Category: Life during Pandemic

Part 149- Hectic and Stressful!

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Life during Pandemic, School Life , ,

For the last 1 and ½ -ish years I have been doing remote school. That means, I have not been to school for over a year…until now. I’ve only given you a small glance into what the first few days have been for me, and now, I’d like to share my experience after a full week.

Before I talk about my week, let me give a quick explanation of how school last year was like for me. 

In remote learning there wasn’t much expectation set for us as compared to in-person students. For example, several activities or projects would be taken from our curriculum because we were digital learners. Because of that, most of the assignments were extremely simple. (With the exception of Shakespeare.) Not only that, the teachers were very easy going on us. There was no pressure on us about coming into Tutorials to make up/redo  work or any “before class ends” deadlines. From that type of relaxed mindset, it was easy for students, including myself, to quickly lose a lot of the good study/working habits we used to have and develop some unhealthy ones. For example, listening to music all the time, completing assignments during another class, taking advantage of the off-camera feature of zoom and snaking messages to friends, or even just procrastinating and lazing around a lot. 

( I’m not saying all remote students were like this as some did really well throughout the online school year, but I’m giving out some of the habits I, and possibly many other students, developed throughout it.)  


I didn’t think much about it at first, but during our school’s awards ceremony, the realization dawned on me. And when it did, I was unbelievably upset. Throughout that night, my friends each went home with at least two awards, including an A honor roll. I went home with just an A honor roll. I never got called again, and watched and clapped as my friends got called up many times. Later, as the auditorium emptied out, we all came together and talked for a bit. We all laughed and chattered as if it was no big deal how they all could barely hold their medals while I held onto a measly paper. Nothing clicked  in my mind that anything went wrong. Not even when we took a photo all together. In that photo we’re all smiling, and even through my mask, it looks as if I’m proud. I hate that photo. I hate how I  have the audacity to even smile. I hate how it looks as if I’m fine and it was the greatest thing that had happened to me. Later when we were driving home, my parents pointed it out to me and I agreed. Even at that time, it still did not come to me what had happened. It was only until we came home and were reviewing for my Marathi finals that I realized what happened. It was as if the weather followed my mood. The grey clouds had darkened more and more as we went home and poured down on us as soon as I left to use the bathroom, and cried my eyes out. Everything came to me and I realized how the year became. I scolded and criticized myself for everything I did, and believed I had failed. I felt low and realized how foolish I must have looked hours before. I couldn’t blame anyone but myself for wasting a potential year and for dropping to a level lower than acceptable. I felt extremely humiliated with myself and swore that it would never happen again. From that moment onwards, I decided that I was going to pull myself up and make next year the best I can, no matter what it takes. 


Starting a new year is always challenging. But it was especially challenging for me as I had been remote for more than a year. I forgot how I’d have to skillfully navigate through the densely packed halls of students bustling to get to their next class within a span of 4 minutes, work in a fast-paced curriculum, manage and use my time in class effectively so I have less work at home, and so much more. In addition to that, I also have kickboxing, tutoring, and the usual Friday Marathi class after school, giving me less time to complete my work. So, the first week of school pretty much drove me mad. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration.


With a new environment and fully-packed weekly schedule, what else is left? Goals. I had decided last year that I wanted to work hard this year. How hard? So hard that I need to maintain a 100 average in every class, on every test, assignment, activity, etc. I needed to fully ace everything I did this year, and that meant by going beyond what is expected. It’s a challenge, but a necessary one. I needed to pull myself up from where I was last year. And so far, it’s been a rocky start.


One, I’ve already gotten a few grades below a 100. Two, I’ve taken on kickboxing and tutoring my neighbor who has just started his middle school era, leaving me with less time than before to complete my work. Third, I got sick. 


Let me start with the last one. No, it’s nothing major, just the common cold. After doing online learning for over a year, you pretty much stay at home for the whole day. As a result, my immune system didn’t get much exposure to any viruses, causing me to get easily sick within my first week out. That’s pretty much why I spent 3 days of school acting like an alien. It was incredibly awkward when I get up in the middle of class to randomly blow my nose or when all of a sudden I make a sound that sounds like I’m laughing. Good thing masks hide most of your face. 


I have kickboxing every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday- 6 to 6:45 on the weekdays while 10:45-12 on Saturday- and have decided to tutor my neighbor on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I then have Marathi School on Fridays. AT the end of the day, I’m already exhausted from school, and half an hour to get only the review portion of my work done. After that I’ve got to go to class or help out my friend, and resume my work by around 7-8:30. I’m not used to having such a packed schedule like most students do so I’ve been having some trouble with getting all my work finished. Hopefully it’ll get easier soon and I’ll be able to complete everything without any worries. 


Lastly, grades. For me, the main reasons for some of my “worst grades” so far is because of 7th grade review and working with partners. I don’t like to work in groups that often, but when I have to, it stresses me out a lot. For example, on Friday in my ELA class we got an official seating chart, and I am table mates with two boys. I don’t mind boys, they’re pretty chill and I like hanging out with them. But, my problem is that our next grade in that class, analytical paragraph, involves working with our table mates. Oh boy. We barely got a proper topic sentence within the 30 minutes given because the boys would do everything but focus on the assignment. Who knew boys would talk about haircuts and stuff? I was so done with them, and it had only been a day. Apart from that, there was a measuring activity in my engineering class which we had to solve with a team. We ended up getting a terrible score, and so we’ve planned to go fix that. 

And then there’s the 7th grade review. I had a Science quiz on review from 7th grade science, and I got an 86. Saying that I remember at least half of what I learned in science last year, is a lie. I took the entire course through an app, and I barely remember 30% of it. So, when I took the quiz on Friday, even after reviewing the concepts, I blanked out and got an 86.  But, the past is in the past. The most I can do is assure that my next grades are all 100’s. 


