Freedom - Gaurangi Rastogi

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?” -Mahatma Gandhi.

Freedom is a short word in English, but it has profound importance in our life. I hope you know about British Reign in India. We fought for two centuries for our country’s freedom. Some people were violent, and some were non-violent, and why shouldn’t we fight for freedom?

We were burdened with so many taxes that India came into poverty at that time; the crops were failing. There was bloodshed. None of us can forget what happened in 1919, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. We fought for our rights and stood with unity. But the real meaning of freedom is when we are captured, and we want to get free from that captured scenario and fight for it. 

When we have freedom with us, we don’t value it, but we realise its preciousness when we lose our independence. 

Let me tell you a story that occurred in my family.

Before the 21st century, that means us, my father and his brothers and sisters and my grandparents were there under the scare of my eldest grandfather, Mr Hari Krishan Rastogi. My father’s destiny was already set to be a businessman, but there was a dream to become a cricketer in his heart. Now, whenever my dad is free, he sits and gazes at his cricket kit, But, My father says, “ You can become whatever you aspire, for and you have my consent.” 

This story reminds me of how important freedom of choosing your occupation and speaking your voice is, isn’t it? 

Gaurangi Rastogi

Grade VII

The Doon Girls School

Bravery - Aanya Kumar

We often hear people complimenting us when we do something we are scared of. Sometimes they say, "Oh, look at you! You are so brave." or even "What a brave child you are!" Here, the vital question is, what is bravery?

When we have the courage and mindset of doing something that we think is impossible for us, we will be called brave... Certainly, we have so many stories of bravery shown by people from all over the world. As we are soon going to celebrate Republic Day, let me tell a brave step taken by the Panjabis in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre-

On 13th April 1919, many people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh for a peaceful meeting. There was only one exit of it. Along with his soldiers, General Dyer covered the exit and started an open fire. Many people were killed, while many jumped into the well. They thought they would rather die themselves than be killed by the Britishers. This incident came to be known as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

Did you see how bravely they sacrificed to free us from the rule? Bravery will push your limits to be what you want to be.

Honesty - Rishona Chopra

Courage, Bravery, we all must have heard these terms, a question might come to our mind: What is the most significant act of courage? The answer could be: Climbing Everest? Being a soldier? Well, it is actually none of those...it is honesty. Let us see how with the help of a story:

Being Honest

Once there was a young girl named 'Mina'. She was taught to always be honest. To her, honesty seemed simple, just tell the truth. 

Once playing in school, she pushed her best friend 'Lily' so hard that it started to bleed. Mina didn't mean to do that at all. She went to her, and along with her other friends, they took her to the infirmary. 

Luckily it wasn't that serious, and the next day she was much better but wasn't able to play. 

Lily was furious at the person who pushed her. She was unaware that it was Mina who did that. She told Mina that she was angry at the person who had made her. That was so rude.

Mina, too, was hurt; she knew what she did hurt her friend. She just didn't dare to stand up and tell the truth. It was tough. That moment she realized how hard being honest could really be. 

Then she remembered telling her mother how simple being honest was, and now she didn't have the courage, to be honest. She thought that she might as well try telling the truth and told Lily the truth. 

Lily couldn't believe it! 'Did you actually do that?' she said, surprised. 'I didn't mean to at all. I am really sorry,' said Mina. 'You aren't mad at me?'. 

'Why would I be? You were honest. And I believe you. I am sure it was a mistake.' said Lily with a smile.

It was courageous of you to stand up.

Like Mina took the brave step of telling the truth, it did look difficult. Imagine you being in such a situation. Would you speak the truth? 

Rishona Chopra

Grade V

Gyanshree School

Humility - Shambhavi Nautiyal

Reflecting on Chapter 1, Humility from the book Is Your Child Ready To Face The World? by Dr Anupam Sibal.

This chapter tells us the meaning of humility. It tells us that humility is not to think less of ourselves but to think ourselves less. In this chapter, the importance of humility is depicted. It informs us that humility has to be present in an individual.

