An original educational story written by our student Sashrika Prasad.

Sashrika is 12 years old, a young writer from Gurugram. The beautiful colors, flowers, and sunsets encourage her to write about deep emotions and feelings. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Sashrika for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Limegrave Village

The bone-chilling wind ripped through the air, screaming to be heard over the sound of the thunderous waves that crashed into each other creating a massive swirl of frothing water. Every few minutes there was an explosion of thunder that shook the sea bed. Sea water was thrown to the sky above only to fall down again, indistinguishable from the rain that was fired into the freezing water. It had been going on for hours and who was to say that it wouldn’t continue for many more?

Caroline sat there in their beach house holding her little sister, Lizzie in her arms trying to protect her from the storm as the clashing sounds of waves and screaming air got to her. The noises were loud and scary and Lizzie was struggling to fall asleep. The screeching noises of wind swinging the wooden door terrified her. Caroline feeling concerned for Lizzie tried to calm her nerves down and said, “How about we read you a bedtime story?” Lizzie agreed.

The older sister grabbed the book she could easily reach and so she started the story………Once upon a time are just too cliché, don’t you think? Let’s start off with something else, shall we? How about a town in the deep but beautiful jungle which held stories kept secret, that is until now? As a trio Spencer, Bethany, and Maddison wandered into the Forbidden Forest, they walked for miles until they came across a village named Limegrave. Curious and tired of their journey they decided to go in and explore the place. As they walked in, they heard people talking in English but they were talking as if they barely knew the language. Advertisements, flyers, news reports were all hanging from the roofs and stuck on walls but though they were written in English, it didn’t seem like it. Spencer stepped forward and asked a salesman, “Hi, would you happen to know a place where we can stay?” the salesman replied, “Yes there is a place with the river where you can stay with $20 a night.” Hearing that the trio was shocked and Bethany confusingly asked, “I’m sorry but do you mean, there is a place along the river where we can stay for $20 a night.” The salesmen mumbled, “Tourists! They have no idea what they speaking about.” The trio walked ahead snickering on the village’s grammatical errors as they understood why everyone talking in English sounded different.

They walked to the place the salesman told them about. At the counter the employee talking to the trio said, “You have to pay $20 with one night.” The trio ignoring it carried on to their room but they heard the receptionist compliment their hair saying, “ Girls, your hair looks beautiful very” they just walked away after saying a thank you.

After that experience, they were puzzled and Maddison came up with an idea and she started pitching it, “Remember we got an assignment at school to help people who are in need and then tell the class about it. So, why don’t we help this village learn correct English.” The other two were doubtful of it but agreed in the end.

The next morning they decided to make an announcement in front of the whole village regarding the fact that their language contains many grammatical errors. After the announcement, at first, the villagers were against it and thought that all they said was nonsense, but after a lot of convincing they realized that the trio was right. The next morning they started the lessons and first the trio taught them prepositions.

A preposition is a word used with a noun or a pronoun to show how the person or thing denoted by the noun or pronoun stands in relation to something else; as,

There is a cow in the garden.
The girl is fond of music.
A fair little girl sat under the tree.

Common mistakes with prepositions are -:

Incorrect: I cannot agree to you in this situation.
Correct: I cannot agree with you in this situation.

Incorrect: He agree with my demands
Correct: He agreed to my demands

Incorrect:  Please wait inside the white line.
Correct: Please wait behind the white line.

Incorrect: We should pay our bills in time.
Correct: We should pay our bills on time.

From all the lessons that the trio took the village started to learn a lot. After the prepositions, it was time for Adverbs.

An Adverb is a word used to add something to the meaning of a verb, adjective, or another adverb; such as,

He worked the sum quickly.
This flower is very beautiful.
She pronounced the word quite correctly.

Incorrect: I am much happy to see you.
Correct: I am very happy to see you.

Incorrect: She plays volleyball good.
Correct: She plays volleyball well.

Incorrect:  Don’t go in the sun.
Correct: Don’t go out in the sun.

Incorrect: I shall of course do it.
Correct: I shall certainly do it.

After this, the trio taught them Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Conjunctions, Interjection, and basically all 8 parts of speech. The lessons were over and the villagers thanked the trio after which the trio made their way out of the village to their house. The next week when it was time for the presentation, everyone did theirs and when it was the trio’s turn no one believed them. Everyone thought that they were bluffing and so the trio got a B on their assignment for creativity, but they still remember how fun it was to help the villagers. THE END”

By the end of the story, the storm had started to calm down and instead silent and calm winds started blowing and Lizzie had fallen asleep. Caroline tucked her into bed and went to bed herself too.

Leave your valuable comments for encouraging our student to innovate, explore and express more.