Food-sharing Apps are a platform which take overproduced or unwanted food which would be generally discarded and distribute it to people who actually need it. 1/3^rd of all the food produced every year gets wasted. On the other hand, it is estimated that 10% of people die of hunger in the world and another 10% are malnourished. These food-sharing apps can increase food security and make sure everyone has access to minimum nutrition.

There are many such apps in the world. A few examples are:

1. Seva Kitchen – It was launched in 2018 by Khushroo Poacha in India. It connect donors to the needy and the receiver can pick the food from the donor’s house. Anyone like caterers, restaurants, bakeries, etc. can be donors. Interestingly, there are more donors than receivers, so Seva Kitchen is trying to still not waste food. People use it to donate food during birthdays and anniversaries. They currently work with 13 hospitals and 7 schools.
2. Zomato Feeding India – In 2019, Zomato and Feeding India (registered as Hunger Heroes) collaborated to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in India. They provide essential food support to underserved communities in the form of raw grains and freshly cooked food. They have served 4.3 Crore meals already and each meals costs Rs 15 to prepare. It is only applicable in India so far and anyone can donate money. It costs Rs 750 for 50 meals.
3. Too Good To Go – It connects individual customers to restaurants and stores with surplus food. It was created in 2015 in Denmark. The purpose is to reduce food wastage worldwide and to give food to the needy at 1/3 the price. Till 2022, more than 57.7 million users and 154,000 establishments had signed up, and Too Good To Go has collected 139 million meals!
4. ResQ – ResQ takes food that would usually be wasted, from quality restaurants, bakeries and cafes. People can find food of their choice and purchase it. It operates in European countries – Finland, Germany, Sweden and Poland, saving more than 110,000 portions of food every month.

I would like to be a sustainability advocate for Zero Hunger. For this, I have already shared a Seva Kitchen poster in my community, I have donated Rs 750 towards 50 meals through the Feeding India program and have already registered as a “Poshan Champion”. I have Taken a pledge towards promoting a Hunger Free India. I have created artwork to promote awareness about malnutrition and increase awareness about it. Lastly, I have urged others to get more educated about SDG-2. Food-sharing apps are important to reduce hunger and donating is a nice way to show that you care for the planet. Zero-hunger is UN’s SDG-2 which we have to achieve by 2030. So, save some illnesses and lives by donating some food!

In September 2022, my friend, Avni, and I participated in a Robotics Competition, called World Robotics Olympiad (WRO). WRO is a global robotics challenge for young people, which uses Lego Mindstorms / EV3 (lego kit with hardware and software). We made a robot that could perform various tasks required by the competition.

First there were North and East zone Regionals. There were 100+ participants and only 8 teams were going to qualify for the Nationals. The theme of this year was “My Robot, My Friend”. For our category (8-11 year olds), the challenge was to design a garden robot that would:

1. Cut high grass: Green, tall element made with lego and in 2 parts
2. Collect bad weeds: Red element joined together with lego
3. Activate service point: See-saw type of lever that needed to be flicked, to indicate completion of tasks
4. Park itself back where it originally started
5. Not destroy (or even touch) the fences

All these elements were kept at random positions on a mat that was like a garden with dark green and light green areas. We practiced a lot and built a robot that could do all the tasks except collecting the bad weeds. The regionals were on Sep 10-11 in Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon. Day 1 was to practice and day 2 was the actual challenge.

On the first day, we practiced at the location with the real mat and elements and were getting scores like 89, 71, 83, etc. (out of 125). We were feeling confident and very happy with how it was shaping up. The next day was the real competition. We were required to break our robot and rebuild it at the location (from our memory). Our design was very sleek and minimalistic – so we were done building it in 15 minutes.

