Tag: Story

The clock strikes. The seventh graders scurried towards the library, jostling,  edging each other like sardines in a can. Kim was the band leader and was followed by the others. The music competition was nearing and it was building up a frenzy.

They hurried into the library where they were hastily silenced by the firm librarian. They gingerly stepped towards the rows of brightly colored books cramped on the towering book cases, a world of words waiting to be raided. They glanced towards the poetry section which consisted of spectacular bindings with golden letters engraved like inscriptions on a monument. They seated themselves with the screeching sound of the chairs disturbing the golden silence of the ambience, again to be hushed.

Soon a cacophony of noise could be heard in the corridors and the eighth graders entered laughing and chattering joyfully. They sat in a remote corner whispering and giggling. The musty pages wafts antique melodious songs from the books to the lips of the band. Kim was entirely in a trance with the songs around him This particular song had touched his heart.

The eighth graders were constantly irritating him. She was getting distracted. This was also compelling her to get out of the magical world she was meandering in. She cast a warning look towards the other group only to be ignored. They gave her a cold shoulder.

Kim and the band were livid. They agitatedly walked towards them and what followed was a brawl. The librarian tried to intervene but it was too late. The picturesque song book lay all over with the tattered pages relating another story.

Beauty is the language of nature. And beauty is found in art. So here’s a story about a boy, a fanatic for art.

George, a 9th grader was crazy for art. Well, being crazy for art was natural as he belonged to the home town of the great artist ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ the creator of the famous painting Mona Lisa. Paris also has one of the most expensive painting galleries of the world – Le Musée du Louvre.

George was from an extremely rich family. He had been to the museum-like a hundred times. He was fascinated by the beauty of the museum and so he was attracted to art. He always made his paintings with his most favourite brush which was like his magic wand. One fine evening, he decided to paint. And what a shock he got!! He had lost his magic wand – his most favourite paintbrush. He was disheartened. So, he explained the whole situation to his mother, who understood her son’s sorrow and gave him money to buy a new paintbrush of his choice.

So George set off on his cycle to the market. It was a hazy evening. While stopping on a crossroad he spotted a young man selling paintbrushes towards the right side of the road. So he changed his course and turned right. He stopped by the footpath and beckoned to the young man. The young man came to him.

George said, “I need a paintbrush and these look of good quality, aren’t they?

The man said, “Yes, these paintbrushes are indeed of the best quality. They also have a special quality, if you paint anything you will enter the painting and see it in actuality. Yes, I am sure you also, like everyone, won’t believe me. But it’s true.”

George thought, “Just a foolish man roaming on the streets” and then he said, “Yes, I can’t believe you. Anyway, how much is the brush for?”

The young man replied, “The brush is for $2.”

George gave the man money and then he set off back home thinking, “I think the young man was told the same story by someone and he is just spreading rumours about this brush.”

After reaching home, he commenced his painting. In an hour or so, he completed the painting. He was admiring it and just then – as the young man had told him – he entered the painting and saw it in reality. It truly looked amazing. What he painted was a pure blue river with fir trees along its sides and majestic mountains with snow-covered peaks. And the sun behind the clouds, making them look as if the clouds were orange-ish pink. It was truly mind-blowing. George stayed in the painting for about 5 minutes and then he came out. It was a stupendous adventure. He told his family about it and they too were astonished to hear it.

A few days later an idea popped into George’s mind. He took $30 from his mother and went to the same crossroad where he had met the young man. He saw him and then he gave him these $30 and apologised for not believing him. George asked him, “What is your name?”

He said, “I am William Smith.”

George thanked William and then set off back home. After arriving home, he slept as it was night. In the night, he had a vivid dream that he had become a world-famous painter. He saw that he had been named as ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. The next day he awoke feeling overjoyed with the dream. He told his family about this vivid dream. His family members told him that indeed his dream will come true.

