NTUSU Tribune November 2012

22 the tr bune the tr bune
23
features
Akhil Batra
Singapore Writers Festival 2012: It’s Only Words
Shreya Sharma
The Festival
Did you get picked on for having your face buried in a book
all the time? Do you think libraries are the best place to hang
out? If you answered yes to both these questions and consider
yourself to be a proverbial bookworm, we hope you didn’t
miss out on the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF).
The 10-day long event (2 th to 10 th November), organized by the
National Arts Council, catered to book lovers of all ages and
interests. It celebrated the best in Singaporean as well as Asian
literature and also, showcased numerous upcoming works
from all over the world. Attention was given to the literature
in all the four national languages of Singapore- English, Malay,
Chinese and Tamil.
This year, the festival had a range of events that include author
meets, panel discussions and workshops. There was story-telling
for both adults and kids. For hardcore enthusiasts, there
were literary meals and cocktails to meet like-minded people.
The theme for the SWF 2012 was ‘Origins: The Beginning’- be
it the beginning of time, of language or even of our identities.
It was about going back to the roots, appreciating the world
without the complications of technology and the fast pace of
activity.
In a world that is obsessed with Ke$ha and Honey Boo Boo
child, festivals like these are important to re-capture the imagination
of the youth and provide a more extensive cultural
experience.
The Highlights
We bring you some of the most uniquely interesting events that were held during the festival:
The Ukulele Girls (03 Nov/SMU)
This session was conducted by Kaylin and Tian who played their trademark quirky songs and
exchanged quirky banter through the half an hour. They kept the crowd entertained with their
soothing ukulele harmonies.
Hitting the Right Notes (03 Nov/SMU)
Dick Lee, a local singer song-writer, paired up with Tay Kewei, an emerging musical talent,
to talk about the creative process that goes into making successful songs. They went in depth
about what makes a song and how the singer’s temperament influences the direction of a song.
Growing Up is Tough - or Is It? (04 Nov/The Salon, NMS)
Monique Truong, Mick Foley and Ahmad Fuadi talk about the quintessential coming-of-age
novels and how growing pains shape literary projects. It was a funny discussion about high
school relationships and bullying.
Why I Write (04 Nov/Glass Hall, SAM)
This showcase was a panel of prominent writers that shared their experiences on how their
lives influenced their writing.
The Fifty Shades of Grey Phenomenon (07 Nov/The Arts House)
Fifty Shades of Grey is a book that has been making waves for being female erotica. The panel
tried to find out why women love this book and why it has been the talk of the town .
NOVEMBER 2012 NOVEMBER 2012
illUStration| PranaV SethaPUtra
opinions STUDENT
to Sleep or not to Sleep?
aarUShi magan
The fiercely competitive
world that we live in, and
the crazy non-stop rat race to
be the best that it entails, has
led to the birth of yet another
problem for us to deal with,
a problem- sleep deprivation.
Now, to examine this problem,
there exists no better way
than to look at the daily life of
a university student, because
no one better understands the
true struggle to attain a few
hours of sleep before a submission,
presentation, deadline or
exam.
A student’s life, they say, is
built on an intricately delicate
balance of good grades, social
life and sleep. Why delicate,
you ask? The answer is simplebecause
you can never truly
achieve all three. And most of
us facing this imbalance land
up somewhere in the middle
of this complex maze- reaching
neither end successfully.
Since good grades are a must,
and well, since humans are social
beings, sleep inconsequentially
ends up being the most
neglected part of our lives.
With exams less than a
month away, 8 hours of sleep
a day have become a distant
Confessions of A Former Gaming Addict:
the Complete Journey
kaUStaV chaUdhUri
We are the downloaders,
the youtubers, the
defraggers, the rippers, the
burners, and more importantly,
the ultimate gamers. As a
member of the 15 and above
– cyber generation, these
days the range starts from far
lesser, there was a time when
the only things on my mind
were offline and online games.
