Aftaab Zaar 2022

Delhi Public School Srinagar

Aftaab Zaar

Patron: Ms. Shafaq Afshan

2022 -Winter Edition

An Editorial Board Initiative

Table of Letter from the Editor

Meet the Editorial Board

Linguistics & Heritage

History Fiction Literature

Philosophy

Black & White Art & Beyond

The DPS Times Best Stalls of Bal Mela

Tech Around the World

Winter Playlist Credits & Contributions

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2

From the

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Meet The

“Darkness exists only in the absence of light.

And, without darkness there is no light” Dear Readers, It is often said that the pursuit of knowledge is the path to enlightenment. It is this very pursuit that has guided us onto this quest of reviving the legacy that was AFTAAB ZAAR. The name, no doubt feels familiar to all those old-timers of our beloved school who have been hanging around since the earliest of its days.

The name took all of us down memory lane. It brought reminiscences of our childhoods and memories filled with joy and delight. It was this feeling, this nostalgia we sought to imbibe.

Yet, our ambition is not so limited. AFTAAB ZAAR is a name that has been attached to our school. It carries a burdensome legacy that we had to live up to all the while adding some brand-new splashes of colour to give the magazine a new image so that it could stand apart from the past. AFTAAB ZAAR is testament to the longevity and the strength of our school, so it shouldn’t come under question that the soul of our institution resides within these pages. Yet, our school has endured many things and come out all the better from them. That vitality is a part of our image and that too we sought to imbue. It is our most sincere hope that as you flip through the pages ahead, you too see the images of the past that we tried so hard to preserve as well as all the new and exciting things we included.

To us, this magazine means a revival of the past in the image of the future. It represents not what ought to be but rather what is chosen to be. The title is transcendent in its nature, a field filled with golden sunlight, yet it also metaphorizes what the content that lay within are. It is an amalgam of the AFTAAB ZAAR of old, of our previous beloved weekly, “GAASH” as well as our own novelty and imaginations.

To conclude, we hope you enjoy all that is about to come ahead. We would also like to thank Ms. Shazia Fida for her limitless hard work and toil to make this publication a reality. We give our heartiest thanks to our respected Principal, Ms. Shafaq Afshan for inspiring us in ways that were alien to us and making this magazine what it is today. The Editorial Board is also immensely grateful to our CTO, Mr. Ehsan Quddusi as well as the entire IT department for helping us provide a means to reach out to every single person in the school.

It is our dream that the legacy of AFTAAB ZAAR remains with the school for a long time to come and the work that we are doing today helps inspire others in the future.

Regards, The Editorial Board

Zainab

Iqbal

Shazia Ma’am Khalid K hursheed

Syed Imaad

Syed Ibaad Bukhari

Bazilah Kirmani

Malik Adnan

Madiha Tariq

ig

Saqlain Be

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5

In Fateh Kadal, just a few steps from the Shah-e-Hamdan shrine, there is a dusty shop crowded with glass bottles and the heady scent of roses. This is the shop of Abdul Aziz Kozgar, which is locally known as “Arq-i-Gulab”, aptly translating to “Rosewater”. Sir Kozgar’s great-grandfather started the shop in around 1820 to sell traditionally extracted rosewater using techniques passed down by his ancestors for the past four centuries. He is a descendant of Syed Mohammad Nooristani, who came through the Silk Route along with Hazrat Mir Muhammad Hamdani (RA) some 500 years ago.

The Kozgars were experts in Unani medicine, which is a Perso-Arabic system of herbal remedies. Unani cures have died out with the rise of modern medicine, and now the Kozgar shop only sells syrups and perfumes. Sir Kozgar recalls childhood memories of heaps of rose petals in the family’s courtyard, soon to be crushed and distilled.

His shop has gained much popularity among locals for its naturally healing herbal cures and aromatic scents. Understandably so, since a litre of this traditionally extracted rose extract sells for ₹40. Arq-i-Gulab’s popularity in the U.K, France, Germany and the U.S.A is a matter of great pride for Sir Kozgar. There are many shops selling rosewater in the old city, but what sets the Kozgars’ shop apart is how it has stubbornly preserved the traditional method of making rosewater.

Since the days of the Mughals, the fragrant Kashmiri roses’ extracts have been used for religious and ceremonial purposes. Asmat Begum, mother of the infamous Noor Jahan, discovered this technique when observing the oil that had accumulated on the surface of her rose petal-adorned bath water. Her daughter popularised it in the Mughal court and introduced the process of distilling roses to produce ittar. A dash of its flavour would result in sharbat, a refreshing drink made by combining rose essence and cold water, even now a familiar treat for the months of Ramadan. Today, ittar is used in shrines for various ceremonies and occasions.

