Arjun as Krishna!!!



 Arjun as Krishan

The Tamarind Tree

This Saturday it was “The Tamarind Tree, by Tulika Publications"- A story about four kids basking in the afternoon and climbing the Tamarind tree. My mom selected this story, as we did not know what Tamarind was!!!!.

Book Reading/ Discussions on Book

Anyways, the best part of “The Tamarind Tree” book was the bond among the friends and Mallikarujuna's natural flair to help his friends. I liked Shivappa, the most. I could relate him to me. He knows his body doesn't agree to what he wants and is very clear that if he climbs he will fall. He didn't want to even try climbing but was generous enough to help his friends climb!!! Well, I am not generous like him, but I also get feared about jumping, climbing and all those stuffs. I refrain myself from doing, though my friends are good at it.

We could extract few new words; Clambered, Perch, Dive, perspiration and so on.
“Clambered” being the best, as I got to act it!!!

Throughout the story, we were worried that they would fall from the tree. Probably my Mom created that hype while reading it. However, it was a happy ending.

Different Ending:

When she asked about a different ending to the story; Subha, the 4th grader, was the first to reply that all the other three friends should have helped Shivappa to overcome his fear and made him climb. Good thought.

Sharash, Ashutosh, and I were of the opinion that probably the branch must have broken and everyone must have fallen down. Devils we are!!!!

Preeti was saying, probably the Gardener must have come and shooed them away!!!

Break (Not exactly a break, only my Mom claims it is a break!!!)

By now we were tired and my Mom thought about a game. She said, let us associate the first letter of our name with an action word. Again, we started racking our brains to think about action words.

I said Acting Aryan
Preethi said, Purchasing Preethi
Ashutosh needed some time to think
Murali said Murmering Murali
Subha said, Singing Subha- Mom told to find another word, and she came up with Stamping Subha
Janvi said, Jumping Janvi.
Sharash said, Singing Sharash- Mom told to think another word.

Listeners/Speaker

We had three speakers of the day:

Murali: He told a story about, a king and his three sons. The lesson we could decode was: No matter whatever happens we should move on and face any situation. He was very clear in his narration.

Ashuthos selected s story, where we had to listen attentively to answer his questions. He was planning to read, which my Mom objected. She made him narrate and he narrated very efficiently.

Preethi’s story was well know-A woodcutter and Axe, however the way she narrated was good.

This time we missed Sahithi and Aditya.

The sessions completed with distribution of homework sheets and do a follow up research about Tamarind…... You know what, she never allows me to live peacefully!!!!!

Raja Vikramaditya

During the reading time, it was good to listen about the brave Vikramaditya who goes to the graveyard in the night to catch hold of Betal-the corpse/ghost.....

Thank god this time, my Mom selected a non-technical story….Thanks to Vani aunty for the book.

All of us enjoyed the story and discussed all the new words used in the story. The one that I liked was
“dazzling”. (Proabably I can use, when I see a nice good looking girl!!!!)

After the story, we discussed on the clause laid by the Betal. On the first go, we could only decipher that Betal would go back to the Tamarind tree, if Vikram utters a word.

Upon repeated keen reading we could decode more:
1. If Vikram utters a word, before he reaches his destination, then Betal will fly back to Tamarind tree.
2. The Betal would tell story to reduce the tediousness of the journey, and at the end Vikram should answer the puzzle. Knowing the “RIGHT” answer and keeping quiet will cause bursting of Vikram’s head. As usual Vikram being the knowledgeable man, knows all the answers and he ends up answering.

We were discussing the ways Vikram can get hold of Betal once in for all:
1. Ashutos was saying, Vikram need not utter a word, instead he can take a twig and write his answers on the mud. Good thought.
2. I was saying, probably Vikram should do some Gymnastics and reach the destination before the story ends.
3. Preethi was of the opinion that Vikram should not know the right answer. Probably that can also happen.

After this, Me and Saharash got to act the words; Corpse, Tedious, Utter, Dazzling…

Then the speakers of the day presented their modules:

Sahithi was the first speaker who said a story about the “Holes in Fence”- a very good story to learn and understand the essence of controlling anger. She asked good questions, which we had to think and answer.

Aditya was the next speaker who talked about the “Hawk and the Crow: The moral being not to imitate others in a foolish way, without knowing the strength. He had narrated it well.

Overall it was good. Let us see what my Mamma has in store for the next session.

Magic School Bus-Inside the Human Body

My Mom’s ideas always lead to reading sessions!!!! This time we chose Magic school bus, “Inside the human body”
We had senior kids who attended the reading session and they are in 8th, 7th, 6th, and 4th grades. All of them were above my age group and were very attentive. Very impressive. Me and Saharsh were the jokers of the slot!!

It was a “long book” with so many internal organs….but somehow 1.5 hr swept away in a magical way.

Me and Sharash were constantly bothered about why the BUS was not detected as waste particles and about the CO2 gas that comes out of the lungs!!! Well…..it was fun and we were rolling with laughter throughout the session.

One another fact that amused me was, “I was actually thinking that visiting Arnold’s brain would make me more wise and typical Arnold type. I love Arnold’s role in every Magic School Bus series!!!!!! Sometimes I feel I should be the Arnold in Mr Frizzle’s class.”

Next time, probably my mom should select a shorter book for including more activities than simply reading and understanding…the internal organs!!! The brain gets twisted by reading heavy stuffs….god knows when she will understand this …??????