Long story short, online school sucks. It’s not really the curriculum’s fault, but rather mine. I was the one who got into the relaxed mood and took everything so easily. But, I have to say the way that online school works is what causes the mood to be developed. In the end, I am extremely glad to finally be back at school. I have missed going to school in person and actually participating in projects and activities a lot, so, going back was really special for me. I hope that I can get used to the feeling though. Hopefully everything will calm down soon. Until then, bye!

Part 124- Right vs. Freedom in Vaccines

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Biomedical Sciences, Law and Justice, Life during Pandemic , , ,

 What’s the difference between a right and freedom? Well, a right is a legal, social, or ethical principle of freedom. It’s like a rule about what is allowed of people. To have a right is to have some sort of legal claim or just on something. Freedom is the power or RIGHT to act, speak, or think as one wants without interference or restraint. In the Constitution, we have something called The Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 Amendments. They guarantee rights and liberties to the individual such as freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. but we’ll get to that later. So, knowing this, what’s the problem? Well, the problem is knowing when something is a right or freedom. 

The first problem, vaccines. As we all know, we finally have a COVID-19 vaccine. While many would be impatiently, or even patiently, waiting to get vaccinated, others would be staying far away and opposing the vaccine.  But why? Many cite that its religious beliefs. They believe that a vaccine won’t help them and that God will save them and give them a cure. Before I say anything else I want to share a story, but I don’t know the name of it is. You may have heard it before. So, the story goes that a flood is coming to a town. Everyone evacuates except a man. He stays inside his house and says that God will save him. As the water starts to rise, a man in a canoe comes to him and offers him to come with him. The man refuses and says that God will save him. A helicopter then comes and the crew throws a ladder. They tell the man to climb it but the man refuses, saying that God will save him. A person swims to the man and says to get on his back. The man refuses, and yet again says that God will save him. When the man drowns, he goes to heaven and asks why God didn’t save him. God says that he sent a canoe, helicopter, and even a person to save him but the man refused.
This should be similar to the vaccines. The vaccine is something that God has “made”/created to save you from the pandemic. A cure or help can be shown in many different ways, so why not as a vaccine? 

In my opinion, I think that vaccines should be mandatory order in America. In India, people are so used to getting vaccinated that they assume that it’s a part of life and that it’s natural. Plus, it’s a mandatory order. Why not establishing something similar to this in America? Since getting vaccinated is mandatory, it has been integrated and remembered as something normal and natural in life. It’s not really something to question or have doubts about. If we try something like this in America, would it also become thought of as something natural and a part of life? 

If the government issues a mandatory order that everyone gets vaccinated, there will obviously be some complaints. For example, some people may complain that this will be a violation of their freedom of religion or press/thought. Like I said before, people may believe that vaccines aren’t going to help them or cure them and instead god will help them. Why don’t we try to convince them that a vaccine is a cure from God? ( I’m tying this back to my story concept from above.) Some other reasons why people aren’t getting vaccinated include distrust. The WHO organizes a press conference when a new vaccine is released. Of course, they answer questions that are common and from reporters, but why can’t there be any questions from people.  Maybe they already do this, but why not hold a survey where you can write down your concerns and what you would like to have asked at the conference? I think that may reduce some tension of getting vaccinated and may cause more people to get vaccinated.

Anyway, I hope that you all are safe and doing well. Happy Holidays, and have a Wonderful Christmas. Let’s hope that 2021 will be much better. 

https://www.healthline.com/health/vaccinations/opposition

https://www.meningitis.org/blogs/mrf-view-on-anti-vaccination

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869767/

Part 121- My Thanksgiving weekend

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Life during Pandemic

 I guess you can say my Thanksgiving break isn’t/wasn’t really normal. Well, normal for me to spend a break is being productive and doing some work. My entire break was the opposite of that. I spent my break, watching videos and painting and eating and listening to BTS’ new album ‘BE’ and drinking two bottles of mixed fruit smoothies a day. Trust me, it hurts. But, my Thanksgiving weekend was/is really fun. Despite that my break is almost over, I’m glad that I had so much fun and had a good time. Especially Saturday. Saturday was a good day. But, before I explain the thrills of my weekend, I want to note that probably, about 70% of what I watch is useless/ won’t really help me, but the other 30% actually ends up helping me and is informative. So, watching tv is important. 😂

Let’s start on Thursday. Thursday was, Thanksgiving-as we all know- and, I burned my tongue. It’s a wonderful memory to remember; that I burned my tastebuds just a while before the meal. I was in charge of making the cranberry sauce. And I did make the sauce. But, I was also in charge of cleaning my upstairs playroom with my dad, and getting rid of the toys that I don’t play with anymore. So, after getting to the last step- stirring frequently- I rushed up and started to clean up. Then, I remembered, I needed to stir the sauce. So, I rushed downstairs and was eternally grateful that my mom handled the sauce as well as starting the potatoes. Thank you, Mumma. I was quite pleased with my sauce, and I wanted to try it. So, I got a spoon, scooped some up, and blew on it. Obviously, I was a little impatient and ended up…holding it in the middle of my tongue as an attempt to cool it down. I think you know the result. Anyway, I woke up this morning to feel the calming sensation of normal tastebuds. ( I was able to taste my food, seeing that only a few got burnt) I also ended up reminiscing my old punishments from when I was a kid while cleaning up my playroom. It’s quite weird. 