Three and a half years later, after graduating from school, he got admission to the National School Fine Arts De Lyon where he studied art with hard work. After much time his dream came true. He became an art expert widely known as Leonardo da Vinci Junior.

Today, my grandfather and I met for the first time after the lockdown. I was so excited to meet him and by the way, I forgot to tell you that my grandfather lives in Assam. We both are nature lovers. Sadly people have started to destroy nature.

When our flight reached Assam, we took a taxi to my grandfather’s house. My grandfather is a retired forest conservationist. There was a small but lush green forest. In the evening, my parents had to go somewhere, so they left me with my grandfather. After a few minutes, we heard a call of distress coming from the forest, so we headed into the depths of the forest. We heard the call of distress again and followed it, and finally, we found it was a sambar caught in a trap set by hunters. It was wounded because of the trap. The sambar tried to stand, but it could not do so, as it was badly wounded. I gently moved my hand around its body to pacify him, and soon it got to know that we were his friends and not the ones who would cause harm. We decided to take it home and take care of it, but then we realized we were lost in the forest.

I asked my grandfather if he had his phone. He checked his pockets. He had lost the phone. It might have fallen out when we were running. It was still daytime, and we had the rescued sambar with us, so we quickly started working. My grandfather told me to look after the sambar and find a cave by the time he went to gather some food and wood.

I soon found a cave. It was very dirty, so I took a branch of a tree and used it as a broom to clean the floor. After cleaning the floor, I took the sambar inside the cave. Then I went out and got some grass for the sambar. After a while, my grandfather also came back. He had brought some fruits and water, but before drinking the water we had to boil it, so we had to light a fire. My grandfather came up with a technique named The Hand Drill, which he had learned during his forest survival training camp. It would take some time, but it was the only option we had, and luckily we were able to light the fire and boil the water. We drank some water and also gave it to the sambar, and then we slept.

On the second day my grandfather went to set some traps to catch fish, collect some firewood and water. I loved watching survival channels. So I know something about the wild forest. There were many bamboo trees around our cave. I took a stone as a sharp knife and started to cut some bamboo trees to make a raft. It took me the whole day. When my grandfather returned, I was shocked to see that he had a handful of fish and fruits that night. We ate nicely.

My grandfather said that we needed to set a huge fire as a sign that we were alive and help the police find us. I showed him the raft I had made and he was happy and hugged me. We got back to chopping down wood for the fire. It was evening by then. We started the fire at night. We saw some torches at a distance. We were so excited! And then we could hear the footsteps closer. Then we both shouted with excitement, so the police could hear us, and it did work. We saw the police and finally we were rescued.

This was the best adventure with my grandfather.