Now it was time for our first practice round. To our surprise, the robot didnt budge! We realized that the code was not downloaded into the robot, as it ought to be. We fixed it and then the robot just made a sound of the wheels trying to move however it still did not move. We were stunned but were trying not to panic. Avni double-checked the code, while I examined the assembly. We had already spent 10 minutes earlier, to figure out how to put the balancing wheels. Finally I realized that our castor wheels needed to be put the other way around. Phew! Now it was working as expected. Then the actual competition started and it was going to be Best of 3 rounds.

In the first round, we got a score of 18 out of 125. We were very disappointed and were unsure what went wrong. We brainstormed and concluded that the placement of our robot changed because we had to activate it from the hardware (which we had never accounted for, but should have!). We were careful in the second round and were able to score 69 points (which was eventually our best score). The final results were announced and we were overjoyed because we were amongst the 8 teams from North and East zone who had qualified for the Nationals. Yippeeee!

We had loads of fun and also made some friends. There was a participant called Sharanya who looked a lot like Hermione (from Harry Potter), so we called her fake Hermione. We also played in their basketball court between the rounds. We also stood on chairs to cheer for all the other teams because everyone had worked so hard on their robots and we could see that everyone was trying their best.

The nationals were on Sep 30 – Oct 1 in Noida. This was a 1.5 hour drive from Gurgaon and they were going to announce a surprise rule to make the competition harder. There were teams coming in from all over India. It was in Global Genesis school in a huge hall. When we arrived, we saw at least 500 people at the event, including coaches, parents and participants.

We had used the 3 weeks to prepare our robot to compete in the nationals. We added 2 more color sensors to make our robot smarter. Also, we changed the design to make it horizontal instead of vertical so that the positioning does not get disturbed when we activate the robot. On the d-day, we had to break every component we had used. This was tricky and we forgot our design. First we panicked and almost gave up. Then I reminded Avni about something that I had read elsewhere: “If you have components, you have a chance”. We were both inspired and started creating a new robot design based on whatever we had learnt in the last 3 months of practicing at home. Finally, Avni tested the code a lot. I was in charge of positioning and even if it went a millimetre to one side, our score would decrease by at least 10 points. Whenever we started, I had butterflies in my stomach. Eventually, we ended up with the BRONZE BADGE and were among the top 25 teams all across India. We were thrilled at this awesome news. Our parents and also other strangers congratulated us! It was an experience I will always remember very fondly.

Avni said, “In this competition, the thing I enjoyed most was, interacting with my friend and coach. The parts I felt challenged on were the announcement of surprise rules and the robot building. We had to carry an open mindset and the problem solving had a lot of challenges. What I realized was how all this we learn in school about problem-solving, open mindsets and collaboration plays a huge role in our life experiences. I also learned more about robotics. We will be competing next year and the goal is to come at the top and represent India at the International level”.

In school, I am learning about color theory. I am also learning about a color wheel. Primary colors are colors that can’t be formed by any other type of color. They are how all other colors are made. There are three (3) primary colors which are Red, Yellow, and Blue. By mixing primary colors you can get a Secondary color. By mixing Red and Yellow you get Orange. Orange is a secondary color. By mixing Yellow and Blue we can get Green. Green is also a secondary color. By mixing Red and Blue we can get Purple. Purple is also a secondary color. By arranging these in a particular order we get the rainbow colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. By mixing a primary and secondary color we get a Tertiary color. Color wheel is a way of organizing all these colors. On a color wheel, the opposite color is called a complimentary color. Here is a example of a color wheel that I made.

If you see, the primary colors are equally distanced. So are the secondary. I learnt many interesting things about the color wheel. The first color wheel was formed by Isaac Newton in 1666. A synonym (2 words that have the same meaning) of color is hue. A shade of a color is if you add some black to the color and the tint is when you add some white to the color. An analogous color set is that of 3 sticking hues. A harmonious color palette is a set of colors that looks pleasing to the eye. Complimentary colors (opposite colors on the color wheel) are harmonious colors (looks very pleasing to the eye). The nature colors, Red, and Green are also harmonious colors (because they look pleasing to the eye). Achromatic means there are 0 (zero/no) colors. Monochromatic means it has only 1 (one) color, so it might mean it is a plain sea, or it might mean there are shades and tints. Polychromatic means that the painting has more than 1 (one) color.

