My Science School

 

My niece is in her final year of fine arts at Stella Maris, Chennai. Her passion is doodling. What are her career options? What can she further do academically? And which are the institutions in India that offer courses in such areas?

My daughter is a student of ICSE board. She is interested in craftwork and has done a craft course. Her extra-curricular activities included decoupage, - , flower making, cards and Chinese ceramics. What should she take up at +2 level? What are the options available, and the institutions for the same? She is an all-rounder and tops in all subjects. But her passion is crafts. She is always with scissors and paper. What is NID and what does it offer?

First, about your niece. Since your niece is already a student of fine arts, she is already in the right place. Doodling might be her passion, but as a fine arts student she would be having a larger career goal. She can do a masters in fine arts, and then proceed to do a PhD in a related field. She can take up the teaching profession and teach at the school or college level. She can even hold exhibitions of her paintings, or else she could be an art curator and join a big museum.

As regards your daughter, she should take up arts to pursue her interest in crafts. She can join a college that offers bachelor of fine arts thereafter. or else, she can pursue graduation in any other subject and pursue in a polytechnic.

 

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My parents beat me up if I talk to anyone on phone or if I go out with friends. They don’t give me any pocket money. They are always asking me, whom do I talk to in school. I don’t know what to do. Please help me. At times I feel like running away from home or joining a hostel. Why do we have so many restrictions at this stage when earlier I could go anywhere without any problem?

One of the better ways to handle this is to directly talk to your mother or father (towards whom you feel more comfortable and uninhibited) and express your feelings frankly to them. Find out the reasons for their allowing you the needed freedom. Assure them that you will abide by what they say and will spend the pocket money only on the items they permit. It is in you on convince them that you will not go astray or get into my problems. With the kind of atmosphere these days, parents naturally worry a lot for their daughter lest anyone hurts her. Running away from home is not a solution, but if you want and if they permit, you can definitely move into a hostel.

Anything you do, should be able to make your parents feel confident that you will not be hurt but will be safe. They have to trust you and your ability to look after yourself.

 

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My friends come to me only when they have some work. Otherwise they don’t. But since I like making friends, I welcome them in spite of this. Is it right?

Since you like having friends, your approach and attitude are fine as you welcome them. However, do not feel negative about them as it would lead to disappointment and frustration within you and accordingly your behaviour towards your friends will also change to negative. Always keep an open mind and do not go with the pre-conceived notion that your friends come to you only when they have some work with you. Such thoughts will undermine all friendships. A friendship must have considerable freedom and a lot of give and take on both sides. Negative thinking from either you or the other person will not lead to a happy or healthy friendship.

 

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My mother is always telling me that she is going to die. How can I relieve her of this fear? She is also complaining that the money my father gives to her is not sufficient for her to live properly. How can I help her?

One way to tell your mother is to reassure her that you are all with her and that she need not worry about anything. A person dies only when the time to die comes. Worrying about death and fearing it would only make her feel miserable. A coward dies a thousand deaths while a brave person dies just once. Tell her these and make her face death bravely. Also just check what is it about death that she is so scared about. Once she faces her fears clearly and in a descriptive way, her fears will reduce considerably.

As for her relationship with your father she has to handle it entirely on her own. You cannot take up sides. Help her to take courage in her hands and ask her husband to give her more money, etc. It is for help to do this and I think you must help her to face her husband and her problems with him without fear and worry.

 

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I am a student of class X. I am always getting 6th or 7th rank. Though I aim higher, during exam time I just don’t feel like studying. I am very scared of not scoring high in class X examination. Please guide me.

You seem to be quite bright and intelligent as you are getting 6th or 7th rank. Continue working methodically and systematically, do your practice exercises the way you have been doing all along. Then you need to only revise at the time of exams.

But all this you should do without getting anxious that you may score lower than your expectations. It is important to remember that when we get anxious our efficiency level goes down considerably as anxiety and fears consume a lot of energy and very little is left for performance. So relax and take deep breaths whenever you feel anxious or scared and restart your work and go ahead methodically. This is one of the best ways of handling worries and anxiety about exams and not doing well in them.

 

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I am a student of class XII. There are days when I am very depressed and feel that nothing can go right. There is no particular reason for this. I want to know how to overcome depression. I also want to know why one trends to have an unknown fear of others while in school, while travelling in a bus or walking in a public place?