I had a small plastic dress from a Tinkerbell figurine I had when I first moved here. ( After I moved) I was actually playing with the doll and set when I was punished. I’m not sure what I did, ( probably spoke to them in a way that wasn’t very respectful)  but I remember that I had to call my parents Mister and Mrs. that day. It was horrible. They weren’t my parents that day, and just remembering that made me emotional. So, yeah. I started tearing up after telling my dad where the plastic dress came from. Anyway, let’s move to Friday.

Friday was regular. Black Friday shopping. I didn’t find any new clothes, but I did find some new rings, and now, I have more rings. Yay! My new case for my new upgraded iPhone came- this time purple- and I miss my small, old phone that I had before. Yes, I am missing my small, used for a while before me, iPhone 7. Mainly because that was the first phone I’ve had, and I’ve become attached to it. It’s also a handy phone, and perfect for me. I mean, both are about the same size but, it just looks weird. I still have to get used to it, but, I just think it looks weird. Anyway, I just spent the rest of the day like I did all the previous days before. Absolute nothing. Finally, Saturday.

Ahh, Saturday my most favorite day of the week and most anticipated. Usually, because it’s the only day I get to watch videos, but, this time, it is because our day was going to be exciting. I started the day like I usually do, wake up, shower, eat breakfast quickly, and do some quick practicing to warm up before my violin lesson. I learned the notes for the doorbell noise and ambulance siren and started a new piece. Then, we watched My Spy- a really good movie- and planned out where we were going to eat lunch. I had planned this day weeks ago. We would spend a full day, in a really fun, all Asian cultured area, and it would be amazing. It was amazing. Especially the food. We all had been to the area before, all in groups and not with all 3 of us together, but we never got to eat there. I personally, had only been to the Japanese bookstore- Kinokuniya., Anyway, I was determined to eat Korean BBQ way before we planned out the day, and nothing was going to stop me. Well, besides the fact that most of the meat is pork and beef- two foods I am not yet allowed to eat, and mainly had to eat chicken or seafood. Nevertheless, I pulled up Google and found a Korean BBQ, which to my luck, was in that area we were to spend the day in. Aha! I was determined to eat Korean BBQ that day, and I did. 

If you’ve never eaten Korean BBQ, then I recommend you do. Especially at Gen Korean BBQ House- where we went- because then you get to look around at the area it is in. Plus, they have good food. It’s a really cool concept, where they serve you the raw meat, already marinated with sauce, and you get to cook it yourself in a pit that sits in the middle of your table. You get Kimchi, sauces, rice, and lettuce for wraps, and obviously, delicious meat to eat it with. This was our first time eating Korean BBQ, so it was a new experience, but, me being the kid who devotes themselves to watching videos on their most anticipated day, I sorta knew how it was supposed to be eaten. It was a video where these two guys were doing a live cooking video- Korean BBQ- and they were making wraps with the lettuce and meat and rice. I had also seen a Lego cooking stop motion on Korean BBQ and learned a bit. So, like I said at the very beginning, about 30% of what I watch is useful. Anyway, the food was amazing. It was very well done and very good. I felt that I would never get full- yet I eventually did- and really enjoyed the experience. Plus, Kimchi is delicious. 

Next, we went to Kinokuniya, to spend some time before getting something at the 85-degree cafe next to it. I originally wanted to go to the area because the next book of my series- Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card- had recently been published in English. Unfortunately, they had sold out, so next week, we are going to go pick up a copy. We walked around a bit, and we looked at the pens. We spent like, 20 minutes at the pens because my parents really loved the fountain pen that you could test, and we’re trying to find it for 10 minutes, and then looking for the right ink for it. Anyway, we also ended up getting a notebook- for my dad to use- and square, wooden pencils that I can use while learning Japanese with the new book we also bought at the store. I had also spotted some BT21 merch- which is similar to the messaging stickers I have on my phone. 

Later, we went to the 85- degree cafe, got some pastries and buns along with coffee and Boba Milk Tea before it started to lightly sprinkle. We went to 99 Ranch- a market I was visiting for the first time- and finished up the day with a  trip to a restaurant that has the best Mutton, before heading back. It was a really fun day. I really enjoyed it and had a blast. I think this will now be our thanksgiving weekend tradition- visiting the area- and I look forward to next year. Hopefully, the experience will be better, without COVID, and I’m just really happy that I got to get out of the house. 

I think that I really enjoyed Saturday because I got to experience a lot of different cultures that day- yesterday- and got to eat a lot of cultural food. The best way of experiencing other cultures is by food, and I definitely, ate a lot of food yesterday. Hopefully, next year I get to try some more, but I am definitely going to go eat at the Korean BBQ place again. It was a good experience, and once again, I encourage you to try it. Anyway, I have got to go, and I hope you also had an amazing Thanksgiving break. Below, I have a picture of my first painting of the break, and some pictures from teh Gen Korean BBQ House. Bye!

Here’s one of my paintings from the break
( I messed up with the ombre and leaves)

Part 116- The First Presidential debate

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Life during Pandemic, Politics , , , ,

 So, as we all know, the first presidential debate of the 2020 elections, happened on Tuesday, September 29th. I was super excited about this debate and was so ready to see how it turned out. Well, most of you know how it turned out. It wasn’t that great. But, what if there were hidden aspects of the debate. We mainly just saw a lot of bickering but, what if there was a strategy. What if the plan was to make this debate seem terrible? Let’s find out. 

You can find the debate anywhere on youtube and online, but I will put the link at the bottom. 

