CHILDREN

Recollections

- Part 65

By Uncle Sachi and Aunt Ruwi

In 'Kid's Den'...

Four children, Pramodaka, Nalaka, Champika and Chinthaka, go on a trip to the woods with their parents for their school holidays. In the middle of the night the children are awakened by a strange noise. On following their dog, Scooby, Chinthaka is snared by the spell of the 'luring stones'.

Pramodaka departs with Ruwi, a pixie, to recall a book of spell to cast off the spell while the others remain behind with Sachi, a gnome. A storm breaks and the kids are scattered. A sleeping spell is unleashed and all the unmythical creatures including the children fall asleep. Strangely Pramodaka is the only one awake.

Meanwhile Sulo, the goblin who is always trying to make trouble for the mythical creatures, comes up with a nasty plan. She rushes off gang up the rest of her pack and reveals an age old secret. However the group discovers that it is not only Sulo's secret that is uncovered by the storm. Something dark and deadly had been hidden in the depths of the earth waiting to release itself and return for revenge...

('Return of the Kids' is the sequel to 'Kid's Den')

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The path cleared ahead. Soon they had stepped into a gravel path. Pramodaka was taken aback to see something resembling giant mushrooms ahead. Curious he walked off track to take a look at a red coloured one near their path and almost jumped when a face poked out of what seemed to be a window carved out of its trunk.

It was a gnome with a white beard and few tufts of hair circling a bald patch on his head. He also looked taken aback at first but his face soon flushed with anger.

"Here, what are you doing? Nosing around my house! Young scamp! I should report you to the chief for your cheek," he barked.

The Elegant One looked back with a start. Pramodaka glanced downwards. Goodness, he didn't mean that to happen! What will the elf think of him now, he thought guiltily.

The angry gnome bounded out of the house. To Pramodaka's horror he was even clutching a broom. Before he knew what was happening he felt the Elegant One's hand touching his arm. She turned a dazzling smile on the gnome.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you sir, but we didn't mean any harm. You see we are strangers to the area. We were on our way to the headquarters," she said sweetly.

The gnome looked at the elf. He blushed when he remembered that he was still in his vest and shorts. He put his broom in front of himself and tried to hide himself from the view. "Err.. It's ok. You just caught me off guard. I was just cleaning the house up a bit..." he stammered.

The Elegant One turned an even more enchanting smile on him. The gnome blinked. Pramodaka did the same. Then the gnome licked his lips nervously.

"How may I be of assistance?" he asked.

"Do you know where to find The Graceful One?"

His faced brightened at her name. All the forest creatures were fond of the tall maiden with the gentle hands.

"She passed our place last afternoon with Brave Heart. I think she must be at the headquarters," he said.

Elegencia's eyes brightened.

"Brave Heart..." she whispered almost to herself. A wave of nostalgia overcame her as she remembered how the three young elves had walked through the forest hand in hand many centuries ago. They had been an inseparable trio then. Sometimes others like The Healer. The Hunter and The Grower joined them but everyone knew about their friendship.

Suddenly the earth trembled beneath their feet. She almost toppled over. The gnome steadied himself by hanging onto the broom for dear life. Pramodaka fell on his knees.

"What's going on?" they all chorused.

To be continued

We can do no great things, only small things with great love - Mother Teresa:

World Red Cross Day on May 8

Dear children,

How was your week? I hope you had a good one

Did you watch the May Day rallies? It was an array of colours and spectacular.

This is a very important year for Buddhists as we commemorate the 2600th Sambuddhatva Jayanthi in another 10 days.

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day falls on May 8. (Sunday)

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering, without any discrimination based on nationality, race, sex, religious beliefs, class or political opinions.

The movement consists of several distinct organizations that are legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes and governing organs.

Bye for now. Have fun.

