Hi, today I am going to tell you what I did for Diwali. For us, Diwali started on Friday, November 14th and ended on Monday, November 18th. First Day of Diwali The first day was “Naraka Chathurdasi.” I woke up early and brushed my teeth. My mom put tilak on my forehead. Then, she applied oil to all the family members. After that, I took an oil bath. Then, I prayed to god. Next, my dad, my sister, and I burnt firecrackers. On this day we celebrate Krishna and Satyabhama kill Narakasura. That means we pray to Lord Krishna and Lord Krishna’s third wife. Second Day of Diwali On the second day of Diwali we did the Lakshmi puja. This is the main festival. Goddess Lakshmi is believed to enter homes and bless people with a good fortune. Tiny oil diyas, candles, and electric lights are placed around houses. We woke up early and prayed to Goddess Lakshmi. My mom cooked yummy food. My family and I ate the food. In the evening my dad, my sister, and I burnt firecrackers. Third Day of Diwali We celebrate King Bali’s promise story on the third day of Diwali. Lord Vishnu took the form of Vamana avatar on this day and requested 3 steps of land. Looking at the size of Vamana, he promised. Vaman turned big. The first step covered the whole space. The second step covered the whole universe, including Earth. But, for the third space there was no space. So, King Bali said keep the foot on my head. That’s how King Bali fulfilled his promise. At my home My friend came to my house. His name was Eshan. My mom made delicious food for us. My mom made Puri, Sagu, Gulab Jamun, Rice and Sambar. We also had sajige. After lunch, Eshan, his dad, my sister, my dad, and I went to three different parks. The parks are: Tribeca Park, Lincoln Park, and the Lake Park. In the evening we burnt firecrackers. Eshan and his family went home. Fourth Day of Diwali On this day we do the Govardhan Puja. In my native place on this day we celebrate by worshiping cows. That was a great Diwali, right? We learned facts about Diwali and you got to see how I celebrate Diwali at my house.
Archives for February 16, 2021
Writing Workshop #33: Larger Than Life Characters
An update from our thirty-third Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop held on Saturday February 13, plus some of the output published below This week we talked about larger than life characters, and the different tools writers use to portray them. The focus was on the first meeting with that character: how can you make it clear from the very beginning that this is a special, memorable, unusual character, and what the key elements are that make them this way? In a group discussion we shared ideas about larger-than-life characters and how we might use how they look, sound, walk, talk, laugh, dress, eat, smell–any aspect of appearance or presence or characteristic to convey a strong impression of who they are. The Writing Challenge: Write a passage in which you introduce a larger than life character, where the reader is encountering them for the very first time. You do not have to describe a bg personality in detail, but do focus on how the initial meeting with the character stakes their claim to importance. The Participants: Lina, Rachael, Sierra, Lindsay, Tegan, Samantha, Lucy K, Hera, Ava, Charlotte K, Eve, Anna, Grace, Simran, Olivia, Alice, Emma, Noa, Emi, Angela, Iago, Charlotte M, Yasmine, Olivia, Enni, Nova, Anya, Madeline N, Leo, Pranjoli, Helen, Madeline K, Margaret L, Sophie, Julia, Sage, Georgia, Ruhi, Syra, Lucy R, Peri, Kaidyn, Lindsay, Tilly, Maggie K, Lina K, Jonathan. Sierra E., 11Mountain View, CA Fox Girl Sierra E., 11 Few were (and still are) able to imagine the wild figure of Fox Girl. But if you saw her, you’d recognize her even if you’d never heard of such a thing. For Fox Girl lived in a faraway town, Ivywood, hundreds of thousands of miles from any large cities. Where she lived, the months of winter never came, and the incredible, unbelievable creatures roamed free. And here, in this world already beyond normal, lived Fox Girl, the one that many came to Ivywood to see. Fox Girl’s appearance was unreal. Stranger than the cyan wolves that managed to fly in the air with their magnificent wings, and stranger than the salmon-pink kittens that would spend their time leaping in and out of the many winding, flowing rivers. Fox Girl, for one, looked absolutely anything but human. While she had several details that resembled a person, most of Fox Girl was elsewhere. She had electrifying shamrock-green eyes that glowed especially in the darkness, while her vibrant amethyst-purple hair that stretched to her toes were unignorable. A bushy, apricot-colored tail tinged with white hung between her long legs and two ears, matching in appearance, stood always perked atop her head. Fox Girl dressed in lively hues which mirrored her animated personality. Fox Girl was one to watch. One to wait hours, days, months, years to see. Many say Ivywood is just a myth told to put young children asleep at night. But if you question me, I’ll always say the same: “No, Ivywood and Fox Girl aren’t a legend. It’s nothing but reality.” Lindsay Gao, 9Dublin, OH The Girl’s Revenge Lindsay Gao, 9 If anyone who hadn’t known better had seen the girl, they would have laughed, thinking “Ha! I could finish this girl off with a twitch of my hand.” But this, ultimately, would not be true. She was quite young, with long black hair that melted into the shadows, pale skin, and a frail, tattered white nightgown. But her eyes, white as snow, glowed with the utmost power. The only way possible to tell if she was angry or preparing to strike was to look at her right hand, where you could see her thumb, which, if provoked, would jerk back one, and then become still. After that signaling jerk, the shadows seemed to slowly crawl towards her victims. When they panicked, she would tell them it was alright, and that she wouldn’t hurt them. But she did. All their bodies were never found. When no one was watching, she might slip away, and you could see the pain, heartbreak, and longing. The feeling that people always assumed she didn’t have or feel. She would let out a sob, a mourning of losing what you loved and being turned into a monster. A monster that you weren’t. She knew people called her “the doll of death”, and she hated it. She wished that she could get away with everything, but then she would remember. The death. The blood. The screams. The tears. The pain. And it. The thing. And she knew, the beast, the one that had killed her family, and caused her sorrow would pay. It did not know that she was powerful, and now, it was too late, for she, the enchantress, the girl it had hurt so long ago, was coming. Peri Gordon, 11Sherman Oaks, CA Confusion Itself Peri Gordon, 11 It was Wednesday at 9am, I think, and I was sipping my coffee and walking to work when I saw her. Well, first I heard her shouting, and then I looked over, and then I saw the top of her purple stack of hair. I took the time to follow the fluffy pile down to the bottom, and I found a face died green with violet eyes and lips made to be the color of the ocean. Her eyes were wild and gleaming with both happy and sad tears, and her mouth was constantly moving as she ceaselessly talked about some problem that had befallen her. She was so out of place in the quiet atmosphere of this quiet little town that no one could ignore her. It was hard to look away from her face, but I had to see what this woman was wearing. My eyes are still angry at me for exposing them to such a bright, chaotic assortment of skirts and pants and shirts and dresses layered on top of one another, orange and green and blue and pink, spotted and striped and beaded and bejeweled. She wasn’t wearing
Stone Soup Author Interview: Georgia Marshall
Stone Soup contributor and 2020-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, talks with contributor and winner of the Weekly Flash Contest Georgia Marshall, 11, about what it’s like to be a published author, the Writing Workshop, and expressing the imagination through writing. 0:18 – How were you introduced to Stone Soup? 1:23 – What was it like to become a published author? 2:10 – What is your favorite part about the Writing Workshop? 3:01 – What is your favorite part about Book Club? 3:44 – What is your favorite thing about writing? 4:40 – What was your published poem about? 5:58 – Is the writing you do for fun different from the writing you do for school? 7:18 – Do you have any writing advice for your peers? 8:15 – If you could tell somebody about Stone Soup, what would you say?