So, let me start off by saying, first and foremost, that the 2020 first presidential debate was terrible. It seemed terrible and wasn’t very good. I know that there may be a trick to it, and there may be something else under what happened, maybe a plan behind all this, but, I have to say, the result wasn’t that great. I have to say though, after reviewing some of the previous debates from each of them, presidential and VP debates, I saw that they are actually better in the debates than they were in what we saw on Tuesday. Take former Vice President Biden- Mr. Biden- for example. During the debate, we saw that he was faltering, repeating himself, stuttering, and wasn’t very clear with what he said. He was often repeating himself like he didn’t have his thoughts clearly assembled or like his thoughts were falling apart. Plus, he was often talking about how President Trump did something wrong or didn’t do anything as well when answering the questions. instead of answering what he would do, he often replied- often- what President Trump hasn’t yet done or how badly he’s done something on that topic. But, if we see some previous debates, like the VP debates in 2008 or in 2012, we see that they are a lot better, and it is much, much more different than the one on Tuesday.

( Link: 2008 VP debate)

I’m going to use the 2008 VP debate as my first example. In this one, Mr. Biden goes first to answer the first question, and his answer is very clear. It is very concise, clear, simple, proves his answer, and supports President Obama in every way. His thoughts are all collected and complete. To me, it looks like he may be talking to the moderator, as his eyes are sort of off to the side as if he is looking over there, but, when he speaks, it feels like he’s speaking to the people in the audience. Perhaps he was speaking to the people, and was looking to the audience on the right, or WAS speaking to the moderator.  Either way, his voice was well heard. When the other candidate was speaking, he was listening, mulling over what she was saying and her answer. Something you might say is, well, maybe Mr. Biden started to get more comfortable with the debates after winning the 2008 election and started speaking like he did in 2020 one. Perhaps he started to get cocky after this election. Not exactly.

( Link: 2012 VP debate) 

Check out the 2012 VP debate. Yes, he has sightly changed his attitude and way he reacts or facial expression when listening to the other candidate, but how he speaks is the same. Even though I may talk more about how they each spoke, I want to include facial expression and body language a little in this. It may be pretty minor, but it is pretty important. If you notice, in the 2020 debate, Mr. Biden was often smiling and sort of laughing at President Trump’s replies or response to the question. This also can be seen in the 2012 debate. In the 2012 debate, we see that he started to “loosen” up I guess, or started to lose the solemn blank face with precessing thoughts and changing it to a smiling, more emotion-filled face that can be seen while processing the information. The 2008 debate may be his first debate or first debate for a position, so he may not know what he should do. His expression was solemn and still during the first debate and is a bit expressionless, but what if later he decided to change that? That could be a possibility. We can also see, and hear, that in this debate as well, Mr. Biden is very clear and concise with his words. His thoughts are collected and together and he isn’t stuttering at all. 

Let’s move on. We can’t keep talking about Mr. Biden. We still have Mr. Trump to talk about and very little time to finish this post. I only have one video I’m going to use for this because, this is the first presidential debate of 2016, for him, and a look into how Mr. Trump debates. I may add another clip for a video later, but right now, I only have one video pulled up.

So, when we saw the 2020 debate, we saw that Mr. Trump was speaking over Mr. Biden, not letting him speak, and often arguing with the moderator. Is this the same as the 2016 debate? Mmm, not really. In the 2016 debate, he was actually much different. For some time. At the start of the first, 2-3 questions, Mrs. Clinton was speaking about how she viewed Mr. Trump’s plans and his strategies and his plans of growing the economy. She calls it, ” Trumpdump trickle down”. This is what I heard from the video, it may not be the exact thing she did, but it is what I heard. Anyway, when she said this, we saw that Mr. Trump slightly smiled. He was thoughtful and respectfully listening to what she said, and even though he may or may not have approved or liked what she said, he kept quiet and showed a simple expression to show what he thought, instead of telling what he thought. During his response, he stated what he thought from his answer and his response. But then later, you can slightly see, that he wanted to say what he was thinking. He wanted to interrupt and say a response to what she said. He even did that in between, but only slightly. ut then, it changes. We start to see a lot of what happened during the 2020 debate, here. President Trump kept speaking over Mrs. Clinton when it was her time to speak, he was talking bad about some of the things President Clinton has done during his terms, and it is ok to have opinions, but he was sort of stating it like it wasn’t his opinion. In my opinion, I think President Trump isn’t that great of a debater. He just wants to get his point through and make himself seem right and the other candidate isn’t.
Moving on, I want to talk about possible strategies these two candidates had in mind. ( I mean the candidates in the 2020 elections. We’re back in the future after touring the past.) I have a possible idea of the plan Mr. Biden may have had, that comes from West Wing. Beware spoilers. Anyway, in West Wing, when Matt Santos is running for president and chooses Leo to be his VP, Leo is getting ready for the VP debate. Leo is known to be really good at debates, and someone with a great political mind. He is phenomenal at debates and nails them, but when practicing, he isn’t that great. If you want to see the clip, you can see West Wing on Netflix, and the scene is from season 7, episode 10- running mates. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Leo could have been setting a low expectation for the debate. A low expectation that he isn’t giving good answers, but in the end, wows them and turns out to be amazing. Same thing here. We saw that Mr. Biden is really good at debates, but wasn’t that great during Tuesday’s. What if his strategy is to make it seem that he isn’t that great, but during the next debate blows us away and shows that he is good? What if the plan was to lower the expectations and standards because he knew that there would be high expectations after seeing Mr. Trump’s debates in 2016, and how well Mr. Biden does during debates? What if he lowers/lowered the expectations so that in the end, he can twist the tables and wow everyone? Think about it, if the expectations are low and you don’t expect something great, wouldn’t you be amazed if, in the end, it was? What if that was the plan? But, then again, in West Wing, Leo was getting old and weaker. I say this with respect but, what if Mr. Biden has started to get worse or lose his skills of debating from old age? You never know.
Let’s think about Mr. Trump’s plan as well or his possible plan. The whole time, we saw Mr. Trump “attacking”/ not letting Mr. Biden speak. Probably, he would have watched past debates from Mr. Biden and got a strategy to attack Mr. Biden, so he loses his guard and doesn’t do well?  Or, what if it was also, to make the debate seem bad? I’m really into the whole, make the debate seem bad theory at the moment and it is really funny, just reading over and seeing, make it seem bad, lower standards, over and over again. But, it’s because it seems like a valid plan. Especially, when you think about how it could be Mr. Trump’s plan. Attacking Mr. Biden to lower Mr. Biden’s response or confidence, to make him seem like he isn’t a worthy candidate? Could that be a plan? 
Anyway, to end this blog, I hope you all got a new perspective on the 2020 debate. I know I did along the way and learned A LOT about both candidates and some of their styles of talking and their body language and facial expressions. I wish I could write more and talk more about the topic but it has been a long, 3 hours and 46 minutes, and typing opinions and watching political videos of great excitement and thrill is very exhausting so, I’ll have to say bye, and I hope to see you in the next post. 
 

