It was evening. The sky was a painter’s dream of accomplishment. But how could one capture this heavenly beauty that seemingly lit every corner of the Earth? The sun was slowly steeping into the ground while its scattered yellow lights bid goodbye to the worn-out people of the land. The moon was now peeping from between the fluffy white clouds, glowing softly. Its softness numbed my pricking worries, letting my mind live life for once. The wind was blowing softly. Brushing my cheeks, it quietly landed on each tree, making their nettled leaves sway gently. I stared. My restless red eyes were soaking in the simplicity of this beauty. “Even an eternity wouldn’t do justice to such a paradise,” I said quietly to myself. This moment was my escape from reality. This is when I would pretend that the world was this phenomenal dwelling of peace and love. But alas, one’s imagination can only last so long. Aware that reluctance was tugging at my heart, I turned my glance at the people around. Predictably, what lay in front of me was- in a word – “chaos”. It was quite amusing to see people so wrapped up in their problems, that not even a paradise for a solution would dare distract them. “Mortals,” I said, shaking my head in disappointment.
The Clever Girl
This story is about a girl called Bhavna. She was a twelve-year-old girl who lived in a small village. She was the first girl child to go to school in the village. Her dad Mr. Moksh was weak in studies and used to fail in all his exams. The villagers used to rag him a lot about his failure. Moksh got really angry and decided to put Bhavna in a good school so that he could proudly say that his daughter was the first educated girl in the village. The villagers had a perspective that educating girls was a waste of money. Bhavna didn’t care about them because she used to really enjoy learning in school.
Book Review – As I Prepare For Landing
‘As I Prepare For Landing!’ is the debut book of Mrs. Gulnar Raheem Khan. It won the Best Debut award in the Fiction Book category held at the 4th ALS Lit Fest in the year 2022. It has been described as a ‘Basket of Stories’ and a ‘Casket of Poems’. I would, however, classify most of the prose in this book as personal experiences and anecdotes, since they do not follow the structure expected from a short story, like character arc, plot, conflict. They are simplistic in nature, with love and compassion being the common themes recurring throughout the book.
I Am Unique
“God believes in creating infinite variety because he believes variety is the spice of life.”
Pluck any two leaves from the tree. Aren’t they different? Then how can two children be the same? Teachers, parents and grown-ups need to understand that each child is born with a unique set of talents, personality traits, abilities and interests to make this world a beautiful and colorful mosaic. Imagine how dull and dreadful life would be if everyone was either an engineer or a doctor?
BTB Trailblazer – Prisha Ambi
There are some children who never fail to surprise us with their amazing talents. One such multitalented wonder child is 10-year-old Prisha Ambi. It is a pleasure to write about this amazing girl, who has achieved many accolades at such a young age.
Write-A-Thon Season 2 Story – Group 3 (Kids)
Vedant was tired to the bone and the heat was only adding fuel to the fire, both literally and figuratively. He stretched out and sighed after a long day of work. He had a sudden urge to finish off the tub of butterscotch ice-cream he had safely tucked deep into the freezer the previous night. When he opened the refrigerator, he was shocked to see his bonnet-donned mother, Lakshita sitting inside the shelves of the refrigerator! On one hand, she was holding her new, shiny, rose gold Samsung mobile and watching a dreadfully dramatic soap opera and on the other hand, she was chopping yam and elephant’s foot. Vedant hated yam and he dreaded eating elephant’s foot. Vedant spluttered, “M… om, www…what are you doing in here?” His mother was too engrossed in her T.V. serial to pay attention to him. He then yelped with horror and saw her put the sticky, chopped vegetables in the half-filled tub of butterscotch ice-cream.
Continue reading Write-A-Thon Season 2 Story – Group 3 (Kids)
Saving The Echoing Greens
Our environment is stressed, and it is not a hidden fact anymore. It is alarming and it is our duty to save it before it is too late. After all, it is because of our activities that our ecological balance has been disturbed. The occurrences of natural calamities are causing loss of lives.
Two to Tango by Prisha & Paulomi
At Beyond the Box, we are constantly thinking of ideas to give something unique, refreshing as well as challenging to our community of writers. Two to Tango is one such endeavour to encourage the participants to work along with another writer as a team and bring about a creative synergy. 60 teams participated in Season 2 of this one-of-its-kind contest and the winners were chosen by best-selling author MV Kasi. Below prompt was given to the writers and they were asked to narrate the same story from two different points of view.
Prompt – Write a fictional story in which a viral video plays a key role. Feel free to creatively interpret this concept in any genre of your choice.
The runners-up in the kids’ category were Prisha Ambi & Paulomi Babre (Team 7). Enjoy their story!
Silent Footsteps
The silent footsteps you left
Metamorphized into a theft
Of my beating strength
The distance and the length
Write-A-Thon Season 2 Story – Group 1 (Adults)
Vedant was tired to the bone and the heat was only adding fuel to the fire, both literally and figuratively. He stretched out and sighed after a long day of work. He had a sudden urge to finish off the tub of butterscotch ice-cream he had safely tucked deep into the freezer the previous night. When he opened the refrigerator, he was shocked.
Beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead and he felt the room spinning around him. He stood there with a lump in his throat, trying hard to fight back tears. He wanted to scream but his voice failed him. Bella, his pet cat was stuffed into the freezer, her throat slit. He moved his hand over her ice-cold body, her eyes wide open and staring into his. He felt the world go dark as he fell on the floor with a loud thud.
Continue reading Write-A-Thon Season 2 Story – Group 1 (Adults)