The Shrinking Potion

Hello all, A very Happy New Year. Here is our 1st blog post for 2013. Our brief was to use the following sentence in our story and take it on from there. 'The label on the jar said, "Shrinking Potion". I didn't believe it would actually work........'

David was a small boy. Whenever he saw someone doing a wrong thing, he felt like setting things right but alas, he was unable to do so as he was very small. One day, while wandering, he tripped over a rock which rolled over. To his surprise, he saw a bottle that read “Shrinking Potion”. He read the label carefully  - it said that anyone drinking two drops of this potion would become as tiny as ant for one hour and would thereafter, regain the original size.  He thought that this was a prank and would not work. Nonetheless, he tried some and whoosh…..

He felt that the trees around and grass beneath his feet were growing taller and taller. Poor David didn’t realize that it was he who was growing smaller and smaller…. in fact, he had become as small as an ant.

On his way back, he saw some hoodlums trying to snatch money from an old man. David conveniently went up to the leader, held on to the hem of his pant and climbed up till he reached his ears. Then he promptly clamped his teeth on to the man’s ears. The air reverberated with his scream and he started rubbing his ear. Undeterred, David now attacked his other ear and then proceeded to pull his hair with all his strength. The poor hoodlum never realized what hit him but decided that something was very strange. He gathered all his accomplices and fled. David managed to jump off him, just in time.

From then on, David made it a practice to use the shrinking potion whenever he saw someone engaging in some wrong-doing. Soon word spread that anyone engaging in wrong-doing experienced strange biting and hair pulling sensations but no one could get to the bottom of the mystery. Could you??

~ By Varenya

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THE SHRINKING POTION

Slowly, I opened my eyes to a fresh summer morning. My holidays had finally begun. I walked down to the breakfast room. Mom and Dad were not there. On the counter was a note:

Dear Tara,

Your uncle is ill. Dad and I are going to visit him. Take care. We will be back on Sunday.

Love,

Mom.

Home Alone! I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy! Deciding to help myself to some cereal I headed to the kitchen counter. Next to the cereal box was small red bottle. Written on it in bold letters was ‘Shrinking Potion’! My curiosity took the better of me and I decided to sample some. ONLY TWO TEASPOONS AT A TIME, it said. I took out my favorite spoon and carefully poured it out on the spoon. It was a yucky green color. I shut my nose and gulped it down. Next thing I know, I fainted. When I opened my eyes I realized I was under the kitchen table…me, a tiny speck. The table and the house seemed enormous! Along the kitchen wall I saw a black dot on the wall. Must be Toto, my dog and his dirty paws, I thought. But as I ventured closer – and it seemed forever to reach that wall I discovered it was an ant.

“Hello, I am Tara, who are you?” I asked tentatively.

“Hi!,” replied the ant. I am Truger. “I am searching for food for my family. We haven’t eaten in days ever since the kitchen has been cleaned. Can you help? “

“Hmmm, lets see, how many people are there in your family?”

“There are about 70-80 of us.”

“Wow! That’s a lot! My family it’s the three of us and my dog, Toto. How will you carry all the food?” I asked.

“Well, if you don’t mind, can you come to my house to fetch some of my family members who will help me carry the food?”

I agreed readily as he led me to through a tiny crack, all the way to the store room. Behind an old box was Trugers home. It was dim and water was leaking from the ceiling. Everyone treated me like a royal guest. Truger explained the plan to everyone and we set out again. I led Truger and his family to the kitchen. Pausing, I thought for a moment. I knew it! Sweet food! That’s what they love. I went to the cupboard where Mom stores sugar, jams and stuff. I pulled out my favorite orange marmalade and raspberry jam bottles and opened them. Truger was super thrilled. That was more than a year’s stock of food for them. Everyone was happy. Just then I heard a voice “ Get up quick Tara! You are going to be late for school on the first day itself.”

It was Mom! So, after all, it was all a dream. No shrinking potion and no being home alone.

Ira

Real Fantasy World

ESCAPE FROM DRAGONSTINE

It was a hot and sunny day. Tara was relaxing in the cool water when she saw the devil of the sea, the sea dragon, Dragonstine. With a spiky skin and a smell worse than the Bombil fish strung out to dry in Bandra, he was a creature that could live on land and water. Making snorting sounds Dragonstine moved swiftly towards Tara. She tried to escape but he was just faster than her. Very quickly, he sprayed a liquid on Tara that smelt worse than rotten eggs. Tara fainted.

When she woke up she found herself on the floor of the sea. It was dark and lonely place. There was big seaweed growing everywhere. At a distance she saw a bright white light. She squinted. As the light came closer she realized it was a scuba diver. She knew this was her chance to save herself and her home. She vigorously wagged her rainbow colored tail. The tail acted like a reflector and soon got the attention of the scuba diver. She let out a tiny yelp.