Occasional depression and swings in mood are but quite common as we go through disappointments, frustrations, etc. You can get over depression if you get to the root causes for it. Once you know the cause, you can get rid of the problem effectively. You appear to be studying in Delhi. Almost every school in the city has a counsellor who can help you to overcome depression.

 

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I want to be a choreographer. I am brilliant at dancing but my parents will never allow it. I think one should join a field of his/her choice. Why don’t parents understand this?

You are right that you should be allowed to join the field of your choice. There are two ways of handling this: Take up choreography as your hobby while continuing to pursue the field your parents want you to take up as you wouldn’t want to hurt them or be in conflict with them, or talk to your parents frankly about your liking for choreography, get trained in the art from a well reputed institution and then take up choreography as your field of choice. Once your parents know what is involved and how much you hanker for it, they would not mind your choice. But you should be very clear about what you want.

 

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Getting rid of thoughts that you do not like is entirely in your hands. Your mind is yours and you alone are master of it. If you decide not to allow the thoughts to bother you, only you can stop them. You can say ‘stop’ to yourself the moment the thoughts appear, and then for a while divert your attention to something you enjoy. In the beginning you may be able to stop the thoughts for a while but as you practice this technique you can get rid of them for longer periods and then permanently. Always remember that the mind is yours and you can stop the thoughts you don’t want the mind to ponder.

As for daydreaming, it is a kind of wish fulfilment. Many of our desires and wishes remain unfulfilled and in many cases we feel disappointed when something we want does not materialise. These unfulfilled desires at times appear in our daydreams. There is nothing wrong if you have an occasional short duration daydream. But if you do want to stop it, as I said earlier, it is in your hands to stop it by deliberately diverting your attention to something more meaningful and interesting.

 

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I am a student of ICSE Board, studying in class XI. I am keen to join the Indian Army. I have heard that the NDA exam is based on the CBSE syllabus. Is it advisable to change the board and switch over to a school affiliated to CBSE Board?

Though NDA is largely based on CBSE patter – in fact most competitive exams in the country after class XII are based on the CBSE pattern – yet the quality of education in ICSE Board is such that you shouldn’t have a cause for regret. As a student of ICSE Board, your fundamentals would be quite strong and you would not have much problem grasping the CBSE course. As it is, there are a few coaching institutes within Delhi and in other cities that prepare students for the NDA admission. By joining a reputed institute, you will have a good grasp of the NDA test pattern.

 

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My subjects in school are accountancy, economics, commerce and English. I want to be an air hostess. Are these subjects fine for the job, or should I opt for any other subject? What qualifications do I need? I am a science student. I wish to become an air hostess after school. Does the training begin at graduation level? Please tell me about the exact procedure and relevant courses.

While Air India specifies that candidates should have done a diploma course in hotel management and catering from a recognized institute, there are foreign airlines like KLM and Lufthansa which are known to have employed air hostesses who have graduated in English! What is required is poise, confidence, a pleasing personality and good communication skills.

Normally, once an airhostess has joined an airline, she undergoes training on aspects of flight safety (very few people know that is an important part of her duties), aviation terminology, travel regulations, passenger handling, cuisine, etc.  Speech and voice training and grooming are also part of the course. However, there are a number of institutes that are imparting training to aspiring air hostesses. Among the leading institutes are:

1.  Air Hostess Academy (AHA), C-33, 2nd Floor, Amar Colony Market,   Lajpat Nagar-IV, New Delhi


2.  Flyers Inc, 33, Jangpura Road, New Delhi 110014


3.  Pacific Airways, Pocket GH-6/35, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi 110087


4. Free Bird Aviation & Management Services, TC-41/2454 Mancaud, Thiruvananthapuram-9 Kerala.

Most of these institutes impart training right after class XII.

 

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I am a non-medical student studying in class XI in a public school. I wish to become a director of agriculture. I want to take admission in Punjab University (LDH). Could you tell me the exact procedure?

Our best wishes are with you in your career dream. However, your journey will have to begin with a graduation in agriculture sciences. Punjab Agricultural University is a state university offering a number of courses like B.Sc. Agri. (Hons.) of four years’ duration, bachelor of veterinary science and animal husbandry of five years, and B.Sc. (Hons.) Home Science 4-year (for girls only). However, it’s the first course that would interest you. For admission to Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, one should have done 10+2 or equivalent in science/agriculture with physics, chemistry and mathematics/ biology/agriculture with at least 50% marks in aggregate. Admission is done on the basis of Common Admission Test, held sometime in June.

