Jim believed that he had come to the end of his rope and that if his new painting wasn’t going to be accepted. And he was sure of dying penniless in the streets of Munich, the city he hardly knew.

Jim had always believed his paintings were good and that he could live comfortably by selling his works. But the truth hit him hard when he realized that it was all his childhood fantasies. He painfully realized that for his paintings to be exhibited, he needed much more practise and network.

He had a clear image of what he was going to paint next. It would be ‘the great fire of Rome’.

But Jim didn’t have enough paint, through which he could bring out the effect. And also it was his last empty canvas to draw. Nevertheless, it was a risk that had to be taken.

He worked tirelessly for days and weeks, trying to work with the remaining paint he had for capturing the fire on his canvas. Luckily, he managed to scrape through with everything he had. Finally, he was left only with the colour ‘Prussian Blue’.

When Jim finished weeks later, he found his painting satisfying and pleasing.  But he observed one flaw. The painting lacked a ‘feel’ – the finish which a person would feel, had he been witnessing the real great fire of Rome.

To make up for the missing feel, he decided to draw a burning shawl over the buildings using ‘Prussian Blue’ the last colour in his hand. This shawl was intended to represent death and agony.

Jim had in some ways, succeeded in painting the shawl but not in creating fire. This was because he had used up the blend of colours that represented fire. So, Jim left the shawl, the way it was and decided to sketch human beings getting burnt as to portray the effect of agony without adding fire to the shawl.

Finally, within another week or two, he finished the painting and decided to sell it to exhibitors. Most of them promptly rejected the piece saying, ‘It wouldn’t capture the attention of people unlike the other paintings which would be exhibited.’

Jim did try a lot to convince them. But most of them didn’t want to hear him.

Finally, he tried with one last exhibitor, who surprisingly liked his paintings. Dean Rider was the exhibitor’s name. He was not a well-known, but still he said he would pay Jim handsomely and also would exhibit Jim’s painting in his exhibitions. Jim adored it. He was also encouraged by Dean to paint more. Jim could finally tell everyone who had laughed at his condition that he worked an artist, who was getting paid. And who lived in Munich. He did not have to fear dying penniless since he had much more money than he had hoped to get for his works. Jim improved his lifestyle, lived more lavishly and bought more paints, brushes and spare canvases.

The day finally arrived, when his painting labelled ‘The Great Fire of Rome’ was exhibited. And unlike what other exhibitors remarked, his painting captured attention instantly and the blue shawl was appreciated by almost all the viewers. Jim liked the praises by most of them. After all, no painting could interest all its observers!

That’s when the most unfortunate happened. Among the audience, a man smoked and threw his burning cigarette in the exhibition hall, near its beautiful red curtains. The first one to notice the fire was a young girl, who screamed when she saw it raging through the curtains, engulfing most of the ceiling and also some of the exhibits. While some people rushed out, others panicked. And as the fire grew, there was nothing, anyone could do to extinguish it. No normal extinguisher could have stopped it, now. The fire was uncontrollable.

It soon spread to the hall’s roof, burning the structure into nothing, but ashes. Dean tried to escape. But was killed instantly, when a part of the roof came crashing on to him. The smoke was getting too thick, making it harder to breathe. People who panicked did not have a chance. Some suffocated, while others died when the structure crashed down.

Jim surely knew he wasn’t going to die. He had to live. He knew he had wished he did not die penniless, but surely, he knew this too wasn’t the way he was to die… trapped in burning shackle. Also he had to paint more works! Who would do it, if he died?

He rushed out avoiding as many collapsing structures as he could, and as he neared the exit door, His hope to live revived. The door handle was just within his reach, when the last remaining structure of the roof collapsed, in between Jim and the door.

The smoke was too thick to breathe through, Jim started suffocating and soon he gave up.

 The fire brigade arrived late. And when they reached, all they found was the burnt up hall with a lot of burnt and suffocated corpses. Needless to say, Jim was among them.

The brigade did find a clue just within a few miles of the building. Coincidentally, it was a blue shawl. The one similar to what Jim had painted with ‘Prussian Blue’ in his work of burning Rome.

