Monday, October 30, 2006
Gurusurya’s Day Off
Grade 11 students were given their first major essay assignment which was to tell a story from their lives, and then reflect on what they learned in order to give the essay a thesis. The resulting assignments were varied in subject matter and what they learned from the experience. Here is one example that puts you right there with her, from, you guessed it, Gurusurya Kaur:
Gurusurya’s Day off!
We sprinted up the hill with rickshaws charging straight at us. As we reached the top of the hill, we all managed to grab on to the back of a speeding rickshaw. The horrid stench from the rickshaws’ diesel, and the rotting smell from the passing milk truck made me gag. For this, my dupatta was my savior.
As the words “J-j-u-u-ump” stuttered out of Atma’s huge lips, we carelessly stumbled off the moving transporter before it went down the other side of the hill.
“Tunak tunak tun tunak tunak tun tunak tunak tun da da da” was the bhangra tune, which came blaring through the air, to our ears. We all turned around to see where this ruckus was coming from. We found the source. Four young Punjabi guys dressed in western apparel drove by in a jeep with the top half cut off. There wasn’t even a windshield! In the spirit of adventure, we flagged them down, and they were more then happy to give us a lift to the unknown. After about a five-minute drive, we jumped off at a popular hangout street, and thanked the guys for the ride.
“Dhanvad, thank you,” said Wha with a smile. His huge teeth shimmered as the setting sun caught the metal of his braces.
We began strolling down the street looking for the next thing to do. It was Sunday, and not everything was open. This wasn’t a normal occurrence. It’s not often we get this freedom. Our train to Kerola would leave tonight and at 9:30 we would meet our parents to be on our way. We decided to walk down a residential street we had never been down before. We wanted to see where it would take us. About a few blocks down two huge electrical towers caught the boys’ eyes.
“Lets climb 'em,”said Wha without hesitation.
“Yeah!” said Atma.
“Oh my god no way, you guys are crazy! “ I replied. I was relieved when the door, we thought that would lead to them, was locked. That didn’t stop them! We walked around to the front the building, and marched straight through the front door. We were fueled by new excitement as our legs lifted us up the stairs to the roof of the marriage hall.
Looking up at the towers from where I stood made my heart pound; I was not going up that rickety ladder, it was way too scary! Wha and Atma didn’t think twice about it and they each chose a tower, and started to climb. When they reached the top, they yelled down and finally convinced me to climb up. Adrenaline was pumping through me; my hands were shaking as I slowly made my way up.
Once up there my fear went away in seconds, me and Wha stood on a small flat surface on the top with our cholas blowing in the wind. For ten minutes we hollered from tower to tower. Our voices soon got hoarse, and we called each other on our handy dandy cell phones!
After our yelling saga, we sat in silence absorbing the hazy spring scenery of Amritsar. Looking down on the whole city was amazing, I had never seen it from above in all my nine years of attending school here. I felt so free and in charge. There was no authority. I was the authority, it was so liberating! In some ways I feel like this was the day I really started to become independent. I gained responsibility, from being irresponsible. At school we have a very tight schedule, which is very disciplined, so having this time was very emancipating.
We continued our day by jumping the wall to a park, and goofing around. We then realized how tired we were and how much we were in need of a sugar rush. So we hitched a ride to Crystal, a restaurant with amazing cold coffee. We all sat around enjoying two cold coffees each! After that, with all our energy, we ran to the market across the street from the train station. That was where we would meet our parents.
We spent the next hour or two messing around at the market. At 9:30 pm we all made the last leg of our journey. We crossed the busy street to the station where we met our parents. Like good caring parents, they asked us how our day was and what we did. We all replied with “Oh not much,” and then all three of us looked at each other with a mischevious yet, satisfied smile!
Grade 11 students were given their first major essay assignment which was to tell a story from their lives, and then reflect on what they learned in order to give the essay a thesis. The resulting assignments were varied in subject matter and what they learned from the experience. Here is one example that puts you right there with her, from, you guessed it, Gurusurya Kaur:
Gurusurya’s Day off!
We sprinted up the hill with rickshaws charging straight at us. As we reached the top of the hill, we all managed to grab on to the back of a speeding rickshaw. The horrid stench from the rickshaws’ diesel, and the rotting smell from the passing milk truck made me gag. For this, my dupatta was my savior.
As the words “J-j-u-u-ump” stuttered out of Atma’s huge lips, we carelessly stumbled off the moving transporter before it went down the other side of the hill.
“Tunak tunak tun tunak tunak tun tunak tunak tun da da da” was the bhangra tune, which came blaring through the air, to our ears. We all turned around to see where this ruckus was coming from. We found the source. Four young Punjabi guys dressed in western apparel drove by in a jeep with the top half cut off. There wasn’t even a windshield! In the spirit of adventure, we flagged them down, and they were more then happy to give us a lift to the unknown. After about a five-minute drive, we jumped off at a popular hangout street, and thanked the guys for the ride.
“Dhanvad, thank you,” said Wha with a smile. His huge teeth shimmered as the setting sun caught the metal of his braces.
We began strolling down the street looking for the next thing to do. It was Sunday, and not everything was open. This wasn’t a normal occurrence. It’s not often we get this freedom. Our train to Kerola would leave tonight and at 9:30 we would meet our parents to be on our way. We decided to walk down a residential street we had never been down before. We wanted to see where it would take us. About a few blocks down two huge electrical towers caught the boys’ eyes.
“Lets climb 'em,”said Wha without hesitation.
“Yeah!” said Atma.
“Oh my god no way, you guys are crazy! “ I replied. I was relieved when the door, we thought that would lead to them, was locked. That didn’t stop them! We walked around to the front the building, and marched straight through the front door. We were fueled by new excitement as our legs lifted us up the stairs to the roof of the marriage hall.
Looking up at the towers from where I stood made my heart pound; I was not going up that rickety ladder, it was way too scary! Wha and Atma didn’t think twice about it and they each chose a tower, and started to climb. When they reached the top, they yelled down and finally convinced me to climb up. Adrenaline was pumping through me; my hands were shaking as I slowly made my way up.
Once up there my fear went away in seconds, me and Wha stood on a small flat surface on the top with our cholas blowing in the wind. For ten minutes we hollered from tower to tower. Our voices soon got hoarse, and we called each other on our handy dandy cell phones!
After our yelling saga, we sat in silence absorbing the hazy spring scenery of Amritsar. Looking down on the whole city was amazing, I had never seen it from above in all my nine years of attending school here. I felt so free and in charge. There was no authority. I was the authority, it was so liberating! In some ways I feel like this was the day I really started to become independent. I gained responsibility, from being irresponsible. At school we have a very tight schedule, which is very disciplined, so having this time was very emancipating.
We continued our day by jumping the wall to a park, and goofing around. We then realized how tired we were and how much we were in need of a sugar rush. So we hitched a ride to Crystal, a restaurant with amazing cold coffee. We all sat around enjoying two cold coffees each! After that, with all our energy, we ran to the market across the street from the train station. That was where we would meet our parents.
We spent the next hour or two messing around at the market. At 9:30 pm we all made the last leg of our journey. We crossed the busy street to the station where we met our parents. Like good caring parents, they asked us how our day was and what we did. We all replied with “Oh not much,” and then all three of us looked at each other with a mischevious yet, satisfied smile!
# posted by MPA Student Work @ 7:40 AM 
