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The Music Teacher

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I sat down at the piano, burning pages of painful memories into a soothing melody. My fingertips traced the piano keys softly. Music calmed my mind so easily. The world could be burning around me, but I wouldn’t even notice if I had a piano in front of me. But today, that wasn’t the case. The world was burning around me - figuratively, of course- and music wasn’t calming me down. Sighing, I got up from the stool and got ready for another gloomy day. Sure, the sun was shining, and quite brightly in fact, but that didn’t change the fact that my world seemed to be collapsing. I readjusted my bow tie and tried to look as sophisticated as possible. I picked up my suitcase, glanced at the mirror one last time and walked out of the small, dilapidated room that I call home. It’s December 1940, and I’ve lost the longest job I’ve ever had. I taught music at a central school in Madras for eleven years until they decided that to cut the budget to give more to the war. And of course, the firs...
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Time and Tide wait for none

  Irony :  (Noun) Meaning : a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.          (Note : Nothing about what happens in this story is amusing or even slightly comedic.) Example : “The same delicate hands with which she crafted her abode would now dig her grave.”   Random memories. The rustling of paper. The intoxicating smell of perfume that she never thought she would miss. Totally random thoughts. Infact, if she closed her eyes and focused hard enough, she could almost feel fingertips slipping away from her. It all boiled down to one thing : Time. Time had been her ultimate downfall. She kept consoling herself, kept telling herself that her time would come. Why take a risk when destiny had her course charted out already? So she never took a risk. Never travelled, never got on an airplane, never stayed up all night just for the sake of it....
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Post-traumatic stress disorder

  Fear crept into her and tightened its noose around her heart. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. ‘Post-traumatic stress disorder’ the doctors had called it. Her parents and even her younger sister had nodded wisely. As if they understood anything. AS IF. ‘Post-traumatic stress disorder’- Four meaningless words. All that she knew was that she would never be like the other children. She would never get to run. She would never get to dance at parties. The other kids would stare, they would not include her. She would never get to have a friend to pass a note to during class. She would never get to pretend to take unnecessary trips to the washroom so that she could talk to a friend. Simple things in life. She would never experience them. Post-traumatic stress disorder – the bane of her life. She would never be able to get in a car again. She had tried, really, but something stopped her each time. A cold voice inside her head telling her to stop, whispering threats, remindi...
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Life is a journey

     He glanced up at the poster on the opposite wall of his room. On it, were the golden words he’d lived his whole life by - ‘Life is a journey; heaven is the destination’. He still remembered the day they put that up. When he was six, his father had lifted him high in the air so he could pin up that poster.   And his mother had looked him in the eye and told him to remember these words all his life. Back then, he was just a typical bubbly 6year old whose life was confined to the safety of his parents’ arms. So much had changed in those 11 years. Here he was, 17 years old, staring at the same poster and wondering if his whole life had been a lie. Everything that he had done, was to please someone else. To make others happy. He had joined the football team at school to please his football crazy father. He hated football. He had joined the cricket team to be included by his cricket crazy friends. He hated cricket. He loved art. He wanted to draw and paint. To...
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Beautiful Imperfections

She traced the scars up her hands and down her back. Those scars, that covered every inch of her body were a constant reminder of the tragedy from her childhood. She still remembered that day, crystal clear. That was the day she lost everything she had. She remembered the screams. The screams that haunted her at night. She could hear them echoing off the walls of her room on most nights. She remembered those few days in the hospital. The doctors and the kind nurses. Telling her that she was so lucky to have survived. Looking away from her when she asked about her parents. She remembered hands reaching for her, patting her, trying to comfort her. But nothing could comfort her. Her parents were dead and there was no bringing them back. She remembered the day in the court room. She dimly remembered voices arguing. Some said the men should be hanged, others disagreed. And in the end, they weren’t hanged. She remembered sitting wide eyed as they pronounced the verdict. How could t...
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The Fugitive

  After the crash, he vanished. Some say he disappeared into the wild unknowns of the Amazon Rainforest. Crazier theories suggest that he moved to some place in Africa. Others, the more optimistic ones, say that he’s probably dead. But the one thing everyone knows - they never found his body after the crash. The Chief Inspector sat down at his table at work and told himself the same thing again and again, ‘They never found his body.’ The others had given up, assuming that he was dead. But the Chief Inspector knew better. He had spent the last two years tracking this man down. He was dangerous. He could kill. He would kill. A few kilometers away from the Chief Inspector’s office, the very fugitive he was musing about, had started making preparations for tonight. He had been planning for ages, nothing could go wrong. Meanwhile, the Chief Inspector had reached home. It was just a kilometers walk from the office and most of it was very scenic. Despite the beautiful view, there wa...
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Cookie and me ♥

