Baccha Posh

Women domination takes a different turn in Afghanistan 

Women discrimination is so bad in Kabul that the mothers are dressing their daughters as boys. Most of the little girls no longer play with their dolls or wear kurtas. They are forced to cross dress and act like a boy. There is also a name given for kids like these. They are called "baccha posh" which means, girls dressed up as boys. To save their dear daughters from the social evils, pressure and practices the mothers are being forced to do this. In Afghanistan people prefer having sons to daughters. They think that sons will help them economically and will make the society a better place to live in. As opposed to that, they think that girls are a burden to the society and have hence kept them dominated giving them almost no rights to freedom. Especially after a girl reached puberty she has no rights to make decisions at all. It is either her parents or some male member that makes all the decisions for her.

After reading this article I felt very sad for all the women in Afghanistan. I am proud to be a girl and wouldn't want to change my gender for anything in the world. However, these women in Afghanistan are just ashamed of being females. A person's gender should not constrict her from doing things that she wants to do, especially in today's context. People have traveled to moon by now, but the thoughts of the people still hasn't changed. Women should have equal rights and dignities as men. This is no rocket science, it's just general knowledge that one need to understand by using his heart and mind. I wonder when the people will get this.

Vocabulary:

1. A.  "It was possible to trace a practice that has remained mostly obscured to outsiders."

B. obscured:  Not readily noticed or seen; inconspicuous

C. In Woodstock we got obscured by the morning fog yesterday.

2.A. "There are no specific legal or religious proscriptions against the practice."

B. To prohibit; forbid

C.  Woodstock proscribes wearing shorts to school.

3.A. “Segregation calls for creativity.”

B. segregation : The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups, as in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination.

C. Racial and Gender segregation is not tolerated in Woodstock.

What outrages me.

124. What outrages you? (Wake Forest)

Doing assignments

Waiting in the lunch line.

Walking up to school by myself.

When my boyfriend blogs about nonsensical stuff in his blog and forgets to apologize later.

Doing all my assignments in the last minute.

When people promise and don't keep it.

Walking to bazaar in heels and later walking barefoot on the rocky road.

Carrying my laptop to school.

Promising myself to go to gym every morning and failing to keep it repeatedly.

When people don't pick their hair up after showering.

When my so called "friends" b!t*h about me behind my back (just because they are worse than me and are jealous of my awesomeness).

When my plans don't go according to my plans.

When I look at the mirror and I realize that I have a new pimple.

When I am in the shower and I notice all the unnecessary fats.

When I lose something, search all over for it, and after hours of doing so I realize that it was in my pocket all along.

When I trip and fall in places where no one ever falls (in a straight paved road for instance)

When I get locked inside the bathroom and there is no one out to help me (a few weeks ago I got locked inside the bathroom and I was screaming for help but there was no one there to rescue me.)

When I am really really really depressed and no one believes me when I tell them about it.

People boasting about their GPA.

My GPA being so low.

When I'm distracted while doing homework.

People spreading false rumors about me or my friends.

Not finding the "right" clothes to wear for school.

Waking up early in the morning and still being late for school.

Questions and Answers from College Fair

1.       How important are personal essays and teacher recommendations in the admissions process? What do you look for in a personal essay?

2.       How can I improve my chances if my GPA and/or SAT scores are not perfect?

3.       What services or financial aid does your school offer international students?

4.       What do you personally love best about the university?

University of California:

1. Teacher's recommendation letter are not important while applying. However, personal essays are very important. It needs to reflect the person you are and must be short but up to the point. They do not accept any paper work either.

2. You need to have a very good GPA and SAT scores in order to get admitted here. The average GPA and SAT scores are 3.88 and 1960-2230 accordingly. If your GPA is not good then u need to really work hard in pulling your grades up in order to apply.

3. Berkley provides financial aid according to the performance and GPA of the student. The student needs to have a GPA of at least 3.93 to apply for any financial aid programs.

4. The various programs that Berkley provides the students with and also that it has won noble prize in many fields and has a distinguished faculty.

Northern Michigan University:

1. Teacher's recommendation is very important but writing essays while applying is not that important.

2. They do not require SAT scores and the minimum GPA requirement is 1.75! As the GPA requirement is very low it is very easy to get admitted here.

3.You will get scholarship according to your GPA. You need to have a GPA of at least 3.0 to get any kind of financial aid.

4. The professor loves that the teacher to student ratio in NMU is 1:18 and hence the people are very close with each other.

Waldorf College:

1.  Teacher's recommendation and personal essays play a very important role in the process of accepting students.

2.  The applicant has  to have a GPA of 3.0 or higher in order to be enrolled in Waldorf. However, if you do not have a perfect score then you need to be actively participating in various extracurricular activities.

3.  The tuition fees of Waldorf is pretty high but if you work for extra hours in the school then you will a $1000 scholarship which will gradually increase according to time and performance.

4. All the extracurricular activities that Waldorf provides its students.

Susquehanna University:

1. In Susquehanna, personal essays are very important and it is recommended that the applicant writes less than 250 words. The essay must however give the reader a clear idea of what kind of person the applicant is.

2.The applicant must have a GPA of at least 3.0 and incase of not fulfilling the GPA requirement, the applicant must have a good transcript.

