This is an original Story built during a Story-Building Activity done with a group of 11 kids (5-6 years old) and two grown ups. It was an absolute Fun-filled experience as the kids pushed their Imagination and Concentration to relate and build. Don't miss their innocence as they strived very hard not to pick pieces from the stories they already knew. Also we chose not to edit the story before publishing it as the story belongs to the children and had to be told their way. Here it goes:   Rohin: Once upon a time there was a princess. She lived in a castle. Kashvi: And then her father came and then the princess woke up and brushed her teeth and ate breakfast. Samruddhi: Then she got up and goes to the garden. She was playing with the shrubs   Durva: She was taking some flowers and she got lost in the jungle. Sonia (Grown up): She realized she’s not in the garden of the castle. She got scared and started to cry. Suddenly she heard a bird chirping on a branch hanging on the top of her head.

I One day in the afternoon I was watching TV and I saw a young woman with her pregnant tummy then child was born mother having tears as she was hholding her new born baby and breastfeeding... i will sitting on the bed feeling cosy on my silk bedcover curtains closed bedroom was in complete darkness and complete silence as i had muted the t.v in advertisement... Holding a huge mug of my favourite elaichi ginger chaai... I started to dreaming thinking back in to a time which I could only imagine, i was imagining a new life for myself I am getting married to my love who is the main center of attraction of my life.. One fine day just with in a month of my marriage i come to know i am pregnant .. I had not even come out of my immense happiness of my first night which was still freshfor me and I getting second happiness of conceiving the imagination of new life growing inside me.. i becoming happy as well as scared by the thought of conceiving by the man whom I loved alot... I getting scared or the love blinded

   Conversing with a 5-year-old is a complicated task. Every sentence must be backed with enough logic to answer at least 3 questions that follow pertaining to that sentence. Right from ‘why’ to ‘what’ to ‘where’? And if there are no answers, or even worse, silly answers to these questions, then there are 5 more questions which follow that may even challenge the genuineness of your motherhood. On one such Sunday morning, while I was really savoring my cup of tea (something, even my mother will not dare and disturb {but my daughter gives a hang}), I was engrossed in reading an enticing article about molding into relationships. Just then this little ‘I am smart and I know it’ package, I call my daughter, walks up to me and crawls into the chair next to mine. I try hard to not take notice of her and pretend like I am still that engrossed in my read. She sits quiet, for 3 minutes precisely. And then says the word which I know will be followed by some 4

  On a rainy afternoon, I wasn’t doing what I would have loved to do, like cuddling into a ball on my chaise lounge with that perfect cup of tea and staring outside the window. Nor was I outdoors, completely enjoying getting drenched in the heavy downpour. I had driven myself to run some unavoidable errands and obviously at the risk of sounding clichéd, struggling to find parking that wasn’t a kilometer away from where I had work. Fortunately, by the time I turned off the engine at a spot not too far away from the arcade, the rains had stopped so I merrily got down grabbing my bag and completely ignoring the pretty umbrella sitting by me. Happily, I ran through my “to do” list and as I stepped out to walk back towards my ride, there they were… The rains!! They were back and how! First 20 seconds I invested in cursing myself for having left the umbrella in the car. The next 20 seconds I fixed my eyes on the car and calculated the time I would take to run towards it

My daughter is fondly referred to as 'princess'. And luckily made to feel like one by everyone she shares her genes with. I try not to take it too seriously as I'd rather have her known as a child but it's just not flattering enough to say "aaaawwwww my child" as compared to "aaaawwwwww my princess".  So child aka princess was visiting her grandparents who literally could even dance on their one foot for her. They choose to conveniently ignore me when I say it's unnecessary and they should treat her like they treated their own kids. But grandparents I guess, are made of something, parents of children don't understand!  So as a ritual, even during this visit, she got her say in what to eat, when to eat, where to go and most of all what goodies to buy. Normally known as an extremely well behaved child, suddenly I saw my delusion crumble under the unconditional love from grandparents in the form of "you can buy anything you want" in a toy heaven! My heart almost sank but I kept telling myself, this i

Over a span of merely six months, a wave of optimism has taken over the state of stagnation which lasted us a decade. The term of a prospect "Super Power" doesn't sound like a rude joke anymore. The daily news includes national achievements too now, rather than just national scams. "Achhe din aane wale hain" doesn't seem like only an intelligent election campaign, but a journey towards something positive. There is a sudden leap from the state of 'self pity' to that of a 'go getter' as a nation. All of a sudden its not about a district, a state, a community or a section. Its about what is geographically known as a country. What happened at Madison Square less than 48 hours back created history. One man, on a mission , with a vision, and the conviction was able to tune millions of minds into believing that his campaign was for real. As I heard him speak, I saw the way status updates and messages on social media changed from indifferent/negative/critical to proud/optimistic/patriotic/respectful. Its hardly a mat

It was a small tender plant, bending and swaying with wind. Gusted tried to uproot its stem, its embodied stem stood firm. It grew in a big tree with pain often experiencing sunshine and rain. With natures help it got dressed, with branches, flowers and fruits the best. Birds started chirping and flying around, which made the tree happy hearing the sound. Eating the fruits and quenching the thirst, birds eagerly started building their nests. Seeing birds laying their eggs and flying free, made the tree happy and full of glee. Birds dependency on the tree made it so proud. That it wanted to shout aloud. The tree thought the fruits and flowers are mine. I am generous to them and very kind. When all was well rhyme or reason, alas suddenly came the change of season. The trunk started weakening, fruits and flowers started wilting and dropping, its leaves and branches started drying away, birds started flying away. It did not have even tears to

