An original scientific story written by our student Aashna Suvarna.

Aashna is 13 years old young writer from Mumbai. She loves music, reading and writing. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Aashna for this exemplary true self-expression.

A Winter Squash Cultivar

Hi, hello! Do you not recognize me? How can you not recognize me? I am the most important part of your life. Still can’t recognize me. Okay, since I can see some perplexed faces, so I guess it’s time to make introductions. I am seed and more specifically a pumpkin seed.  A pumpkin is a vegetable that is round with smooth, slightly ribbed skin and is most often deep yellow to orange in color. Its thick shell contains seeds and pulp. But for now, I am still what you might call a baby. I have just got planted. My growth involves several stages, you know.

Fast, a plot of land is selected. The land is next dug well with the help of the spade. The soil is introduced to pesticides and fertilizers, which are essential for the speedy and safe growth of the plant. Then I was collected from the market and sown on the bed. It was very smelly on the soil due to the manure added, but it was fine.  I was a little scared and a little jealous of my brother’s seed coat. A fragile layer of soil is put all over the bed. The bed is next covered with a layer of straw and watered either with a sprinkler or in some other way.

After a few days, the cover is removed, and new shoots would be found coming up. The annoying and growing weeds are then removed from time to time. Foliage branches are seen spreading and me and my friends start growing fast.  I started to grow into a green vine!  Soon I noticed I was getting watered!  My life got a whole lot more interesting!  Except my brother was making fun of me as He was a pumpkin already.

Then my head poked through the dirt a little, and I am getting wider and deeper.  Three days later, I got more and bigger and larger.  Then I got big straw-colored flowers and green leaves that were very captivating, by the way.  I was confused.  I thought I was going to be a pumpkin, not a flower!  At least I am getting bigger. Oh, look!  A big black and yellow thing were going inside me, buzzing.  I hoped it wouldn’t hurt me.  Oh good, it went away.

One day later, my flower closed, and there was a green ball on the bottom of the flower.  Could it be I have a pumpkin on my bottom?? Later, I turned into a yellow flower.  The next step of my life was completed. Over time, I grew bigger and enormous. I eventually grew into a pumpkin!  First, I turned green, then yellow and then I turned orange.

Now at the end of my life, I am rotting slowly and steadily, and I can see my seeds grow beside me. They were just as scared as I was. But I am happy. Because no matter how much we might hold on to life, death is inevitable. So, life must go on and on.

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