Reading Swami and Friends - Dress and Costumes

In Father's Presence

Father was standing in the small courtyard, wearing a dhoti and banian...

We thought we would talk about dresses and costumes unique to our home and place; Pestalozzi Children's Village students shared their reflections:

Kanika Dogra is from Himachal Pradesh in India, and she writes, I'm from Himachal Pradesh, where men wear kurta pyjamas and caps; and women wear churidar pyjamas or salwar with kameez and dupatta. Himachali caps represent cultural identity; people in our community consider the cap a symbol of pride. like turbans for siks in Pujab. In Himachal, we have many different types of national costumes.

Tenzin Lhadon shared the Tibetan National Dress.

Tenzin Paldon

Tenzin Yangzom

Tenzin Dhekyong

Prerna Thakur

Reflections from Pestalozzi Childrens' Village, India

All's Well Despite Being Not Well - Oshi Singh

Yesterday in the park, I overheard a daughter and a mother conversation. The little girl was aged about nine or ten. She asked her mother, "Why does Cinderella become Cinderella and not the evil sisters? Why did Harry Potter win and Voldemort lose? The mother replied impulsively, "Because all stories need a happy ending, dear.". This conversation between the mother and the daughter made me ponder that, after all, our lives are a story too. Even though we can choose our stories' endings, they aren't always joyful. Some make regretful decisions which make their stories seem so miserable that they believe they can't turn it around, but the climax is that you can turn it around! You can choose the end, good or bad. 

Well, my question is that people always assume that all stories need a happy ending? Why does it always need to be, "They lived happily ever after"? 

Romeo and Juliet had a tragic ending,  but the light of their love lightened the whole world. People are still talking about it, which is an example in itself. 

While writing stories, some try to find happiness in fantasy, while some write to share their stories with the world. Some believe fictional stories are misleading and can make it a challenge for the reader to fit into the real world. Others think real life-based stories are the same incidents the reader is facing and trying to get a break from his life. Thus these stories can ruin the purpose of reading. 

Fictional stories help us enhance the reader's imagination and bring more knowledge to the creative part of the mind. Non-fictional stories allow the reader to learn from other people's life incidents and make sure not to repeat them because there is always something to learn from everyone. 

All these different thought processes show the diversity and make you ponder whose side you are on? What do you think? Fictional or Non-fictional? Although many of you must have made your decision, why don't you take the best from both of them and just like a balance of everything in the world is important? We try to create a balance between both types of stories. So we don't get too much of anything and just the right amount of everything. 

Even though happiness is not guaranteed in life, we can always hope for it to turn into a fairy tale. Only if we don't stop doing one small thing every day that never stops hoping because maybe someday, with the power of hope and belief, your life might change. 

So keep calm and keep believing because 
All's well, even if it doesn't end well! 

Oshi Singh
VIII D
Gyanshree School 

We Survived! - Reveda Bhatt

Exactly three years back, on the same date in 2019, my Mom and I met in an accident, as I have mentioned in many of my writings earlier. It was totally unexpected for us but expected in the pages of our destiny, so it happened.

After we were hit and left unconscious on the road, a crowd gathered and out of nowhere came a lady who asked the spectators to put me in her car and hurriedly drove me to the hospital. My Mom was brought to the same hospital by someone else. It is supposed that I was much more hurt and had lost a lot of blood.

My family came to know after a call from my Aunt in the U.S., which somebody else picked up and informed them. My Mom’s and Dad’s families rushed there to find my Mom conscious, but I was not.

My medical stats- State- COMA

Injuries- Diffuse axonal injury (grade IV)

                Temporal lobe fractured

                Skull fractured

                Spine fractured (L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5)

                Pelvis fractured

                The right hand’s radius fractured

                The right leg’s tibia fractured

                Left leg’s tibia crushed.

Condition-Critical.

A Doctor even said,” We don’t know when she’ll wake up, it could be 1 day, 1 month or 1 year, but she’ll not be the same.”

Technically, he wasn’t wrong because I’m not the same anymore.

I came back ALIVE braver, more robust and better!

Today, we call it my second birthday for this new birth and cut a cake.

Lastly, I do not feel that- it was a curse that we met with an accident on this date,

but as a blessing, we came back alive!

Reveda Bhatt

Grade IX
The Aryan School, Dehradun