RAJU THE BRAVE BOY

SANDIP KUMAR PANDA -  WINNING ENTRY in the age category below 8 years

                                                                 RAJU, THE BRAVE BOY

         One day, there was a boy , his name was Raju. He was loading a new game in his phone, at that time his mother came and 

told to concentrate in his studies. Then his mother went down and saw a huge monster, she shouted loudly . Raju listened his mother's shouting

loudly, he came down and saw the monster and ran to his mother. Raju knows monsters are scared of fire. Raju used his brain and brought a 

mirror and showed to the sun.From the mirror fire came out and went to that monster and the monster died. 

MORAL-- USE YOUR BRAIN IN DIFFICULT TIMES.

STORY OF A CLOSET

 By : Yatsika Guru- WINNING ENTRY in the age category 9-11 years

    Story of a   closet.

I was a tree, a gorgeous tree, flourishing on a beautiful tropical island  in the middle of nowhere...that was the life ....There would be new fashion fads everyday on how to ruffle our leaves and where to grow our flowers. Oh! How I loved being a tree....And there was koala, the most magical thing in my life. She would tell me the most beautiful stories. Some would make me snort with laughter while others made me sob like a baby, who was deprived of her egg mash for breakfast. She made my life the life. No human ever stepped on our island, totally not inhabitated but then the D day came (D day, as in dooms day) and humans those brutes took over our island. Forests were vanishing like they were shimmering mist. Trees were crashing down like they were towers made of toy blocks. I knew my time was up, how I wished my sleeping, snoring legs would wake up and I could sprint away to safety, but there was no changing it, my time was up. After a lot of hiccupping and crying and swallowing hard I convinced koala to leave me and save herself. My friends falling. Koala gone. I blacked out.

    *   *   *

When I woke up, I mean groaned, grunted and woke up, I was in a wood carver’s workshop. It looked like Geppetto’s workshop, as in the story Pinocchio. Then I looked at myself and I nearly screamed out loud. I was looking a mess. I was possibly the ugliest piece of wood on earth. I was all squared and made to look like a closet. But wait a second... I was a closet. A very square, very woody and very ugly (at least I thought so) looking closet. I heard a voice that was saying, “She’s a beauty, mom.” Of course I am a beauty (I mean, was a beauty. Then I heard a very saucy voice saying, “Oh, honey, it’ll be perfect...”

Hmph... Some proud mom.

Then this pudgy, face- powder and lipstick smothered face with an extremely fat body came in. Her son looked exactly like her... Except he didn’t. Actually he did look like her but he was half her size which made pretty much a lot of difference.

Okay anyway... she called out something and two shabbily dressed men came in and caught me by the sides. They staggered and carried me out. I was like,” ooh, aah, gaaah, watch out –AAA, ouch! ...” They carried me up some stairs, more stairs some more stairs than a HUGE door, HUGE royal looking hall with crystal chandeliers, marble down. Again they groaned and pushed the door open, I didn’t know it was so hard to open doors. Then they came back and, yeah you’re right, groaned and lifted me and staggered into the room. Okay..., now I know why it had been hard to open the room. Looked like the guy who lived here had deliberately blocked the way. A stash of toy blocks on top of which there was a train set with the railway tracks and on top of that there were some unopened gift boxes and by gift boxes I mean a whole load of them. Now they were all scattered on the floor. A thin, ugly boy was lying on the bed playing on a PSP. He didn’t even look up. One of those groaning guys coughed and said ‘um... sir?” The boy glanced at us for a second and said “Heck’’ and went back to his game. The men sighed and I wanted to ask why they hadn’t groaned this time. They carried me tip-toe across the floor, skipping over the mess on the floor. Then they literally dumped me on the floor, again. They made their way to the door and for the first time, I swear I saw them smile. They shut the door and the next second the boy smashed the PSP on the ground and burst into tears. He stopped suddenly and wiped his nose on his sleeve. Then the pudgy lady stormed in without even knocking. Okay, that was really mean.

“Gosh, Hon, look at this mess” she said in her oily, sassy voice without even looking at the stuff on the floor. “Sweetheart, what’ve you done to your PSP? Hon, I’m fed up. Next time you listen to me. I told you that last time too. You just crossed your limits. Honey, you know what that closet’s for? Hm? Hm?”

