ICE CREAM

 

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

I started pencil shading a few months ago and this is how much I have improved                                          

A Harappan Adventure

 A Harappan Adventure: Girls of India by Sunila Gupte.

First of all, this is a great travel read ( I hope that's how they call books that are good to read on the go). I finished this on my travel to Yercaud.

The protagonist Avani (oh I love that name) and friends Tavishi, Delshad and Ambar are smart and mischievous but also daring as they get into many adventures. Then there is the wedding of the Village Elder’s daughter Ketika and the son of the priest-king this guy brings fresh excitement into their lives. The monk who travelled from China is also visiting so the wedding has to be perfect. Everyone is busy with work, which gives no time for Avani and her friends to continue with their adventures but Avani suspects something sinister is about to happen. Which may or may not include the two mysterious men who Avani heard talking about Revenge. Other incidents, like a bizarre robbery and a fire at the grain storeroom, add to the tension.

When everyone thought everything was going according to plan, a few minutes after the wedding, Ketika and the priest-king's son is kidnapped. Will Avani and her friends’ quick thinking help save them ???

 I hope this was thrilling enough

I really love how it's not like other history books with the "boringness" of facts, years and dates but it's a blend of history and Fiction or Fictroy make this more exciting and enjoyable.

Next, I will definitely be reading  A Chola Adventure: Girls of India by Anu Kumar

NATURE: THE GENTLEST MOTHER IS by Emily Dickinson

This is one of my favourite poems and I want you guys to know it too.

 Nature, the gentlest mother,

Impatient of no child,

The feeblest or the waywardest,—

Her admonition mild

In forest and the hill

By traveler be heard,

Restraining rampant squirrel

Or too impetuous bird.

How fair her conversation

A summer afternoon

Her household her assembly;

And when the sun go down,

Her voice among the aisles

Incite the timid prayer

Of the minutest cricket

The most unworthy flower

When all the children sleep,

She turns as long away

As will suffice to light her lamps,

Then bending from the sky

With infinite affection

An infiniter care,

Her golden finger on her lip,

Wills silence everywhere

1st STANZA: The poet tells us that nature is patient with all of us. She does not discriminate between people. She warns us all softly

2nd STANZA: 

The poet tells us that nature protects all her children amidst humans. She does not harm the hunters but instead, she protects the animals.

3rd and 4th STANZA: The poet tells us that she does the household chores and prays for all of us.

5th STANZA: The poet tells us that even during the darkest of times mother nature will shine a ray of hope upon all of us.

6th STANZA: Nature gives us unlimited love and care and makes us feel the peacefulness by silencing us

The five run away together

 FIVE RUN AWAY TOGETHER by Enid Blyton

Now the third volume of Famous five. I don't think this book made up to most of my expectations well At least the name isn't The Five Have An Another Adventure. When I saw the title I expected some really cool action-packed story where George and Timmy kick everyone's butt and all of them running away from the police or some baddies.

The story begins when Julian, Dick and Anne arrive in Kirrin Cottage to stay with George for the holidays. Their happiness is spoiled when Aunt Fanny falls ill and has to leave with Uncle Quentin to be treated in a far-off hospital. They have to stay with the Sticks.

The Sticks and the four children come to hate each other. The Five start bulling Edgar (the Stick's son) and Tinker the dog too. ( No wonder they get in trouble so many time the Karma of all the Bulling)

Things got really bad. Slap-up meals are only made possible by stealing the food Mrs Stick has made for her own family, The Sticks threaten to poison Timmy ( Although after many threatenings only one successful though non-fatal attempt was held )

This made them "run away" from Kirrin cottage and go to Kirrin Island and live there. Where they find a cave and a shipwreck

What are you hiding, Island

The children find evidence of the Sticks visiting the island and suspect they are smugglers. 

With the number of times, the famous got in trouble and came in contact with several bad guys, I'm starting to feel their parents don't really care about them.

Of course, they start pranking them to scare them away from the island, which is kinda fun to read. The discovery of a young girl's toys and clothes point that they are kidnappers. And you know what happens next they find the girl and hand over the Sticks to the police and come back for another adventure.

