Shishukunj

Inspiration drawn from Helen Keller

Kanishka Chouhan, Class X A

Inspiration drawn from :

The Story of My Life – Helen Keller

Prescribed novel for Class X

It is rightly said that Helen’s life is a powerful message on how life can be lived to the fullest despite several challenges. In spite of being blind, deaf and almost mute from early childhood, Helen rose up, fought all the challenges that came her way, learned to speak and did not miss a single chance to discover nature or the world of literature.

Her favourite pass-time was reading books. She used to read her favourite poems or passages again and again. She read not only in English but in French, German and Latin! With her friends she enjoyed sailing and canoeing in the rivers, especially during moonlit nights. Helen was fascinated by theater to a similar extent. She could not see the play, but loved it being described on her hand while it was going on.

She used to visit many theaters, museums and art galleries where she could feel the expressions of the sculptors and the imagination of an artist by just tracing her hand over the curves of the figure or the painting.

Helen loved the company of small children. She would narrate to them stories or teach them a new game and was always excited to understand what they wanted to convey to her. She had a wonderful company of dogs who understood her limitations and stayed close to her.

Helen inspires all people to enjoy their lives to the fullest by setting herself as an example in front of them.

A Four ‘O Clock Dream

By Vasudha Gupta, Class VII B

Once, the goddess of intelligence was growing old and weak. She started thinking about the next heir to the throne of intelligence who would occupy her position in heaven as she did not have a child. So, she decided to take a person from the human world. After months of hardwork, she finally found twins Judy and Garnet, who were both intelligent and suitable for the position. She did not want her successor to be overconfident or arrogant. And, since only one could be the next goddess, she prepared a test for the twins.

One night when the twins were asleep, at exacly 4 am, the goddess of intelligence gave the twins a similar dream. In the dream, they saw that they would fail in the coming set of exams. This dream woke the twins in a shock. When they discovered that it was only 4 am, they were further worried. It is believed that a 4 am dream always comes true.

Garnet immediately put all thoughts aside and started preparing for the test. But Judy said, ‘What a sissy! It was just a dream. You are intelligent enough to know that. There’s no need to worry.’

The result was obvious. The goddess had dilemma further. She decided that it would be Garnet who would inherit the throne of intelligence. She had earned it, hadn’t she?

Tonight The Last Night

By Sahaj Kori, VII A

Once upon a time, there was a university in the far land on a hill. It was actually was a castle. But many preferred not to go to study there because of the rumours about ghosts and phantoms. No one had ever seen the ghosts, the accidents were the only proof. But there were three young scholars who stayed together in a room of the university’s hostel. All of them were brilliant in studies and topped in every exam. They were Percy, Jason and Frank. Percy, Jason and Frank were in their senior and last year and it was the last night in their hostel.

Late at midnight Jason got up from his dorm room and headed for the bathroom in the dark. When he reached the door her heard a long creak and it became still. ‘Who’s there?’ Jason called out, but there was no response. On his way back he heard another voice which called out ‘Jaaasssssooonnn!!Help!’ He ran in the direction the voice seemed to come from, but when he reached the stairs in the corridor there was nothing. He thought he was hallucinating and returned to the dorm room. Suddenly a ghost with flashy fangs and demon wings dropped from the ceiling. He was so terrified that he couldn’t even scream for help. He ran towards the stairs. Another ghost without any head was waiting for him. ‘You will die’ it said. Suddenly there was a flash of pure white light and the ghost was reduced to smoke.
Jason couldn’t believe his eyes but standing beside him was Percy himself with a crazy grin spreading across his face and a crystal sword in his hand. On his left was Frank with a six feet long javelin glowing from its crystal aura. Surprised, he asked his friends, ‘What are you guys trying to do? It’s one in the night and last day for the university and you are roaming in the lobbies and the corridors and scaring people. Guys seriously it’s no time to carry out a practical joke!’ Percy stopped him and said, ‘Jason, it is time now that you know that you are a half born. It means you are a special child of the spirit of the light. People like us are supposed to save the world from the nightmare and ghosts led by their leader lady May. She controls the spirits of darkness and is unstoppable. But, we have to stop her and now we have located her. She is in this university. We got the signal from the spirit of light that we will find a half born here. When we found you, we became your best friends.’
Jason finally had the courage to ask, ‘All right I’ll help you but tell me is this sword real?’ ‘Yes, Very much real and extremely effective on ghosts.’ ‘Let’s go and find her’. The three of them checked every room but found nothing. Finally Jason spotted her and it seemed that she was searching for them as well. It happened like this:-

– They go to the faculty room.