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  Cookie!! With heavy hearts and tearful faces, we returned our adopted pup Cookie back to the shelter on 27 th October. She had started showing signs of aggression and anxiety and it was getting impossible to manage her. The people at the shelter also told us that we were probably doing the right thing by returning her to the shelter. As we walked to the shelter, for the first time in the last few days that we had spent with Cookie, we felt that we were doing something right. Cookie came home sitting inside an Amazon cardboard box in the back seat of our car.  At that moment, we never thought we would ever have to let Cookie go. It was a hard decision to let her go, but it felt as though we had made a mistake by uprooting her from the animal shelter and we had to rectify that mistake. Yes, we had spent a lot of our time and love on her, but I guess there are things like freedom that money can never buy and love can never provide. Cookie came home in cardboard box All Coo...
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My visit to CUPA, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center

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  A few weeks ago, my parents and I had visited CUPA, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center. In simple words, it’s a place that provides a home for animals that have been abandoned or are injured. Now, given the circumstances (COVID and all), travelling anywhere is a highly risky affair. So, you may wonder, why did we take the risk to go to a place like this? Well, after years of begging, my parents finally agreed to get me a puppy!! It’s been my life’s dream to have a pet, and I was finally close to getting one. It all started off as a joke when we all were looking through pictures of a bunch of puppies up for adoption. I used this opportunity to deliver to my parents a long and emotional speech about why I wanted a pet. One thing led to the other and believe it or not, my parents actually agreed! So, as I was saying, we were on our way to check out a particular puppy that was up for adoption at CUPA. When we arrived there, we were greeted with the sight of dozens of dogs cro...
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My Experiences With Online Classes

Corona virus - an infamous name now permanently engraved in our minds. It has befuddled scientists and doctors, all of whom have no idea how to control this mysterious virus that is now spreading at an alarming rate! This virus has changed the lives of millions of people all across the world. Even when people didn’t have anything to eat, they couldn’t step out from their houses for the fear of catching the virus. The death toll has risen up dramatically and the world superpowers are desperately trying to control it! Corona virus, also known as COVID – 19, has in some way or the other affected each and every human being on this planet. Let me tell you about how this virus has changed many things for me – especially schooling. In the absence of in class education, online classes have begun. Online classes were something I hadn’t heard of before. Now it’s a regular thing. Every morning I sat in front of the computer for 5 hours straight, attending class after class via Zo...
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How I Learnt To Sleep Alone

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I was surrounded by inky darkness. Not a speck of light anywhere. No sound and no living being in sight. It didn’t even appear like I was standing on solid ground. Suddenly everything felt heavy and I started tumbling down into infinity at breakneck speed. Yes, I was going to die! And then I woke up with a start, all comfy on my soft fluffy bed. Ever had dreams like these? Well, I would regularly have such dreams till  I  got over my fear of sleeping alone. This is the story of the various phases I went through before I learnt to overcome my fear of sleeping alone. How I changed from being scared of the dark to absolutely loving the idea of my own room and my own bed. When I was about 6 years old, my parents got me a fold-able bed which they would place at the foot of their bed. I was so excited about the whole idea of opening and folding the bed that I just couldn’t wait for night to come. Every night my mom would read me bed time stories and put me to sleep on this b...
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Hansel and Gretel - in my own words

Last summer vacation, on one of the days when i was really really getting bored, and couldn't find any good ideas to write about, I decided to write a long poem narrating the story of Hansel and Gretel. Hope you read and enjoy my version! In a village outside a wood, there lived two children nice and good Hansel and Gretel lived alone with their father, due to the untimely death of their mother Their father, depressed and sad, married a woman, mean and mad The women hated the young children, and they hated her too And one day a cunning plan she drew, she planned to take the children out And say, "I'll be hereabout", then leave them on their own To die in the woods all alone Hansel heard this and ran outside and he filled some stones in his bag Next morning when they got up, their step-mother grinned and said "We're having a picnic in the woods and here's your sup, now wash your face and make your bed!" Hansel walked behind, a...
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A magical evening with Harry Potter

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If I was asked what my best memories of my trip to Edinburgh was, undoubtedly the Harry Potter walking tour would be in the top 3. If there is one place in the world a die hard Harry Potter fan must go to, it is Edinburgh - the very birthplace of Harry Potter! So, after months of grueling research, we found a good tour guide that would take us around the city, showing us the prominent Harry Potter attractions. The places that inspired the settings of the films or the people who inspired a few characters in the series. I just couldn’t wait to see it all!!  This was a trip I was planning for months in advance. I had re-read all the Harry Potter books and packed my Harry Potter sweatshirt and scarf. I was all set to enjoy the best evening of my life! We spent that morning at the National Museum, looking at various ancient artifacts. I was so excited that I barely remember all the things we saw there. My eyes were on my watch, waiting for it to turn 4. Quarter to 4, we walked...
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