Sunny Stories:

End of a story

On Saturday Hasini and Marshi went to Father’s sister, Aunty Dinu’s place to play with their cousin Manu. They often saw Aunty Dinu, working at her desk in one corner of the sitting room. Hasini loved to watch Aunty Dinu. Sometimes when she grew tired of playing with Manu’s building blocks, Hasini went to stand beside Aunty Dinu, who sat at her desk, writing long stories on an old diary and typing them into the computer. Aunty Dinu was a writer. Hasini thought one day she would like to be a writer too.

“What are you writing today, Aunty Dinu?” Hasini asked her Aunt one Saturday morning.

“I am writing an article about a train journey, Hasini,” said Aunty Dinu.

“What is an article?” Hasini wanted to know.

“It is something like a story, often written for grown ups, published in a newspaper or magazine.”

“Can I write articles too?”

“Yes, you can. You can write something about one of your dolls. Why don’t you write about Pinky Binky?”

“Can I have some paper and a pencil?”

“Here you are”, said Aunty Dinu, opening one of the drawers of her desk and taking out a sheet of paper. She also gave Hasini a pencil, made room on her desk, and carried a chair from the dinning table for Hasini to sit on.

“Thank you, Aunty Dinu,” said Hasini and started to write her story.

After some time Hasini showed Auntry Dinu her story. Aunty Dinu read Hasini’s story out loud. “One day a girl went with her doll to the garden. The girl’s name was Pinky Binky. They sat under a tree. It started to rain...” When she reached the end of Hasini’s story Aunty Dinu ruffled Hasini’s hair and said “This is a lovely story. Keep it somewhere safe and show it to your Father and Mother when you go home.”

Just then, Marshi and Manu ran into the sitting room. “Mother, it has stopped raining,” said Manu. “Can we have some paper to make paper boats?”

“Can we please, Aunty Dinu?” said Marshi too. “We can float them in the puddles in the garden.”

Aunty Dinu got up from her desk and went to the window to make sure the rain had stopped. “Alright,” she said. “There are some papers I do not need on my table. You can make boats with them.”

Manu and Marshi made paper boats while Hasini watched Aunty Dinu type her article on the computer.

After about ten minutes, Hasini heard Marshi calling her.

“Hasini come and look. Our boats are in the harbour now.”

Hasini too ran outside to see the boats. The boats were very wet and one boat looked as if it was about to sink. Hasini took it into her hands. Then she gasped in surprise.

“Oh,no” she cried. “You have made a boat out of the paper I wrote my story on. Now it is wet, and I cannot read a single word I wrote.”

“We are sorry, Hasini. We did not know the paper we used had your story on it,” said Marshi and Manu.

When they told Aunty Dinu about the mistake Aunty Dinu said, “Do not worry Hasini, this is something that happens to all writers, sometime or the other. Cheer up. I will give you my computer so that you can type your story on it. Then we can take a printout, and believe me, the second story will be better than the first one.”

“I will draw pictures for your story. We will put the story and the pictures together and make a book” suggested Marshi.

“Wonderful,” said Manu clapping her hands. “I will buy your book and read it.”

Hasini started to smile, “Yes, yes, yes” she said happily.

“Everything happens for their own good” said Aunty Dinu. Marshi, Hasini and Manu agreed. “When things go wrong, remember, this may be because something better is about to happen,” added Aunty Dinu. “The sun is always there, smiling behind every cloud. All you have to do is remember this to be happy, no matter what goes wrong.”

- Aditha ([email protected] )
 

Of playing games!

Dear children,

All of you might have played games on various occasions, at school with friends and at home with your siblings, relatives or neighbours. I know that you want to win the game all the time, but keep in mind that it is not always possible. Either of the party has to lose. What is more important is participation and commitment than winning or losing.

This is true even about games at national or international levels. At the recently concluded Olympic Games 2012 Sri Lanka was not able to win any medal. It would indeed have been a pleasure had we won a medal. We feel elated when Sri Lanka Cricket team becomes victorious at international matches, and feel displeased when they lose. We should not be discouraged by not winning. What is more important is team spirit and the ability to accept victory or defeat. The abilities to work as a team and learn tolerance are important. Do you know what it means when it is said “Life is a game, play it”? Life is full of challenges, there are ups and downs. At times we win, but there are times we lose the ‘game’. We have to be courageous always.

Bye for now, Sanju [email protected]

The Titanic

An American Shipping Line launched a new ship in 1912. Titanic was its name. There had been no other vessel at that time which could surpass the Titanic in luxury and enormity. Experts called it unsinkable.

The Titanic was making its inaugural voyage on April 14, 1912 from England to the United States of America (USA) across the Atlantic ocean. There had been 2224 passengers aboard at that time.

Suddenly the ship struck an iceberg. It was a fatal collision. The ship began to sink.

As the ship was sinking the crew alarmed the passengers. But there were not enough lifeboats to rescue all. Therefore priority had to be given to women and children. The men had to remain on the ship. There was no other ship close to remove the remaining passengers off the sinking ship. Therefore the ship sank along with the rest. It was quite late when a far off ship could find the Titanic wreck.

Shamila Amith , Grade 6B , Sailan International School , Seeduwa