Tag Archives: Story

Writing

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if-word-clipart-1024x627One of the things I want to try my hand in during the next month or so is to start writing seriously. I’ve always loved writing and one of my favourite periods in school used to be the English composition period. In fact, I can remember myself in school, during the English exams, once we get the paper, the first thing I’d do is see the options for the composition section. Only after I made my choice, would I start to attempt the rest of the paper, wanting to savor the composition right at the end. All the while writing the paper, the composition would be writing itself in my head and I would pen it down once I’d done the other boring parts like grammar and the literature section.

In college, I wanted to do English Literature, but got suckered into doing Economics and Finance as I felt that’s where the nicer jobs were, but writing was something I did in secret. When Blogspot and later WordPress started, I was elated. This was a chance for me to start writing and this is where my blogging journey started. However, with the exception of last year, I’ve been more of an indifferent blogger, preferring to remain anonymous. I still prefer to blog anonymously, but my writing has started to get better in the last eighteen months or so of blogging regularly (or so I’d like to think)….

writing-a-book-two-people-clipart-1Like my reading, my writing is all over the place, but if I have a soft spot, then it will be for children’s books. I know that there are not many famous children’s book authors, but I love penning down small and sweet stories for the young. If the story has a kernel of something they learn in the process, that’s icing on the cake, as far as I am concerned. I have some stories written in this blog about a couple of monkeys called Chica and Chiki, modeled, as you’d probably have guessed correctly, on GG and BB!

I’d love to write more stories on my monkey twins and maybe some others. I know I have to do some research on how a children’s book is written and will do so. One part of this research will be to read more children’s books, but I am also planning to search for books on this subject as well as perhaps on creative writing? I am also looking for some courses in creative and writing, need to check the local universities, but I am not too optimistic about this. I will go online and maybe Coursera may have something for me.

I’ll definitely update once I start writing and who knows you people will be subjected to my stories here. When I do, please be honest in your reviews and critiques…..

Chica and Chiki are Brave

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Chica and Chiki woke up with a sense of anticipation. They, along with their friends from the Jungle school were going to be going on a picnic to the new waterpark which had recently opened. They had never been there and so were very excited to go there with their friends and play.

Both quickly woke up and got ready for school, much to the astonishment of their mama, who normally had to prod them to get ready. They quickly got the essentials ready – swimming costumes, towels, soap to clean up later, clean clothes, some food and water and went outside to wait for the bus to pick them up. The bus came with scores of happy children and kissing their mama good-bye Chica and Chiki got in to have the best day of their lives.

They reached the water park and teachers grouped them so that everyone could play in the various areas of the park without creating havoc and so everyone got a chance to play in each of the rides. Chica was initially upset that she was not with her best friend Rumi, but she quickly got over her snit and started enjoying herself.

Lunch time came and the teachers herded the children to have lunch. They also strictly told the children to have a nap after lunch as it was not good to play in the water immediately after eating. The children all obediently closed their eyes and went to sleep. Chiki was not sleepy and so started to slowly open his eyes to see what was happening around him. He found Chica also doing the same thing and both looked at each other started laughing, silently because they didn’t want to wake up the other children and get in trouble with the teachers.

Suddenly both of them heard faint shrieks. It looked like it was coming from the giant water slide. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. The teachers were still asleep and so Chiki and Chica decided to investigate. They quickly ran towards where the noise was coming from and found Rumi struggling in the water. There were no life guards around as everyone was resting after lunch. Chica tried to enter the water to help her friend, but the water was too deep for her. She quickly made a decision, “Chiki, quickly run and get help and I will wait here with Rumi”. Rumi was scared and crying and her stomach was also paining from drinking all the water.

Chika ran as fast as his little legs would carry him and went back to where the teachers and other children were resting. He ran to his favourite teacher, Mrs. Cat and shook her awake and cried, “Mrs. Cat, please come quickly….Rumi is in the water at the giant slide and her stomach is paining” Mrs. Cat was initially disconcerted and woke up with a start. She started scolding Chiki for being awake when all the other children were sleeping. But then the importance of his words penetrated and she soon woke up the other teachers. Two of the teachers ran to get help and Mrs. Cat and Mr. Hare ran with Chiki to the giant slide.

At the slide, Chica was frantic, Rumi’s cries were becoming fainter and she could see that something was wrong, but she didn’t know what to do. She thought hard, probably the hardest she had ever done, harder than when she thought for exams and suddenly had a brainwave. She tried to grab some of the umbrellas which were strewn outside the slide to help shield people from the harsh sun and tried to throw them to Rumi. “Rumi” she shouted, “Open the umbrella and try to use it as a boat”. Rumi was tired but tried her best to grab atleast one of the umbrellas. She tried hard and just when she wanted to give up, she finally caught one and opened it upside down. She hopped on and soon was floating on it.