My vacation had just started. I wanted to go for an outing. It had been almost two years since I had gone on a trip. I asked my father to plan a trip. After a few days, my father decided to go to Goa for a tour. I agreed at once.
We packed our bags and the next day we set out for the trip. When we reached Goa, we decided to live at our uncle’s place. He had a big mansion. It was lovely. The interior of the house was pleasing. Beautiful pictures hung on the walls of the house. Many attractive art pieces were used to decorate the house. There were several rooms in it.
While exploring the house, I saw a small dusty room. It seemed as if no one had visited that room in a long time. There was a closet in that room. I opened the closet and saw a weird thing. It was a small machine with several buttons.
Accidentally, I pressed a button and to my surprise, I realized that I had landed on another planet. It was similar to Earth. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The natives of that planet were similar to that of Earth. It had water. It had life!! But the twin earth was not developed. There was no technology. People lived in villages. I was worried and excited.
I started walking on the surface of the twin earth. After some distance a few natives of the planet came near me and said “caraboujon”. “What is caraboujon!!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t understand their language and had a blank look on my face.
One of those men knew English. He had once visited our Earth where he had learnt English. The man said “My name is Geronimo. Hundreds of years ago, there was a ship named Caraboujon. It was one of the best ships of those times. Every sailor wanted this ship. Many pirates attacked Caraboujon to capture it.”
“But why did every sailor want Caraboujon? What was so special about that ship? I enquired. Geronimo continued, “The Caraboujon has a hidden treasure in it. The captain of the ship wanted the treasure to be found by someone who is honest, kind, pure hearted, innocent, intelligent and someone who would use the treasure in the right manner but till now no one has found that ship or the treasure.”
I said “I will help you to find the hidden treasure. It would be exciting.”
The next day a throng of people along with Geronimo and I set out to find the hidden treasure. While walking Geronimo found something hard under his feet. He dug a bit and found a small box. He opened the box. It had a piece of paper on which was written “You are very close to the most precious thing in the world.” I understood that the treasure was somewhere very close to us. A group of men started digging. After digging for some time I found a rock with an inscription. I read it out loud, “6 km deep and you are the richest. 1 km wide and 10 tons”.
I understood the meaning of the note. I said “After digging for 6 km we will find the Caraboujon and the hidden treasure, the ship is grand. It is 1 km wide and weighs 10 tons.” All the men got excited and resumed digging. After digging for a week, they found the grand and majestic Caraboujon. In the storehouse of Caraboujon was the hidden treasure. There were tanks filled with gold and silver jewelry, loads of diamonds and precious stones and many more. Everyone had sparkling eyes. All the people were on cloud nine. Geronimo thanked me for helping him to find the treasure. He also gave me some jewels and precious stones. Now it was time for me to return home. I had a very good time with the natives of twin Earth. I pressed the button of the machine again and returned home.

There were two girls, Samridhi and Surbhi. They were sisters but totally different in nature. Samridhi was intelligent and kind but she was ugly. She used to utilize her time in studying, whereas Surbhi was beautiful but mean. She used to waste her time on makeovers and on enhancing her looks. She used to tease Samridhi as she was not beautiful. Both belonged to a poor family. They barely had enough money to get food and water. 

Once an old man visited them. The man looked poor and weak. Samridhi offered him water but Surbhi refused to even talk to him. After some time the man said to Samridhi  “You are very sweet dear I can’t afford anything to give you as a gift but I can tell you a secret,” he whispered. He said that there is a cave inside which there is a stone. If you answer a set of questions that the stone asks correctly then you will get a treasure. 

Samridhi was on cloud nine when she heard the old man. Surbhi was eavesdropping. The next morning Samridhi left early, Surbhi followed her. When Samridhi entered the cave and Surbhi was about to, a rock came in between and Surbhi got stuck outside. Inside the cave Samridhi saw an enormous rock and it said “Welcome dear. I am going to ask you a few questions. Will you be able to answer those?” 

Samridhi said “Yes.”  Then the rock asked her “ Which animal dies when it drinks water?” Samridhi answered, “It’s a kangaroo rat.” The rock smiled then he asked “Who built the Jama Masjid?” Again Samridhi replied correctly, “Ahmed Shah built it.” The rock was impressed with Samridhi. It said, “It is clear that you are capable, so here is your treasure.” 

Samridhi was over the moon, she exited that place and then came Surbhi. She was furious and she asked the rock, “Where is that ugly girl?” It asked Surbhi the same things that it had asked Samridhi but the reaction was completely different. She laughed and said “You are going to ask me something so come on ask.” It asked her the same questions but she was totally blank. She didn’t know anything then the rock ordered her to get out. Surbhi got scared and ran away, Samridhi purchased a huge house and lived happily ever after.

Moral – If you are not kind-hearted and wise there is no use of any other talent.

