Day one in the new home

Darkness around, and I woke up. It was still middle of the night and I was all tucked up cosily in my bed.

Scenes from the morning started playing like a movie. It was a tough day for me, mom and dad. Shifting from hotel to new rented house in an alien land was quite difficult. And for me it was little scary too. The quietness (unlike noisy Indian ambience) where you can hear whispers loudly "sounded" creepy. You can hear every step. Moreover, there was no…no…no home like feeling yet. Biggest problem was that we don’t yet have a TV at new house and so I latched onto every minute of TV at hotel, trying to soak in like a camel would store water in its hump, before starting the long journey in a desert.

Finally the car keys turned on the and rattling sound of engine with the loud heater fan inside started humming in unison and we started down the narrow lanes and green pastures….

Pop!

Suddenly my eyes opened and I felt a movement and then I saw a streak of light. It beckoned me to follow. I followed the light in thin air with mixed feelings of fear and excitement. I wondered what was in store for me and at the same time trembled if I will be able to return home! It invoked a conversation from within. The safety part of mine kept saying-“Don’t go Jappi. You will be in great danger”. But adventurous part pegged me on, “You have learnt karate, even if you left it at yellow belt. You can surely defeat the bad guys or at least scream aloud!”

 And then I saw my unicorn trying to set itself free. The walls around were looking at me. I broke into a cold sweat. I was running after the unicorn in the dreamland and I heard something falling down the staircase. Might have been a vase or pot. And I pulled the covers over my head and felt for protection of my mom by side…and slept off, huddled in the cosy comfort of my “fairy” mother.

The journey in the armchair

I was in the armchair
said I narrating at a pace
When suddenly I felt the air
blowing on my face!

And then I saw on the road
many a kids and cats
and suddenly I found myself in Shiva's abode
and sages on the mats.

Glad was I to be down the mountain
for it was very bumpy
Happy to in the strange field of cotton
with no cotton, but eggs
I thought I saw Humpty Dumpty
But instead I saw pegs

Said I ,sadly, was it me?
And that's when I saw my mom
holding my wardrobe key.

Stand out and stare..

     I cannot stand out and stare as there is too much work at school. Homework, going to tuitions or doing projects is nothing. Many a times I even have to go out to shopping malls or accompany parents to someone's house from 11 am to 10 in the night! With this fast paced life, there is really no time to lookout and appreciate nature's beauty all around us.

Sometimes, we do get lucky and get an opportunity to stand and glance (only glance) out of the window. But then I have to quickly return to our routine world again and start rattling away with the chores. If only I can, then I would love to sit long hours in the balcony and stare at the lovely violet and indigo afternoon sky, with birds chirruping their way to home or to nowhere; the gentle breeze blowing through the trees causing them to sway a little or tiny drops of rain gently pitter-patter on the roof of the house. I would go for a walk, see blooms and butterflies hovering around me and the sun rising behind the gray mountains.

Alas, it can only be a dream to most and even impossible for some. I think that at least children should enjoy all this because when we grow up we might never be able to see it again.
 

Lunch time at School..

At 12 30 pm, the bell rang for lunch at school and everybody ran out. However, I and Ananya went out last, in the fear of being followed. As we went down the winding stairs   many –a thoughts went racing in my mind; worries about what is in store ahead during the lunch hour. I knew that there is no escape from what was going to happen.

After what seemed like a century, we reached the designated place at the ground. By that time we could see that all the lunchboxes were opened and people had their handful and mouthful –both with food and chitter-chatter. Slowly we also opened our boxes.

And I remembered what happened at snack break earlier….
I was the first to eat my “LUNCH” as I tried to preserve “the snack” for later (and relish slowly). How could you expect me to complete the lunch in 10 minutes snack break?

Back to lunch time.

I quickly gobbled our boring, tasteless (Rotis with curry, can it ever be tasty or different) lunch or whatever was left of it from snack break. By this time, my friend Ananya also had gulped her stuff. We tried to sneak away from the group - Sneha, Aditi, Shruti,Yesha, and Anusha B. We tried to washout the remnants of tasteless rotis, with sufficient water, so as not spoil the taste of what was about to come.

World seemed to have gone into slow motion, as we opened our snackbox.

We checked what Ananya’s had in it. A slice of Cheese and a Nutri bar, smiling at us, inviting our watering mouth. I also had an almost melting chocolate given to me earlier by Anusha B. But the real star of the day has to wait for little longer.

We , I and Ananya,  divided the chocolate into half and slowly licked it till we were only left with flavoured fingers. Then it was the turn of Cheesy slice and Nutri bar (of course divided into two), to go the same route.

We two huddled together to ensure not even the smell of IT goes out. You never know how hyper my friends can become, if they as much as sniff IT.  For a moment, a horrible evil thought took over my mind- should I run away with the treasure box? I know it is not right to ditch your friend, but it is not always easy to control.

