Anika Choudhary

Ho ho ho! Christmas is just around the corner! Just a few hours left until it's time for you to wake up and see the beautiful presents Santa left for you under the Christmas tree. And in just a few hours, we can joyfully wish people a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Time to start singing and playing Christmas carols while sitting down with our family members, showing them our amazing gifts and goodies. Finally, the end of our long and wait is near! Just hang in there for a little longer. Have patience! You're almost there! I know I am. Make sure your beautifully decorated Christmas tree is perfect for Santa Claus. Keep tracking and believing in Santa! From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now, when most people think about winters, they think about a serene city full of snow covered buildings. They picture people all nicely layered, walking outside in the snowy landscape and there is a beautiful holiday atmosphere in the place. Or if they are imagining a green Christmas, they picture a place clear of snow with moderate cold and the warm sun shining throughout the day. Well, reality is quite different than your imagination. Maybe a green Christmas might be like the one I described above, but that's not the case in my city. In my city, we have fog all morning and all night. It doesn't really snow, but that's where the fog comes in. The fog is basically like the snow. It makes everything look white, but it also makes everything look cloudy. And for the record,  it is quite cold for a green Christmas city. Not as cold as areas in the north, but it is still quite cold. 

One big social issue in the world is poverty and it is defined as when a person cannot buy basic necessities like food, clothing etc. because they have a low income. Currently in countries like Pakistan, India etc. poverty is a huge social problem. In India, there are a few causes of poverty and I shall be noting a few of them.  One reason for poverty is that there are not enough jobs available for people. Industries of both private and public sector created new job opportunities, but they were not enough to soak up all the job seekers.  With new irrigation methods and spread of the green revolution, new jobs were started in the agricultural sector but these effects were limited to only some parts of India.  Another cause if high poverty rates in India are high income inequalities. One major reason for this is unequal distribution of land and other resources. But India has been making many policies regarding this issue which will give us a solution in no time.  The l...

Finally, it is December! The month of holidays. I just love the month of December because in this month, I am full of excitement for the holidays and all the wonderful festivals like Hannukah, Christmas, Boxing Day and most of all, it is a time for winter break! A time when you can just sit in bed, all covered with a warm blanket wearing warm sweaters and wooly socks. Although it certainly is the coldest month of the year, it is also the most magical. Everyone is full of hope for the coming new year and pray that this coming year will be a good one. But like I said before, it is quite cold in December so everyone should remember to wear layers while going outside and to make sure not to catch a cold. 

Although lying down in bed covered with a warm blanket in winters is quite relaxing, it is also not the best thing for you to be doing if you have some work to complete. Don't get me wrong here. I love relaxing and sometimes I am just fed up of having so much work to do, but finishing your work first and then chilling out is a much better option. Or if you feel like you just can't finish all your work in one go, then take breaks in between regular intervals, but during these breaks, do not use any electronic gadgets. If you start procrastinating, then suddenly you will see that there will be a lot of incomplete tasks that you have to complete. Being an expert procrastinator, I am advising you to procrastinate as less as you can. Although it can be really hard at first, slowly you will build a habit of doing your work on time and will not procrastinate as much as you did before. But remember. These changes in your personality will not appear in one day, so just stick to achievin...

There is just something really calming about sitting in a train, looking out of the window, seeing the beautiful sun set back into the horizon. Just by thinking about this situation, I immediately go into a state of relaxation. And to be honest, I always think about such situations to calm myself down in stressful times. Everyone should have something that calms themselves down when they're stressed. It can be a fidget, or it can just be your own calming universe of thoughts. You should always have something to calm you down when you get nervous or anxious. If you don't know if there is anything that calms dow, then just try meditating or listening to music. 

This family of wasps belong to the species of the Vespa affinis, or the lesser banded hornet. They are common in tropical and subtropical Asia. These hornets look different in different regions. For example, in China, they are mainly black with a deep yellow band near their abdomen while in Southeast Asia, they are fully black and have a bright orange as the color for their abdominal band. Despite the beautiful and bright colors that they possess, they can cause harm when they sting you. The lesser banded hornet is not to be confused with the greater banded hornet. It looks almost exactly similar but , it is even more dangerous and infact, it is one of the most venomous hornets in the world.