Part 113- Justice Ginsburg

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Law and Justice, Life during Pandemic , , ,

 Hello. Today is Sunday, as we all know, and, today is blog post day. So, we have a slight change of plans. Um, so, Friday, September 18th, associate justice of the Supreme court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or Justice Ginsburg, has sadly passed away. She has passed away at the age of 87, by complications from pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer happens when cells in the pancreas begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. And, these cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. So, as a tribute to Justice Ginsburg, we will talk about her life, what her main accomplishments were, and how she changed the world today. (Sources: HallofFame, The hill, Achievement.org)

Justice Ginsburg was an amazing woman. Her entire career was to eliminate gender-based stereotypes in legislation and regulations. She was first appointed by President Clinton to be Associate Justice in 1993, and is,”..the second woman to sit on the bench of the United States Supreme Court in its 212-year history.”  That’s pretty impressive. To be the second woman to sit on the bench. The second woman in the whole 212 years of there being a Supreme Court. She was nominated to fill the vacant seat of Justice Byron White, who was retiring. She graduated from Cornell University in 1954 with the HIGHEST honors in government, went to Columbia and Harvard law school, making Law Review in both of them, and graduating as the top of her class at Columbia. In 1956 when she entered Harvard Law school, “…the dean asked her and 8 other women to justify why they were taking seats that would go to men and a law school employee told her that women could not enter a room in the library which she needed to do research.” Still, even though similar events like this happened many times in her life, she refused to give up. I bet, that she really proved herself to all those who said no or didn’t accept her just because she was a woman. She continued to work hard to where she stood today. She argued gender-discrimination cases in the Supreme Court, which had persuaded an all-male 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause,”…applied to discrimination based on sex, not just race.”  Her and litigation on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she headed the Women’s Right Project, which drew attention. She helped write the ACLU brief in Reed vs. Reed, which was a case argued before the Supreme Court that involved discrimination against women in awarding the administration of a child’s estate. I know I’ve mentioned this many, many times, but I want to make it clear, because not only did she work hard for this, but also because me being a girl, it matters to me too. She argued cases of sex discrimination. There are many arguments about this topic. Many, many cases. One of the most important of these was Weinberger v.Wiesenfeld. After this victory, was followed by another in Duren v. Missouri. Even though she went through surgery for early-stage colon cancer, surgery for pancreatic cancer, and surgery to remove cancerous growths in her left lung, she refused to retire. Despite rumors of her retiring because of her advancing age and poor health and death of her husband, she did not retire. She stood her “ground” and didn’t give in, no matter what everyone else said.

“She did not want to leave her Supreme Court seat, and much of her legacy the court, in the hands of President Trump. In 2016 she said, ‘I can’t imagine what the country would be- with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the court even, I don’t even want to contemplate that.’ ” She even told her granddaughter just before her death, that her most fervent wish is that she would not be replaced until a new president is installed. “She tried to gut it out, to get to January when hopefully there would be a different president to nominate her successor. She was 87 when she died just a few months short of her goal.” Even though she wasn’t able to achieve that goal, she accomplished many other things and many other goals. Some which I haven’t mentioned before was writing books about her life, and in general, books by her.

I think, that Justice Ginsburg may have wanted to keep her seat, for some more reasons. She says that she didn’t want to leave her seat in the hands of President Trump. This may be because she was a liberal, and her views and beliefs in politics and such would have been different than President Trump’s. If she had given up her seat and had President Trump’s nominee to fill her seta, their views may have been different than hers and would change a lot of decisions that would have to be made. It would be n a different way and perspective then how hers had been. So, she was hoping that the next president would possibly have the same views as her, or nominate someone who has the same views as her. 

Justice Ginsburg was a remarkable, and amazing woman, who spoke out multiple times against sex discrimination. She fought for who she is and the equality and didn’t stop, no matter what in anything she did. Whether she was in college with deans who asked her to explain why she was here, or looking for a job and was refused one because they weren’t looking for women, she didn’t give up. She changed how we live and think today, and was true, amazing. I hope she led a wonderful life and passed away happy. Bye.

Part 112- China

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment Life during Pandemic, Politics and Geopolitics , , ,

So, this post is about China. China’s, One China Policy. Let’s get into it, no time for intros or any of that stuff.

Quick Background: China has two “labels”, one of which actually is China and the other which is just a name for Taiwan. The PRC-People’s Republic of China is China and the Republic of China is Taiwan. This actually is a basic explanation of why the One China Policy is there. What is the One China Policy? The One China Policy is basically, a policy that states that there is only one sovereign state under the name China. Like I said, this refers to Taiwan and China. So, Taiwan, or also known as ROC was a sovereign state based in mainland China but wanted to become democratic after China established Communism. 

