THE GUY IN THE GLASS

I found this poetry in a small booklet brought home by my son Abi from school. 
The book is titled INNER TRANSFORMATION.
I liked the poetry a lot .


When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you king for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what the guy has to say.


For it isn't your mother, your father or wife
Whose judgement on you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life,
Is the guy staring back from the glass.


He's the fellow to please , never mind all the rest
For he's with you clean to the end;
And you've passed your most dangerous and difficult test.
If the guy in the glass is your friend .


You may be like Jack Horner and Chisel and plum.
And think you are a wonderful guy.
But the guy in the glass says you are  a bum
If you can't look straight in the eye.


You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years.
And get pats on the back as you pass; 
But the final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Rebus Puzzles

 Rebus puzzle is a kind of pictorial puzzle .They contain simple English letters of the alphabet in different sizes ,colours and other manipulations that often represent popular sayings and phrases.


For example

The answer to this puzzle would be-

A FRIEND IN NEED

I introduced Rebus puzzles to my last year class ,soon the kids were asking for more.

  These puzzles never fail to bring a smile on the children's face when the answer is revealed.

All the puzzles I used in my class I found here.

churning of the ocean of milk

Churning of the ocean of milk, How fascinating!!!!!!!

This story is one of my favourite stories among Hindu mythology stories.

The story has never ceased to amaze me and I have always loved telling it.

The devas(gods) and the asuras(demons) join together to churn the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar of immortality.

The ocean being so huge is churned using the mountain Mandara as the churning staff and the serpent Vasuki as the churning rope. The mountain starts to sink in the huge ocean, Lord Vishnu takes the form of a tortoise(kurma avatar) and bears the weight of the whole mountain on his back.

As the churning continues  what comes out among lot of other things is a deadly poison , the poison spit by the snake Vasuki.which threatens to destroy all living things around. Lord Shiva takes pity and gathers the poison in his palm and drinks it. His wife Parvati clasps his throat and prevents him from swallowing and the poison remains there.

Finally when the nectar comes out ,the asuras are cheated out of the nectar and the gods drink it to get there powers back.(that's another story)

Kamishiba

Kamishiba is an ancient Japanese form of story telling. Scenes were drawn on paper and the story was told holding the picture to the audience.
I drew these pictures for a story and told it in a story telling workshop at Avvai . The workshop was conducted by the famous story teller Cathy Spagnoli.

Once upon a time there lived a king who was very vain. As he grew older he started to lose his hair and started to become bald.The king was very distressed over his receding  hair line.If you are the king and you have a problem,you have an advantage of making it someone else's problem.So, that is what our dear king did.

He summoned the palace physician and ordered him to brew a remedy for his baldness or face serious consequences.

The royal physician was  a very clever man, He knew it was futile to argue with the king and he also knew he cannot follow the kings orders . There is no cure for baldness, he walked home in deep thought,

As promised the royal  physician met the king on the said date, handed him  a bottle of oil promising hair growth. He told the king that it is not a matter of just applying the oil that is going to do the trick , the king needs to also have the will to grow his hair back. The king answered that he was very willing and would do what it takes to cure his baldness. To this the physician said that he has follow the instructions really carefully. The king had to apply the oil only after bath and not more than ten drops per day and what ever he does he must not think of mangoes.The king thought easy enough even he could follow such simple instructions.

The king began the treatment the very next day. He took his bath and then he took exactly ten drops of the oil and then what next he thought, he should not think of -mangoes!!!!!!. Now he could not take his mind off mangoes , One day it would be mangoes in  a tree next it would be mango juice in a bottle next it would be mangoes cut and served on plate. Slowly not only did he think of mangoes during his bath both the rest of the day too. It became too unbearable , 

The king got rid of the bottle and decided he looked good the way he is and he also feels better.

The royal physicians cleverness saved him from the king's wrath.

THE END

I have told this story to almost all my class students and my students have liked my drawings. Its quite long ago since I drew it the paper is falling apart .Feels good to post it here on my blog.