– Find their math’s teacher sitting on her desk at four o’clock in the morning.

– Jason messes up by dropping his sword.

– Their teacher looks up speaks ‘I am lady May and you seem to be half born so naturally I’m going to stop you and your cursed spirit and end your life. Time to say good bye little heroes. Hee heee hhheeeee hhhheeeeee!!’ she crackled and floated out of the room.

They followed her to the top of the castle and suddenly she charged towards them. But Jason suddenly felt a bolt of power coursing through his body. He yelled ‘IMPHAZAZLC!!’ and a white hot bolt of lightning came from nowhere and vaporized her.

No one spoke till five o’ clock as they sat watching the rising sun. Finally Percy piped up and said ‘You are a special one….’ He put one hand around Jason and another around Frank and said, ‘Let’s enjoy our graduation friends we now have lots of work to do!’ saying this he and his godly friends turned to get dressed for the graduation ceremony.

Jason woke up as light was streaming inside his dorm room and Percy and Frank were dressing for the event. ‘Are you not coming?’ Percy asked. Then he understood that he had been dreaming all the time. ‘Come on let’s get our degrees,’ he said as he got out of bed.

Nature

By Aditi Jaisinghani, Class XI A

Three Naughty Monkeys

By Harsh Agrawal, Class VII A

Once upon a time, there lived three monkeys. Their names were Harsh, Aditya and Divyansh. Each of them was very poor in studies. They were always scolded by all the teachers. One dark stormy night, a witch appeared suddenly from the dark, dense clouds. The monkeys got extremely scared. The witch took out her magic stick and showed a statue to them. She told them that if they would not study, she would convert them into a statue. But the three of them still continued to trouble the teachers. The next day was the graduation ceremony.

The witch did some magic in the graduation caps that were to be worn by the three monkeys. On the graduation day when the monkeys were wearing the caps two of them turned into statues. Having watched this, the third one did not wear the cap. So, the witch made him a statue using her magical wand. Today also the two monkeys are statues with graduation caps on them and the third one without the graduation cap.

The Three Monkeys

By Shlok Sabarwal, Class VI F

The story starts when a group of Chinese people visited India and gifted Gandhi ji a Chinese toy which had three monkeys on it. They said this is just a toy but it teaches a very important lesson. They said that each of the monkeys stood for something. The first monkey, Mizaru who sees no evil, the second monkey, Kikazaru who hears no evil and the third monkey, Iwazaru who speaks no evil. Gandhi ji kept this toy with them all lifelong. This knowledge was passed down to us but nowadays this knowledge has faded, people see evil, hear evil and speak evil. People thought to protest against evil but their method of protesting was wrong. They tried to fight evil with evil which increased the evil nowadays. When one sees or hears evil it’s like having a disease, first his body absorbs it and then the body tries to release it. It’s like stepping on a gum, it’s hard to get rid of it and we take it with us…

The worst part is that when we encounter evil we try to get others involved in it and we pass it on. Nowadays children can see evil everywhere they go. For example, news, games and movies are full of violence which makes the children imbibe the violence. For example, on April 20, 1999 two students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were caught on the high school’s camera in the cafeteria shortly before committing suicide. This was the effect of seeing and watching evil.

We went to stop evil but we became a part of it. That is the reason why we need to bring back the three wise monkeys again. This doesn’t mean that we should stop protesting. This means that we should just change our manner of fighting evil. We should use peaceful manners to fight against evil and once again evil would not be a part of us.

Benefits of waking up early

By Debanshi Bansal, Class VII A

Only the early bird gets the worm!

Allow me to express my views on the merits of getting up early. Before saying anything, I would like to ask how many of you get up early and see the beauty of the rising sun? What’s that? Nobody?

Our ancestors used to get up very early and were able to use the time for their daily chores. Today’s generation is a pack of lazy people!

‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.’ This quote by Benjamin Franklin enlightens us about the importance and value of getting up early.

Once a customer asked a shopkeeper the price of a certain book.

“2 pounds”, came the reply.

The customer started bargaining with the owner. After sometime the customer again asked the shopkeeper, “So one last time, tell me, what is the price of this book?”

“2 and a half pounds.”

The customer was shocked. “When I asked you last time you said it was worth 2 pounds, how can the price increase now?”

The shopkeeper replied, “2 pounds is the price of the book and half pound for the time I invested into it.”

The early morning breeze freshens our mind and relaxes our body. For some people, it’s the best time to exercise. One can even use this time to study as lessons learnt at this time are retained well. No chances of getting up late and missing the school bus.

So, wisely use your morning. Get up early, take a deep breath and plan your day. And don’t forget to remember the quotes!