‘What would be more enjoyable than flying in a plane gazing at the shapes that the clouds form! Isn’t it fascinating that those gigantic islands look so tiny from the plane?’
‘Woof woof,’ my dog said, interrupting me. It seemed as if he was saying, ‘Sure it is!’ But unfortunately we couldn’t enjoy our trip for long as a tremendous windstorm blocked our way. It was coming closer and closer.
I was horrified and soon a blasting voice came and the windstorm broke the entire aircraft in a flash of lightning.’AAAaaaa aaaa’ Snowy and I shouted and before we knew it we fell unconscious.
As my eyes opened I saw two greenish-red eyes staring at me. I was shocked and jumped without realizing that I was on a branch. I fell on Snowy’s tail. He almost bit me. We realized now that we were in the middle of a jungle on an island. We could see creepy-crawlies all around us. We decided to settle down for a while and find our way out soon.
As we were searching for a place to stay I thought we should move forward so that we could trace from where we came but due to a sudden terrifying voice we started running and lost sense of direction. Now we had lost our way. I was disappointed but that was a blessing in disguise as we found a cave near us. We entered it. It was warm there. It was all dark but light entered through a little hole.
We followed the trail and reached a jungle. We were taken by surprise as there were no creepy crawlies. Soon we found a hut, we were delighted and ran towards it. We opened the door and our hearts stood still. We saw a lion drinking soup happily while a lioness was baking a cake. They looked at us with a smile.
We thought they were going to eat us but then they said in a very soft and sweet voice, “Hello visitors, would you like to have a piece of cake?”
We entered the hut believing them as we were starving. The cake was scrumptious. They told us that the cave is the doorway to the unscrambled jungle but the problem is that the cave keeps changing its place so we have to find it.
“Of course we will find it.” I said confidently.
“Easier said than done,” said the lion.
Two days passed but we could not find any clue but we did not lose hope, we kept moving and saw a dinosaur! It looked as scary as a devil and as tall as Burj Khalifa. That creature made my blood run cold.
I did not expect that the next minute it would jump and wag its tail like a puppy but it did. We all chuckled. I asked him about the cave which was playing hide and seek with us. He told us that it was near the waterfall. We rushed there and finally saw the cave. Snowy and I thanked all the animals and hopped into the cave.

It was a bright, sunny day and Sunny and Lola were hanging out at Sunny’s residence. Their families had known each other for years. Sunny and Lola were playing in the garden as their mothers were gossiping in the living room. They were running, jumping, laughing, and having a great time. They then decided to play on the swing in the garden. 

It was Sunny’s turn first; who had a great time as Lola pushed the swing high into the air. He soared high in the air when Lola yelled, “Come on Sunny! You’ve been playing on the swing for the past 10 minutes! It’s my turn now!” 

“Just 5 minutes more!” He yelled, coming back down and then going high into the air again. 

“No! I am not going to fall for this trick! It’s my turn!” She exclaimed, in an adamant manner. 

“Okay, fine!” He said as he stopped the flow of the swing and jumped down. “It’s all yours now.” He added. 

“Yay!” She said as she sat on the swing. She signaled him to push the swing. 

“Here you go!” He yelled as he pushed the swing. 

“Woohoo! Yippee!” A delighted Lola said as she swung up, high into the air. 

They were enjoying it to the fullest, when Lola started chatting. “Sunny, do you know, my papa bought me a brand-new laptop! I play my favorite games on it in the evening. Also, my mum bought me a beautiful colored pencil set! I make beautiful drawings with it whenever I’m free. My parents say that I am a great child and I deserve every happiness in the world!” She boasted. She kept on boasting and showing off her riches. Sunny, who of course didn’t like it a bit, decided to teach her a lesson. 

“Well that’s great Lola, but even my parents bought me something.” He said while pushing her into the air again. “Oh really, what is it?” Lola asked curiously. “It’s a pup which can talk.” He replied, giggling under his breath. “What? Is it so? Show it to me then” demanded a keen and curious Lola. “Fine then, I’ll go fetch it from inside” he said as he went inside. 

Lola continued playing on the swing. A few minutes later, Sunny returned with his hands behind his back. He tiptoed towards the swing. When he reached behind the swing, he brought his hands in front and yelled, “BOO!!!” Lola, who hadn’t noticed him, nearly fell off the swing. 

“Eekk!!” She shrieked. 

