Author at School

It was the assembly of class 1B. The students from the 1^st and 2^nd had come to watch. Everyone laughed and joked as the assembly was on. We were enjoying ourselves.

As the assembly was about to finish, Miss Marium said that the assembly was very nice. We were all listening to her. She said that we have an author in our school.
Miss Marium called my name and said that he is the author.

When I was in the washroom, many children said “Hi author” to me. In the SPA class everybody asked if I was the person who was called on the stage.

I was very proud of myself.

Holiday in Langkawi with new and old friends

“I am going down the slide again! Anybody coming?” screeched Advait, as he came down the water slide.

Advait and Siddhant were sitting on the raft while Anya was pushing them close to the slide. I came swishing down and toppled the raft over. Playing in the pool was so much fun.

We were hungry and went to eat lunch.

“I want a pizza stick,” screamed Sasmit.

Eating pizzas with pineapple was so much fun.

Soon we were tired and sIeepy. We put on our towels and wiped ourselves dry. We returned to our respective rooms and slept cosily on our own baby beds.

We were in Langkawi in a resort called THE ANDAMANS with my father’s friends, their wives and their children. Langkawi is an island filled with rainforests off the coast of Malaysia. 

The next day we did snorkelling. We saw some corals. There were so many fishes all around me. Sea Anemones and other corals were very pretty. Clown fishes were also there. Some corals were opening and closing. It was a lot of fun to see them.

On the third morning, we went on the forest tour before breakfast. In the forest we saw a giant squirrel. It was black and was much bigger than a normal squirrel. There were even a few boars but we did not manage to see one. We saw a grey monkey eating leaves. It even threw some yellow fruits at us which looked like apricots. We passed a brown monkey which was similar to the grey one. We went on and saw an animal that looked like a panda. We even saw a monitor lizard. It has over 5,000 types of bacteria in its mouth. After all the excitement, we were exhausted. We went for a bath.

After breakfast, we got ready and went to the cable car ride. It was the steepest cable car ride. We got into the cable car and could see the splendid view. The sight of the shimmering blue waters all around the island was refreshing. The golden beaches and the lush green rain forests were really beautiful.

Anya and her family were in the cable car with us. As the cable car was going higher, Papa was getting more scared. They were surprised because they did not know that Papa was afraid of heights. Once the cable car ride got over, Papa was fine once again.

We stretched our arms and woke up lazily on the last day of our trip. We got into the pool and were there for a while before lunch. This last lunch at the resort was an exciting mix of the same yummy pizzas, lots of Sprite and Sasmit’s shouting.

The food was a really great part of our trip. I have already told you that we had lovely pizzas near the pool. We had a really fantastic Japanese dinner. The sushis were really good and tasty. They gave a separate room for 14 of us where we had a sit-down dinner.

On one of the days we went outside for an Italian lunch. We even had magnum ice creams after the lunch.

This was a memorable trip. The highlights of the trip were that I made new friends, played in the pool and of course the food I ate. 

Sorry.. it wasn't Mamata Banerjee..

I remembered. It wasn't Mamata Banerjee. I was thinking of Lata Mangeshkar, the singer!!!

Mamata Bannerjee... the singer!!!

Keshav: Papa, if a woman becomes a minister, what is she called?

Papa: Minister.

Keshav: OH!!

Papa: Like Mamata Bannerjee is the Chief Minister of West Bengal. But she is still called the Chief Minister, not something else.

Keshav: When did Mamata Bannerjee become the Chief Minister? She is not even a politician.

Papa: Arre, she is a politician. If she is not a politician, what is she then?

Keshav: Isn't she a singer!!!

What a howler!!!!

Keshav goes to vote... almost...

Papa has been watching the election campaigning for a long time. I also ended up watching some bits of it and got interested in the campaigning.

Yesterday we went for voting because it was the voting day in Mumbai. I was very excited to go, thinking that I could see the process of voting. The voting was happening at a close-by school. The election people divided the voters into different booth numbers so that the queues would be short.