By this time, the teachers, with Chiki in their wake, along with lifeguards were at the slide and the lifeguards swam to Rumi and brought her safely to ground. On the ground, Rumi put her down in shame as the teachers started scolding her. With tears streaming down her eyes, she apologized to them, “I am so sorry” she said “I know I was told not to get in the water immediately after eating, but I so wanted to play in the giant slide” She looked at Chica and Chiki and continued “Thank you Chica and Chiki for helping me”.
The teachers also praised Chiki and Chica for helping out Rumi, but they also got scolded for not resting when told to. However, since their misdemeanor meant that they could save their friends’ life, they did not get scolded much.

On the way home, all the children were tired and quiet. Mrs. Cat took the opportunity to teach some life lessons to them and said, “Children today was an important day and we all learnt something. Can anyone tell me what it was”. For a few minutes there was complete silence and then a small voice piped out, “We should listen when our elders tell us something”. “Correct, replied Mrs. Cat. Older people know what they talking about, so when they tell you to do or not to do something like today, they say it from experience. What else?” Noone spoke up, so she continued, “Chica and Chiki also showed bravery when they tried to save Rumi and got help, so if you find yourselves in a situation you can’t handle, get a responsible adult to help you”. All the children nodded their heads as they started to leave the bus, happy with a day well spent!

About how Chiki rode the elevator by himself

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This story is about the time when Chiki was a little boy. He is 8 years old now, so what happened in this story would not happen now!

When Chiki was a little boy, he used to go with his mama and sister to the library pretty much every week as mama was very particular that both Chica and Chiki learn to love reading. They would visit the library closest to their home and so Chiki thought he knew the drill very well.

One day, when Chiki was about 3 years old, they went to the library as usual, this time dad was also with them. Chiki as usual didn’t want to hold mama or dad’s hand while walking since he was sure he was a big boy and knew what was going to happen. Only this time, instead of going straight to the elevator as usual, mama decided to do some window-shopping before they went to the library. So instead of going straight to the elevator, mama and dad turned right to get to the shops.

But since Chiki was walking alone, he didn’t realise this and walked straight into the elevator. As soon as he entered the elevator, the doors shut and it started moving. It was at this point, Chiki realised that he was in fact all alone!

“Mama, mama, where are you?” Chiki cried and wanted to get off and go look for his mama, but since he was short, he couldn’t reach the buttons. However, a kindly man saw that Chiki was alone in the elevator and asked him “Boy, are you lost”. Chiki stopped crying for a moment, thought it over and nodded. The kindly man didn’t know where Chiki’s parents were, so thought of taking him to the information counter so that they could page for them.

In the meantime, mama had discovered that Chiki was lost! She was frantic and started looking for her baby everywhere. But they could not find Chiki at all. Mama was almost in tears and decided to go to the information counter to see if they could help them.

Once there, while they were explaining to the lady at the counter, what did they see? They saw Chiki being led to the counter by a kind man.

“Mama” cried Chiki when he saw his mama. “Chiki” cried mama when she saw Chiki and hugged him tight, never wanting to let go of him. “You naughty boy! You wandered all by yourself” she scolded Chiki.

“Thank you very much” mama thanked the kind man who brought Chiki back. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have lost my son” she sobbed.

That night, while tucking Chica and Chiki back to bed, mama said an extra special prayer for the kind man who brought her son back to her.

Stories from Ancient India: How Lord Ganesh got an Elephant’s Head

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One day Goddess Parvati wanted to be alone and have a bath, so she instructed the bull Nandi who was Lord Shiva’s personal guard to ensure that no one could enter the house while she was bathing. Just then Lord Shiva wanted to meet Parvati. Seeing him, the Lord of Mount Kailash, Nandi immediately allowed him into the area where Parvati was bathing. When Parvati came to know about this, she was furious about the fact that the guard she had ordered to do her work was more faithful to her husband than to her.

In retaliation, she took the turmeric paste from her body and with her powers, created a child whom she wanted to be faithful only to herself and no one else. She named the child Ganesha. At this point in time, no one knew about the creation of this child as Shiva was away from Mount Kailash then.

Soon, the child was guarding the Parvati’s room and did not allow anyone to enter the room as ordered by Parvati. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva entered their home and made his way to Parvati’s private chambers. Following orders, Ganesha stopped the great lord with a loud “Stop! You cannot enter my mother’s private chambers”

Shiva was amazed both at the audacity of this child who was stopping him from entering his own home and with the fact that this child, whom he had never seen before was calling his wife Parvati his mother.

“Who are you to stop me from entering my own home? Do you even know who I am?” Shiva roared in anger.

“I don’t know who you are, but I can’t allow you inside since my mother has forbidden me from doing so” replied Ganesha.

Furious, Lord Shiva sent his army or Gana Sena to attack the child. But Ganesha who was no ordinary child was born with immense strength and he soon defeated the army easily. Shiva then looked at other avenues to reason with the child. He used the services of Lord Brahma who came in the form of a peaceful Brahmin and tried reasoning with Ganesha using the religious texts, but Ganesha did not budge. Then Shiva mobilized the army of the gods or Devas, but the child routed them too easily. Enraged beyond reason, Shiva then goes behind Ganesha when he is battling others and cuts off his head.

