Rolling stones have a silver lining - Slice that Proverb!

For one of our sessions we had to bring our parents along to participate and see how we learn and grow as writers. For this session our facilitator divided us into teams with each others parents and each team received a set of proverbs. We were asked to cut and past words/phrases from these proverbs and come up with our very own set of Proverbs. 

Read on to see what we cam up with. Can you guess the original Proverbs?

Team1:

The proof of the pudding is a joy forever.
The child is the king.
It's the early bird that wait for no man.
Mighty oaks from little acorns catches the worm.
A friend indeed saves time.

Team 2:

A friend in need is a joy forever.
Just before the dawn its the early bird that catches the worm.
A thing of beauty is the one eyed man.
The proof of the pudding always falls buttered side down.
In the kingdom of the blind blood is thicker than water.

Team 3:

Make hay just before the dawn.
The darkest hour is for no man.
It's the early bird that is a friend indeed.
A friend in need catches the worm.
A thing of beauty is in the eating.

Team 4:

No Man is the father oh the child.
Time and tide is a friend indeed.
The bread always falls while the sun shines.
The proof of the pudding is thicker than water.
Time and tide wait while the sun shines.

Team 5:

A thing of beauty is just before the dawn.
The child is a joy forever.
It's the early bird that wait for no man.
In the kingdom on the might oaks little acorns grow.
No man catches the worm in the darkest hour.

Word Story Challenge

Here is our first challenge for all our readers.

You have a word out of which you have to form as many words as possible. The words should be at least 3 letters long. Once you have your words, incorporate them into a story. Your story should not exceed 60 words. The challenge is open until Midnight (GMT+5) 1st November 2012.

Word:  Hippopotamus

Good Luck and have fun!

Before Birth, After Life

Myths are stories that are created by a culture to explain how or why things came to be the way they are today. They tell of a time when the world was only partially developed, and things that we know today were only coming into being then. During this session, we were introduced to Origin Myths from a number of different cultures. After reading various stories and becoming familiar with

the themes and patterns of Myths our facilitator gave us special cues with which we composed our own origin myths.

Our facilitator read to us many Fables to familiarize us with the elements of Fables and the devices used to write them- the use of animals to signify human traits, the ‘lesson’ these stories try to teach us. We then thought of issues that are important to us, and created “contemporary fables” of our own around those issues.

Story -1

Lion, Hyena, leopard

     Lion, Hyena and Leopard were best friends. Nobody dared to ask them to be their best friend too.

     Once Hyena went on a holiday with her family. She sent a post card saying- “I am getting thoroughly bored without you two.” On the rest of the post card was drawn a huge sad face.

      The other two had a difficult time without Hyena but some how managed. They went for movies and played loads of games.

      A few days later Lion and Leopard received a post card saying-“ I have found a new best friend! Hooray!”

Moral: Do not have a Hyena as a best friend because you know he or she will betray you.

~ By Ira

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Story -2

The Hippo and its behavior

     Hippo – one of the laziest animal in the river. Once upon a time Hippo used to be the king of the river. He used to order his meals as if he was sitting at a restaurant. ‘A tuna sandwich’ or ‘A sea weed pepper sandwich used to be his favorite.

     Once he arranged a meeting and called all the animals for it. They decided to have I over lunch the next day. “I need you all to be there on time. Anyone who is late shall be punished.” The following day everyone came on time. The hippo was so lazy that he himself forgot about it.

     So from that day, the Hippo came across to be the laziest animal in the river and fish the friskiest.

~ By Ira

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The Lizard’s Tail

It is said that earlier lizards did not have a tail. There is a story behind how the lizard got its tail and why it does not die when you cut off its tail.

Once there was a lizard who had laid two eggs. One of these was eaten up by a vulture. The lizard guarded the remaining lone egg very closely.

One day, an eagle swooped down to eat the other egg. But the lizard was on her guard and managed to keep the eagle away from its egg. However, in this process, some feathers of the eagle fell near the egg.

The next day, a tiny lizard came out of the egg. Some feathers of the eagle that were lying around, got stuck to the baby lizard. Thus, the lizard’s tail was formed.

This is why it is said that even if you cut off the tail of the lizard, it will not die. Why? Because it will find another feather to stick on and make its tail.

~By Varenya

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The Koala Bear, The Sloth Bear and The Polar Bear

Once upon a time, there were three amazing friends named Koli who was a koala bear, Peanut who was a polar bear and Sifu who was a sloth bear. Everyday they played and laughed, even had meals together… until one fine day Sifu and Peanut realized that Koli had this really nasty habit of smoking! It got worse and worse by the day. It became so bad that even in Bearloo School Koli could not help himself from smoking! Sifu and Peanut kept the secret to themselves for over two whole months and finally decided to write a letter to Mrs. Bear. The letter said-

Dear Mrs. Bear,

Your son Koli has been Smoking very often. Kindly don’t shout at him. We, as his friends just

wanted you to know.

Signed :Sifu and Peanut.

Mrs. Bear spoke to Koli, took him to the counselor to check his health. Koli realized that it was his best friends who had betrayed him and did not talk to them for several weeks. At the end of those weeks, Koli realized the good that his friends did for him. He thanked them profusely and to celebrate he took them for a vacation to BEAR FUN HOTEL! He then said ‘Telling  my   parents was the best thing you could have ever done for me!’