I'm not sure whether if this book was  really good or not, but it did seem boring at times although there were some hilarious scenes

"They're in that room where we found the treasure last year! That's where they're camping out! What noises shall we make?"

"I'll be a cow," said Dick. "I can moo awfully like a cow. I'll be a cow."

"I'll be a sheep," said Julian. "George, you be a horse. You can whinny and harrumph just like a horse. Dick, you begin!"

So Dick began. Hidden behind a rocky pillar, he opened his mouth and mooed dolefully, like a cow in pain. At once the echoes took up the mooing, magnified it, sent it along all the underground passages, till it seemed as if a thousand cows had wandered there and were mooing together."Moo—oo—oo—OOOOOOOO, ooo—oo—MOOOOOOO!"The Sticks listened in amazement and fright at the sudden awful noise.

"What is it, Ma?" said Edgar, almost in tears. Stinker crouched at the back of the cave, terrified. "It's cows," said Mr Stick, amazed. "Then there's cows. Can't you hear the moos? But how did cows get to be here?""Nonsense!" said Mrs Stick, recovering herself a little. "Cows down these caves! You're mad! You'll be telling me there's sheep next!"

It was funny that she should have said that, for Julian chose that moment to begin baaing like a flock of sheep. His one long, bleating "baa-baa-aa-aa" was taken up by the echoes at once, and it seemed suddenly as if hundreds of poor lost sheep were baa-ing their way down the dungeons!

Mr Stick jumped to his feet, as white as a sheet. "Well, if it isn't sheep now!" he said. "What's up? What's in these "ere dungeons? I never did like them."

"Baa-aa-AAAAAAAAAAP went the mournful bleats all round and about. And then George started her whinnying and neighing, just like an impatient horse. The little girl tossed her head in the darkness and harrumphed exactly like a horse and then she stamped with her foot, and at once the echoes stamped too, sending the whinnying and neighing and stamping into Sticks" cave twenty times louder than George had made them.

or

Mr Stick went to the door of the room they were in and shouted loudly. "Get out, you! Clear out! Whoever you are!"

George giggled. Then she shouted out in a very deep, hoarse voice. "BE-WARE!" And the echoes thundered out all round."WARE! 'WARE! "WARE-ARE-ARE!" 

Essay

 Click here to see the essay that I wrote on the Battle of Plassey.

My Dad gave me this task since I was bored and I sort of wrote everything that came to my mind

 I have started to do designs and posters online click here to join me.

Yes, I posted this to inform you that I have changed the logo. I just had this wonderful idea and I couldn't just neglect it like that.                                                                                                                                   

THE LAST LEAF

THE LAST LEAF by William Sydney Porter under his pen name O. Henry

This short story was given in my textbook. I have never taken interest in the prose given in my school textbook but this story was different. So, I read the original copy of this book (yes, they changed the lines in my school one).

This story is about two friends Sue and Johnsy who are painters. Johnsy is affected by pneumonia and is losing hope in her life. The ivy vine wind spread near the window starts dropping all its leaves due to the icy winter's touch. Johnsy has taken into head that when the last leaf falls she too will die.

“They’re falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It hurt my head to count them. But now it’s easy. There goes another one. There are only five now.”   “Five what, dear? Tell your Sue.”  “Leaves. On the tree. When the last one falls, I must go, too. I've known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”

Then there was Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the first floor of their house. He was past sixty and had had no success as a painter. He had always talked of painting a great picture, a masterpiece, but he had never yet started it.

“Look out the window, dear, at the last leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never moved when the wind was blowing? Oh, my dear, it is Behrman’s great masterpiece—he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”

The last leaf never falls. We learn that in reality, the vine lost all its leaves. What she thought she saw was a leaf, painted on the wall with perfect realism, by the old artist. The Berhaman dies of pneumonia contracted while being out in the rain, painting the last leaf.

"The Last Leaf" symbolises hope, sacrifice and friendship.  Although I'm sad Old Berhaman didn't get to see the magic of his masterpiece this story was beautiful and touching.

"Once you choose hope anything is possible"   Hope is indeed a weapon