“Hahahahahahahahaha!! Sunny laughed. 

“You!” Lola said in anger. 

He had the puppet of a duck in his hands. “Remember I told you my parents bought me a pup which can talk?” He asked. “Uh-huh.” She agreed, irritatedly. “This is it! Meet my friend, Mr. Dunken Duck!” He said. “Well hello, Lola! My name is Mr. Dunken Duck. Looks like you are friends with Sunny, who’s a great friend of mine, too! You know, he told me that I’ll meet you today. He also told me that you were boasting about yourself and showing off your gifts. Well, you shouldn’t behave like this. We are all special and the best in our parent’s eyes! Just like you, Sunny’s parents also bring him cool gifts. But he doesn’t like showing off.” Said Sunny, as Mr. Dunken Duck. 

Lola realized what Sunny wanted to tell her and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Sunny! I didn’t realize that I was boasting and showing off. I never meant to do so. I just thought that you’d like to know about them.” 

“No need to be disheartened, Lola. It’s okay. I forgive you, but promise me that you’ll not repeat it.” Sunny replied in his normal voice. “I promise!” Lola replied. “Great then, but now it’s my turn to play on the swing!” He replied. “Yes, it is.” She replied. Both smiled at each other and resumed playing.

One sunny afternoon the sly, clever and crafty cat, Tom, was sleeping. The mischievous and crafty mouse Jerry, got a splendid chance to steal cheese from the kitchen. So Jerry took the chance and cautiously went into the kitchen. He thought Tom was sleeping but he was wrong. Tom was pretending to sleep so that when Jerry came by, he would catch him and please his master.

Tom was sitting near the cheese quietly and peacefully waiting for Jerry to arrive. He soon came by and was about to take the cheese when Tom leapt towards him. But Jerry was fast and Tom could not catch him. So Tom started to run behind Jerry to catch him. And off they went from the living room to the bathroom, from the dining room to the master’s room. But Tom could not catch Jerry.

While they were running, they reached a room unknown to them or their master, the dungeons. As soon as they reached here, they stopped running and started walking cautiously as they were not aware of the dangers lying ahead. After walking some distance they saw a bright glimmer, and they realized that it was coming from a chest full of precious gems.

They thought that they were dreaming, so they pinched each other. But they realized they weren’t so they filled their pockets with as many as gems they could and then they went back. After that they lived a happy and rich life.

Reward of Kindness
I was dejected after seeing my garden. It was ruined completely. All of a sudden I found dried grass, dead plants and pale flowers. Everything seemed to be lifeless. Oh, I spotted something weird. A mysterious glass jar kept in the farthest corner of the garden with an apple inside it. It seemed as if it wanted to draw my attention.The label said –
“Magical Apple
The person who eats it, will experience a great surprise”

Now, I couldn’t stop myself from eating it.

The moment I ate that apple, something incredible happened. I was back in my happy world where everyone could breathe, enjoy, and live freely without any fear. And yes, it was our beautiful world before this pandemic. I saw myself playing, enjoying and studying together with my friends, especially without a mask. My eyes were in tears. Soon, a beautiful fairy appeared in front of me.
She said, “All humans started dominating nature instead of understanding the importance of the environment. Hence, we wanted to teach them a lesson. They forgot that imbalance in the ecosystem can lead to devastation.”

I asked her how I could help to get the situation back to normal. She said, “I am giving you a few seeds of kindness which you need to sow for each mask you wear in your garden to help the situation get back to normal.”

Immediately after taking those seeds from her hands, I found myself in my lifeless backyard. I sowed a few seeds for the number of masks I wore. Soon my lifeless garden became more beautiful than my original one!

The Brighter Side

Black is the royal shade,
which is quite tough to fade.
Black is the dazzling night sky,
also makes everyone feel like a young guy.
Black is a sign of sleep,
while counting the flock of sheep.
Black is the first step of education,
that builds up the bright future of our nation.