The day before the elections, our society people gave us slips which contained the information to help us vote. In these slips we found our booth number. Our booth number was 98. It was on the second floor of the school.

When we reached there, we had to stand in a big queue to enter our booth. I was getting very bugged while standing in the queue because it was so boring to just stand in a line. I wanted to get to the booth quickly. It took almost one hour. There were many people from our building in the queue.

A policeman was standing at the entrance to the classroom which had our booth, to maintain law and order. He said that I couldn't go inside the booth. I got upset. The policeman said that I could stand next to him and could watch my parents vote.

At the first counter, the election officer saw their voter ID and checked if their name was there in the voter list. At the second counter, another person put an ink-mark on their nail. After that, they took the slip and asked them to vote. This was being done one-by-one.

The voting machine was kept separately, in a closed area. They went to the machine and pressed the button to vote for their party.

After the voting was done, we came back home.

Thinking that it would be exciting, it turned out to be a boring event.

PS: While Papa had to ask me a lot of questions and help me with some synonyms, but eventually this was written out the way I wanted to tell it.

The discerning sweet-eater - Post Script

The Katli turned out to be a Kaju Katli, after all!!!

The discerning sweet-eater

Like my father and the rest of my family, I am very fond of Badaam (Almond) ki Katli. At the same time, I just do not like Kaju (Cashew) ki Katli (which the Dilli-types love). Like the fish loving feature of Bongs, any self-respecting Marwari from Calcutta would display this trait.

And being the discerning sweet-eater that I am, i can distinguish a Badaam Katli from a Kaju Katli, without having to bite into it.

Dadu had gotten some katli's from Jaipur a couple of days ago. Papa had seen the box and wanted some sweets with his breakfast.

Those of you who know my mother, also know that she will do anything to prevent Papa from having sweets. Follow the conversation:

M: But its kaju katli. You will not like it.

P: Is it really? Somehow I dont think so.

K: NO. It is not kaju katli. You gave it to me in my tiffin and I ate it. It is badaam ki katli only.

P: I haven't tried it yet. But I did see it and somehow I don't think it is kaju katli.

K: Yes Papa. I know. It is thick like a badaam katli. Kaju katli is much thinner. I know that!!!

M: (to herself in her head): Where can I go jump into a well? I just cannot get the better of this son and husband of mine....

My leg is itching...

Keshav, sitting on the potty seat, suddenly starts crying.

Papa: "What happened?"

Keshav (howling away loudly): "My leg is itching very badly. It has also "

Papa: "Have you finished your potty? Please finish your potty and then come out. I can't do anything while you are doing potty."

Keshav (howling even more loudly!!): "Mammma......"

Mummy: "What happened Keshav? Why are you crying?"

Keshav (continues howling): "Mammmaaaaa.... my leg is itching... and Papa is saying finish your potty and come out... booohooooo booohoooo.."

Poor Papa

Keshav: Papa, what do you play nowadays given that you have deleted the Class of Clans on your iPad?

Papa: A little bit of Candy Crush. That's all!!

Keshav: Oh no!! You know you can play Angry Birds Go also. It's a lot of fun. And it will also help you improve your driving.

And now Papa is wondering whether I was being nice to him or telling him that his driving is bad!!!

The football tackle

Yesterday, we were playing football in the school field. Ved was running in front of me. Suddenly, Vedant Bansal, the naughtiest boy in class (who was not my friend earlier but now is my friend), tackled us by putting his leg in front of us.

Ved tripped and fell first. He fell for a long time.

Since I was behind him, even I fell though not for so long. However, I did get some very bad bruises!!

Teachers

Teachers teach in a school
So that nobody is a fool
Teachers help children learn
So that nobody is stubborn
Teachers teach different subjects
So that we are perfect
Without teachers nobody will know anything
Because teachers know everything
Teachers are very useful
That's why we all should be very grateful

By Keshav Mohta

Reasons why I want to grow up quickly....

Here goes...

I can use the men's urinal in a hotel or a mall and dont have to go to the small kids' urinal or the potty seat.