“Hey, What are you doing here? Who are you?”, asked the man.

“I am Tara, and am caught in the dragons lair”, replied Tara.

“But who are you?”

“I am Jack, a marine life photographer. I work with the National Geographic”, replied the man.

“Great!, Can you please help?”, said Tara.

“Why, what happened?”, asked Jack.

“My home, way on the other side of the ocean has oil, lots of oil. You know, what you call petrol and diesel and that runs your vehicles. Nasty Dragonstine works for an oil company called OILGET. Since he can live on land and water, they hired him to lead them to the oil in the sea. And whenever he finds the oil, he makes us all who live there vacate our homes”, explained Tara.

“Oh My God!, Let me see what I can do. Hmmm, Can I take pictures of you so that I can share with my team? We will talk to this company and sort it out. Don’t worry.”, assured Jack.

“Yes, you can take pictures,” said Tara enthusiastically. I love this plan!

After taking a few pictures Jack swam to the shore waving a goodbye to Tara.

Back home, Jack showed the photos to his team. They went and talked to OILGET. At first no one agreed. But once Jack and his team threatened to publish the story in the magazine with the photos as proof, OILGET gave in. The punishment was to return everything that OILGET had ever taken from the sea and never to do such a thing again. Also Dragonstine had to be fired and Tara had to be freed.

Next day, they all set out to find and free Tara. Once out of the lair, Tara decided to thank Jack by taking him to the best places for taking photos of marine life. Thereafter, she lived a happy marine life!

by Ira

The Real Fantasy World

Our prompt for this blog post was to write a fantasy story keeping in mind the following statement, "There was once a bewildered mermaid who escapes from a dragon’s lair. This was our home assignment and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

Annie and Jack stayed in a village next to a sparkling river and dense forest. One day, they were playing hide and seek and wandered deep into the forest. Suddenly, they found themselves sliding down some soft mud and fell in the river. They were swept away by a strong current and landed on hard ground with a thud. They found themselves staring into ferocious eyes. They jumped back in horror and realized that they were staring at a “DRAGON”!! They rubbed their eyes and looked around and saw that they were in some kind of an underwater lair.

The dragon snorted, “I have two slaves now who will do all my work”. He tied a chain around their legs so that they could only shuffle. He gave them a long list of tasks to do and went out. Poor Annie and Jack…. They had never worked so hard all their life. They scrubbed and cleaned and washed and swept and cooked but the work did not seem to end.

In the midst of this, they saw a light and went towards it timidly. They saw a beautiful fairy tied to a pillar. The fairy told them that the dragon wanted her to make him very powerful through her magic but when she refused, he tied her there. Annie and Jack asked the fairy how they could escape. She said, “The dragon’s life is in a small doll. As soon as you destroy that doll, the dragon will also get vanquished”. Annie shouted excitedly, “Where is that doll?”. The fairy said, “It is in this lair, but I do not know where”. They said, “How can we search for it? We are tied and it is difficult to move.” The fairy smiled and recited a chant and they felt their legs getting squeezed and found that they had turned into a mermaid and merman !!

The chains slipped off their bodies and they could easily float. Annie asked the fairy, “Why don’t you also turn into a mermaid and escape?”. The fairy sadly replied, “I cannot change my form till I am captive”. The kids promised to free her.

They started searching and found the doll in a chest under the giant’s bed. Annie was about to destroy the doll when she heard the dragon’s roar. She dropped the doll in fright and fled, with the dragon in hot pursuit. The bewildered mermaid did not know what to do. The dragon caught her and was about to breathe fire on her when there was a cloud of smoke and poof…. the dragon disappeared. Jack swam to Annie and told her that he had destroyed the doll and thus, the dragon had vanished.

The fairy became free and she granted a boon to Annie and Jack that they could use the chants to turn themselves into a mermaid and merman whenever they wanted. The kids were overjoyed and thanked the fairy. The next day, Annie and Jack set out to …...

By Varenya

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Snowballs and Diamonds

Imagine if Math was taught as Poetry! For this session our facilitator led us through the process of understanding different forms of poetry incorporating our knowledge of Math. We discussed the various forms and rules of poetry writing and the uses of following these rules.  After looking at various examples of diamante and snowball poem we thought of math concepts which can be employed to create form in poetry. 

Here is a shape poem by one of our classmate 

Poem- Snowball

I

Am

The

Item

Which

Starts

So small

Gets so big

White, cold

Dangerous too

Guess who I am?

… A big snow ball!!

~ By Ira

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