Silence.

“Answer me! “

The boy muttered something.

“Hm? “

The boy muttered something again.

“Didn’t get ya Honey, anyways, that’s your punishment closet. Now you get in and don’t you come out till I tell you to.”

She stomped off...

The boy didn’t move from the bed.

The pudgy mom peeped in again “You get in right now hon, in front of me. There’s a good boy. You stay there, won’t tolerate no nonsense, got it, honey?

The boy jerked me open. ‘Ow’.

He got in and squatted down in a corner. He put his head down and started sobbing. Don’t laugh, but I m really shy at first.

” Hi” I said softly. He looked up sniffed a bit and went back to his crying.

“Ahem!”

“Hello?”

“Hey, I’m kind of new here, so...”

I swear I heard him say, “Great now I’m going wonky. My closet is trying to talk to me. Du’h?”

And that pretty much made me lose it.

”Who do you think you are...I exist, and you are not going wonky, you big nutter.”

He screamed and ran out flailing his arms around wildly.

Did I say something?

               *   *  * 

It’s really weird with so much going on, but somehow I fell asleep. The boy came in five minutes later with pudgy mom, holding him by the collar. She dragged him and pushed him in me. She locked the door from outside and screeched,”Let’s see you get out now, hear me?

He sat down and muttered, “Probably just my imagination.”

“Ahem.”

“There it goes again.”

“I am real.”

 “And I am going wonky.”

“No you aren’t. I tell you, I am real.”

‘’Ladaladaldada”

“And you are just as sane as I am.”

“I totally doubt your sanity whoever you are.”

“Yeah? Well listen to this.” and I poured out my story to him.

“Hmm... At least you don’t have a step mom. They’re always horrible.”

“Nope. Didn’t you listen? Koala was like a step mom for me, but she was so cool.”

“Well, we’re really close then going through the same torture.”

Hm?

“You know, I’m stuck with a horrid stepmom and you were forced to leave the best stepmom possible.”

“Point.”

“Guess you’re the first person to ever understand me.”

“Lucky me! I got a cool friend on my first day here!”

He beamed and I figured out he’d never had any actual friends.

He told me all about himself, how his mom ran away and his dad got married again, how his dad died extremely mysteriously (he told me his suspects, I guess you’ve already guessed who...) how his step-brother knew wood carving and got all the attention and how he was mama’s little Bugsy Wugsy Honey Bunny, how he was home tutored and had no friends...Just then the door swung open and the step-brother sneered and said, “ Lunch is ready, my wittle Bugsy Wugsy”  in high pitched voice in imitation of his mom.

He stalked of, sniggering.

I said hurriedly “Call me Hazel, what do I call you?”

“Max”

Putting on an ignorant look, stuffing his hands in his pockets, he strutted of, whistling.

And that was the beginning of a very strong relationship between the oddest of friends...

                          EPILOGUE

Life was different...  I told every single story Koala ever told me, to my friend, he in turn told them to the kids outside and he’s made loads of friends... for the first time I actually was the one telling the stories not the one listening...

Wherever Koala is out there, I really, really miss her. It gives me an awfully good feeling to know that her stories are slowly spreading around the world through different children.

He spends more time outside now with more friends around him. True, I miss him, but his mom still likes to punish him a lot so, well, there are always new stories for him!

                                      

*        *        * 

The End.

LOCKED IN A CLOSET

LOCKED IN A CLOSET
By : Anish Mishra- Winning entry in the age category 12- 14 years

It's getting stuffy. Sweat drops from my face. My pants are starting to get wet due to the humidity. But,"Do I dare go out???", I ask myself. And an irritating voice replies from the back of my brain, saying,"You exactly know what will happen", and even goes on further to ask me -"What will happen if you stay in here???". Let me first tell you all why, and how, I am stuck in such a stupid situation, battling my own stupid conscience. You must be thinking what a stupid person I am to be in such a stupid spot. But let me tell you that, if you have passed out of middle school without such an experience (unless you were a bully), I salute you! and if you are yet to reach middle school, I have only one sentence of warning for you,that is,"Beware of the bullies!!!" Because, if you are not prepared then you might find yourself in my shoes very soon.