In this day and age, appreciation for the traditional, yet tedious, method of extracting rosewater has dwindled. The unfortunate consequence of this being; that which is used today is manufactured using large-scale mechanical methods.

To create the rosewater, Sir Kozgar boils rose petals and other herbs in a copper cauldron. The most fragrant variety of rose, commonly used for extraction, called the Damask Rose (Rosa Damascena) is gathered from various locations in the valley such as Shalimar, Harwan and the villages of Baramulla and Anantnag. The vapours of water and scent of the roses combine, rise and pass through a tube into another copper container placed inside an ice water tank. Here the vapours condense into liquid, and fill the container with distilled rosewater.

The labels on some of the coloured glass jars read “Rose Extract” in elegant Urdu script, though other scents such as musk, sandalwood, kewra and cinnamon are also available for sale. Herbal cures like Arq-e-Chandan, Kaah-Zabaan, Arq-e-Badiyaan, and Arq-e-Neelofar are also in fairly high demand. These natural syrups lower feverish temperatures, sooth burning stomachs and kidneys, along with countless dermatological benefits.

The shoppe has a small local clientele, though visitors often buy his aromatic wares as souvenirs of Kashmir’s rich culture. Kozgar no longer runs the business for profit, he does it because he longs to leave a legacy, no matter the cost.

Aziz Kozgar’s children are not interested in continuing the shop, and there is no one to sustain this beautiful art after him. The sales of the shop have declined sharply in the past years. As pessimistic as it sounds, there is not much profit to gain from this meticulous art.

Arq-i-Gulab is the last shop of its kind, and soon nothing may remain of this historical tradition.

Historical Diary Entry

Khalid Khursheed Class X

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Syed Imaad Class X

A constant murmur of silence often sounded like screaming, that was the only thought going through the boy’s head as he was staring at the ceiling thinking about his future self and the life yet to come.

He had succeeded in getting great grades and had aced the entrance exam for the college he desires to attend, for the education he truly wants. The future to him is nothing but the Sun. Warm, bright and grandiose.

Everything he has done is because he wants a future as secure as can be.

He still has a great social life and is in considerably good physical health. While people may believe that one may have to sacrifice certain aspects of life to achieve success in other parts of them, it certainly did not seem like that to him. Yet he had that stifling feeling in his sternum’s centre.

Such was the life of Shah Kaul. Deciding not to give such immaterial components more thought, Shah finally drifted off to sleep. He started dreaming. The dream presents itself as something nostalgic. Shah finds himself staring at a yellow sky seated in a train, the ‘typical Indian train', the windows covered with metal bars and the signature blue leather seats. The only thing missing was the lively atmosphere of a large group of people interacting. This train very strangely housed only him, a man, a woman and a girl his age.

While taking in the very Kafkaesque scene, Shah feels that stifling feeling once again, but this time it was moving, as if invading other parts of his wellbeing.

That stifling feeling had now wormed its way from his neck to his face, causing a feeling of extreme breathlessness. It was almost as if he was drowning in the air that surrounded him, maybe he always was.

Unable to bear this pain any longer. He does the only thing that feels right and strangely his hands move to his face as if to remove something, finding a mask covering it. As he is starting to, the girl gets up and walks up to him. Shah just looks at her confused.

"Sometimes, one finds oneself drowning in an isolated space, the only solution is to eliminate the isolation, even distracting oneself is enough. But that’s temporary.

As Shah hears this he realises that the whole sense of breathlessness had somehow vanished.

"Where are you going?", questions the girl out of nowhere. “ I’m not sure honestly. ” Is all he can reply with.

"Where does this train go? I think I should get a good idea of where I’ll be getting off then." Asks Shah as he looks at her.

"It’ll take you everywhere, that’s the problem. " Says the girl.

Clarification

9

Shah, wanting the conversation to continue, asks “What’s with the masks?", quite a peculiar question to ask because in retrospect he, too, was wearing one but he felt like this is the only place he’d receive an answer.

"They’re useless, we just keep them because we’re ignorant, we’re scared. They just give us assurance, temporarily but that seems to be more than enough for us to make them part of ourselves no matter how unnatural it becomes. If it were up to me I’d have taken it off but the presence of some people prevented that” Answered the girl.

"Well everyone looks for a sense of security in life, it’s necessary and I don’t really think anyone would object to your removing a simple article", Comments Shah nonchalantly.