Now, let me show you an interesting experiment. Look at these. Are the small rectangles inside the big ones (the ones in light blue) – same color or different color?

Over here the blue rectangle in the pink background looks darker.

But this is actually the same!

Here is another experiment I tried. I took a Henry Matisse painting (see below). It only uses yellow, blue, green colors (with very little red). I colored the same painting in complimentary colors (see below). How does that change the mood of the painting for the viewer? I think in complimentary colors, it looks sadder and darker. What do you think?

Hope you enjoyed learning about Colors with me.

I played an online game, which is conducted by Google. It is called Interland. It teaches kids about safety in the online world, but in a fun way. In it, there are four (4) levels. Each of them teaches about a new skill. If we follow these, we can be digital role models.

Where and how do I play this game?

To play that game click Interland – Be internet Awesome. Then, click on Let’s do this!. Choose the level (1- 4) you want to play! Then, you can play the game and have fun! I strongly recommend this game to every school kid. It is free to play.

What happens in the 4 levels?

In the First level, you have to make the crying kids happy. You also have to remember to destroy the bullies! To destroy the bullies, you have to find and collect a speaker, and come in front of the bully and click the space bar. Then the bully will be destroyed for once, and for all! Use the arrow keys to move. If you wan’t to jump, hold the up arrow key, and click the side you wan’t to go. To make someone happy, give some hearts. Click the space bar if you wan’t to give a good vibe to someone. The big, yellow people are the bullies. On a scale of my liking of this among all of the levels is 2nd. I learnt to be alert about bullies on the internet and that if I see an internet bully, I should speak up and report them to an adult. I also learnt that it is a good idea to be kind to the people who are being bullied because then it makes them happy.

In the second level, you have to answer some questions. There are some rocks that appear. On each rock, there is one option. You have to point towards the correct rock and click the space bar if you think it is the correct option. If you do it correct, you jump on the next rock, and if you do it wrong you fall into the river. Some questions also have timers, so you also need to have speed and do it fast! On a scale of my liking of this among all of the levels is 4th. I learnt about phishing and how there can be bad people who can trick you to get your information and steal money from you. So, we must be careful and think about whether it is true or not.

In the third level, you learn about who to send what information to. There are many mirrors and you have to make the laser go and reflect on the mirror so that it gets reflected on another mirror. You also can’t let the other people know about your information. The blue colored people are your family, the green colored people are your friends, the yellow colored people are any random people, and the red people are bad people. Click the space bar to share the information. Use the arrow keys to find a spot to shoot. On a scale of my liking of this among all of the levels is 3rd. I learnt to give information to only those people who I know should get it. Also we must be careful about who we share information with.

In the fourth level, there are four (4) sections. First, you have to secure you Emails and messages from hackers. You have to collect 6 messages and 6 Emails. If you bang into a rock, the hacker will steal some of your Emails and messages and the number of messages and emails will be decreased. When you get 6 of both, you have to secure your phone information and credit card information. It works similarly as the 1st section. Once you put all this in the castle, next, you have to protect the five (5) doors of the castle. The hacker wants to get in the castle to steal all your information. So, they try to come in your castle by breaking the doors. You have to save the doors by using the arrow keys to hop from one to another. Then, click the space bar if you wan’t to choose a good and strong password. I will ask you the strongest password. Click the correct one. When one tower is very secure, and not a single person can come in, it will show a lock. You have to try to have a lock on each of the 5 doors. In the next section, you will have lots of signs, and letters. It will ask you some questions. As you answer them, you will keep making a password. Finally, you will make a very strong password. On a scale of my liking of this among all of the levels is 1st. I learnt about not sharing any personal information with anyone and about which can be my strongest password. It should be 8 characters long, have uppercase and lowercase and numbers and special characters.