Moral: Good friends would do the right thing.

~ By Kripa

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Seek And Ye Shall Find

For our very first session our facilitator took us to 3 different spots in our class building. She told us to write down our observations and feelings in those places. We observed the people, the physical appearance of the place, the smells and the sounds. After coming back to the classroom, we used our observations about those 3 places in our story to set the beginning, middle and end. 


Three New Places

My journey began on the plain cream-coloured wall. I was on a painting which was placed on a wall. I did have quite a few companions but all fell off the painting and rolled away somewhere. Every day I heard people’s chitter-chatter, some in Hindi, some in Marathi and sometimes even in English. Sometimes, sweepers would come with their mops and clean the staircase while singing the latest Hindi songs in town. The garbage the sweepers would carry up and down would leave a stinky smell for endless number of hours. Soon, just like my other companions, I too started becoming loose. Before I knew it, I was off the painting too. From there I rolled down the steps and landed in an unknown place that looked like the ground floor of the building. I wasn’t used to the bright sunlight but I managed. From then, my life has changed. Every day I would see a machine that released water with a lot a pressure. It was used for cleaning the floor. Also, I lay opposite the restaurant, so I could smell lots of yummy food. This place was more like a city for me. One day, a really small child saw me and picked me up. She dragged me to a whole new place and just left me there. I could see myself everyday as there were two mirrors facing me. This place wasn’t at all like the first place I had stayed at. There were about six to seven doors and I would see people walking in and out of those rooms. I felt a little down in the dumps over there because there wasn’t any sunlight. Well after all, I’m only a doll. All I have to do is wait for my new destination.

~By Ira

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The Three Places 

Lila walked near the stairs. As she looked around, she saw a huge painting on the wall. On that painting were seated two puppets. She walked a few steps up and saw that the wall above her was peeling off. She observed that people kept going up and the stairs talking constantly in a language she didn’t know. She walked up some more and saw that people were looking out of the window and after a few minutes she left. As she was walking down the stairs to go the ground floor she heard quiet Indian music in the background.

Once she reached the ground floor she caught the sight of the cleaners. They were cleaning the floor with a huge machine that was spraying water. As she walked ahead, she saw a huge, long table which was extremely dirty. She wondered when the cleaners would clean that. When she turned her head she saw many cars honking on the road. Just then she saw a bunch of tourists who were holding water bottles. She realized that she had forgotten her own bottle upstairs! 

When Lila reached there, she saw two large glass mirrors. Here again she could hear Indian music. Lila personally thought that it was very dark and damp. She realized that it was getting late and picked up her bottle and went home. 

~ By Kripa

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What a Character

When we walked into class for this session, our teacher asked us "Where is Laxman?" We replied, puzzled, "Who is Laxman?" Then, our teacher told us to write a story describing who he is, where he could be and why he hasn't come to class today. Here are two of our stories. 

Where is Laxman? I thought for the hundredth time that day. We were sitting in class waiting for someone to show up though no one knew who that someone was; it was almost as if he has disappeared from everyone’s memory.

See someone like Laxman is not easily unnoticed. He is this big burly boy, with curly black hair and wild eyes almost warning you to keep your stuff away from him. And now because of him we were waiting. Anything could have happened to him. True he could have bunked class because he wanted to, but he liked all the attention he got when he entered class. Suddenly there were footsteps. I looked half expected to see Laxman in his standard yellow and black clothes, his bag slung on one shoulder but another student entered and the class began.  I couldn’t thing straight. I was just thinking that may be his mother had kept him home for some reason but then as the clock kept ticking I wondered if may be he had got kidnapped (because I love being a detective.) And then my theories just got wilder and wilder until suddenly there was a loud buzzing sound that just got louder and louder and I realized with a start that…….

by Aarushi 

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One day, my friend Laxman did not come to the class. We all thought that he was sick, but I didn’t believe that because he told me he will come to the class. First, I called his mother but she did not answer. Then I went to his house but no one opened the door. I then put up a “missing” poster about him. 

The next day a stranger came to my house with the poster I had put up and said, “He is dead.” I did not believe him and said, “You are lying.” I wanted to find out the truth so I did some research and while I was doing that I heard someone on the news saying, “An oil tanker had spilled on the route to Thakur Public School and hundred people were dead.” I remembered that Laxman used to walk to school by the same route. I frantically searched for the news of Laxman but could find no information.  The next day I went to school with a heavy heart and was telling everyone about Laxman when I heard his high pitched voice saying, “Stop it! I am alive.” We were all very happy. I ran to him and I asked him where he had been?  He told me that he had slipped on the oil spill, was flung up in the air and landed on a tree. Since he was so tired he fell asleep as soon he landed in the nest of a bird. The next day his parents were bringing him down as the wondered how he fit in the nest. They were asking him was that a place for him to sleep? He held me and started wailing loudly that he did not get any sympathy for slipping on the oil. Such is the tale of Laxman! Now everyone teases him, “Where is Laxman- sleeping on a tree?”

 

by Varenya

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