"A sense of security should never overpower your individuality. Even if we let it, and have the most secure, wealthy life possible. We will still hold contempt and regret.

That is simply how we are structured. We stray even a little bit from our soul, we regret it, always. No matter how much we try to go against our soul’s warnings, in the end it’ll never feel right and as we are meant to be, feeling should be prioritised.

Also, why don’t you try taking your mask off and see if something happens?” explains the girl as she dares Shah.

Shah looks at her for a moment and then moves his hand towards his face to remove his mask but as soon as he touches it, the man and the woman lunge at him and restrain him.

Shah struggles to get free, but just can’t. In some time he finally calms down and is surprisingly released.

"See, they won’t let you take it off.” "Why? ” "It’s because they’re scared."

Shah leans forwards and whispers something to the girl, to which she nods. The girl in a quick motion tries to claw her mask off but is restrained by an even faster response of the two maniacs present.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Shah rips his mask off, and the two people react as if they had seen the greatest horror, running towards the other side of the train.

In this time the girl too takes off her mask, gaining screams of terror from their mask wearing company.

The man and the woman as if not being able to bear with the terror no longer, jump off the train.

Shah can only look on as the two of them seemingly disappear into thin air.

"Now, where are we headed? "asks the girl excitedly. "Wherever we wanna go. ", answers Shah stressing the word 'we', as soon as this happens the train stops and almost instinctively Shah gets off.

He finds himself in his bed, as bright light penetrating the drapes hits his eyes. His life was still the same, the same future, the same friends and family, the same aspirations but it was almost like he was already living differently, something had changed. It was similar to the feeling of saying a word you had on the tip of your tongue but just couldn’t say. The mask was broken and therefore that stifling feeling was no more.

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10 The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

By Alex Haley and Malcolm X

Cloud Cukoo Land

By Anthony Doerr

- “I turned to the two enormous owls with their golden spears and

- “I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that

said, “I know nothing.”

will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able

- The two owls stood straight up and the first guardian said, “That

to stand up under the weight.”

is correct, little crow. The answer is nothing,” and the second

- “I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn’t be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”

- “I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions.

One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, "Books.”

Flowers For Algernon

By Daniel Keyes - “How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.”

- “A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.”

-"It may sound like ingratitude, but that is one of the things I hate here - the attitude that I am a guinea pig.

Nemur’s constant references to having made me what I am, or that someday there will be others like me who will become real human beings. How can I make him understand that he did not create me?"

guardian said, “ ‘He that knows all that Learning ever writ, knows only this—that he knows nothing yet.’ ” - “Pixel by pixel, boulevard by boulevard, city by city, he helps Ilium sanitize the planet. He effaces military sites, homeless encampments, queues outside medical clinics, labor strikes, demonstrators and dissidents, picketers and pickpockets.

Sometimes he comes upon scenes that engulf him with emotion: a mother and son, bundled in parkas, holding hands beside an ambulance in Lithuania. A woman in a surgical mask kneeling on a Tokyo expressway in the middle of traffic […] and the software replaces the protesters with thirty digital sweetgum saplings.”

- “The software drops him in front of a liquor store where someone has shattered a front window; he fixes it. Then to a pickup truck driving along Wilson Road, its bed jammed with teenagers. A banner streaming behind them reads: You’ll die of old age, we’ll die of climate change. He traces an oval around them, and the truck evaporates.”

The Second Sex

By Simone de Beauvoir

- “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”

- “Her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly.”

- “The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project” - “Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.”

- “What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty?”

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12 Jinnah Often Came To Our House

By Kiran Doshi - "Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible."

- "Values were not imbibed only at home, and many of the values imbibed at home were wrong: religious intolerance was imbibed at home, so were fears, superstitions and prejudices. Values imbibed from peers were no better, and were generally worse. As for religious schools, they had their own axes to grind."

Orientalism

By Edward Said - “Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn’t trust the evidence of one’s eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilizatrice.”

- “The more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the more easily is one able to judge it, and the whole world as well, with the spiritual detachment and generosity necessary for true vision. The more easily, too, does one assess oneself and alien cultures with the same combination of intimacy and distance.”

- “The general liberal consensus that “true” knowledge is fundamentally nonpolitical (and conversely, that overtly political knowledge is not “true” knowledge) obscures the highly if obscurely organized political circumstances obtaining when knowledge is produced. No one is helped in understanding this today when the adjective “political” is used as a label to discredit any work for daring to violate the protocol of pretended suprapolitical objectivity.”