Aunt Anji

READ A BOOK WITH ME... :

The story of a time traveller

Hello everyone,

Do you like science fiction? When I was a child, books by Sir Arthur C. Clark were very popular among schoolchildren. Many of my friends loved to read stories about time travelling, aliens and predictions about the future world. Furthermore, we loved to watch television programmes like The X-Files and Spell-Binder.

This week's book is about time travelling. It's by an English writer called H. G. Wells (1866-1946). He's the author of The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds as well.

In this story, a scientist invents a time machine and travels to the future, to the year 802,701 A.D. His experiences in the future world contradict with what he expects from travelling to the future, and takes him by surprise. If you think you'd like to learn more about his adventures you can read The Time Machine and see for yourself.

Some people argue that what you write should be realistic, that is, you should write about things that have really happened or could happen in future. What do you think about this idea? On the one hand one never knows what could happen in future or even what happened in the past for that matter. You can always assume, but you cannot say for sure. Do you agree with me? On the other hand, I believe stories do not always need to be about real life incidents. People read and write for various reasons, for entertainment, to experience things that you cannot experience for real, to enjoy being creative and imaginative and so on. Besides, what you see in stories, in literature as unbelievable, unrealistic in fact sometimes convey very important messages and truths about life in subtle and indirect ways. Furthermore, it's good to have diversity within literature, so-called realistic, unrealistic and all kinds of literature, so that we won't be bored always having to read the same kind of books.

I should also tell you all that I personally did not enjoy reading The Time Machine. I didn't find it interesting or exciting. What do you feel? If you like you can always share your ideas with me.

And I have a question for you, do you think time travelling is possible?

So, till we meet next week, enjoy your journeys to the past and future.

Bye for now Gayathri

Sinhala and Tamil New Year

There are popular games that play a major role in the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, such as Kotta Pora, tug of war, bun eating, kana mutti, pancha and pinning on the eye of the elephant.

The game pancha is somewhat similar to the popular game of snake and ladders. This game involves of two teams. Each team has a cup of seashells in front of the board which they have to throw into one block on the board. With each shell getting closer to the last block is a sign of winning.

The game Kotta Pora is another game which is played by only two people seated on a bamboo structure. A pillow will be given to each person and then made to strike the opposing person with it while using only one hand. The game kana mutti is a fun game. A person is blind folded and made to use a pole to hit the clay pot which is filled with water. The person who hits the correct pot will be considered as the winner.

The game bun eating is popular among the children and it's very interesting. Several buns are hung in a line and children have to eat the bun using the mouth. The child who finishes eating the bun is known as the winner. Climbing the grease pole is slippery and quite fun, but it's bit hard. Grease is rubbed all over the pole and the person who climbs it and takes the flag will be the winner.

Devinka Valentine
Age: 14
Good Shepherd Convent
Colombo 13

Parrot	At the temple
Madavan Ganesh Grade 4, Kingston College International Mount Lavinia branch	T M Lavanya Pahasarini 1EA, Sujatha Vidyalaya Nugegoda

The Buddha	Donald Duck
Anudi 3A, Sujatha Vidyalaya Nugegoda	Chalitha Grade 3, Kingston College International Mount Lavinia branch

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A New Year festival was held by the Minuwangoda, Nilpanagoda Nipuni pre-school at Gartlandwatte ground recently. Here students preparing to participate in the gunny bag (Goni race) competition. Teacher in charge Niranjala Thisera is also in the picture. Picture by Ivon Nissanka, Divulapitiya group correspondent

Students of York International School, Elakanda, Wattala present an item at their inter-house sports meet held at the Nayakakanda Convent grounds, Hendala, Wattala recently. Chairman and Managing Director York International Schools, Sapugaskanda Rohan Perera was the chief guest. Picture by Edward Weerasinghe, Kelaniya group correspondent	The pre-school of Gladden Institute held a Bak Maha Ulela recently at the school premises. Here children participating in the lime and spoon event. Picture by Tikiri Edirisinghe