If a person has lost their humility and does not respect anyone else lesser than their status, then that person would not be great and will not be considered a genuinely good person. This chapter also depicts how humility becomes the first virtue and how it makes successful people great. It shows this through various examples of many well-known and flourishing people who remained humble, even after becoming what they are, simply achieving greatness and charm in the people’s hearts, which makes their success even more fruitful.

As shown in the chapter, some simple actions, like greeting workers at different public places with their names, making our juniors comfortable with us and making someone’s tiny wishes or dreams come true, can help us learn the vitality of humility, that also brings joy to those people. The way I see things, the chapter would help many kids like me understand why we should do these kinds of simple actions suggested to us by our parents and why they’re essential. I also observed that this chapter has shown many real-life examples and what happens when we do all this stuff for real, which encourages us to enact them.

We should start early to emerge other virtues and help ourselves rise by laying this foundation of humility.

Shambhavi Nautiyal
Grade VII
Ahlcon Public School

Freedom - Aavansh Gupta

 August 15 is Independence Day, also known as Freedom Day. We celebrate it because, on this day, our country was free from the British. But did you know this was half of the freedom? We make poor people our maids and make them do whatever we want. Some people don’t even give them enough salary. We trap birds in cages and do not let them fly independently. We also tie a steel chain around dogs and cats. Can’t every living being live with freedom? So let me share a self-composed poem that will tell you about freedom.

Freedom is the right to do 
Whatever we want.
Like flying in an aeroplane
Or searching about thorn.
 
August 15 1947
When the British left our country
Everyone did whatever they wanted
But that wasn’t the whole freedom
 
We trap birds in cages.
Do not let them fly
They roam all around the cage
Escaping is what they try
 
So, on Republic Day
On January 26
Let us make a promise
That freedom will be our bliss.

Aavansh Gupta
Grade IV-C
Gyanshree School

Making Others Happy - Anoushka Vinod

To get true happiness, you need to make someone feel it. Life is full of twists and turns. You are bound to see a
dark time in life. That's okay! All you need to do is turn on the light. In our session, we learnt about making others
happy. I realised that if we want to have pleasure in life, we need to fill happiness in someone else's. I read how
Walt Disney was always trying to make people happy. I adore Disney movies. Getting to know the story behind
them was very intriguing. 

A personal incident that I had with making others happy was very heartwarming. Whenever I used to stand at my
bus stop, I always saw this dog who used to come sniffing everyone's lunch boxes for food early in the morning.
This continued for days, and I started feeling pitiful about it. I came back home that day and asked my mother to
give me extra food for the dog. From that day onwards, I thought about offering food every day.

I want to make a change in the world. I want everyone to experience contentment instead of anxiety, sorrow and
rage. You can only feel joy when you are determined not to fall into anger's trap. To finish off, I would like to
write a well-known quote stated by Charlie Chaplin - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
Anoushka Vinod
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

Freedom- Aanya Kumar

We usually hear our elders saying, "Our country has freedom... I am free to do what I want." But, do you think they are right? Actually, to some extent, they are. Our country became free from British rule in 1947. We mark off this great, joyous and independent by celebrating Independence day. However, doing whatever you want doesn't mean to do crimes. But, the critical question is what is freedom. Freedom is when we do not feel as if we are under the control of someone.

Let me explain this with a short story-

Rihan was busy watching a show when his twin brother, Ashish, called him. "Oh! Stop this show already... we have things to plan for the party tomorrow," said Ashish. Rihan replied, "What for? And anyway, this is the limited edition of the show. I am lucky to get it..." "Tomorrow is Independence day. If our country was not free, we would be limited to do almost everything... even seeing these shows." At this, Rihan jumped up. His instant question was how he could come of use. The brothers gave the best effort in making the party victorious, and they saw a movie about the sacrifice of Indians for freedom. Rihan understood the importance of freedom.

You see how important our freedom is? At the same time, we should ensure that we are not taking advantage of it.