“It seems a common human failing to prefer the schematic authority of a text to the disorientations of direct encounters with the human.”

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

By Stephen King - Pow! Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together, and I had an idea. I didn’t leave my post at Washex #2, didn’t go running around the laundry waving my arms and shouting “Eureka!”

- “I want to put a group of characters (perhaps a pair; perhaps even just one) in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free. My job isn’t to help them work their way free, or manipulate them to safety—those are jobs which require the noisy jackhammer of plot—but to watch what happens and then write it down” - “As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty. And if you are honest about the words coming out of your characters’ mouths, you’ll find that you’ve let yourself in for a fair amount of criticism. Not a week goes by that I don’t receive at least one pissed-oА letter (most weeks there are more) accusing me of being foul-mouthed, bigoted, homophobic,murderous, frivolous, or downright psychopathic”

Tuesdays With Morrie

By Mitch Albom - And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined by a small group of family and friends for a “living funeral.” […] All the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day.

His “living funeral” was a rousing success.

- "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it."

- "If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it.

They will look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you.

Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone."

By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Rated: G (General Audiences)

By Carl Hiaasen Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) The environment and its conservation is at the forefront of modern news and content, but Flush takes it a step further. The story follows a young boy, Noah and his younger sister. Their father has been imprisoned for unsuccessfully attempting to sink a boat to prove that it illegally pollutes the coast with sewage.

The only way he’ll get a bail is if someone proves that the cruise actually is using illegal procedures.

Noah takes it upon himself to bust the boat once and for all, with a few adults of questionable competence to help along the way.

When his aircraft crashes in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the narrator least expects to find a blonde boy asking him to draw a sheep. The narrator satisfies his curious request and finds an acquaintance in this boy, "The Little Prince".

As the story proceeds, we learn of the Little Prince’s origins and his travels. His innocence and perspective bring out the world in a new light and make us question what we value in life.

Through the Little Prince, we see how insightful children can be and the beauty that lies in the most simple and common of things.

By Charles Dickens Rated: G (General Audiences)

By Barbara O'Connor Rated: G (General Audiences) Charlemagne, or Charlie as she prefers to be called, has made the same wish every day since fourth grade. She knows better than anyone that you can find a wish anywhere, if you look hard enough.

Her parents’ rocky relationship results in her being sent to live with a maternal aunt and uncle, who live far away from the metropolis on a structurally dubious hill.

She finds a dog she names Wishbone, a best friend and a family that actually provides her with emotional support. Eventually, she begins to question whether the wish she’s made every day for years is something she even wants.

Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly old man, is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, on Christmas Eve. Jacob warns him to change his stingy ways and the arrival of the spirits of the Christmas past, present and future.

Scrooge, though shaken after seeing his dead business partner, ignores his warning and goes back to sleep. As the spirits visit Scrooge, something in him changes and by the end of the story, Scrooge is a different man.

Set in Victorian London, A Christmas Carol shows that the true spirit of Christmas lies in humility, goodness in character and generosity.

Bazillah Kirmani & Zainab Iqbal Class IX

Literature -GAASH

Saaeed Bazilah Kirmani Class IX

Reading is Boring

Philosophy

16 Duality &

Mornings spent brooding over a formula you may or may not use in real life; afternoons filled with dreadful lessons about the days of yore and people long dead; evenings spent cramming the same, and muttering the laws of one thing or another in your sleep: Welcome to the life of a student!

To top it all off, add people chiming in to say, “You should try reading!”

“No, no, thank you! I’d rather not waste the minuscule of my free time reading—of all things!”

Reading sounds boring.

Reading seems boring.

Reading is boring. It is very, very boring . . .

You pick up a boring book, just because its cover seems a little less boring. You read the first line—boring; the first page—boring; the first chapter—boring. As you turn the boring pages of a very boring book, you start to realise that maybe it is not that boring. Maybe it is a little less boring than you first imagined.

As you read on, something seems to change. It’s almost as if you find a ripple in the space-time fabric and you’re living beyond this world, beyond this time. Almost as if you’re living as someone else, somewhere else, sometime else . . .

And before you know it, you are halfway through the book and you can’t put it down because you want to know what happens next, you want to feel what happens next, you want to live through what happens next. Not that the book is not boring—huh!

It still is very boring. It’s just that you are a curious being and you want to know what happens next, so you keep going.

And then you turn the page and realise that you finished the book—YOU just read AN ENTIRE BOOK! A storm of emotions surges through you— surprise, contentment, happiness, pride and whatnot! But what astonishes you the most is a strange feeling of despair, you just completed a book; you should be relieved, but you’re sad. You miss the surge of emotions, the comfort and the escape that the book provided—you’re sad because it’s gone . . .

