Viraj's Two Cents

First, some quick updates: It’s been a while since I’ve written a post - to be fair, I have had a bit (read: a lot) of time on my hands over the past few weeks, but I’ve spent most of my creative energy in trying to complete a poem I’ve been working on for a while. It hasn’t quite come out as I intended it to yet, but I’ve been feeling for a while I should start writing here a bit more regularly, and this post is but a result of that.  To those who know me well, it’s no secret that listening to music is something I enjoy very much. Quite a large chunk of my day is spent with headphones over my ears and me de-stressing with some familiar tunes to keep me company. Although my music tastes vary over time, there are some songs which I just feel like I have a special connection with - which just seem to tug at the heartstrings a little more. I associate these songs with certain moments and experiences, and I feel as though they carry some kind of deeper meaning in the context of my life...

The ability of a video game to tell a powerful story is understated. Even in a world characterized by an internet saturated with movies and web series, there is always a demand for an involving and impactful story. The potential of video games to tell these stories is slightly untapped, however in the last half decade, story-driven games have steadily begun gaining popularity. One of the breakthrough narrative games was the episodic “Life is Strange”, released in 2015 by Dontnod, which told the tale of a young adult, Max Caulfield, who discovers she has the power to reverse time. The power of the game lay in the fact that the player, as Max, was no superhero, but an ‘every-day hero’ who had to make choices, and deal with their impacts, sometimes devastating. While the central theme of the game is the bond between the protagonist and her friend, there is a thrilling subplot of the case of a missing fellow student. The game received critical acclaim for the gameplay, as well as for handl...

Sometimes I wish I knew Where to find those lost words Thought of, but not entertained, Exiled, ever before they reached my lips. I know they lie within me Concealed in my heart, locked away By a key my mind Would rather I not find. Not that I haven’t tried; When the hour comes, I, frantic Search the reaches of my soul Sometimes, I find a careless word But as I reach with yearning arms  Distracted by a pounding heart Trembling, I breathe, just a blink  And the word is lost once again. At times I ponder, would it be best If these lost words remain just that; But search I shall; for if I don’t When the hour passes, and  The verses can no longer be said My heart is weighed down by The regret of what these lost words Could have inked. From where I stand, What could be, sounds far better Than living with  The burden of lament; So before that hour comes, Oh love I wish with all my heart, I would Have found those lost words.

A gleefully ignorant day is chosen By Life to play its cruellest trick I peer out the window, to sunny skies Set to buckle down to routine Then the message arrives – A voice, a text, a knock on the door They may say much, but all I hear is that “they” are no more.   The words, like arrows From the devil’s bow They slit my tongue, pierce my ears And then my heart Abandoning my indigent brain Desperate, it sifts through memories Wipes off the dust; And leaves me to face the emotion   Aged, yellowed images hit me; flush The brightest of them all, that smile And the loving, innocent eyes By now I long to hear that voice Feel the warmth of embrace Alas, afraid, it’s much too late I shed a tear in their name Then another, then another…   As words fail me, I look around The day no longer half as sunny Gloom soon turns to regret A swathe of ‘whys’ invade my thoughts Why, oh why not one more day To hear, to touch Oh, just to sit with them And watch the world go by   Regret tu...

A fundamental question I thought about before writing this post was – “What will someone take away with them after reading this?” It is a tricky question, because there are hundreds, if not thousands of similar posts, scattered across blogs, QnA sites and YouTube channels. Each gives in complete detail which books to use, how many hours to put in, what is considered ‘enough’ for JEE. There are also people who have secured a better rank than me, and whose inputs are perhaps a bit more valuable than mine. So, I decided to focus a bit more on what made my JEE journey unique – in this post, I will highlight the five things I felt stand out the most out of the last two (and a half, thanks to COVID!) years of my life, and had the most impact on my preparation as well as me as a person. Here goes! 1. Overcoming Tricky Beginnings I took admission into FIITJEE South Delhi’s integrated school program in class 11 th . Ultimately it turned out to be a good decision because it helped me cut a ...

Recently, I caught up with Soumil Aggarwal - an achiever who continued his excellence in competitive exams by securing AIR 33 in the JEE (Advanced) 2020. Besides this, he has also secured AIR 258 in the JEE (Main) 2020, and also won honourable mention at the International Mathematical Olympiad 2019 held at Bath, UK. Soumil completed his JEE preparation with a four-year classroom program at FIITJEE South Delhi. We tried to decode his JEE preparation strategy and understand the story behind his success. (With inputs from Aditya Singh)