Delicious fruity smell engulfed the atmosphere. Finally, the star of the day was to make the appearance – 10 Jelly Belly and single Fruit Gem. Slowly one by one, (every piece equally divided) each of the 10 pieces made their way to our eager and watering tongue. First strawberry, then lime, followed by bubble gum….and so on. We took care not to bite them, just sucked and let the juices flow in.

We were completely lost, savouring the sweet-sour taste- two princesses in paradise.

Finally, it was time for the king to arrive in our mouth. I knew that had I not divided the fruit gem properly. If she comes to know, my friend would have strangled me. Sadly, our joy was to not last long. For the second we kept the sour sweet in our mouth, the wretched bell rang. Yet we sucked on the tasty gem through class.

Have you ever experienced this?                       

Colours of life..

A strange Journey

Once upon a time in a far off jungle, lived two best friends – Mr Chameleon and Mr Centipede.

            One day, Mr Chameleon came across a book about Egypt. The friends put on their reading glasses and dreaming mind, and with great interest read about the great Pyramids and Pharaohs who built them. They read about how marvellous they were, and how people from world over would come and visit these every year. They felt eager to see one for themselves and started packing up.

            After an arduous but largely uneventful journey they finally reached the land of river Nile, mysterious mummies and sphinx- Egypt.

Just as they were approaching one of the pyramids, they met a lady with a luminous dress. Lady saw that the two friends looked tired, and she offered them some marshmallows and suggested them to take some rest. They gratefully looked at her, and quickly gobbled it up.

Since it started getting dark, friends paused and decided on next course of action. Since it won’t be easy to move around or see anything in the darkness of night, they decided to call it a day and hit the bed.

Next morning, the Chameleon and Centipede started their journey again, and slowly inched towards their destination. Finally when they reached there, they were awestruck. From the book they could never imagine how extraordinary and marvellous those structures were in reality. They couldn’t get enough of it looking from outside. So Mr Centipede asked his friend,” Shall we see it from inside?” Chameleon responded, “Why not?”

They found one slightly loose stone, and squeezed inside the pyramid. And they froze in shock and started shivering at the same time! Standing there in the dark, was the same lady in luminous dress they met earlier, but she was strangely bloated now.

“I think this place is haunted! Let’s run for our life”, shrieked Mr Chameleon. Mr Centipede also started to run, but could not, however hard he tried. Suddenly he felt a ticklish feeling inside him. He turned around and - because of his clumsiness and fear-fell down unconscious.

When he regained consciousness, he heard a voice telling him, “Wake up! Don’t want to be late for your office, do you?”

Planet of Cheese

Dear Diary,
            I had a terrible landing today. I was aiming to go to Pluto but due to some technical problems with the navigation system I reached the Transo Galexy.I broke to sweat as no human has entered this galaxy.

Soon I reached the last of the 32 plantes. It looked like a huge cheese ball and silvery in some areas. Then, slowy I landed on a huge volcano-size boulder. Then, I had my first sight of land, and I thought it to be a dream!. It was fully covered with real cheese! As I took my first step I heard speaking to myself, " This is madness." Soon I reached the silvery spots and started to dig. I don't know what came over me but I started to dig. And by the time I dug one meter I saw something sparkling and shining which made me jump. 10 thousand diamonds!! I realized that I am on a planet with impressive natural resources and which no one has visited or known of. A new planet has been discovered by astronomer Sanyukta Kollur!
After hoisting my flag and naming it "Dream Land" for it truly is a man's dreamland. After collecting samples of cheese, silver and 1000 diamonds I went back to my space ship. I know my discovery ill help mankind. Now, I have calculated and got to know that it will approximately take about 6 months to go back home, to MY HOME -the largest dreamland for anyone.

Olympics 500 BC

A news reporter speaking to one of the athletes

Ah! The moment we have been waiting for, the lighting of torch; the games yes. Now hold your breath for the Olympics have finally come!. Waiting of four long years have ended. Right now I am with the the amazing athlete Corbusices.

“So sir, tell me do you aspire or dream to win the ribbon and have a statue put up in your honour?”.

“Yes, I plan to bag it all”.

“Sir, can you tell me a little about the tradition of Olympic torch, how it is lit?”

“Well, my good fellow. First a lot of people hold a large mirror under the sun and focus its rays on the torch underneath it. And magically after sometime a small flicker starts on the torch and after some time finally it has fire.”

“How many games are there is Olympics”

“There are 10 games now being held under the Olympics that includes. Pentathlon, Sprints, Chariot racing, boating, wrestling and running. Originally it started with just 1-2 games but slowly other games were added over the years. Pentathlon includes five games. While chariot race and horse races are held in Hippodrome, athletics and wrestling bouts take place in main stadium at Olympia.”

“So, for how many days these games last?”

“Well, first Olympics were held only for a day but now various events are spread over 5 long days. And now, if you can excuse me, I have to practice for the day!”................