And then, you pick up another book, in loving memory of the last, with the hope for a new adventure. Then you pick another, and another, and another; and then you find yourself telling people what you once despised: “You should try reading!” You tell them what a delight reading is and just how enjoyable it can be. When you look back at your past self, you conclude that you were devoid of the treasure that reading is.

You smile and promise to never let academics and school take it from you again.

Sauliha Khan Class X

Duality seeps to the core of existence — from the Divine proclamation of binary creation to the manifestation of yin and yang in the world — and rooted in this dual nature of being is the inevitable dilemma of humans: to be or not to be, whether to tread down the road of chaos or of order, whether to give oneself up to ideals or to live for illusions. Paradoxes, ironies, and contradictions crown this drama of dilemma.

And the place of the individual is tossed within the tempest of free will such that until one even recognizes one’s own shock of existence, the storms have gnawed and numbed the human. The French described this ‘shock’ as medias res, literally meaning ‘in the midst of things’.

This most basic human dilemma can be divided mainly into two categories: the existential dilemma, and moral dilemma.

While one deals with the most fundamental questions of being and nothingness, life and death, the latter is a question of right and wrong, good and evil.

Once recognized and articulated, these dilemmas need to be addressed and solved for one’s own sake — something undertaken by Philosophy since its birth. And a meek philosophy stands in the balustrade of human questions with the only answer possible: “seek!” Seek against the tides of happiness, comfort and desires; seek against the tides of sorrow, discomfort and hopelessness.

Seek so knowledge may guide your way. Yet, the tragedy of our times is not the absence of information (disguised as knowledge currently), but the absence of original thought, the decay of reflection—for it is but reflection that thrives knowledge within its bosom. Without reflection, there is no knowledge, and without the courage to seek, there is no reflection.

Black

&

Have you ever experienced an existential crisis? The feeling characterized by a perpetual sense of lack of meaning in life . . . Do you think it has ever dawned on you? This article, however, does not delineate the implications of just that, because it in fact raises a bigger question for people of both groups – those who answer in the affirmative and those who choose to believe otherwise – is there a ‘meaning’ that needs to be sought? Is there meaning at all? A meaning which governs all other forms of meaning(s), one of which we as humans seek in the life we live and that lives through us.

This question has experienced multilateral evolution through the course of history and continues to be dynamic even today. In addition to being explored temporally, it has also been examined through spatially and ideologically diverse lenses at all points in time. Those who argue that meaning exists are still divided on its origin – some say that meaning is embedded in the larger community while others (the orientalists) think of it as belonging to distinct individuals as in, “to each his own”.

There is yet another division – of the meaning deriving its validity from supernatural sources or objective / subjective logic(s). Those who refute the existence of ‘meaning’ do not all challenge it explicitly. Some of them like the quietists seek to in fact pin down the meaninglessness of the question itself, thus eliminating even the possibility of this question being considered.

According to Plato, one of the earliest celebrated philosophers, this ‘meaning’ exists in the duality of being i.e. humans and the objects we recognize through sensory experiences are real but not in isolation. He further explains through various metaphors and analogies that the truly real entities are forms or ideas which can only be thought of. Sensuous objects are only faithful imitations and exemplifications of the universals – the ideas which are immutable, immortal, and unhindered by sensory perception. So, while humans are not unreal, what is truly real is the humanness that they exhibit. This rational insight is the best and the only meaning in life. The meaning of life then is to pursue this knowledge of forms.

Another philosopher of the rationalist thought was Spinoza who gave this search for meaning a ‘necessitarian context’ by his axiom of the ‘substance’. He follows then that the entire universe is united in its being and thus the only ‘meaning’ is in the existence of ‘substance’. The substance according to him, is what exists in itself, is infinite, self–determined, and causa sui. By virtue of being exactly what it is, there is no other substance for they would then limit and neutralize each other.

Humans can think about or speak of this substance in only two attributes – as a three-dimensional entity or a thought. While it can be perceived in different attributes, these attributes are all expressed through modes which are individual things of finite experience – you and I are thus modes. Our meaning is in the finite expression of the infinite substance.

Descartes who had originally inspired Spinoza’s theory of rationalism, of course, prescripts a similar vision, however, in his own peculiar way. He gives meaning to the action through the existence of its doer, i.e. there can be an instance of running only when there is a runner. The doubts we have regarding the meaning of life and its various components are legitimate means of reaching the solution, but what is important to note is that the doubt is still a thought. While the doubt may or may not reach a conclusion in itself, the fact that there is someone who exists to doubt cannot be disproven. He thus gives meaning to existence by saying, “I think, therefore I am”.