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The next day Pinto bid farewell and said to his wife he would be back in 3 days and then started his journey. He walked for a long distance and sighed, and said to himself, “ OK …only 2 and a half miles to reach the next village”. Then he sat down on a rock and fell asleep when he woke up he was surprised to see a woman holding a broomstick, a black hat and a black dress. Then he understood that it was the wicked witch. The witch asked pinto “will you marry me ?” Pinto disliked the woman and said. “ NO…. never”, the witch was furious and asked him again “will you marry me?”.

Pinto was very angry and shouted in a louder voice. “Never!”. But this time the witch lose her temper and told Pinto she cursed him. When he reached his village. All his companions asked him, “Where have you been for these days??”. But Pinto did not answer to them and pushed them away. He went to his house and opened the door. That time his wife came rushing and asked him, “ Where have you been for these days??” .But Pinto did not answer to her and pushed her away, his wife asked him, “What happened to you?” but this time Pinto scolded her and told her to get out of the house.

Then she wept and walked through the village, then one of the shop’s owner asked her, “what is the matter?”. She narrated the whole incident. Then the shop owner told her that may be the wicked witch have cursed a spell on Pinto. She asked how could I break the curse. Then the shop owner called all the villagers and narrated the incident and asked them how could they break the curse. All villagers said they did not knew how to break it. But one old woman said she knew how to break the curse , she told them that they should talk pinto softly and act kindly ,slowly the curse would be broken.

Day by day they acted softly to pinto but there was no improvement after 2 weeks they went to the old woman and complained about it. The old woman said to try more. And so the villagers tried again and again and finally after 2 months Pinto became normal. That time the wicked witch who had cast the curse on Pinto came to the village and said, “I am not a wicked witch, they call me because one day by mistakenly I burned a house. So please do not consider me as a wicked witch. I came here to congratulate you all for your hard work. You are the best villagers in this world because you did not stop your work to change Pinto’s mind even though after 2 weeks.” So they learned a lesson to try and try until you reach the way of success.

Moral to us :In this story we can see two personalities one is the witch and the other is Pinto. When a person does something wrong people make them into wrong personalities and never give a chance to change. Some others are the people who believe others and think about it and waste their time…

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When asked what their worst fears are, people usually have only two answers; the fear of dying and secondly the fear of losing their loved ones. It was no different in the little unknown town where there was a river, infamous, for it flooded very often. It was almost as if the innocent villagers’s worst fears were confirmed. Rain was pouring down mercilessly, leaving the villagers with no hope. Not knowing what to do, the villagers resigned themselves to their fate silently. They say never give false hope, but sometimes even nature likes to break it’s own laws.

So for a day, there was no sign of hope and the villagers felt a slight ray of hope. However, like any other silent thriller, the inhabitants of this danger-prone village were in for surprise. Just that this time, it was not a pleasant one. By evening, a terrific flash flash flood hit the poor village and it was at the verge of submerging the entire town. Somewhere amidst all of this happening, was a boy aged fourteen named Kumar, sitting on the branch of a tree, looking down hopelessly at his hometown, who was being punished for no fault of hers. Just then, the boy thought he saw a boat. For a moment, he could not bring himself to believe it. But the boat kept coming closer and closer and he soon got back into his senses. Kumar climbed onto the topmost branch, shouted, and gathered as much as people as he could and asked them all to get into the boat quickly.

In the gathering there was a little girl, about three years old, who clearly had no idea what was going on. Considering it more of a vacation than a trip to save life, the little girl favored her curiosity over dear life and stood on the edge of the boat to get a clearer view of the water. Predictably enough, she fell into the river. As cliche as it sounds, her parents, being very exhausted, were fast asleep and did not wake up until they heard the sound of water splashing. The little girl’s parents woke up with a start and seeing their daughter nowhere around, they understood what had happened almost immediately. Not knowing how to swim and so they did the easiest thing that they were amazing at- panic. Too shocked to move, the girl’s mother was choking on her tears.

When everything goes wrong, it is said that a hero will emerge. Quite obviously, the hero here was the fourteen year old boy, Kumar. Risking his own life, he jumped into the river with no second thoughts. The little girl had fainted by then. The boy swam with all his might and managed to grab the girl before she drowned. The entire village was cheering behind him. The girl’s parents were wiping tears of joy. It had not struck Kumar that his actions could win him a bravery award. So when he actually did, he was quite surprised. He had been so keen on saving the girl’s life that he had not even bothered to think of his own.

