Monday, September 10, 2012

Story Telling

Last Friday (Aug 31) Anirudh told me about another story telling competition in his school, this time in English, scheduled for Sep 3. Unlike last time he hadn't thought of a story. With him having school on Saturday also and with loads of homework and project work to do on Sunday, we pushed preparing for the story to late night yesterday. He tried coming up with many stories but I told him about the logical flaws with those when he told me some of them. After that he got dejected. I asked him if he wants to tell a made from scratch story only or maybe this time he can tell some known story. But he wanted only fresh story.

So now I had to pitch in with the story outline. I told him the summary of my story and when he agreed we detailed it further. So the story was thus finalised. However what was remaining was making the props. Sine Nishka was not just sleeping yesterday night and was super clingy to me, I couldn't make them. I promised Betu that I will make them today early morning if I get a chance or else he may say it without using props. But he really wanted the props so he asked me to wake him up at 4:30 AM so that we can make them.

Looking at his keenness for the props, how could I not make them. So morning was spent making the props. Although these were much easier to make than the previous ones but with only 10 minutes in hand there were not neat. Just doable. This time I didn't even have the time to draw the outlines using pencil first. So straightaway I drew with black sketch pens. Anyways, while cutting and coloring them, I asked him to tell me the story so that I an hear it from him. But since it was my story and not his, I could see he was having trouble remembering it when we practiced it today morning.

I had to correct him at many places and repeatedly he made the same mistakes again and again. I was getting irritated and I realised he was faltering more looking at my irritation. So I told him the story in gist again and told him to tell it in his own words at the school. I told him he need not tell it to me again. Here is the picture taken after the props were done.


So in the prop you can see the fat boy, and the same fat boy who lost weight and turned thin and the bakery was used as the lure for getting out of the house and helped him get thin.

There is one interesting remark from Anirudh which I would like to write own here. When I was telling him the gist of the story, Anirudh looked at me questioningly and said, "Kahin yeh story aap mere upar to nahi bana rahe ho?" as we had been telling him off and on that he needs to lose weight.
:D

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The story:

There was a boy named Varun (name suggested by Anirudh). He was very lazy and he would just eat and sleep. He had become so fat that his parents had started worrying about him. So they made a plan. They placed and advertisement of a bakery which said there will be free cakes for those who can reach the bakery before 12 noon everyday for one month.

That made Varun excited and he decided to get free cakes everyday. When he left the house, he realised the bakery was 5 KMs away. But a free cake lured him to still go to the bakery. Sine he was so fat, he walked very slowly and by the time he reached there he was so tired and thirsty that he forgot about the cake and asked the baker for water. By the time he felt fine and asked the baker for the free cake, Baker told him that it was past noon and that Varun may come again tomorrow.

Varun went back home tired and sad but decided he will come earlier tomorrow. He reached home and was so tired that he just went to sleep. Next day again he went there and the same scene from previous day repeated and he had to come back home empty handed. The third day he started much early than the previous days but found a big queue there in front of the bakery. By the time his turn came, it was again past 12 noon and thus he did not get any free cake.

This went on for 5-6 days. However in these 5-6 days his parents could see that Varun has started losing weight. And so his mother decided to wake him up really early the next day so that he can get the free cake and doesn't stop feeling dejected. And that day Varun did get his free cake. It was so delicious and yummy that Varun was super happy. So for the whole month he would everyday walk 10 KMs to the bakery and back home and lost a lot of weight. Varun himself was happy at losing weight and he used to enjoy going out and playing with his friends too.

So the moral of the story is that we may eat rich food but if we keep exercising, we can still be healthy.

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The competition never happened on the day it was scheduled for and today when it happened, he was not called out to perform. When I asked him why, he told me that they selected some children and for others they will have a story telling session in the class.

I'm not sure I'm okay with this. I will speak with the teacher this Saturday when I have to go for the parent-teacher meeting. As this is a bit demoralising for the child. They should tell the rules of random participant upfront so that child's expectations are set beforehand.