On the flip side, it is usually argued that the notion of universal absurdity or meaninglessness originates from some rather pessimistic philosophies such as nominalism or skepticism. Anyhow, the most contested philosophy is that of nihilism and even this does not exist in isolation of multiple interpretations and branches.

In his book called River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, Richard Dawkins insists, “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference”. What he calls indifference is essentially the meaninglessness of the universe. Although he admits, by the Darwinian theory that the purpose of life is procreation, he rejects the idea of a greater meaning that the universe is thought to have. This belief in the meaninglessness of life is somewhat reflected in the opening of The Stranger, a 1942 novella by Albert Camus. The opening reads, “Today mother died. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know”. This tinge of absurdism is in part reflected in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and Franz Kafka as well.

As we stand now, aware of both cases, one which defends the existence of meaning and the other which believes in absurdity, it becomes imperative to not lose sight of reality and recognize the grey fringe which connects both notions. The fringe denotes the need for humans to either believe in meaning or create it. The latter is reflected even in Camus’s work called The Myth of Sisyphus which talks about Sisyphus who is condemned by Zeus to roll a rock up a mountain only to discover that the rock comes down, each time. Camus admits, “Although The Myth of Sisyphus poses mortal problems, it sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert.”

This is echoed even in Kafka’s work who Camus claims is not a true absurdist because of the presence of an element of hope. In his novella titled The Metamorphosis, Gregor, the protagonist struggles and revolts against the absurdity of life, even unto death. Perhaps that is what the meaning is – to actively struggle against the meaninglessness or maybe, a struggle of this nature is what absurdity seeks to expose. Is it?

I’d start this by saying something very overused, yet very true; art is a means of escape; an escape from the rigid and inflexible truth of our reality. Think about it yourself, who wouldn’t crave limitlessness? Well, art gives that to you, to some extent at least. It can also be simply considered just another thing of beauty (no, I’m not quoting Keats). Almost anything according to me can be considered artistic, literally. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not that one fat uncle who will look at a singular white line on a blank canvas and go bonkers about how it phenomenally depicts the ill effects of Nazism; what I meant is that through the right perspective, it is easy to find art in the simplest of things.

Popular Artworks

The cries of horror of the victims of the German bombing of Guernica still resonate in the painting I’d like to call Picasso’s greatest work, and a testament to loss and chaos. Named after the same place, Guernica is a somewhat complex painting, painted in simple monochrome shades. It is an aggregate of depictions related to war and suering, and is widely known as the most moving and impactful anti-war artwork in history.

Yes, I know you saw this on Pinterest the other day, and no, this is not from some classic anime. This painting is a woodblock print made in the Japanese Edo period, probably in late 1831. The painting shows three boats in front of a giant wave in a stormy sea, and Mount Fuji can be seen in the distance.

Painted by Katsushika Hokusai in the style of ukiyo-e, a movement of Japanese woodblock art which ourished in the seventeenth century, it is also considered to possibly be the most reproduced image in the history of art.

Aesthetics A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty

Painted by Salvador Dali in 1931, this quirky masterpiece could be easily described as the face of surrealism. This is a much analysed painting as Dali did not reveal what he had actually depicted. Speculations about what the painting actually wants to get through our heads varies greatly.

Falling under the Surreal school, the painting is inspired by the ideas of time, death, and dreams.

It also has its roots in psychoanalysis, just like any other painting of this school. The painting is the perfect example of Dali’s habit of portraying human being’s weirdest thoughts manifesting as physical things in one’s mind.

Satire and Parodies in Art Satire is a genre of art which unravels into a whole new world in itself. It is a place where freedom of expression cherishes its absolute most. If you’re wondering how much, well, there was an instance when an artist gave a literal signed commode for being displayed; and surprisingly, it did get displayed; and that should give you the idea. Satire and parodies of artworks act as art, a mode of expression, yet at the same time, act as sort of a mockery towards it.

Pop art is a fairly new, but very influential art style. Starting in the 1950s, it was a way for young people to do something different with art, when they noticed that whatever they were taught in art school or saw in the museums, was very different from what they encountered in real life. Shunning all the classic ways, the early Pop artists found inspiration from movies, pop music, and comic book illustration. It uses very simple and commonplace things as subject matter, to the point where it shocked critics in the wake of it. Pop artist Richard Hamilton, in 1957 listed the ‘characteristics of Pop art’, stating “Pop Art is: Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business”. After almost 70 years after the start of the movement, Pop art is still fairly popular.

