Features | Online edition of Daily News

Last Saturday Grandma and Grandpa came to stay with Sandun and his parents. In the afternoon, Grandpa sat beside Sandun in the sitting room. Sandun was watching his two kittens as they played with a piece of string. After awhile, Bindu, the black kitten stopped playing. He ran out of the front door. Chuti, the ginger kitten ran after Bindu.

They both sat on the grass and let the afternoon sunlight soak through their thick fur. Five minutes later, Chuti put his arm round Bindu. Together they watched a yellow butterfly flit from flower to flower.

“Look at that Grandpa” said Sandun, watching the two kittens from the sitting room window. “Bindu and Chuti seem such good friends”.

“Yes, son” said Grandpa. “I guess you too have lots of friends at school.”

“Of course, Grandpa” said Sandun. “I have lots of friends. But Nishan has only two and Romesh says he has only three.”

“Yes. They always ask me to play cricket with them whenever I take my new bat to school.”

“Hmm” said Grandpa. “Would you like to find out who your real friends are? After all some of them might not be friends. They might simply be pretending to be your friend because you have a new cricket bat.”

Sandun thought for a moment. “Yes, Grandpa. You might be right. But how do I find out who is a real friend and who is not a real friend?” he asked. Grandpa went to his room and came back carrying something in his hands.

“This is a special chair” he explained. “I read about it on the internet and thought you might like to have it. It is invisible. Because you can’t see it, it’s rather tricky to sit on, but if you take it to school and manage to sit on it, you’ll activate its magic. Then you will find out who your real friends are.”

The next day Sandun took Grandpa’s invisible chair to school with him. During the interval he called all his friends and asked them to watch him. He kept the invisible chair in one corner of the classroom and tried to sit on it.

“Thadas” the moment Sandun tried to sit on the chair he fell to the ground. Most of his friends who had gathered around him, started to laugh. They laughed for a good five minutes.

“Let me try again” said Sandun. “It is a bit difficult to sit on the chair as I can’t see it” he explained.

He tried to sit on the chair once more. This time too he fell to the floor. But Sandun didn’t want to give up. He kept on trying. But try as he did he could not sit on the chair. Each time he tried, he fell to the ground... until, the tenth time. This time, to his surprise he didn’t fall. He found himself hovering in mid air.

Suddenly Sandun realized the magic that his grandfather had been talking about had begun to work. When he turned his head Sandun saw Nishan and Romesh had come to stand behind him and were holding him up.

He looked at the others standing around him. Sandun realized though he had thought they were his friends they really were not friends. They simply stood watching and worst of all, were laughing at him.When the bell rang for class to commence Sandun walked to his desk, feeling happy Grandpa had helped him to find out who his real friends are.

The invisible chair had shown him that true friends are those who really care about us, especially when we are in trouble. Sandun knew he had only two real friends; Nishan and Romesh, because instead of laughing over his misfortune they stepped forward to help him. Next time when Grandpa asked Sandun how many friends he had, Sandun knew he would say “Only two real friends grandpa. Nishan and Romesh”.

After coming home from school Sandun watched Bindu and Chuti playing with the piece of string. He wondered if they too needed an invisible chair to find out who their real friends are. Just then, Bindu sat down to rest and Chuti threw his arm round Bindu. “You already know who your real friends are Chuti and Bindu” Sandun said to himself. He went to find the tin of biscuits to share with the two good friends.

Aditha Dissanayake

Let’s end child labour

My dear children,

Busy with schoolwork, homework and hobbies? Hope you all are faring well in whatever work you do. Be happy.

You are lucky enough to enjoy the comforts of life, to get parental love, protection and guidance. But do you know that not all children are as fortunate as you? There are millions of children across the world who are deprived of education and are used as workers. More than half of these children are forced to work under extremely difficult conditions- as slaves, for illicit activities such as prostitution and drug trafficking and in armed conflicts.

In order to make people aware of the suffering undergone by child workers and to put an end to child labour, the International Labour Organization declared June 12 as the World Day Against Child labour in 2002. This year’s theme was “Human rights and social justice ... Let’s end child labour.”

All children should have access to food, shelter, protection and education. When they are deprived of these essentials their lives become miserable. Their future is bleak and uncertain. That is why the ILO is working hard to eliminate child labour.

Today as Sri Lankans we can proudly tell the rest of the world that our efforts to end children being used in armed conflicts were successful. My dear children, do you know how many children suffered and died because they were used by the LTTE as child soldiers? Now that dark era is over.

Please know that each of you have a role to play to eliminate child labour. Be vigilant.

Have you ever seen small children being used as domestic servants or being forced to work under hazardous environments? If so please inform your parents about that or else you can drop an email or write to me.

Let’s work hard to protect the rights of children. Let’s help everyone enjoy his/her childhood

How I spend my leisure time meaningfully

‘Leisure’ means free time – time at one’s own disposal. “Freedom” from other activities or from the occupation. People spend their leisure in many different ways. Some of them are reading, watching tv, travelling, music dancing, painting clay pots, collecting flowers and pressing them, gardening. Swimming, seeing films and dramas some are engaged in sports and others in gardening.

I have a lot of leisure activities. One of them is reading books. It’s a very useful pastime. I can also improve my knowledge by reading.

An insensitive person can become a sensitive person by reading books. When a person takes to reading he or she will never waste his or her valuable time on unnecessary things.

The other one is collecting stamps. It is also a very useful past time. I started collecting stamps one year ago. Now I have about one hundred stamps. I have both foreign and local stamps. We can learn many things about the culture and history of other countries through the stamps. There are pictures of great persons, animals, birds, buildings and vehicles on the stamps. So I would like to request all of you; you also can make reading, collecting stamps, as your leisure activity.

R. Praveesha Sonali Rajapaksha
Grade: 08 E
K/I/ Devepala College
Polgolla

‘Nitter’ the stag

The dawn is born, of another day,
In the meadows, and far away.
Animals are ready to lay and slay,
To begin their work in the wildest way.
While the birds sing and wing,
Nitter the stag is rushing in a speed.
To hop from the evil trap,
Where he get caught to have a worst nap.
Nitter imagines his future, as a miracle,
Where his fur is covering a lady with pleasure,
And to go inside the deepest cave,
Where he get digested, with a feeling of brave.
He remembers his family and home,
And he forgets that he is rushing, all alone,
And for the last choice of his life,
Whether to choose death,
which is hidden in an evil Hive.

Harshanee Perera
Grade – 8C,
Royal International School,
Kurunegala.

Kite	Sheriff of Nottingham	Kaffir aircraft

T Dishan Grade 5 Kinston College Inter	M Aravinkanth Grade 5 Kingston College International Wellawattha	Damsara Wijesinghe Tiny Treasures Montessori Colombo 8
Pond	My garden	Dog

Srihari Grade 2A Kingston College International Mutwal	Suberneka Rade 2B Kinstong College International Mutwal Colombo 15	Haresh Grade 1 Kingston College International Wellatta

A duck in the lake	Six fish

Arjuni Rathnaveil 2E-A Sujatha Vidyalaya Nugegoda	Dave Surendran Grade 2 St Joseph’s College Colombo 10

Colombo Children’s Book Association has launched a project which witnessed publications of schoolchildren. The programme, which is a brainchild of Association’s President Dr Dhammadesha Ambalanpitiya, was held recently. Pramudha Bhashitha Wickramaarachchi, a Grade 4 student of Isipathana College, presents his book ‘Samagiya Balaya Vey’ to Principal A C Perera. Picture by Indika Edirisinghe

The Friendship test