Now, what the political problem, is that Taiwan declared the independence of China, but China claims Taiwan as it’s own or that it was once China. It is also an official PRC policy to force unification if peaceful unification doesn’t work. This means, that China was wanting Taiwan to become one with it again, or become part of China again, and Taiwan didn’t want to. The peaceful unification is most likely any way without violence. So, without that working, China decided to force unification, due to their policy. But why would they enforce such a policy in the first place? I know that there is a reason, and I’ll explain in a minute, but why? I mean, it is a good strategy to try peacefully at first, it always is, but still, if Taiwan wanted to be independent, why would you try to force them to re-join? I know that a lot of this same event happens all around the world, for example, India and Pakistan, but why would you try and force them to be one again? Taiwan wanted their own government of democracy, and to be their own independent country form China, and China wants them to become one again. Taiwan chose it’s independence and wanted to state its own government and “rule” or govern itself. Like, for example, Taiwan was sick and tired of being ruled by others, and they wanted to govern themselves and follow their own rules that they create.

Anyway, in mainland China, the CCP- Chinese Communist Party- declared the PRC, and create the reality of Two Chinas. After the creation of Two Chinas, the PRC began to fight a diplomatic war against the ROC or Taiwan over official recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. Like, there can only be one China government, I’m assuming they mean. Or, it could also mean, that the name China is under one sole government and because Taiwan-ROC- is under China, they are part of the same government. The second way sounds most likely to be correct. This may also be why Taiwan wants to change their passports. Oh, haven’t you heard? Taiwan has been wanting to change the names on their passports and it has been deemed official. (LINK) So, here’s what happened in case you didn’t hear. “On September 2, the government of Taiwan launched its new passport design with independent identity, deemed as official from January 2021.” Basically, Taiwan came up with a new design for their passports. the reason why was because, their original passports had” Republic of China” on them, and Taiwan wanted to get that changed, and so, they came up with a new design, that says Taiwan. See:

OCAC.R.O.C.(Taiwan) – News

This is the original or the first one on the left, and the new design one on the right. And, that’s reasonable. It’s reasonable and understandable about why Taiwan would want to change their passports. They aren’t a part of China anymore, but in fact, their own country and want to be recognized for that. They wanted to, ” …distinct Taiwan from China…” Continuing from Chinese unification, China never recognized the two Chinas. Again, I’m wondering if that refers to the part of, Taiwan is under the name of China and is therefore part of China. I mean, that is partially right. If it is named, it is under one name.  But think about it this way. ( BTW my example is not saying China and Taiwan are like fruit and pineapples and apples, it is only supposed to be an example, and hopefully, one that is clear and correct) Pineapple has an apple in its name. It is actually, not at all an apple. Just because it has the same word in its name, doesn’t mean that they are the same or one. They are two completely different things, but just have part of the same name. Anyway, China still claims Taiwan as its 23rd province. Plus, in 2005, they passed the Anti-Secession Law in order to, “…discourage independence of Taiwan independence sentiments, and in order to legitimize its use of force against Taiwan.” Wait, is that even possible? Is it possible for them to do that, to just say and state something that allows them to use force on another country and discourage them of their independence? Wait, what if the rules for such things are different. Like in the U.S., are there different rules or guidelines for passing laws or acts and such because it is a democratic country, as opposed to China who is a communist country? Would they have their own guidelines for doing something like that? Come to think of it, ARE THERE EVEN ANY GUIDELINES FOR PASSING ACTS OR LAWS?? Have 

I just been asking random questions over something that may or may not exist this whole 5 minutes?? I know that China claims Taiwan as part of them, but, isn’t it wrong to do that to another country. To pass an act that allows you to use force on another country isn’t that wrong. ( Thinking other than Taiwan and China) That country is its own independent country that is recognized as by the world, and you just want to pass something that, gives you permission to use force on them. That’s not right. That is very, truly, not in any way possible, right. It shouldn’t be right. It’s like saying, I’m allowed to do anything I want to you even though you are your own person, just because I want to. Why? But then, think of China’s perspective. We can’t always put them in the perspective of the bad side. They must have their own logical and fairly accurate reasons for doing so as well. When passing this law or act, or whatever it is called, China might have been thinking and believing that it is possible/allowed to happen because Taiwan is under the name of China- like mentioned in the other fairly-exhausting-minutes-of-writing paragraphs. They may see it as, if it is a part of us, it isn’t a big deal. This event is only happening within China, and not with any other country, so it is fine. 

Anyway, It has been, surprisingly, at least an hour of non-stop typing and researching, and it is getting late. I hope that this blog clearly discusses different facts and opinions on Taiwan and China, and is much, much better than the other posts before. See you soon.

Part 111- Update

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics, Life during Pandemic, Me and My Family

 Hey! I wanted to make this post an actual update blog. So, I’m going to be posting less, only once a week, due to school and other things. Still, the posts will be the same, but focusing more on one topic each week. The topics will have lots of info and opinions. So, after that update, I want to tell you some more recent events that have happened. 

