Happy Maha Shivratri and Women’s Day!!!

By the local correspondent Inaya Sinha

To begin, I want to start by wishing everyone a very happy Maha Shivratri and Women's Day!!! You might have noticed that this year, Maha Shivratri and Women's Day fell on the same day!!! I hope you enjoyed your experience but I am going to tell you about mine.

What should I begin with? How about our Women's Day celebration. I ordered a cake from Theobroma using Meghana Didi's phone as I couldn't tell Mamma about the surprise that I was planning. Even Abu didn't know! I am sure you too have planned a surprise for someone so you can understand the suspense and temptation to tell the person that you have a surprise for them, right? Everyone says that I can't keep secrets or surprises but I proved them wrong today. I made sure that Mamma didn't receive the tiniest hint. My friend Alia had actually come over for a play date and we played a game called Uno and then we played with a chemistry kit. Soon after that, Alia's mother (Lily Aunty) had come to pick her up. And before they left, I brought out the cake. Dida came out for the celebration and she cut the cake. Everyone had a little cake except Rekha Didi as she was fasting for Maha Shivratri. Then Alia went home and we ate a bit more cake.

Now, about Maha Shivratri. Abu was in Delhi so it was just me, Mamma, Rekha Didi and Dida. Mamma had played some traditional music and Dida came out of her room on her wheelchair. We all took turns to offer our prayers to Shiva and Parvati. Mamma went first then Rekha Didi and then me. There was a special order in which we had to pray to Shiva. First we poured some Ganga Jal or water from the river Ganga over all the idols, After doing that, we bathed each idol with milk. And with a spoon we put some yogurt over the idols. Then offered some flowers and tulsi leaves to the idols. Then we put our ring finger in a yellow wet - ish powder called chandan and we touched it to all the fruits and idols. Then we sprinkled a white powder over all the idols and fruits. After that, we poured a tiny bit of honey over the idols and lastly, we sprinkled rice over all of them. After doing this, we prayed and asked for what we wanted in life and what we were thankful for. After everyone had prayed, we did aarti. This Maha Shivratri was especially special as this year I could spend it with Dida, I am so glad we could celebrate this occasion with her.

Today was an amazing day, wasn't it?

PS: Just a note to all the women out there, never forget how strong, special and amazing you are. No matter how much someone puts you down, just remember, you are a woman!

Happy Halloween!!!

By the local correspondent Inaya Sinha

Happy Halloween!!! Did you have a spooky evening? I definitely did!!! I normally talk about what I experienced but I have a few questions for you first - Who did you dress up as? Did you decorate your house? What candy did you give out? And most of all, did you have fun???

At my house, we decorated our door and the area between the lift and our house. We had these pumpkin streamers and this spooky little doorbell which opened its green eye when you pressed the button. We also used cotton to replicate spider webs and had these plastic spiders and cockroaches and rats which I used to scare my family.

Before I talk about my costume - have you watched Wednesday? If not, Wednesday is a TV show on Netflix and is about this girl whose wicked prank gets her expelled from her school and then her parents enroll her in a school  (it is a school named Nevermore Academy where they have houses like werewolves, vampire etc.) where they met each other. As you can probably guess, I am Wednesday the girl who is allergic to color, has been in eight schools in five years and spreads mayhem wherever she goes.

In my building, every year we have a Halloween party and the building takes us for trick or treating. This year, I was actually really late for trick or treating as on the 31st we had a field trip in school and got home a bit late and missed a few houses but got quite a bit of candy. We got so much candy and chocolates at home that not even 1/4 of it is over!!! After trick or treating, there was a party in the building where they played these games like zombie walk and mummy wrap. In zombie walk, we had to put our legs in buckets and walk like a zombie and in mummy wrap your mummy had to wrap you up like a mummy!!!

We even had a Halloween party in school!!! I wore my Wednesday costume to school and after lunch, we played some games. The teachers planned a murder mystery for us where someone had been murdered in a hotel and there were witnesses who had left us clues which we had to solve and there was a suspect list from which we had to sniff out the murderer.

I think this year was by far the best Halloween ever!!!

Don't you?

The Tale Of Ganesha…

By the local correspondent Inaya Sinha

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! Have you ever wondered how Ganesha landed up with an elephant's head? Even I didn't know the story for a long time but I know now and am happy to share. Would you like to know??

The Tale Of Ganesha

Parvati and Shiva, god and goddess. But the one thing they always yearned for was a child. One day, when Shiva was out meditating in the mountains. Parvati got an idea!

She saw a lump of clay in the corner and picked it up. She sculpted that clay into a statue of a boy and used her magic to turn him real. " Who am I? " said the sculpture of a boy opening it's eyes. " Ganesha! You are Ganesha! My son! " said Parvati with glee. " I am? Yay! What do I do now? " asked Ganesha. " I am going for a shower now and you must not let anybody enter, okay? Nobody! " said Parvati sweetly but firmly.

Ganesha did as his mother told him but then a blue man came towards their house. " Nobody may enter! " said Ganesha holding his arm out like a traffic guard. " What?? Why?? " said Shiva looking confused. " You need not know! But you may not enter! " said Ganesha holding his position showing that he would not be pushed around.

Full of anger, Shiva took his trident and cut Ganesha's head clean off!!!!

When Parvati came out of the shower she was furious! " What have you done!? My little boy! Aaarrgghh!!! Shiva! How mindless are you? That was our son! Now you had better go find a new head for him or else! " said Parvati blinded with anger. Now, Shiva really was in trouble!

They searched the entire mountains but they could not find a head for Ganesha. Finally, they reached a forest where Shiva found a very old elephant. " What's wrong, oh mighty Shiva? Why are you in such a sad mood? " asked the old elephant. " I was clouded by anger and accidentally cut off Parvati's son's head and haven't been able to find a new head just yet. " said Shiva. " Oh, that sounds like quite the debacle, oh mighty Shiva. But I think I have a solution. " said the old elephant with a smile.

" Take my head. I am an old elephant and will die soon. " said the elephant. " I couldn't! " said Shiva. " Please. " said the old elephant. So Shiva took his head and came back.

" You had better have found my precious little boy a new head! " said Parvati in tears. " I did. " said Shiva using his magic to attach Ganesha's new head. " An elephant's head! What were you thinking? Now everyone will make fun of our little boy. " said Parvati. " Ah, but there is the beauty of it. People will learn from Ganesha, how to accept other's differences and how not to make other's feel like the elephant in the room. " said Shiva making Parvati understand.

" I myself have learned that differences are good and to never let anger rule my mind again. I am so sorry, Parvati. " said Shiva sort of sad. " It's okay. " said Parvati hugging Shiva and Ganesha.

The End!