Well let me continue about how I ended up in this spot. It was a lovely spring morning. But I was in no mood to go to school. I had come up with a number of amazingly convincing excuses, but as usual, Mom had looked through everyone of them. She tells me,"Don't worry hon, today will be no worse than the others". "As if all the other days had been marvellous", I had thought. Little did I know that this day would be "Way worse than worse". Well let me tell you how my day "rattled"on from then.I arrived late at school , as usual. And got the same speech from our Vice"Annoying"Principal. While he went on to say something like "Is this your....blah blah....", I just wondered how I would get through the rest of the day. My lunch break was no better, with a huge boy thrashing me, because apparently he dropped his lunch box because I passed him."Well, there's another three bruises to show mum", I think. Of course the teachers never spared me because someone had reported me bullying the same huge boy from lunch. Now isn't that news!

Well all these are my usual troubles. It will be at the dismissals, when my luck would get really bad. As always, the bullies were going to pick at me. So I thought of turning the table on them for once. So I used a tiny organ of mine which I rarely use called 'brain'. I knew their hangout, or the 'den', of the 'Big Bad Bosses', commonly known as bullies. I also knew, that it would be very easy to get to the roof, which is above their heads and dump a whole garbage can on them from above. So, when the school bell rang, I put my plan into action, woth out any second thoughts. Little did I know, what trouble it would bring me. So I went to the roof and with my hopes sky high of seeing the BBB's tormented, emptied the can of rubbish over their heads.

But my plan backfired. They spotted me while I was doing this. They still got covered with garbage, but the main problem was the chase I got. Let me tell you all, outrunning the BBBs is not at all easy. First I tried to lose them in the crowd, but nothing seem to stand in their way! May be the fact that they were covered with garbage helped, because the crowd created an instinctive aisle for them.  I even waded through a pond to throw them off my scent, but even then, they continued, like police dogs chasing a prisoner who had broken out of jail! My last refuse was the school building, incidentally the only building within my sight. That was where I took asylum.

And I hid at the first place I came across which was a closet, which is exactly where I am right now, telling you this story.  Even though an hour or two has passed, I am still here, due to the fear of mine for the BBBs. I hope against hope, that some one, any one open the door of the closet and lead me from my fear for even though the door is locked I am mentally confined, in a small area, in a closet. I can hear footsteps now, but I do not rejoice. They come nearer – the footsteps and I know they will open the closet. And the door springs open and the person I stand facing is …..

AGE DEFYING HEROISM

Divyasa Mishra- commendable entry in age category 12-14 years

Age Defying Heroism

Natural disasters occur every now and then. For some these disasters cause just destruction and death. For others it becomes an opportunity to show heroism. One such story is of 12 year old Reshma and her brother Ritesh who lived in Gujarat.

7:45 AM - at 6^th January 2001

Reshma  was going to the super-market with her family.  Just as they were about to step outdoors, she suddenly felt as if the earth beneath her feet was shaking.

 She felt dizzy. “Mom, Dad, I just felt as if the earth is shaking.” Said Reshma. She said “This had happened yesterday too! My Ma’am told me that prior to a big earthquake there are quakes of the smaller version.” Do you think that may be….?!”

Her mother stopped her from completing the sentence. She smiled in a reassuring way and said “ Dear, I think you should rest. You don’t eat well, maybe you are feeling weak.”

 So Reshma went back  into the house, climbed into her bed and pulled a quilt over herself. While she rested her family left for the super-market as there were some important items to be purchased from the market. Her mother felt that Reshma would feel better if she got some undisturbed sleep in their absence.

After fidgeting in her bed for 15 minutes Reshma fell into a deep slumber at around 8 AM. She had completely covered herself from head to toe under that thick quilt- something her mother had asked her not to do many times earlier. After about 45 minutes she felt as if someone was shaking her. She thought it must be her mother. She woke up with a smile on her lips ready for mothers loving warm hug. She was surprised to see herself surrounded by ruins all around. She got up with a fright.

 Her house was just a rubble of bricks and cement. There was no wall left intact. She could see everything of the outside world. She saw people running around screaming, dead bodies, ruins, building and street lights falling.