In Kumon, for J by 6, I finally got my award just a few days ago. It is a small glass globe with a small plaque that states when I reached level J along with my name. I have started a brand new series, the Red Queen series, which is absolutely amazing. If you are not a young adult, please do not read it. There is some crude language. I got permission from dad to read it and I am so glad he did.  No hesitation or anything, so I was really happy. I am in the next book, Glass Sword. Red Queen is about a girl whose world is divided by blood- Red, and Silver. Red is the blood of common folk and ordinary people while Silver is from those who are rich and wealthy and have un-human powers. So Mare- the main character- is of Red blood but discovers she has Silver abilities when she is thrown in front of the King’s court. She is forced to play the role of a long lost Silver princess who is betrothed to the King’s youngest son. After finding out about her brother’s death, she joins the Scarlet Guard, a band of Reds who want to be equal to the Silvers, and plays a dangerous game where the consequence is death. Anyone can betray anyone. It is a really good book, and I loved it. I can’t wait to finish the whole series and find out what happens in the end. In Kumon, there is a competition to write the end of one of the Kumon stories that don’t have an ending. I’ve always wanted to know what happens next, and now I get to write the end. My plants are doing well. The rise of the cucumber has come again, taking over the okra and Karla and other plants that I don’t know the name of. Watermelon is also growing. Oh, and the last thing, I have changed my music preference. I know I said I listened to Disney and Kidz bop, but now, I have found an artist, or a band, which I really like. Even though they sing in Korean like 95% of the time, I still like their songs. They are BTS, an all-boy Korean K-pop group, and my most favorite song from them is Boy with Luv and then ON.   ( It’s a good song, try listening to it) Anyway, that was all the updates I had for you. See you Sunday!

Part 110- Ancient Empires: The rise and fall over time

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics, Life during Pandemic ,

 HEY! I know I said I would write about Taiwan in the next post, but, I have something I want to show you and talk about in this post. As you have probably guessed from the title, it is Ancient Civilizations. So, as you may or may not know, I love ancient history. Ancient culture, empires, civilizations, history, whatever it is, I love it. Except for some U.S. History and TX history. Anyway, I was watching this video earlier, and it is the most beautiful timeline of the rise and fall of Ancient Empires. I absolutely love it. It goes back in time form the start of humanity in Africa, and of humans traveling to other parts in Asia. Then the dynasties and empires and civilizations begin. It also lists the inventions and accomplishments as well as the population over time. It is just amazing. 

So, let’s review the video. I promise you, if you watch this video for the whole time, and watch it to the end and pay attention to it, you will love Ancient history as much as I do. Starting from just 200000 BCE, when the humans started in Africa, the timeline progresses on to the future. I want to point out, that the development of humans began more in Asia and the eastern side of the world. A lot of the Empires fought over there, and it was like the fight for Asia. Who could rule all the land. Also, referring to yesterday’s post, humans reached China at around 109000 BCE. Near 3440 BCE Europe started, developing or settling more than the others. There are more names or “country” or land divisions in “Europe” than the others. Excluding North and South America. Then, at 3140 BCE, we see the first color on the map of Egypt for Advanced Civilizations. I wonder if there are present-day Egyptians today. I mean, I know that there probably are people who live in Egypt and are called Egyptians, but I wonder if there is some culture or traditions form the ancient Egyptians passed down to them, and I wonder if they can read hieroglyphics. Or is that just something from the past? I wonder… Of course, the Ancient Egyptians are built along the Nile river, becoming a river civilization. See, I still remember my lessons from class. Those lessons weren’t for nothing! Anyway, later we start seeing some new civilizations in what is Kuwait today, and what looks like Pakistan and some of India. Around 2157 BCE we see a lot of civilizations near the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Kuwait. Then, the minor highlight of yesterday’s post, the Xia dynasty appears in 2065 BCE. Skipping forward a couple hundred years, we get to Shang overthrowing Xia in “China”.  At 1498 BCE we see an Advanced Civilization appear around India. I believe this labeled as Sanskrit. Along the way, Egypt has started to expand and after a few seconds, you see them conquering Syria. A while after that is just development in new civilizations rising and falling to others around them in around the Middle East, and some spreading in India. China is starting to split at this point. WOAH! Then at 514 BCE an Empire- I can’t see the name clearly- starts to take over. 313 BCE the Maruya Empire rises in India. The Seleucus turns into the Seleucid Empire, and then at 168 BCE, the Han dynasty starts to rule. And then, Jesus is born, turning BCE into CE. At 16 CE Xin overthrows Han, only causing Han to overthrow Xin in 28 CE. 100 CE- The Kushan Empire starts to expand. And at the same time, the Roman empire is expanding and rising in present Europe. Around 556 CE the Turkish Khaganate begins to take over. Then- I can’t see the name properly apologies for that- a new civilization starts to rise and grows fast in today’s Suadi Arabia, and started to move. Over time we start to see the basic, fight-for-the-most-land-and-rule-all-of-Asia part. And then, we see the power of the Mongol Empire. Going into the past to 1210 the Mongol Empire has started to grow and very quickly seeming by the video, it rules a lot of Asia, Russia, slowly taking parts of China, making its way to Europe, and so on. I have to point out though, as the Mongols were conquering, they never could take over India. You can still see India’s outline. It could not be taken over by the others.  The Mongols were a very strong Empire as we can tell. They took over a lot of lands and conquered other empires very fast. Very impressive. I have to ask, what was the end of the Mongol Empire. I can see that their conquering stopped and they split. Was the split the reason? Eventually, the Mongols took over China, before it slowly came back. There is still no development in North and South America besides some growth in Mexico. Slowly, slowly, the Mongolian Empire reduced. Aha, now at 1588 the Mughal Empire started taking over India. Now, here comes the rise of the Maharashtra Empire soon. Above, Russia claims the land, as, Russia. Qing in China starts to expand. Spain starts to explore the North and South Americas. Now, at around 1740 the Marathas started to rise. Maratha Empire grew, and so did the Russian empire. The Russian Empire is basically almost covering all of the areas that is Russia today. 1830, the British empire came. Soviet Union, America, Canada, India, become themselves. I also want to point out that China has a label of Communists. Let’s rewind and check out where that started. Ok, so in 1933 there is a label of Republic of China. There was an area of Republicans and a small area of Communists before communists came over. Slowly, it just became China. So around 1953. Then we finish in 2016- when this map was made. 