The girl recovered completely within a few days and so did the village. The rains had stopped and the sky was clear. The sun shone brightly. The villagers had learnt a lot in the past few days, like what to do when it flooded. But above all they had learnt that there was a boy amidst them, a boy whose heart was made up of pure gold. This story has a simple yet beautiful message to give..’Your good deeds might seem invisible, but they a leave a trail that is imprinted on the hearts of others’.

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After reading it she felt like her heart was thumping on her ribs. She looked around her and saw a boy standing to the left of Gina so that Gina could not see his face. She slowly crept towards the boy and went infront of him. Their eyes met together and Gina was given a sudden hug; a bear hug by that handsome and tall stranger. Gina had no way of escape so she too hugged him hard thinking that the boy would let her go. But he did not; he in return hugged Gina too hard that she could not even breathe.Then Christina and Katy came to the scene and both of them coughed loudly in order to free Gina. Then the handsome and young stranger let Gina get off from him. Then Gina looked hard at the stranger and suddenly she hugged him again; very hard; this time truly from her whole heart. Do you’ll know why? Well, he was Gina’s elder brother !!!!!!!

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Once upon a time there lived two children in a cottage nearby a jungle called Belmot. The first one was Nancy Clearwalt and the second one was Jackson Clearwalt. One day in the morning their mother called them for  breakfast. Jacky!  Nany!.So, Nany and Jacky went downstairs to eat breakfast. In the dining table lay the newspaper. Jacky went and picked it up. There was news about a candy house which was located in Belmot jungle. Jacky became excited because they can go to the jungle any time and their parents would go for work early in the morning and come late night. Jacky told Nancy this news and they began to plan their trip to the forest. So that afternoon they started their trip. And, behind the tall fir trees of the belmot forest stuck out some lolly pops and jelly beans. They both exchanged looks and walked towards the candy house. At last it was visible and in the top of the roof it was written as the Candy house with big blocks of ice creams.

The door knob was a jelly bean. Jacky and Nancy were too excited to go in! At last Nancy went and opened the door. It was a dark tunnel. Then all at once it came to open. The two kids were in shining sun light again. The place looked like a village. One of the folks asked them ‘Aren’t you from the world of humans?Well this is nursery rhyme village. I am the village chief Mr. Tumpkins. Thanks, Mr. Tumpkins said Nany. Then Mr. Tumpkins took them around the village. They saw Jack & Jill, Old Mother Hubbard, Jack Honour, Miss. Muffet, Tommy Tucker and Wee Willi Winkie. They all waved to the two children. Now, Jacky and Nancy were hungry. At the same time they were worried about their parents as they will search for them. But, Tumpkin told them that don’t worry about that, because in few months experiencing here will be just a few hours in the real world. Then they relaxed… and went to the baker and had some cakes. After that they went back to the Candy house. It was a small little house with trays to keep candies or cakes. Then Nancy had an idea ‘let’s send invitation to the people of the Nursery Rhyme village. We can make candies and cakes and sell them to make money.

So they started sending invitations to the people. Soon they made some money. After some months they made 8000$. They were very happy now. They went to their home, told their parents about the adventure and give the money. With that money they built a big mansion and lived happily ever after.

By Malavika Vinod-2-E

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A boy was passing by that tree. He accidentally stepped on the tiger. The tiger woke up and roared at the boy. The tiger was very angry. The boy was scared and asked the tiger, “Oh majestic tiger! P…P…Please forgive m.. m.. me.” The tiger said to the boy, “Do not be afraid. I will forgive you and let you go.” The boy was very happy and said to the tiger, “You are very kind. “ And he left.

One day the tiger saw an elephant and jumped on the elephant to eat it. But the elephant with his trunk spun the tiger. The tiger was badly wounded. So he could not hunt for food.

So one day the tiger went to the village. The villagers were scared. So they went into their homes and locked the door. But the boy was in the village and he went to the tiger and said,” Oh tiger! Please go to the forest.” The tiger said to the boy,” I cannot hunt for food because one day, I tried to kill an elephant but the elephant spun me with its trunk. The boy was shocked. Then the boy said,” Then till you become better, I will take care of you.” The tiger became very happy and then the boy took care of the tiger by applying medicine in the wounds. Then the tiger became better and went back to the forest.

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