 Reshma just wished one thing “God! Let this be a dream.” She pinched herself on the arm. It pained very much. This was definitely not a dream. She realized that the thick quilt she had covered herself with while sleeping had protected her by acting as a shield. She remembered that her family was in the super-market. Her family -her whole world was in deep danger! She stood up, threw the quilt over herself and went to the super-market.

On her way she saw that the roads had large, deep cracks and bricks were falling from the building. Seeing this, Reshma kept a tighter grip on her quilt. When she reached the super-market it was no longer a super-market. It was just a pile of ruins. Reshma burst into tears.

 “Reshma, Reshma” Just then she heard a terrified voice calling. She turned around. It was Ritesh!  Only that Ritesh was covered in dust and dirt all over. She saw her running towards her, tripping, crawling and jumping over the ruins. Reshma gave her brother a tight hug and then asked him anxiously, “Where are Mom and Dad?” Ritesh looked worried and frightened, “I don’t know. I have been looking for them for so long.” he answered.

They searched for hours in the rubble. Just as they were about to give up all hopes, they heard someone cry. They followed the cry. The closer they got the cry sounded more and more familiar.

Then they said together, “ Mum, Dad are you there?” Reshma heard her Dad’s voice, “ Reshma, Ritesh are you Ok. Mum and I are stuck here.”

“Where?”Called out Ritesh.  “Dear look down”, called out his Mum. They looked down. They saw that the ground floor of the super-market had gone meters beneath from where it should have been. Ruins seemed to have grown above it.

The entire ground floor seemed to have sunken down as a unit and then cocooned with the rubble's. The bulbs were fused and shelves had fallen down. Reshma peeped more through the small hole from which they heard the voice come. Reshma could see dead bodies spread out. Some were unconscious and injured severely. However with the grace of God she could see that her parents were safe, though they were very scared and badly bruised. 

She called back to her parents from the gap between the ruins. “Hold on I will go and get some rescuers I saw on my way here.” Her parents nodded, and then she turned to Ritesh and said, “I want you to stay here and give hope to Mom and Dad.”

She paused for a moment and saw the building and ruins still crumbling and falling at a distance.  She threw the quilt she had with her over Ritesh and said, “This will protect you.”

Without wasting a moment she ran to get the rescuers. It was hard for her to walk over the ruins but she never thought of her pain. She finally spotted a rescuer. She ran to him and almost screamed at him saying, “ Please Help Me! My parents and many others are trapped under the ruins of the super-market. My younger brother is waiting for me.”

 The rescuers was a kind person, he calmed her down and told her, “ Go and take care of your brother. I will get some other rescuers and come as soon as possible.” He gave Reshma a helmet. She wore it and ran to her brother.

They had to wait only for a few minutes as the rescuers arrived soon. They even had a crane with them. The crane suddenly stopped working.

 One of the rescuers looked under the crane to check what happened.  He informed the others, “ A big rock has got stuck in there. None of us can reach it.The gap is too narrow.” Resma offered to help, but even she was too big for that gap.

Seeing all this 7 year old Ritesh couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “I’ll do it.” He said with confidence. All the rescuers looked at him with surprise and asked, “ Are you sure?”  Ritesh nodded. Reshma hugged her and patted him in the back saying, “Be careful!”

Ritesh called under the crane. The rock was too heavy for a 7 year old to push. Yet Ritesh had not given up. He managed to push it a short distance. Now a small portion of the rock. The rescuers then helped to pull it out. Everyone was full of praises for Ritesh.

The crane was all set to work. It pulled out the heavy rocks and rubble one by one. The small gap through which Reshma and Ritesh’s voice had come out was now big enough for a grown man to go in. The rescuers then climbed down and took out Reshma’s Parents and the other. Reshma , Ritesh and their parents were united. They hugged each other as if there will be no tomorrow.

It was Reshma’s father who spoke first, “We need to get out of this place. We need to get out of Gujrat! Everyone to the airport.” Reshma pleaded, “ But Dad we have to help the others”  Seeing his little brave girl speak like this, her father smiled and nodded.

The whole family stayed in the rescue camps for 3 days to volunteer for 3 days. As Reshma and Ritesh’s house was completely ruined, they caught the flight and went to stay in their other house in Mumbai.