THIN SHEETS OF RAIN

18 year old Indira stared at the blue sky from the window of her house in the small village of Gokarn, in Karnataka. The clear, cloudless sky seemed to have done nothing to lift her receding spirits. In fact it only seemed to frustrate her more. After staring at the sky for some more time, she bit her lip in resignation and resumed her work of knitting, her thoughts in turmoil...............
Indira was the eldest daughter in the family of the Murthy’s, her father being Venkatesh and her mother, Lalita. Venkatesh Murthy was a hard working, honest man who valued every penny he earned. Sadly, the land of his heritage was not big enough. Thus he was able to provide only the essentials to his family. He owed Rs. 2000/- to a moneylender and hoped to pay it off with this season’s crop. A month ago he had been quite optimistic about the output. A month ago he had also realized that Indira had come of age and that she should be married off soon. But lately, his optimism had changed to apprehension as the monsoon did not show any signs of approaching...............
‘Oh, Parmatma! Why isn’t this rain coming?’ was what Indira was thinking while fidgeting with the threads of the blouse. Although nothing had been told to her, she knew that she had come of age and should get married soon. She knew well enough how it would reflect on her family if she stayed unmarried too long. She also knew how much depended on the arrival of the rains. She could easily picture the moneylender taking away the land of her ancestors, could easily picture the humiliation her family would have to face. It was the utter helplessness of the situation that was frustrating her. She got out from the chair and went back to the window thinking, ‘if only there was something that I could do’. The problem was that everything that could be done had already been done. The fields had been ploughed with extreme care, the seeds had been watered with absolute vigilance,the soil had been given the required fertilizers. Everything possible had been done, now all was left to the rain.

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Two weeks had passed and there wasn’t a hint of moisture in the air. Now, Indira had taken to praying silently every second of the day.

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Three weeks………….A cloud of gloom had come over her house, as her family became increasingly silent while Indira, had lost hope. She had been consoling herself everyday but today her will snapped and tears flowed out of her eyes. She was unable to sit there alone so she wandered here and there in the village. As she passed an old hut, she came across a banyan tree. Her childhood days came like a flash to her ………swinging with the help of the roots of the tree, resting under the shade against the harsh sun of summer, the picnics under the tree with her friends. A lot of happy memories were attached to that tree. But today it did not look right to Indira. There were black clouds patches over it. The aerial roots looked frail and brittle. The tree looked sick. Indira went into the old hut she had passed and called out to the lady who lived there. Soon an old, bent woman came out. She recognized Indira and exclaimed, “My dear child, how beautiful you have grown up to be! Pray child, why do you lessen your beauty by looking so forlorn? Indira looked at the lady and asked, “What has happened to that dear old banyan tree?”
“Is that the source of your sadness? Well, nothing can be done for it now, because soon it is going to die. It has got this rare disease due to which it requires lots of water. I thought the rains would come and relieve it of the disease, but the black clouds aren’t signaling their arrival,” said the old woman.
Indira’s eyes shone with a new resolve and she said,’ I must do whatever I can for that tree.” She went back to her own house, took a huge bucket and drew water out of the well. Actually, the well had very little water but now she was past caring. ‘ Might as well do some good work before the family is ruined’ she thought. She watered the tree religiously for a week and the tree slowly started showing signs of recovering.

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A few more days had passed and Indira’s parents were having a sad conversation. “ Lalita, I shall have to give this land to the moneylender,” said Venkatesh Murthy.
“ But isn’t there anything we can do?”
“ No my dear, perhaps the Parmatma wished this to happen. But that’s not all. I have another worry.”
“ Why, what is it?”
“ Have you noticed Indira lately? In spite of all this, she is certainly not looking sad. I hope this is not any new kind of madness.” Saying so he went to the window and looked out. His eyes went wide and he gasped, “Lalita, look………”

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A few rooms away, Indira was also looking out of her window. The clouds had turned black. She stood over there in pleasant anticipation, when sure enough, thin sheets of rain fell from the skies and tapped at her windowpane gently. A smile played at her lips, a relieved smile as her belief that ‘ every thing you do comes back to you' strengthened.
-the hobbit

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COMPARISON BETWEEN THE LORD OF THE RINGS(LOR) AND HARRY POTTER(HP).
If i would want to explain LOR in one sentence then i would say that this story is about a bunch of people who undergo great danger to steal an unremarkable ring and then again go through great danger to destroy it. But it would be a great injustice to do so.To all the people who have not read LOR i would suggest them to read 'The Hobbit' by the same author and then read LOR.
Harry Potter ,the boy who lived is the fascinating tale of the classic all time favourite of the wronged and vulnerable hero with the classic all time favourite hated and feared villain making this story a classic all time favourite saga.
To start with, i would say that what works LOR is the thrilling,nail-biting war sequences,the old-worldish,royal language and the superbly portrayed change of Frodo (the hero) from an insecure,overwhelmed boy to a resolute and brave man. The author's imagination seems limitless as he includes the traditional dwarves,elves,goblins with his own inventions like orcs,hobbits,tree beard,nasguls etc .
What wrks for HP is the the fascinating narrative style that takes the reader through all the emotions of laughter,happiness,tension,sadness,anger,relief,fear and many more.I always have a knot in my stomach as the end nears.Its speciality is that it can be read how many ever times one wants to read.
But now for the bad.LOR has not been edited as well as HP and contains unnecessary details.HP has a lot of uncontrolled magic while the magic in LOR is within limits.One finds mistakes in HP,for eg. if veritaserum is such a great truth potion then why isnt it used in all the wizengamot sessions?If felixis felicas is a goodluck potion then why doesnt Lord Voldemort (ya,you gotta respect him) use it every time? LOR is too long for no reason.It has more poems than required and is a bit too discriptive. While Lord Voldemort is described in great detail,Sauron(the villain in LOR) feels a bit incomplete.Sam,Frodo's sidekick seems a bit too devoted while Harry's sidekicks'ron and hermoine have the necessary human elements.LOR is more exciting than HP.LOR doesnt dissapoint when reaches its climax.
So why is HP more popular tan LOR??????????? It must be because Harry's world seems more real than Frodo's.The degree of attachment to Harry is more.(i wont be able to bear it if Harry dies in the 7th book).His problems and thoughts are similar to that of millions of teenagers.
Its really difficult to say which is better (though i have a small soft corner for LOR) and i think it will be wrong to voice one's verdict until the 7th book is published.

A SMILE !!!!!!!!!!!!

An expression that lightens up the mood,
that makes people cheerful,
that spreads happiness everywhere,
just a simple smile,simply beautiful.

Frown and be a pessimist,
the world is all dry and dreary,
the problems seem to magnify,
and the road ahead seems scary.

Smile and be an optimist,
eager for every new day,
twists and turns are nothing,
simply go smiling all the way!

A smile just transforms the face!
brings in fresh hope,
breaks the chain of dark despair,
gives a man, strenght to cope.

So smile and smile whenever you can,
Precious seconds are lost in sighing,
in this world of good and bad,
a smile will keep you striving.
- the hobbit