I know that this post was mostly an overview of the video, but I really wanted to share or note the key points in it. It does explain a lot of the Chinese History we talked about yesterday and shows exactly how it once began. It also answers some of my questions in the past post when the dynasties started. I loved this video. It was beautiful and so well made, I loved it. The growth and progress over time. How in the past everything were rise and fall. Seeing who the humans traveled at the start of humankind, not saying mankind, and how they grew. Just the basic growth and seeing how many empires started and ruled over the years. We always explain that the Mongolian Empire conquered many empires and was huge or that the Romans conquered a lot of Europe, but we need it put into perspective and actually visualized to see what they mean. To see an actual representation of what happened. Well, I am running out of time, and I hope to see you tomorrow continuing our talk about Taiwan and China and other topics with China. Bye!

Part 109- Mysterious poem

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics, Life during Pandemic

 Hi, so this blog was actually planned out yesterday, when, for an assignment/ passage we read in class was happening. So, in class, ELA, we are reading a story-a a short story- and during one of the assignments, I came up with a poem for it. And, I’m going, to be honest, I absolutely dislike poetry. In any way, I find poetry to be the most boring part of ELA, along with summaries. Anyway, the assignment took like an hour, and the third step was to make a poem of twenty IMPORTANT words we found, and after using ten of those twenty words to explain their importance to the story. I know it sounds confusing, but really, it’s not. It just takes a ridiculous amount of time to do, and a little stressful. Anyway, we were supposed to write a poem, and it couldn’t be in a summary or format that explains the story. It had to be unique. Well, it was hard to come up with something at first, but, with the amount of practice I have in writing stories and posts, I succeeded, and came up with an amazing poem, in my opinion, that I am really proud of. I’ll upload a picture of how it really looks like in the end. I sort of made the poem in a mysterious, spooky vibe. I guess when I heard unique, I must have thought mysterious. Anyway, I really liked how my poem turned out, and I hope you have an interest in it and like it too. The story is called, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed, in case you want to check it out after reading the poem. 

Typed on post version:

An Atom Bomb, a war and change
Mars, a new life and none of the same,
7 Bitterings and Earthmen, away from beloved Earth home
Hoping to lead a peaceful life, I suppose

One whose mind is warped by fear.
Feeling stranded and helpless by news of despair
Believed he was not Martian,
We’re not them,
Oh yes you are,
Just slower than you suspect

Metal becomes a rocket,
Like brown eyes become golden,
And how skin became dark and burnt,
They were different than they once were

Unlike Cora and his kids, Harry was afraid,
The way they were changing and weren’t the same
Turning into one on Mars
Dark skinned and Golden Eyed they became

Actual version:

Part 108- West Wing

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics, Law and Justice, Life during Pandemic ,

 Hi! It’s a new week, and I’m ready to get started on today’s post! I do want to mention a few things first. Firstly, I had Marathi Shala on Friday, as you know, and our HW that week was to write about our quarantined summer. My teacher asked me to read mine in class, with two others, and a whole bunch of other kids who were also wanting to read theirs. Anyway, apparently, she asked me to read mine because she was really impressed with my gardening, and learning Latin and Japanese, and mostly, writing a blog. She did ask for the link and I sent it to her and got a whole bunch of comments on how it was amazing and how mature I am. I’m got really embarrassed when my dad read the comments she wrote and sent it to the other parents- with permission of course. What’s a little awkward when I write this is that, I don’t know whether they- the other kids/students- might be reading this post when it comes out, and could end up reading about themselves, so yeah. Hi. I didn’t tell her that I have been writing for at least 6 years now, so that’s a little disappointing, but anyway, let’s continue.

The RNC- Republican National Convention- ended, so we are going to talk about something else- political related. I have been talking or I talked about West Wing before- the show, and I wanted to actually explain it a little further. It is, indeed a political show, about what goes on in the West Wing. It is a really good show, to me it is, and I really like it. It expresses a lot of the everyday issues that happen and how they all work to get these issues resolved. As well as, what it looks like on election days, through the campaigns and actually on election day, what they anticipate and wait for and do as they wait for the results. Even though most of the time the scenarios are dramatized for the, watch the series, effect, it is really fun, interesting, and amazing to watch. I really enjoy watching the episodes.

So anyway, here is a quick list of the main, or important characters.

Communications Director- Toby Ziegler

Deputy Communications Director- Sam Seaborn

Press Secretary- C.J. Cregg

President’s Personal Aide- Charlie Young

Deputy Chief of Staff- Josh Lyman

– Assistant is Donna Moss, she’s important in between

Chief of Staff- Leo McGarry

First lady- Abigail Barlet

President- President Jed Bartlet

These are the main, 8 characters, that stay throughout the entire series, besides Sam who leaves in around season 5. The other characters that become important, come in later, but mainly, these 8, are the ones who are the most important to the series. Plus, there is one more character, who is not necessarily a main character but is one of my favorites- Joey Lucas. Despite that she, yes she, is deaf and has speech problems, she is amazing and really good at her job. Anyway, that was a brief overview of, the series, The West Wing, and I hope you check it out. By the way, there is some crude language- which I always ignore- but otherwise, it is fun to watch. 

How 'The West Wing' Spent Their 2013

( From back to front, left to right, Charlie Young, C.J. Cregg, Toby Ziegler, Donna Moss, Sam Seaborn, Abigail Bartlet- First Lady, Jed Bartlet- President, { between front and back} Leo McGarry, and Josh Lyman)