PONGAL FESTIVAL (Tuesday, 15th January)

Today, my family and I celebrated a festival known as Pongal. My parents had invited our relatives to our house. Before I came back from school, my mum had already cleaned and decorated the house. She also finished cooking. After I had taken a bath, prayers started. Soon after, our relatives started arriving one at a time. We all had our lunch together. We rarely have the opportunity to eat together. While we children had fun playing board games, the adults were having a conversation. An hour later, we decided to go to “TEKKA” together. Once there, we went down Cambell Lane. The whole road was blocked out so that no cars could enter that lane. There was a variety of shows and activities arranged for everyone. There also were young children dancing beautifully. Usually, cows and goats were not a usual sight in Singapore. Since it was the time of festivity, cows and goats were on display, further down the lane, for one week. We touched them and also had the chance to feed them with grass. Seeing the cows and goats reminded me of my childhood memories of when I visited my relatives in India. Just beside the cows, there was an enormous pot which was about five meters high. It was very beautifully painted. It was a wonderful sight to behold. It has been very long since we went out together. We all enjoyed the trip. This trip helped to strengthen the bonds between each other. We went back home happily.

CAR ACCIDENT (Monday 14th January)

Nothing special had happened on that day except for the car accident that took place at a bus stop near my house. Today, my school principal had emphasized on road safety. He told us not to cross the road while listening to song on MP3 players and etc. Today itself while I was on my way back home, I was listening to songs on my phone. I reached my bus-stop. I alighted from the bus and walked to the traffic light. The traffic light showed the orange light. Then a student from St. Patrick’s School started walking on the road. A yellow Honda car was headed towards him at high speed. It did not seem like it was stopping. I shouted out to him to warm him about the car. Unfortunately, he was listening to music on his phone. Thus, he could not hear me. Within a few seconds, bang! I dare not open my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I had a great shock. Frozen limbs and heart made as stiff as a statue. I could only see the state the student was in. The force of the collision threw the boy five meters away from the traffic light. The boy was lying on a big pool of blood. Soon after, an ambulance and a police car arrived, upon receiving a distress call from a witness, to lend a hand. The police officers arrested the driver for speeding. Fortunately, the boy managed to survive despite the tremendous loss of blood. I could then realize how important what the principal said was.

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE ( Friday, 18th January)

I always liked to go for my CCA which is NPCC. It also develops me in terms of self-discipline and fitness. That was the first parade in which the secondary one pupils were joining us. The seniors had given us a talk about us having to be a good example to the sec one pupils and set high standards. There was a lot of pressure on us but we tried to be our best. We started off with an hour of drills. This was the toughest session of drills ever. Next, we went to the fitness corner and I was never good at the fitness corner. We had to go back and forth the monkey bar once, do forty incline pull-ups, fifty push-ups and four vertical pull-ups! I could do incline pull-ups but vertical pull-ups were a whole different story altogether. I was very nervous. Drops of sweat trickled down my forehead. Soon it was my turn. I passed through all the other stations and then came to the pull-up station. I jumped up and grabbed hold of the bar and tried to pull myself up. I did once and then fell down. I tried again; but this time all my seniors were also doing pull-ups beside me. All my squad mates were cheering for me. Seeing all of them cheering for me, I had the determination to do it. One…. Two….Three….Four….; and I did it. I managed to do 4 pull-ups. I knew that my squad mates and seniors were always there to back me up.