicted.² The more we learn about police brutality and murder, the clearer it becomes this behavior is an ongoing, systemic pattern. Violence is built into the policeman’s role in modern society.

Police describe their job as fighting crime, maintaining public safety, or defending law and order. But from their inception, police institutions have actually served to defend the property of the wealthy and powerful, while maintaining working class people and people of color in poverty and desperation. Doing this job requires beating, caging and killing.

Police violence stems not just from bad apples or bad attitudes, but from what police must be and do in America. The only way to stop the violence is to abolish the police, and transform the conditions that gave rise to them.

“What’s clear is that a society without police would look radically different from what we have today, in part because it simply would not be the kind of unequal society—a society divided by great socioeconomic disparity and by racism—that we live in today,” he said. “The police emerge precisely to deal with and to control those kinds of divisions in society.”

 

Zoha Yasir

Don’t Hesitate to Call Home

Family. It wasn’t a choice we had, but a gift. A place we call home. To some of us, it is what we live for, and to others, what we escape for. When we went face to face with all our fears and learned our lessons through the tears, it was the same people who we tried to run away from because they didn’t understand us, or we felt like an outcast who stood by us and became the ladder we needed to climb our way up to find the light again. When we fell into the most bottomless pits of misery, heart wrecks, sadness, depression, and felt the utmost of betrayal from the dark world we thought we knew better, who did we choose to run back to?

My father always told me, I’ll always guide you home no matter where you are, and think of me if ever you’re afraid. Because one day you’re going to leave this world, so make every second of it worth it, live a life you’re going to remember and be proud of. I used to think, what is he on about every single day? He probably took off the words from another random motivational speech he was listening to; he doesn’t get me. He never will.

I just wanted acceptance from the outside world. I craved that temporary love, those like a face that wasn’t even originally mine but covered with delusionary beauty standards, to fit in a crowd, forcing me to paint over the real me, be more them and less me. I had to be a certain way, act a certain way, and feel a sure way to earn the kind of love that wasn’t promised for tomorrow. A love that changed who I was, the me in my own body felt distant. I behaved the opposite of what was going on in my mind when deep down, I knew this felt wrong, but I wasn’t ready to let go because I knew the world wouldn’t be in my grasp anymore. I would be lonely and become a refugee, desperate to escape the war inside my head to fit in.

I just wanted a home. I didn’t even need plastic surgery to change myself; all I had to do was feed myself negativity, hatred, and envy of myself that I am not beautiful in my skin. I had to become one of them to feel special. And that was the start of a damaged, emotionally unstable, empty me that I regret to this very day. If only I knew the consequences then, I would have never fallen into that trap of fake love and alluring lies.

Yet my family never left my side. Their love was real, the genuine kind that stuck around when everyone turned their back against me as I drowned in my despair. Their love never faded nor lessened; even when I tested every inch of their willpower to raise me into the person they wanted to see aspire into a powerful individual, they still believed in me. They never gave up on me or chose to let me go. But the world did. I was the show’s puppet and once got played with, used for satisfactory personal benefits, got thrown away like I meant nothing to them. They shut me off when I tried to run back to them. They never loved me; they just loved what I offered on the table for them. They loved watching me ache in desperation and sat back and relished what they gained from what I was losing. I had nothing left. It was all snatched away.

I had nowhere to go except back to the place I hesitated to call home. And when I did, it was like never left. Nothing changed. The questionable love I put a label on my parents, concluding they don’t get me, finally unraveled. No one understood me like them. No one cares for me like them. I sought love to feel appreciated by others and came back home to the love that never died in the first place.

I never correctly understood that the love of my parents is eternal. They are the only ones who accept us for who we are. And when I was lost, it was their light who guided me to who I am today. If you argue with your parents or haven’t called them in a while, make sure you do. You never know when it can be your last. No one knows you better than them. You can go searching anywhere and will still come back to the place you hesitated to home.

It lives with me till this very day. I can’t imagine a world without my family.

Tanuri Thumbowita

To The Mother of Nature

Humans build the world,

But you, you create the humans,

The sun gives me light,

But you, you make me bright,

 

In my every breath

You are hidden,

But in most of lives,

You are forgotten,

 

Although they treat you

As a thrown stone,

To me,

You are the diamond

Called, ‘’The Nature’’.