“Motherrrrr” Ganesha screams and dies on the spot. Hearing the noise, Pravati rushes from her private apartment and sees the carnage before her. Seeing her child, her creation dead in front of her puts her in a great rage and she moves into her destruction mode threatening to destroy the entire universe. Seeing this makes all the Gods assembled there very nervous and scared and Brahma decided to intervene and asked her to reconsider her decision

“I will not destroy this universe only on two conditions – one my child be brought back to life and two Ganesha will be worshipped and propitiated before any other Gods” Parvati put down her conditions.

In order to console his wife and stop the world from being destroyed, Shiva agreed to the conditions and sent for his servants and soldiers.

“Go forth and bring to us the first head of any creature you come across which is sleeping with it’s head pointed in the northern direction” Shiva ordered his soldiers and they soon set out to do their Lord’s bidding. The Ganas spread out to search for a creature with its head to the north and soon find an elephant sleeping with its head to the north.

They then bring the elephant’s head back to Lord Shiva who attaches it to Ganesha’s body and with his divine powers, soon brings him back to life. Ganesha soon gets revived and Lord Shiva proclaims him his own son and also the leader of his army, hence his name as Ganapati (Lord of the Ganas). He further proclaims that Ganesha will be foremost of all Gods and will be the first God to be worshipped as well as before anyone undertakes any new undertaking.

This is how Lord Ganesha came into existence, why we worship him first and why he is also called Ganapati

Stories from Ancient India: Lord Ganesh

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These days BB and GG have been asking me stories from the Indian Mythology. This new obsession for them is due to the number of books they’ve been reading on this subject and hence they want new stories about the various Gods and Goddesses. These stories are not new or original, but have been passed down from parents and grandparents to children for the last thousands of years. These are my versions of the stories my grandmother and mother told me which I am retelling to my children, thus keeping the chain of oral traditions alive.

Lord Ganesh Pulls a Fast one on his Brother

One day Lord Shiva was relaxing in Mount Kailash with his wife Goddess Parvati and sons, Lord Ganesh and Lord Kartikeya. Suddenly the sage Narada Muni appeared before Lord Shiva and prayed his obeisance to him. Now the sage Narada was known to cause mischief wherever he goes and it looked like this was also going to be one of these times. Narada had a golden mango in his hands which he gave to Lord Shiva.

Shiva was surprised and asked Narada, “Why have you come so far to Mount Kailash just to give me this mango?”. “This is no ordinary mango” Narada replied, “This is the golden mango of knowledge and whoever eats this mango will be granted eternal knowledge and wisdom. However, there is a condition to eating this fruit” he warned. Lord Shiva, who was in the process of cutting the fruit into four pieces stopped and muttered, “I should have known. If Narada gives something to someone, it has to come with some conditions and I am sure, there is some mischief also afoot”. “Tell me Narada, what is the condition to eating this fruit” Lord Shiva asked Narada. With a smirk on his face, Narada replied, “This fruit has to be eaten by only one person”

While Narada was explaining to Shiva about the fruit, Parvati, Ganesh and Kartikeya appeared there. When the boys saw the golden mango, each wanted to eat it. Both the boys wanted to prove that they were superior and hence should eat the fruit. Shiva was frustrated as he did not want to be partial to one son over the other and neither did Parvati. So they decided to repay Narada with a tactic of their own. “Boys, Sage Narada will decide who gets the mango” Shiva intoned, passing the buck to the person responsible for all this in the first place. Narada was caught in the trap of his own making and so tried to get out of this by saying, “Boys, the person who covers the world three times first will get this fruit”.

Even before Narada finished saying these words, Kartikeya jumped into his vehicle, a peacock and was soon out of sight. Ganesh remained where he was with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Ganesh, child, aren’t you going to go around the world?” a worried Parvati asked her son. “Wait, Mother, let me think” replied Ganesh.

At this point, Kartikeya zoomed past them shouting, “I’ve finished one round, Ganesh get yourself off the ground and atleast start, I don’t want to win just like that!” Kartikeya was 100% sure he would win. His vehicle was the peacock as against that of the lowly mouse that Ganesh had and he had already completed one round while Ganesh was still sitting in Mount Kailash.

By this time Ganesh had decided what he would do to win this competition. Just as he started to get up and move, Kartikeya zoomed past shouting that this was his second round complete and he just had one more round to win.

Ganesh slowly made his way to his parents and bowed low before them. He then started circling his parents three times. Shiva and Parvati were perplexed and asked Ganesh, “Child, you were supposed to circle the world, so why are you circling us instead?”. The answer they got surprised and impressed them for Ganesh replied, “You, my parents are my universe and my whole world. So if I circle you, it means that I have circled the entire world”. Saying this, he finished his third circle just as Kartikeya reached Mount Kailash after finishing his third trip across the world.

“I won, I won”, yelled Kartikeya. “Ganesh, you are still here, while I have circled the world three times”.

“No my son”, said Lord Shiva, “Ganesh is the winner”.

“But how, he was still  here when I finished all three rounds”, asked Kartikeya with a pout.

Lord Shiva explained what Ganesh did and handed over the fruit to him. Kartikeya was upset that his brother had pulled a fast one over him, but he could do nothing as what Ganesh did was absolutely right and had proved to be much more intelligent than him.