Neha's Notebook

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world. Then we took it for granted. Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind. Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head. And once Doubt ruptured the web, All manner of demon thoughts Jumped through— We destroyed the world we had been given For inspiration, for life— Each stone of jealousy, each stone Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light. No one was without a stone in his or her hand. There we were, Right back where we had started. We were bumping into each other In the dark. And now we had no place to live, since we didn’t know How to live with each other. Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another And shared a blanket. A spark of kindness made a light. The light made an opening in the darkness. Everyone worked together to make a ladder. A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world, And then the other clans, the children of those clan...

Thousands of years ago, there was an enchanted forest. Within the two sections of the forest lived two clans – one water clan and the other fire clan. One day the prince of the fire clan, Angora fell in love with Mimisiki, the princess of the water clan. But both Mimisiki’s and Angora’s fathers were against their marriage. The two fathers carved a boundary line in the forest so Angora and Mimisiki could never meet each other again. Drenched in deep sorrow, Mimisiki stopped eating food and even drinking water. She couldn’t enjoy her life anymore. She sat all day at a foothill watching sunrise and sunrise, refusing to meet anyone. On the other side, Angora too was spending his days in pain and anguish. He would spend his days in the battleground, often exercising his muscles beyond his threshold so that he ended up with bleeding and wounds on his body. Seeing the intense suffering of both lovers, their moms tried to convince their fathers to allow them to marry each other. Finally, Mimis...

  A teardrop trickles down my eyelash And adds a trail of glisten on my cheek As I remember the way we used to be Enchanting paradise, unlike this moment bleak Never did I think That one day we would be apart That one day, we will spend our days Living in the boulevard of broken hearts   I have loved the season of rain all my life But never did I think, one day it’d be the rain of tears My body grew into an adult, and I changed But I never knew the change could mean burying our love under medleys of shames and fears Day after day, the heartbreak turned us into frozen mannequins The crusty pieces of which, keep on collapsing and falling apart Making me recall over and over That I am living in the boulevard of broken hearts   All that remains of a primal fantasy Is a droplet of cold, empty darkness I cannot even comprehend where did the gravity vanish And how we ended up in such a mess How we vanquished our own flames And land...

In the story “The Bishop’s Candlesticks” by Norman McKinnel, the bishop’s sister named Persome gets angry at her house maiden named Marie, because Marie keeps on responding with “Yes Madam” to whatever she says. In an enraged mood, Persome commands her to stop talking like a parrot and calls her out by the word “nincompoop.” Nincompoop means a “foolish, stupid, or halfwit person.” Read more posts related to  Vocabulary

Once Lola cat visited a shop and asked the shopkeeper for some grapes. The shopkeeper said he only sold oranges and didn’t have any grapes. She walked away only to return to the shop again the next day. This time she again asked him for grapes. The shopkeeper felt puzzled. He repeated that he didn’t have any grapes and he sold only oranges. Lola walked away but reappeared at the shop the next day. This kept on going for several days. Finally, the shopkeeper took Lola to a grapes shop and bought her a box of grapes. As he extended the box towards her, she squirmed her nose and said, she would prefer oranges instead. The shopkeeper clenched his head in frustration at the malcontent cat. Malcontent refers to someone who is not satisfied with the way things are, and who complains a lot and is always unreasonable and difficult to deal with. Read more posts related to  Vocabulary

Mind my absence but I was too busy Loading Santa’s bags with gifts and goodies Fleets of Rolls Royce and Ferraris And zillions of glittery green tinsel trees In one bag, I tossed dozens of Cheetos and chips Not to forget freshly grated blocks of mozzarella cheese   For girls I added velvet boxes of Tiffany’s bracelets, Bangles, earrings, and diamond rings Don’t tell the dentist but I also packed Hoards of candies, cookies, and chocolatey things Bouquets of fresh flowers are also there For those who wish to have an early spring   In case you’re wondering what will happen To your thighs when you eat all these fries and sweets Let me tell you that this year Santa will also bring Treadmills and dumbbells for Gen Alpha and Gen Zees But as far as the Christmas cake is concerned Don’t skip it I beg you please   Then I couldn’t stop myself from placing A casket of emotions and a book of John Keats poetry in Santa’s buggy Calling out a...

Ever since she was born, Kiara had a mole on her cheek. This mole often caught the attention of some of her classmates who made fun of her, oftentimes humiliating her in front of the entire classroom. Most of the days, she would come home crying. Over time she started hating school. She would make excuses to avoid going to school. Then one day, her mom sat down beside her, and told her something. She opened a drawer and pulled out a scrapbook that Kiara had crafted during her school’s summer vacation. As she flipped through her scrapbook’s pages, she told Kiara to pay attention to how its pages were decorated with nothing but scraps and waste materials. Dried leaves and flowers, ripped paper pieces, old fabric scraps, buttons, empty refills and other materials. She said the scrapbook wouldn’t have been as beautiful as it was with these scraps. She told Kiara that just like these scraps, the mole on her cheek made her uniquely beautiful. Sometimes, it’s the imperfections of life that ma...

  This morning as I walked along the lake shore, I fell in love with a wren and later in the day with a mouse the cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening, I fell for a seamstress still at her machine in the tailor’s window, and later for a bowl of broth, steam rising like smoke from a naval battle. This is the best kind of love, I thought, without recompense, without gifts, or unkind words, without suspicion, or silence on the telephone. The love of the chestnut, the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel. No lust, no slam of the door— the love of the miniature orange tree, the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower, the highway that cuts across Florida. No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor— just a twinge every now and then for the wren who had built her nest on a low branch overhanging the water and for the dead mouse, still dressed in its light brown suit. But my heart is always propped up in a field on its tripod, ready for the next ar...