This is a popular parody made by Marcel Duchamp in 1919. It is essentially just Mona Lisa with facial hair. The name too, is a joke; though I’ll leave the task of explaining it for some other time. It is currently on display in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. The work was actually just a ready-made copy of Mona Lisa on which Duchamp added the moustache.

- Mona Lisa has her own mailbox because of all the love letters she receives.

- Art used to be an Olympic event - Salvador Dali is known for his quirkiness. He believed for a long time that he was his dead older brother’s reincarnation. He once appeared for a speech wearing a scuba diving suit.

- Picasso could draw before he started walking. His first word was the Spanish word for ‘pencil’.

This is a 2014 Graffiti called “Spy Booth''. It is the artist Bansky’s response to the level of Government surveillance used by western intelligence agencies and a critique of the global surveillance disclosures of 2013. It is located three miles from the British Intelligence’s listening station.

Although the artwork was removed, being destroyed in 2016, its impact still remains.

Recognised as one of the most representative works in the movement of Pop art, ‘The Drowning Girl’, also known as ‘I don’t care! I’d rather sink’, is a 1963 oil and synthetic polymer painting. It is described as the “masterpiece of melodrama”, and is painted in a conventional comic book style.

Another recognised painting, comically named ‘Whaam!’ uses a similar style to the Drowning Girl, being created by the same artist, Roy Lichtenstien.

It is a comic book strip composition.

The name of the painting is an important part of its impact and action, which also appears in a comic style onomatopoeia in the left panel.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl.

Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa.

Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

Enec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur.

Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur.

Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat.

Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa.

Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur.

Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero.

Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia.

Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat.

Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare. Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque et ante congue, aliquam felis quis, lobortis massa. Vestibulum pharetra est vitae fermentum consequat. Vestibulum vehicula ornare ornare.

Praesent pellentesque ante id interdum consectetur. Suspendisse blandit, velit quis semper semper, libero mauris pulvinar purus, a volutpat metus eros vel nisl. Aenean condimentum purus vel venenatis ultricies. Maecenas nec volutpat orci. Mauris sed justo condimentum, ornare urna ut, commodo libero. Aliquam facilisis neque lobortis mollis lacinia. Vestibulum lorem tortor, imperdiet lobortis fermentum a, cursus sit amet eros.

The students of DPS Srinagar displayed their entrepreneurial skills at Bal Mela, on the 14th of November. Celebrated in India as Children’s Day, the day certainly was given over to children. Such freedom resulted in impressive displays of creativity, some of the highlights of the event are listed below:

Zainab Iqbal Class IX But beware, all those selling accessories struck a hard bargain.

Qubra & Zikra with their custom Loomband service.

The affordable prices and vibrant array of colours attracted quite the crowd.

Azla’s stall had something for everyone, ranging from bookmarks to miniature canvases. With such attention to detail and variety, the stall’s popularity was unsurprising.

Harissa and kehwa, what more could one ask for?

A flourishing ecosystem of gamers showed off their skills on the top floor of the stadium

Art prints and paintings also sold out quickly, with many depictions of fan favourites among them

It seems almost impossible that such an array of treats could be made from scratch within two days.

That’s because it is.

Trash was truly turned to treasure at this stall. A wide array of candles, jewellery and knickknacks made from scrap material were being sold, a testament to the beauty a sustainable future may hold.

The food area attracted perhaps the most students; from pizza to biryani to tujj, every culinary palette was catered to.

The “Censored” store had a wide array of fashionable accessories.

They were even observed gifting the principal a bracelet whose beads were a “DPS green”

Technology

A team of physicists led by Maria Spiropulu of the California Institute of Technology has simulated wormhole-like behaviour on one of Google’s quantum computers in Santa Barbara, California. The experiment can be seen as evidence of Einstein’s speculation on the existence of bridges connecting points in spacetime, commonly known as wormholes in one of his research papers from 1935. The 2D simulation showed that particles on one side of the wormhole could be used to manipulate those on the other side, without closing it.

EU makes USB-C mandatory for iPhones

Meta (formerly Facebook) has announced that it has developed an artificially intelligent translation system for an unwritten language. The AI has successfully translated Hokkien, a primarily oral language spoken across Taiwan. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta will open-source the tool for wider use and translation of more languages. This tool is part of a larger project by Meta known as the "Universal Speech Translator", whose aim is to provide real-time speech translation across all languages.