3. As the tuition fee is very high they provide scholarship to almost 90% of their student body. However, the scholarship varies from your academic and extracurricular performances.

4. The best thing about Susquehanna University is the location and people.

Ohio State University:

1. Teacher's recommendation and personal essays are not required while applying.

2. The minimum GPA and SAT score needed is 2.5 and 1260. The participant needs to have a record of participating in various extracurricular activities and leadership programs if he/she doesn’t has a very good score.

3. Ohio State University provides the students with various financial aids and scholarships but the applicant has to go through a very competitive process to get one.

4. Ohio State University has various fields in which students can major.

Plain packaging rule of cigarette in australia

Australia plans to go plain.

 

The government of Australia has come up with a plan to ban all the logos and colors of the packets of cigarettes. The law will be enforced in the different cigarette manufacturing companies from July 2012, where they will have to substitute the packets of cigarettes with plain olive green packets. Australia loses about 1500 people annually due to smoking which makes it the highest mortality rate for a preventable disease. Therefore, the Australian government came up to the decision of implementing the law of banning the labels on a cigarette packet as the World Health Organization suggested. The government has also come up with a decision to increase 25% on purchasing cigarettes. However manufacturing companies are against this move as this will economically bring the company down as the purchaser would not care less about the brand if they all look the same.

Reflection:

I think that the Australian government has made a good move by banning the manufacturing logos from the packets of cigarettes and replacing it by plain green packets with just the harmful effects of smoking printed on it. Most teenagers, at least the ones that I know,  smoke because they think that it is "cool" to do so. They do not realize the harmful effects of smoking and the attractive packets of cigarettes just helps them ignore the effects more. Instead they go on talking about the different brands of cigarettes and how one is better than the other! Hence, the people will learn more about the effects of smoking if that is the only thing printed on the packets of cigarettes and increasing the price of the packets of cigarettes will also decrease the amount of smokers as most people, especially teenagers, do not have a lot of money to spend.

Vocabulary:

1.A: "This will be the most hard-line regime for cigarette packaging anywhere in the world."

    B: regime:  a mode or system of rule or government.

    C: The regime of Woodstock School enforces the students to not drink or smoke.

2. A: "The move, billed as a world-first, comes after recommendations were made by the World Health Organisation."

    B:recommendation: advice

    C: Woodstock recommends the students to bring thermals and woolen clothes for winter.

3.A:" It follows regulations on tobacco advertising which have helped cut smoking significantly."

   B: regulations: Law or rule prescribed by the authority.

   C: If a student studying in Woodstock School doesn’t follow its regulations, he or she might get suspended or worse expelled.

The most humorous moment of my life

 I used to be one of those hyper active six years old kids who think that everything is possible. Me and my five best friends had recently watched superman and were highly stunned by his superhuman powers. After hours of mimicking the moves of superman, we went to kitchen in search of food and to our delight found a big chocolate cake in the fridge. We knew that my mother had baked the chocolate cake for the guests that were visiting us that night, but our hunger forced us to ignore that and devour the cake with our tiny hands. After we were done with the cake we decided to climb up a orange tree and eat the ripe fruits. Unfortunately there were orange trees only in my neighbour's backyard.  So, after a lot of planning I decided to climb up the tree and throw down the oranges while the other stayed on guard. Just as I started to do so, one of my friends started shouting that the owner was proceeding towards us with a long stick in his hand. I started panicking and was too frightened to climb down, so one of my friends asked me to jump off the tree. When I refused to do so he called me 'supergirl' and swore that I would not be hurt as he believed that I had superpowers. That was the magical phrase that made me jump off that tree and break my hand.  Later that night, I was speaking to one of the guests after dinner when I overheard my mother apologizing about the dessert and felt her glare on my back. As I had predicted, my mother chased me with a broom as soon as the guests left and I ran barefoot with a plastered hand in the highway for almost an hour.

Flash back of childhood

My mother uploaded an old picture of me in facebook of when I was four and the first comment posted read, "Is that you younger son? He looks adorable." After reading this comment I started laughing and looked at the photo closely. I did look like a small arrogant boy. In the photo,  I am wearing my elementary school's uniform with a flower in my hand and an annoyed look on my face. I do not remember taking this picture but it must have been one of those lousy mornings when I was forced out of bed and rushed to the school bus with a water bottle around my neck and yes, crying my eyes out.  This picture helps me add bits and pieces to the vague image of my childhood that I have in my mind. Invading my neighbour's backyard with my best friends, climbing on the fruit trees and eating all the ripe fruits secretly was what I was best at, and my friends loved me for those 'qualities' that I possessed. My short mohawk that my brothers coaxed me to make and the jersey that I used to wear led the girls of my class to call me bhai (little brother).  I can see the impatience in the small face that I am looking at and it makes me smile as I remember how much I hated waiting. Once, I poured boiling broth on myself when I tried to taste some because I was too impatient to wait for my mother to pour it into a bowl. This photo reminds me of piggy rides on my father's back and falling asleep in my mother's arms. The biggest fear I had was that my older brothers would get a larger slice of cake or that my friends would paint a beetle in my absence. This photo makes me envious of the little carefree girl in it.