Its corona time
let's stay inside our houses
and save our country.

​© Akshira
​25 March, 2020

It is my country
The nation that bore great men and women.
It is the land of Netaji, Gandhi and Rani of Jhansi.
The moon in the sky, tells us our capacity.
The symbol of my country, means more than I see
The ferocious tiger is the symbol of my motherland
It is fierce and free
India, too, is fierce and free
India is my mother
She is better than the finest gold,
Better than the purest water
She is truth and justice
India is my history
It gave me language and culture
and a powerful dream
It alone has the right to seize my dream,
​It alone has the right to snatch the culture it has taught me,

It is our country.

© Harini
​25 March, 2020

Aurator came to my mind today
old, archaic, a forgotten thing
gilding leaves with gold
sitting in an untraversed countryside
somehow in that flashing meteorite
I remembered a face, distant, withdrawn
juggling the destiny of an unwritten dawn
I spoke at length with the shadows beneath his eyes
I tried to understand the lines around his smile
but it’s one thing to see and another thing entirely
to feel the cosmosis of broken things
what courage he must have stored
what calamities he must have endured
to fall from grace and to rise again
with the power of gold
a memory to retrace
a life to let go
a today to hold.
​© Jaspreet Mann
​

I intend indulging the artist in my soul by for these 21 days of total lockdown. Solitude has always been a writer's favourite word in the dictionary. If you wish to be a traveller in my journey, I would be very happy.

​I invite all my students to participate in 'Lockdown Lyrics'.

​

Liam Elkind, 20, a junior at Yale University and Simone Policano, 25, an actor, producer and Yale graduate, have come together in their city of New York, braving pharmacies and grocery stores for the old and at-risk. Their initiative is called, 'Invisible Hands Deliver'.  These are the people making a difference in the world. 
#trueeducation #truespirit #invisiblehandsdeliver

For all students mulling over the fact whether the IO according to the 2019-21 revised syllabus will happen or not, my advise is that be prepared. Since alternate formats are being used to conduct classes, the IO can easily be conducted through the virtual platform. The IB has already issued guidelines for the orals in languages and the same can be easily incorporated in English A as well. These are the guidelines for language orals according to the IB:

Please visit the official IB site for any doubts. Do not get carried away by rumors floating around. Be informed.
www.ibo.org/
​

Take this time to reflect. Take this time to apologize to yourself, for all the times you did not love yourself enough. For a moment breathe, forgive. The world is dancing on shattered glass. Think about how your life would be if you did not have what you have. Be grateful. Be kind. But, most of all be the person you always wanted to be.  Life is more than just a degree.

​The speaker is Death
​There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.