Rohan Hardikar

February 15 marked the last time I would perform a Bollywood dance at this school. 

After Bombay in the Bay (BnB) my freshman year, I vividly remember all of my friends, Indian, Asian, Caucasian, Latino, running over to me saying how awesome the show was and asking me to teach them about Indian dancing. My friends wanted to learn Bollywood dance moves other than the stereotypical “twist the light bulb.” Too lazy to teach them, I told them to do BnB next year. 

Now that I am a second-semester senior, I spend my time doing, well, nothing except for what is required to maintain decent grades in school.

Letters of recommendation, lengthy essays, “reaches,” “targets” and “safeties.” 

For the past few months, the members of /the Indian Cultural Awareness Club have been preparing for their biggest event of the year, Bombay in the Bay (BnB). This annual showcase, on Feb. 14 and 15, features SHS students performing several Indian dance numbers. Dances this year include the four grade dances; a teacher dance; Bhangra, which is a traditional Punjabi dance; and a classical dance. In past years, there had been a Garba segment, which was a traditional Gujurati dance, but it has been eliminated this year because nobody volunteered to lead the dance, according to senior officers Sachi Verma, Raj Thakkar, Ruchi Jain, Trishika Shetty, Rohan Hardikar, Rick Roy and Priyanka Krishnamurti. With less than a month to go, the officers, performers and parents of Bombay in the Bay are scrambling to take care of the remaining logistical issues. The officers still need to find a charity, determine the sponsors and select a caterer for dinner for the Saturday night show.

Led by this year’s recently appointed captains, the speech and debate team ranked in almost every event at the annual Santa Clara University Invitational on the weekend of Nov. 23. Seventy-three schools entered to compete in the tournament.

Nov. 18 marked the beginning of the first spirit week of the school year, as students donned mustaches and other forms of facial hair to dress up for Mustache Monday. The rest of the spirit week included Tuesday Mathletes vs Athletes, Western Wednesday, Disney Thursday and Formal Friday. 

On Oct. 18, the Falcons played the Palo Alto Vikings at home and lost 55-21. This result continued the Falcons’ losing streak from the past few games, making their overall record 1-5.

Back in elementary school when we were boisterous and under 5 feet tall, after-school Clubhouse daycare was the highlight of our days, on Fridays especially because we got to jump into a magical fantasy world full of talking fish, flying carpets and song and dance through many Disney classics. 

The spanish 4 and 5 classes went to see a play called "Macario" about a poor Mexican woodcutter.

Many private universities offer students two options to apply early: early action and early decision. Early decision requires students who are admitted to attend the university, while early action doesn’t.

This is a story that begins in the sixth grade.    Senior Jonathan Walters, then only a sub 5-foot 11-year-old, was playing on the local Pop Warner team.  

Junior Akshay Madhani released his newest mobile application, My Help Alert, to the public on May 18. With a single click of a button, this free app allows people to notify their family and friends in case of an emergency.

This year’s National Speech and Debate Qualifiers was the first time in the last few years that the team qualified students to nationals. 

Last August, senior Benedict Chiu met with his guidance counselor Monique Young to talk about college applications. What lay before him seemed like a huge and daunting task.

In early February, seniors Fred Feyzi, Pablo Riesgo and Stephen Ruff started the community’s first mixer company: FPS Ragers. Each month they plan to host a mixer, a dance for people of all different high schools, and with the profits, the group will donate to charity and split the rest evenly.

Once again, the speech and debate team displayed an impressive performance at the Coast Forensic League Tournament 3, with many schools such as Milpitas, Bellarmine, and Leland, on March 2. 

The speech and debate team competed in two back-to-back tournaments in late January as the season started to pick up its pace: the Martin Luther King Jr. tournament held at James Logan High on Jan. 20, and the CFL League 2 at Milpitas High on Jan. 27.

In almost every movie, television series and novel with a Valentine’s Day special, there’s always that happy couple who has a romantic evening with a candlelight dinner, and of course, the lonely, single friend, who spends his night with a movie and a box of chocolates labeled “to me, from me.”

Colleges want a well-rounded class. They want the science fair winner, the well-decorated musician, the 16-year-old entrepreneur, the Eagle Scout and the published author. They also want the hefty donations that they often receive from proud alumni.

After two disappointing results midseason, the 2-2-3 soccer team has to dust itself off and prepare to fight, as the next games will determine the outcome of the season.

Juniors Andrew Chang, Alex Renda, Nikil Ramanathan and Mihir Iyer shave been working for the past few weeks designing a website explaining the significance of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The group has entered the annual National History Day competition and must complete their entry in early February.

 After two disappointing results midseason, the 2-2-3 soccer team has to dust itself off and prepare to fight, as the next games will determine the outcome of the season.

As the winter season begins, the boys’ varsity soccer team must cope with drastic changes. With most of last year’s starters graduated, players are learning new their roles.

Ten contestants took the stage on Nov. 29 at this year’s Saratoga Idol in the McAfee Center. Each contestant sang one song in the preliminary round, and then the top three singers were chosen by the audience to sing in the next round.

At the Santa Clara University tournament over the Nov. 16 weekend, the members of the speech and debate team displayed an impressive show as many individuals advanced to the final rounds in multiple events against participants from 47 different schools.

On Oct. 20, as sophomores and juniors arrived at the school to take the dreaded PSAT, some members of the speech and debate team departed for Gunn High School for the first league debate tournament of the year.

The “Saratoga Bubble” has for the most part shielded the community from the recent budget crisis.

As the speech and debate team expands, there has been considerable interest in going to higher level tournaments across the country.