THE WORLD OF FANTASY

I sorted out my thoughts & opinion on fantasies and scribbled them onto a paper when I was in my XI std…..I studied in D.A.V Matriculation H.S School and this article was published in my school magazine…..Don’t blame me if it is not very matured….look at it as an article by a 15-year old boy!(as i wrote it at that time)….

THE WORLD OF FANTASY

To you the world of fantasy may look completely different from our world, yet they both share the same objective and some resemblances .Evil powers are rising and spreading like fire everywhere. Only the good have the ability and heart to put an end to them. Fantasy, once was considered childish magic stuff by the adults of India.

However nowadays it is accepted by them especially due to books like the Lord of the Rings and some authors like J.R.R.Tolkien and J.K.Rowling. Now let us enter the world of fantasy and compare it with the present world using 2 fantasy books (or series) namely the Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling and Stravaganza-The City of Masks (which is also a series,trilogy,though we will be seeing the first part alone) by Mary Hoffman which are completely different from each other.

Well, let us see the objectives first. As you must know both the stories have the same objective:

A war between the good and the evil. In the Harry potter series it is a war between the famous Harry Potter and the dark wizard Lord Voldemort along his many followers like Lucius Malfoy.In Stravaganza it is a war between the young boy Lucien and the di chimicis headed by Ronaldo di chimici. Of course the evil is crushed by the good at last in both the books.Harry Potter has a magical wizarding world and a muggle(Non-Magical) world (which is actually the present or normal world) while Stravaganza -The City of Masks has a 16th century world and a 21st century world(which is actually the present or normal world).In Harry Potter ,the main attraction is the magic stuff that is the wizarding world especially Hogwarts (the school of witchcraft and wizardry ) Stravaganza-The City of Masks main attraction is the art of Stravaganza through which you may travel to the 16th century world if you are in the 21st century world and vice versa.

There is a way to enter the other than normal worlds in both the stories .In Harry Potter the entry to the magical world is a wall between platform 9 and 10 in London’s Paddington station and in Stravaganza you can enter the 16th (or the 21st) century if you have a talisman which is usually an object that is brought from the other world.

There, of course, is always a difference in clothing, food, customs, and living beings and even in games, between the normal world and the fantasy world. In Hogwarts, the students and wizards wear long cloaks and tall hats (One that speaks and thinks and even reads your mind!!!) while in the 16th century world in Stravaganza-The City of Masks people wear different types of weird masks We find that in Hogwarts the food is very different ( and some magical too!) with Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts’ Every Flavored Beans etc., Lucien’s friend of the 16th century is amazed to hear about the present day dishes like pizzas , burgers, etc.,

Fantasies usually have fantastic beasts and creatures. Harry Potter is no exception to that. It has weird beasts and creatures like three headed dogs, basilisks, dragons, unicorns, goblins etc. Stravaganza – The City of Masks is an exception. Both the fantasies have Divination as a part of them.

Although the games they play are very strange (and interesting), they do have some resemblances. In Harry potter a part of the game Quidditch resembles basketball. While the chess they play is almost the same except the coins move like real men.

Though the author’s imagination is worthy of praising it is to be noted that the author’s ability and quality is proved by the way they have made the seemingly incredible things believable.

Fantasies are a runaway hit in foreign countries, if they are really good. Harry Potter alone has made its author richer than the Queen of England. However, apart from making the publisher’s and authors a lot of money, they make a huge impact on all our minds, particularly the young ones. True Friendship, Bravery, Helping others is some thing that they normally teach. They are normally filled with huge suspense while the young minds are left to think about the future.

So, fantasies particularly the HP, do have a huge impact on the society, after all a billion readers can’t be fools!

From this, we can conclude that although fantasies seem childish to some (or many) they do have a good (and important) objective along with giving us a lot of pleasure. So let us appreciate them and hope that the present world’s objectives are attained just like in the fantasy world.

Atlast!

The year 2002 has been unofficially known as the year of Mobile Revolution!It’s not shocking to see even a vegetable vendor have a (sometimes costly!) mobile phone….no,am not blaming him…honestly speaking,he needs it more and has more use to it than me.

Nowadays,mobile phones are not used just for talking – they are used for lots of purposes like Audio & Video player,Video Camera,Office documents etc.,

 

Although I believe that mobile phones are given more importance than they really deserve, i am a gadget lover and know that it will be one thing that I will always have with me when I own it. The mobile revolution has also started a mad race among the companies to bring out the most successful model….they reduced the dimensions,the weight,even the price,increased the features,gave away gifts and so on to lure the customers(& potential customers!) Motorola is known for having very low thickness & very high fragility! Nokia is the most popular brand in India…Sony Ericsson mobiles normally have loads of features but they need to be serviced often..Samsung is appropriate for those who are show-offs It just looks good…exactly contrary to what I wanted-I didn’t care much about whether my mobile looked great or not…I just wanted it to have loads of features,yet,yesterday,(finally!) I got a mobile with good looks….15 days,after asking for one,my Dad got me the model I wanted- a Nokia 6670 with a Datacable and a 512 MB memory card….It is probably the second time that I took a lot of time to make a decision-spent a full day for that…the first time was the selection of Dept in Engineering where I had to choose between between my passion and my parents’ wish…….both the times I have made decisions,I know I won’t regret forever….I was about to buy a Nokia 3230 when I learnt from the Shop Owner who was a relative of mine and one of my best friends that it often became too slow and got stuck!

So I went in for a 6670…It costed almost the same as a 3230,but had less number of features than a 3230.It doesn’t have FM,IR and EDGE which a 3230 has! It has a 1 megapixel camera while a 3230 has a 1.3 megapixel camera….despite all this i preferred it!I know that I will use my mobile only occasionally for talking ,though I don’t even know to operate it properly,as of now,not having used a mobile(particularly one like mine!) Don’t remember keeping it on the floor…(ooooh! what if it gets damaged?! – it’s now using my bed!you see,am like King Paari! :p)….I will keep it down only on friday when I get a case for my mobile!

I won’t forget my first Non-Airtel message…..when I received it, I didn’t realise that it was my cellphone….hehe…..then when everyone around me started staring at me….i understood