 

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                                                                                                I am a student of class XII and want to pursue a career in animation. I want to know about the entrance procedure of NID, Ahmadabad. Please give me guidance about how to prepare for the examination.

In the entrance test you will be asked to do things that will test your sense of color, your understanding of proportion , and your ability to visualize. Say, you might be asked to make a color paper collage. You might be asked to draw an object, or you might be asked to visualize something fifty years from now. You should also start maintain a portfolio: preserve properly whatever you draw or make; get in the habit of observing: critically viewing ads, movies, photographs or any other art object. This understanding will also be put to test.

 

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Though I am a medical aspirant, I compose poems and songs. I want to become a lyricist and pursue it as a side job. I am creative and can even write scripts for films. Please answer the following questions:

(i) What is a script? Is it a bound book in which the story of the film is written?

(ii) Where should I try so that I get offers as  a lyricist?

(iii) Does this require a lot of struggle? How to handle it?

(iv) Do lyricist earn a lot?

(v) What fee do lyricists charge?

(vi) Do serials offer hope for lyricists?

(vii) Tell me about opportunities for lyricists like creative writing and advertising.

Its dog-eat-dog would out there. In spite of your talent, you might face a lot of struggle, and maybe, frustration too. This is not to dishearten you, but there is a lot of plagiarism. If you take the decision to become a professional lyricist, you have to be extra cautious that your lyrics do not land in wrong hands. A better way would be to publish your poems in magazines with good circulation, like Femina, before you take the plunge. This way, you will have some standing when you start contacting people and negotiating.

If you want to talk to them on a firm footing, then you must have done some ground work by getting your work published in newspapers and magazines and getting a new cassettes recorded. Get in touch with music houses, music directors and even prominent directors, to let them know of your acumen. It’s easier said than done, but then, that’s the only way you can do it.

Yes, established lyricists do get very attractive remunerations: one lakh per song. You are taking a wise decision by treating it as a side profession.

Advertising will help you to the extent that you might come across people in the film industry circles and your creativity might be noticed by them. As regards, TV serials, there’s of scope for writing stories, what with so many channels, but very limited opportunity for lyricists, confined maybe, to the title song.

No a script is not a bound book. It’s essentially the narrative of the story on which the film would be made, with the description of characters, a rough sequence and dialogues.

 

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It is heartening to learn a student of your age is so focused at this age. Ornithology (study of birds) is more or less ignored in India. There’s hardly any institute that comes to mind when one talks of ornithology is the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology at Anaikatty, 24 kms from Coimbatore. The institute is named after the legendary Salim Ali who did a scientific study of birds and published a number of books. SACON has maintained a natural habitat in its 55 acres of land. Besides, there is a laboratory, library and a hostel for housing a few students.

But then, study of birds can be pursued even in your capacity as an ecologist, wildlife biologist or as an expert in forest management. As it is, even if you are focused on study of birds, you will first have to do a graduation in a life sciences subject, preferably zoology. But there are a number of foreign universities offering this course, albeit at the post-graduate level. A detailed list of institutes offering ornithology is available in the following URL:

http://www.ummz.1sa.umich.edu/birds/Gradwinweb.html

in fact, there is a website devoted exclusively to ornithology: www.ornithology.com and you can find out more about the relevant institutes worldwide on that site.

 

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Is there any aptitude test for school-going kids, which can help parents decide what is the best career path for the child? At what age can such tests be taken? Can the aptitude clearly lay down an appropriate career like medical, engineering, management, civil services, etc? Or is the test general in nature? Also, apropos the article on homeopathy in May issue, what is the duration of BHMS? What is the maximum age at which one can take admission to a BHMS course?

Yes, school students are being administered a psychometric test, to help them realize their true potential. In classes IX and X, usually the level at which schools and counseling groups start administrating the test, the objective is to guide a student about the stream he should choose after class X, so that a student who is just not fit for sciences and is under peer and family influence, does not end up taking physics or biology that will ruin his studies. In class XI and XII the psychometric test guides a student about what types of career/jobs is the person suited for. The tests ask a whole lot of questions, and accordingly assess a person’s interest, aptitude and personality. They go a step ahead in preparing a road map for students – that is, what subject they should pursue after XII to fulfill their dream. These tests, rather than pinpointing a specific career, point a range of allied fields one can take up. Say, creative writing, journalism, advertising and electronic media are good options for those with strong linguistic skills.

Regarding your second question, the bachelor’s course in homeopathy is a 5 ½ year course, including one-year internship.

 

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