Author: aischool_wgs6r0

Writing is my passion and so I always keep looking for new things to write about. What I like equally is to discover new places. So the best trip of my entire life – to the United Kingdom in the summer of 2019 – led me to think of an adventurous beginning to a plot that had already been brewing in my mind.

All of these ideas came together to form Scottish Lavender. Scottish Lavender is my second book and my first young adult fiction novel. It is about a young Scottish girl named Ella. It took me many days and drafts to complete the book, precisely speaking, an entire year and three drafts.  

This book is not of one genre, but is a combination of several genres like adventure, travel, romance and suspense. It takes readers through a few of the most important and unique years of Ella’s life, showing how people may eventually transform to become a better, more independent version of themselves. Despite the book being a novel, each chapter has a different mood which takes the readers through different trains of thoughts. To sum it up, the first half is all about adventure and humour while the second is a pure fairytale with a few plot twists. 

I learnt a lot in the process of writing this book. Each time I wrote it, it helped me relive the best vacation I ever took, cherish it and get to know more about a new place. I felt the need to put myself in the protagonist’s shoes in order to be able to write better. I kept on writing until I felt satisfied and I still have so many variations of the same manuscript with me! 

The book imparts many values which are hidden within its plot. In the journey of writing this book, I got to know all the characters so well and yet they remain a mystery to me, which keeps me wanting to write more. I was almost disappointed when I completed writing because I didn’t want to let goof it just yet! 

Being a student, doing art as well as writing is a difficult task to carry out together. In spite of this wherever I went, whenever I felt that I did not have anything to do or rather could do something later in the day, I would start writing. And yet, the entire credit of completing this book goes to the lockdown. During the lockdown, I started a book club that enabled me to tap into my capabilities to the fullest. 

Writing not only a book, but writing in general is a wonderful activity. It takes you to places that you didn’t even know existed in your imagination. I hope you all join me in my journey, and read and enjoy Scottish Lavender! 

Written by Muskaan Darshan

It gives us immense joy to bring to you all ‘Sense N’ Science’ – the science magazine of Ahmedabad International School in its fifth edition. This magazine is a result of the collective efforts of students and their teachers. Click the link below to see what our students have come up with!

P.S. For a magazine like reading experience we recommend viewing it as a PDF and selecting the two pages viewing option. Happy reading!

When I look back at my perfect childhood, the only memories that trouble me are my struggles with bullying. All of these were uninvited and unwelcome incidents that damaged my morale, my friendships, my peace of mind, and my academic focus. Although that damage has long been repaired and I have lived a bully free life ever since, those incidents are etched into my memory.

The most disturbing aspect of bullying is the feeling of powerlessness and isolation after such an incident. This is because of the difficulty of reporting a bullying incident in most schools. The internal politics of an institute’s administration with its hierarchies painfully lengthens the process, and the publicity that the ‘bullied’ gains as a ‘snitch’ has an effect contrary to the intention of reporting. Hence, several cases of bullying go unreported, having a detrimental effect on the mental health of students and the facilitation of education in the institute.

That is why my friends and I came up with ‘Upstander’ – an app accompanied by a social media initiative on Instagram which allows students to directly report bullying incidents to the top school administration, with the option of staying anonymous. Its child friendly interface allows users to describe the incident efficiently, which is instantly notified to the concerned school authorities, hence encouraging students to stop being mere bystanders and to start being upstanders. Upstanders are people who stand up for themselves and those around them, allowing for the creation of a bullying free environment.

We sincerely hope that the Upstander app facilitates the reporting of bullying incidents thereby enabling educational institutes to effectively strike down on bullying and thus making these environments safe.

Written by,

the Upstander Team (Aaryan Agrawal IBDP2, Ayaan Shah IBDP2, Mohak Shah IBDP2, Rhea R Shah IBDP2)

It gives us immense joy to bring to you all ‘Sense N’ Science’ – the science magazine of Ahmedabad International School in its fourth edition. This magazine is a result of the collective efforts of students and their teachers. Click the link below to see what our students have come up with!

P.S. For a magazine like reading experience we recommend viewing it as a PDF and selecting the two pages viewing option. Happy reading!

Reading and writing have been my hobbies since a very young age. It is maintaining a diary that helped me develop the habit of writing. I also used to write about the trips I went for, about what I learnt, and about so much more.

I feel very content when I use colours to express my feeling and I feel the same when I paint a picture with words. When I start writing, I can’t stop! At some point, I also picked the habit of noting down even the smallest of ideas I got and I used to try to develop them.

One fine day, I got an idea and I noted it down as usual but unlike the other ones, this one just kept buzzing in my mind. Initially, I kept the idea to myself but when I had a few stories ready, I showed them to my parents. They read the first two extracts and encouraged me to write more which meant a lot to me.

The journey of writing a book demands a lot of hard work and can get tiring. But for me, it was more of an enjoyable activity: something I could not stop doing! I think it was such a great experience for me because I am passionate about writing and when you do something you are passionate about, you don’t feel tired or like giving up.

For advice regarding any ideas I’d get, I would rush to my mother. And if I needed help with my language, the first and last person I thought of was Mahua ma’am. She has been my teacher since I was a child, and she is the person I have dedicated my book to.

It had always been my dream to get my own book published and it finally came true. Honestly, I hadn’t imagined that my parents would get my book published, but when they read my stories and told me that they would, it felt like it was their dream more than mine!

I only wrote the book and edited it with my editor, but my parents worked day and night to make a book out of a few short stories. My parents made it possible to get this book published while I was occupied by my tenth grade exams.

They prioritised making my dream a reality while working as hard as they do. I would only come into the scene when something like the cover page was to be approved, or if something like the ‘About the Book’ section was to be written.

And this is how my first book ‘Home in the Hill’ became a reality. The book is about a young girl’s misadventures during her visits to her grandma’s home. From grandma’s love to humorous incidents, my book has it all. It will remind you of your own childhood days spent with your grandparents, cousins, and friends, with each story ending with a nugget of wisdom.

Writing a book of course, required hard work and determination. A few things that helped me were my habit of reading, the IGCSE English curriculum, and my constant attempts to improve. This is my first flight towards the world of literature and I hope to continue this journey to many more realms.

Written by Muskaan Shah

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