Write and Read: By Us For Us stories

We bring you three of the stories that were published in the book, to give you a taste of what's in store. So what are you waiting for? Grab a copy now!

March 12, 2012 04:17 pm | Updated 04:17 pm IST

Chennai: 08/03/2012: The Hindu: Young World: Book Review Column:
Title: Big J and the Bus Driver.
Story by Rizwan M. Amlani, Erin N. Nagaruala Day Schook, Pune.

Chennai: 08/03/2012: The Hindu: Young World: Book Review Column: Title: Big J and the Bus Driver. Story by Rizwan M. Amlani, Erin N. Nagaruala Day Schook, Pune.

In July 2011, Hewlett Packard collaborated with Katha — an NGO that encourages children-in-need to learn and develop sustainable learning skills — and prolific lyricist Prasoon Joshi, to host creative writing workshops, “Write&Read”. The workshops — aimed at children aged nine to 14 — held in six cities across India had over 1400 children participate. Participants were given a chance to write and submit a short story for an all-India story writing contest. The top 29 shortlisted stories have been published in a book — ‘Write&Read By Us For Us' that was launched in November last year. We carry a few stories to give you a glimpse of what's in store in the book.

Big j and the bus driver

Once there was an honest Bus Driver named P. He was not too strong. He was a simple and sober man. He did his duty very well. He worked very hard and he never cheated.

One fine day, he got in his bus and started it. After he started the bus, as he rode across the road, a few people got in and a few people got off. And then a huge man with very strong and heavy muscles got in. When P asked him for the ticket, he said, “Big J doesn't pay.” As P was thin and weak, he couldn't say anything to J.

The next day, when P was on duty, J got into the bus. When P asked him for the ticket as usual he said, “big J doesn't pay,” and P could not say anything.

From that day P decided to join Karate, Judo and all such classes to become physically strong.

After some days P became stronger and had muscles. When J entered the bus, P courageously asked him for the ticket. As usual J said, “Big J doesn't pay.”

And just then P asked, “And why doesn't he pay?” J was surprised to hear this. He replied, Because Big J has a Bus Pass.”

Rizwan M. Amlani, Erin N. Nagarwala Day School, Pune

Art by Indu Harikumar

Don't ever study too hard!

I was dozing away in class as usual, when my teacher's voice disturbed my dream of being awarded the best dozer-not-bulldozer-of-the-country…(I like sleeping). Anyway, my teacher was telling us that we had a maths test in a week from then. I don't really study for tests, because I fail anyway, so I didn't pay attention to my teacher and tried to recollect my dream. A week later, my teacher's voice woke me up from the same dream – actually, it was a day before the test. My teacher said that we had better pass the test because it accounted for 75% of our grades. Now I cared about the test. I really needed that good grade. The last maths test I had, I got half of quarter right, and that was because the test was multiple choice…and I guessed.

After school, I went to the library to study. I'm not sure what happened, but a second later the librarian was lecturing me on how not to drool on the books. I didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out how I fell asleep while “studying”.

“Do you have any waterproof books in the library?” I asked the librarian. Big mistake. After that remark, I got suspended from the library for a month! How I was going to study was a mystery.

After a while, I got desperate. I decided to ask my mom to help me study. My mom is awesome, but she keeps trying to be cool by cracking lame jokes. Like when I asked her what the area of a square was, she said, “Side multiplied by side, divided by four.” Then she cracked up. I'm pretty sure the answer was wrong, so I can never completely believe her,

After I gave up trying to study with my mom, I got EXTREMELY desperate and decided to cheat. I decided to write the answers on the soles of my shoes and just copy the answers if I didn't know them. After I did that, I took a little nap. Okay, okay, a big nap.

When I woke up, my shoes were gone and a little note was in their place. Supposedly, my mom washed my shoes because they were dirty. Now I was going to fail for sure.

When I reached my class the next day, I was hysterical. I took a test paper from my teacher and walked to my desk. I cautiously looked at the first question. I couldn't believe it! My teacher must have switched our test papers with first graders! I passed the test, and (I hope) passed the fifth grade.

Madhavi Rao, National Academy for Learning, Bengaluru

Art by Bhanu and Anupam

Vnd's trip 2 fire

Once upon a time there lived a Very Nice Dragon. The only problem was that he couldn't breathe fire! He wanted to breathe fire like other dragons so he went searching for fire. Soon, he reached Chocoland. Then he thought maybe if I ate sweets I will get myfire! So he started eating many sweets but no fire came, much to his disappointment! Next, he went to Fairyland but to his surprise, no amount of begging would make the fairy give him a spell to make him breathe fire.

So at last he set out to Witchy Itchy forest and asked a witch to give him something to make him breathe fire. The witch simply said, “Hoona looki pie pie!” and he started breathing butterflies! Now that's an extraordinary thing. “Sorry!” said the witch, let me try again. Next she said, “Hoona looki pie pie!” And he started breathing moths! “Sorry again,” the witch said, “eat this tablet and you will breathe fire.”b ut what is this! The dragon started breathing flowers! “No need of your help Witch!” said VND (Very Nice Dragon) and walked away.

Next he came home, and asked his mates whether they would teach him how to breathe fire. The other dragons agreed. They tried in vain to teach him to breathe fire but he couldn't. first they lit some fire and asked him to eat some. But he ended up scalding his mouth. Next they put a fire ball down his throat but he belched it out. At last, the other dragons thought him to be bad omen and left for another place.

VND sadly spent five years in a forest helping people who passed byinstead of killing them. After six-and-a-half years, a dragon VBD (Very Bad Dragon) came and picked up a fight with VND.

VND won over him by showering flowers on him. All the FBD (Fire Breathing Dragons) saw this and became friends with him. And then, VND started a flower shop. The king himself came and bought flowers from his flower shop. How do I know this story? The flowers told this to a gardener and he told me, so that's how I know.

Sanskruti Lakshmi Kanth, Navadisha Montessori School, Chennai

Art by Abhijeet Kini

Write and Read By Us For Us, presented by Hewlett-Packard India (Imaging and Printing Group), Katha, Rs. 375

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