An act of Courtesy - Shambhavi Nautiyal

 Once, not very long ago, lived a woman named Annie. She was one of the workers at a cinema hall. One day, as usual, she was rushing for getting ready to go to work. She woke up late and thus could get fired if she got late again. Annie grabbed some milk hastily to drink it on the way to work as she didn’t have breakfast. As soon as she reached the place, she saw her boss, the manager, on his phone talking to someone. While he was busy on it, Annie took the chance and surreptitiously got to her popcorn counter. She felt famished by now as the milk wasn’t enough for her, so she drank some water as an alternative to reduce her hunger and started her shift. She did her work as usual, but she saw a man who seemed to be eerie. He looked old, pale and weak. 

The famished man started coming towards the popcorn counter, making weird faces. Annie thought that he must have wanted popcorn to eat just like the other customers, but instead, he signalled her to come closer and whispered in her ear, “I have no money, I have come here to find someone. Don’t tell anyone, I’ll stay here for some time and leave.’’ Annie didn’t know what to do as if her boss got to know, then it could get her in trouble, and if she did keep his secret and let him stay there, who knows if he could be some sly burglar. Whilst she was busy overthinking, the old man fell onto his knees and held his heart. Annie started to panic and immediately called 112 and told the hospital call attendant to send an ambulance ASAP. 

The ambulance arrived after some time while the old man’s condition worsened every minute. A nurse came out and helped the man get onto the hospital bed, and the man somehow pleaded for Annie to come with them. Though she felt herself out of place, she eventually agreed to see his condition. They reached the hospital, and the nurse took him to the ICU. Before going in there, the old man whispered something in Annie’s ear which made her feel even more at sea. He told her that she’d find a woman who looked exactly like her if she went to the end of the hallway. The nurse told Annie that he was being consulted by Dr Philips. She heard that not giving much attention and went to the end of the hallway only to find a girl staring at a picture. Annie requested her to turn around, and when she did, Annie was shell-shocked to see that what the old man had said was true and realized that it was her sister who had got lost a long time ago. They put each other in their warm embrace right after seeing each other. Annie told her sister about all that happened all those years and just a few moments ago. She held a conversation for some time when suddenly Dr Philips came and said, “The old man is totally fine and as soon as we diagnosed him his heart rate and breathe came to normal, and he told us to inform his granddaughter, which I suppose is you. You can meet him if you want to.” Annie felt amazed, grateful, bewildered, and inquisitive to know who this old man mentioned her as his granddaughter, helped her get back with her sister and become sick to normal in 5 minutes. She rushed to the unit with doctor Philips and Betty (Her sister) only to find a few feathers without any sign of the old man. Annie always remembered this incident and lived a gleeful life with her sister.

Shambhavi Nautiyal
Grade VII

Ahlcon Public School

Freedom - Ushita Saxena

What is Freedom? Have you ever wondered about that? Generally, Freedom can act or change without constraint. The power or right to speak, act or think the way one wants to. To do something without someone controlling you. It is essential in life. There are many types of Freedom such as:

1)Freedom of belief: the right to hold any belief.
2)Freedom of speech: The right of an individual or a community to say their opinions and ideas without fear.
 
We should have the right to seek and receive information and ideas of one’s choice.
 
Why is Freedom the essence of life? It is because it helps us express ourselves, allowing us to become what we want to become. We should have the Freedom to think and make our own decisions.
 
“ Freedom is being you without anyone’s permission”.

Ushita Saxena

Grade V

Gyanshree School

Are your thoughts free - Rishona Chopra

Often people say things that hurt us and then capture our thoughts. 
Like, when someone says, “you are not good at drawing at all. I am much better.” These things hurt us, and then we usually start criticizing ourselves. Their thoughts about us capture our thoughts. What people say about us is not necessarily who we are. 
We are who we think we are, so if we start thinking about ourselves as someone else thinks, our thoughts are not free. We are not free at all.

So people can say what they want to, of course, if they say something we must see if what they are saying is true but if not then don’t think about what they say because if your mind doesn’t have free thoughts, then you are not free and if you are not free then how will you be happy and if you are not satisfied then how will you feel peace and if you have no peace then you don’t have a wonderful, happy and peaceful life. And I’m sure all of us want a happy life. Don’t we?

Rishona Chopra Grade V Gyanshree School