A group of scientists from the Technical University of Denmark have achieved data transfer speeds up to 1.84 Petabits (1.84 quadrillion bits) per second over a distance of 7.9km. For reference, the entire world’s internet bandwidth is around 1 Petabit per second. What makes this accomplishment more impressive is that it was achieved using a single photonic chip, and transmitted over a single optical fibre cable. That's more bandwidth than the entire internet - over a single cable!

EU lawmakers have ruled to mandate a ubiquitous port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras by 2024. While most modern smartphone manufacturers already use USB-C on their phones, there is one major outlier - Apple. The company has stubbornly stuck to using its The European Commission has ruled to allow the proprietary Lightning connector on use of mobile phones at full capacity including its phones, despite claiming to have calls, texts and internet access on flights. The made revolutionary changes by deadline for compliance of EU member states is switching to USB-C on iPads and June 30, 2023. This is great news for anyone MacBooks. The reason behind this is wanting to stay connected during their travels. In widely believed to be the revenue contrast, the US has not allowed the use of 5G on Apple receives from manufacturers flights and is unlikely to do so in the near future. who make products that work with The reason - the US uses higher frequencies for 5G Lightning, due to its proprietary than the ones used in Europe. The US mainly uses nature. Apple’s head of marketing, C-band 5G, with wavelengths operating between Greg Joswiak said, “Obviously, we’ll 3.7GHz and 4.2GHz, much higher than the widely have to comply, we have no choice.” used 5G bands in Europe ranging between 3.3GHz and 3.8GHz.

The EU allows the use of in-flight 5G from 2023

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Belgian city’s IT services go down after cyberattack Belgium’s largest city Antwerp faced a cyberattack on December 5th. The disruption has affected services used by the police, schools, daycares and citizens. Phone and email services and most Windows applications have also been impacted. Emergency services remain available, despite the fire and police departments being affected. According to an Antwerp newspaper, the hack was executed by breaching the servers of Digipolis, the city’s IT partner that provides administrative software. The mayor of Antwerp has said that the impact could last for over a month.

Smart-home company caught collecting footage without user consent Eufy cameras have been found to stream camera feeds to the cloud, and store images of people’s faces, all while claiming to do the exact opposite. For some context, Eufy is a smart-home company, a subsidiary of Chinese electronics manufacturer Anker. Eufy claims to only store the videos locally, a claim disproven by cybersecurity researcher Paul Moore.

Not only are the streams uploaded to the cloud, but they are also unencrypted and can be watched live using VLC media player. They also upload uniquely identifiable photos of users’ faces to the cloud. All of this data is publicly accessible. Even after the deletion of a user’s account, the images remain on Eufy’s servers.

Hackers use drones to spy on financial firm

A US-based financial firm noticed unusual activity originating from its network. Upon further investigation, the firm found that an unknown device had connected to their network. A hunt for the offending device led them to the roof. They found two drones on their building’s roof carrying equipment worth around $15K (~₹12 Lakh)! The setup was devised to gain unauthorised access to the firm’s Confluence page, containing intellectual property and other important internal documents. The attack is reported to have been of limited success. The miscreants seemingly accidentally crashed the drone after being discovered.

Ransomware gang tricked into giving up decryption keys

The Deadbolt cybercrime gang recently garnered attention since they started exploiting a bug in QNAP and Asustor NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices, encrypting the data present on them, and demanding a ransom of 0.03 Bitcoin (~₹50,000) for the decryption keys. Their ransomware affected roughly 20,000 devices worldwide. The Dutch Police, along with Responders.NU, a cybersecurity firm exploited Deadbolt’s automated script responsible for sending the decryption keys, once a payment was made. Deadbolt’s program had a fatal oversight - it did not wait until the transactions were verified on the blockchain. The Dutch Police made over 155 transactions (~₹82.5 Lakh) and cancelled them after they received the keys. The attackers discovered the flaw minutes after it was exploited and now require two confirmations before the release of a decryption key.

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Credits & Ms. Shazia Fida

Bazillah Kirmani Ibaad Bukhari Khalid Khursheed Madiha Tariq Malik Adan Saqlain Beig Syed Imaad Zainab Iqbal

Mohammad Hammad Sauliha Khan Sana Khursheed

Zainab Iqbal

Bazillah Kirmani Mohammad Hammad Zainab Iqbal

Zainab Iqbal

Athwajan, Srinagar – 190004, J&K P: (+91) 194 2467550, 2467286, 2467670 F: (+91) 194 2467669 For suggestions & feedback, email us at lit@dpssrinagar.com