I have felt that euphoric urge
we gamers get waiting for our
favourite console to warm
up or our computer game to
load and log in. I have felt the
magnetic pull to play for days
upon days, to procrastinate for
just another play. I have been
that slack-jawed, glassy-eyed
gamer for a long time. I can say
that to an extent this gaming
addiction has inevitably made
me lose close friends and loved
hope in my life, instead pulling
all-nighters has become a daily
routine. After initially blaming
myself relentlessly for not having
allocated time effectively
for all my tasks, I came to the
stark realization that depriving
yourself of those essential
hours of mind and body rest is
the only way to roll. This constant
drill of last minute rush
and meeting deadlines has ultimately
made a good night’s
sleep the exception rather than
the norm. Moreover, ever since
the exams have reared their
ugly head, even 4 hours of
sleep has become a leisure we
enjoy occasionally.
We, university students,
more than anyone else, seemingly
underestimate the importance
and value of sleep in
our daily lives. What we fail to
realise is that this pattern is not
only hazardous to our physical
well-being but, more significantly,
sabotages our mental
health as well. Studies have
shown that well-rested individuals
have higher average
university performance than
those facing irregular sleep
patterns. When we deprive
ourselves of sleep to keep our
ones who could not shake the
mind rot and addiction of my
electronic second self. Classes I
was late for, the tests I messed
up, friends I didn’t meet, the
minutes and hours, the whole
days that, if compiled, could
easily add up to entire years of
nothing more than unproductive,
unresponsive work.
In our current high-tech
supersociety, there is no distinction
between a child and
an adult. With this regression
comes the disappearance
of manhood. Boys no longer
know when to grow up, when
to be men, not only in body but
in spirit and character as well.
Every time they press start,
they are giving up on their life,
exchanging their identities for
in-game avatars. My generation
of teenagers are in grave
grades up, we fail to realise
that it does exactly the opposite,
making the entire idea of
staying up to study redundant
in itself! A well-rested mind
danger, slowly succumbing to
mind rot, floating face down in
a pool of pixels.
For me, it began in the early
2000’s. What started with
handheld video games, progressed
to the TV video games
where Mario and Contra took
up my undivided attention
fresh home from
school, I’d throw
down my bag,
press the power
button and play
until called in for
dinner.
and then the advent of the
Nintendo Gameboy and the
Microsoft X box. Additionally,
computer games which started
from Road Rash were replaced
learns quickly, and quickly
is essential for us with examinations
less than an arm’s
length away. But how are we
supposed to fit in sleep in the
by Call of Duty and FIFA. As
each gaming console came and
went, my insatiated gaming
imagination expected more
and craved more.
Fresh home from school, I
would throw down my bag
and press the power button,
playing until called in for dinner,
leaving schoolwork undone.
In those first games, I
couldn’t save my progress, so
winning was an all-or-nothing
feat. On weekends, I would
delve into my newest game the
moment my parents left the
house for the night, playing
until I saw car headlights. I’d
pause the game while I slept,
only to wake up early the next
morning and continue where I
had left off.
While my parents were
mildly concerned that I spent
hectic schedule we seem to be
living on, which only seems
to have tightened itself with
exams approaching? If only I
knew!
illUStration| tran thi hUyen tran
more than a few hours at a time
sitting and playing, they knew
that I was quiet and having
fun, sometimes with a friend
comparing our sklls. Their
concerns grew more as I started
developing symptoms of
excessive exposure to screens
and gaming; my hands started
becoming numb, I started having
splitting headaches, didn’t
take any interest in anything
else whatsoever, and despite
having a lot of friends, continued
to neglect those relationships.
To compound my troubles,
I couldn’t perform well in
school, and this really shook
me up. Many counselling sessions,
controlled restraint from
all kinds of video games later
I found myself again, and was
able to finally let go my electronic
second self.
NOVEMBER 2012 FINAL.indd 22-23 20/12/12 5:58 PM