Today. Sigh. Nandita was dreading the next few hours as she reluctantly applied the black kohl defining a pair of eyes which spoke a million words, or so people often said. Wheatish, almost dark, a colour she proudly flaunted, her skin shone as she brushed off some shimmer from her red jumpsuit. She was only going to this party because she had pinned her hopes on getting one glimpse of a man whose presence delightfully unsettled her. Samar. It was getting colder much like her life and the night. She had seen him faintly smile at her just before he exchanged conventional greetings as he passed her by with his pretty wife. As the evening progressed, the mindless chatter and banal conversations thrown in with group photographs one after the other called for a final drink. So much pretension was all that she could handle for one night. "Red-Bull-Jager, no ice, in a Collins please," she told the bartender as she saw Gaurav laughing loudly in the distance as he and his friend peered into his phone. Gaurav and Nandi

What makes life worth living ? Life is such a beautiful gift. Breathing is such a beautiful gift. Living is amazing. You have the chance to make people happy, you have the ability to make people smile. You can make people go from tears to laughing to tears. Yes, life gets problematic at times and hits an all time low. Yes, there are times you end up loathing your life and yourself. But that's life, we have good days as well as bad days. Some days you just want to jump off a cliff, some days you want to run into peoples arms! Thats the beauty of life, when you get past those horrible days (and they may be often) , life is magical. We all have days on which we can't stop laughing or smiling, that's what makes life worth living ; the happiness, the smiles and even those tears.

Why waste time on the past and events and people that don't matter, when there is such a bright and beautiful world awaiting us, things that will ease the pain of what grief came before and turn it all into pixie dust. Let it all go for the better. No one deserves to be treated less than the best, no one should be haunted by the ghosts of their pasts who cause a great hindrance to their prospective future. Sorrows of yesterday can so easily begin to be erased with just moving a few steps forward. Its not as easy as it sounds but if you are a fighter, the future is surely going to become brighter. Go forth. Breathe. Let it all go.

Until a few years back,the number of vehicles on roads was fairly less than it is today.Hence,traffic jams and road accidents were quite uncommon.But now,these things have become a part of our routine.We aren't shocked to encounter an accident while going to work.We are bound to suffer from these issues.Afterall,we are the real culprits. When the number of road accidents and mishaps started rising in the city of Pune,a group of youngsters famously known as 'Action for Pune Development' wanted to do something about it and live up to their name.Soon after,they joined hands with the Pune Traffic Police and initiated their Traffic awareness & Road safety campaign.The first activity was to distribute pamphlets that stated the importance of wearing a helmet.Volunteers,along with the Police,went to assigned traffic signals across the city and distributed the pamphlets among the two wheeler riders without a helmet awaiting the signal to go off.The pamphlets had a slogan printed on them in Marathi which translates t

Daksh's first ever ganpati, well first one where he could truly participate. It was the first time I was actually undertaking the whole ritual starting from bringing home our Ganesha. How was I supposed to know that even our own Ganesha needs an appointment that fills up almost 2 months prior !?!??!! So I merrily decide to purchase one - A day before the stapana day .. Yeah and the misery begins !! Now, I knew that I didn't want to compromise on my baby's first ganpati.. After all motherhood is all about setting examples through actions, it had to be an Eco- friendly Ganesha. As usual, I google and get a huge list of shops selling Eco friendly ganpati.. To my horror the first two stores I call are sold out.. While I was beginning to imagine what that would mean .. I called the third number and it said yes we have plenty left . So I go across town. The lady says yes we have two shelves of the size you are looking for in Eco friendly. I smile to myself ..'see people overrate these things all the time' And

  For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not - and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but Horror - to many they will seem less terrible than barroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intel

firstly... GANAPATI bappa morya..:) Just got back from a pooja and entertainment program with dinner organised right under my house. Two things struck me. One that its really heart warming to see people coming together,acknowledging each other and celebrating together. In a place like bombay...oops MUMBAI(I somehow still like the name BOMBAY)Mumbai sounds sophisticated and i personally always see FAKE,PRETENTIOUS,INDIFFERENT - words like these always surrounding SOPHISTICATION. So coming back to the point,in a city like Mumbai, where generally neighbors are as good as strangers,where people are completely caught up in their lives, when everyone comes together, its a rare sight but a very beautiful one. I wish we were all not so busy running, and took time out to acknowledge each others presence and just connect and bond even if it meant just" sharing a smile ". The second thing that truly touched me was, all the society children performing on the stage, which was actually my platform for a long time (when i

A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset. When you wake up, take a second to think about what a privilege it is to simply be alive and healthy. The moment we start acting like life is a blessing I assure you it will start to feel like one. Jump out of bed with a beautiful smile on your face and wish yourself a very good morning. Let all the preceding day's negativity go for good. Most of the times we don't get what we deserve and can't make the best out of our day because we are too engrossed in holding onto things that we are supposed to let go. Once you wake up with this bright, cheerful and positive attitude nothing will hurt you anymore. The birds chirping outside won't remind you of the voice of the person that you lost. Soon, all your troubles will just be another tally mark shadowed by your list of conquests. Open your eyes to look into the mirror , not in a self obsessed way but to see your soul mate, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to y

Sometimes I wonder.. how all our lives are so beautifully designed.. I thank god every morning for waking me up to a new day and assuring me that the best is yet to come. I believe in starting the day with praying to all the forces that keep us alive, that keep us going, I believe that we must be thankful for every small thing that we experience as that has either given you happiness or a learning. I believe that come what may, the end is always beautiful. I once heard a saying, which i completely agree to, "What we take for granted, someone else is praying for" which i think is the truth of life. All of us have that one something (or many) that the other doesnt. Hence, be happy with what you have, and the rest will be taken care of. So we should all trust the designer of our life, leave it upto him for what is good for us or what isnt. Have a delightful day! :) Grishma Apte