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I always used to think that the drive across a four kilometre stretch from my house to the main road was a pain. Actually, not all of it was a pain. The car bounced up and down a few bumpy patches the first kilometer, then zoomed across a smooth 2.5 kilometre slope before struggling in a three-legged hurdle race at the final half kilometre. Reason: there was a traffic signal there and almost everyone in the world seemed to want to go somewhere at the same time....
When you live in one place for as long as I have, you get to know everyone in the locality. I have lived in one house for 25 years now. When we moved to this house, the first person I met was Tara. Her parents lived in the next block. I think she was about eight when I first met her. Tara had wavy black hair, big mischievous eyes and a ready smile on her face all the time....
Celebrated on the fourth Thursday on November, this American festival is an acknowledgement of gratitude for a plentiful harvest. Nearly all cultures celebrate this festival. For instance south Indians celebrate it as Pongal in the month of January, while the north Indians celebrate it as Holi in the month of March. The American act of thanksgiving began during the early pioneer days almost four hundred years ago. In 1620, one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to land at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in America....
Michelangelo (1475 – 1564): More than 500 years ago a young artist studied dead bodies, even went through their organs, and their muscles and bones, so that he could turn a block of white marble into the shape of a living, breathing man. That young man was an Italian sculptor and painter Michelangelo. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, best known as Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. His work has deeply influenced Western Art and he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century given the sheer volume of his work....
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928): It was a little over 100 years ago that women were first allowed to vote in the United Kingdom of Britain. Till 1918, only men were allowed to vote in the British elections to Parliament. The battle for universal suffrage, or men and women voting as equals, was led by the British political activist Emmeline Pankhurst. She fought a long and hard battle during which she was arrested more than seven times, and had to leave her three daughters with cousins so that she could continue the fight....
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895): The next time you chomp on cheese or sip some wine, remember the French scientist Louis Pasteur who discovered that spoiled milk, fermented beer and wine, and many diseases are caused by bacteria. Millions of people are saved from bites from rabid dogs because of the rabies vaccine developed by Louis Pasteur. Bacteria are tiny, living organisms that are only visible under a microscope. More than 150 years ago, Pasteur discovered that heating milk between 60 to 100 degrees Celsius kills the bacteria....
Subhas Chandra Bose (1867 to 1945): Can the enemy of your enemy be your friend? Would you ask your enemy’s enemy for help even if they had done things that were terrible? The famous Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose made this troubling choice in his fight to liberate India of British rule during World War II. He reached out to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in order to fight against British rule. He did not live to see India gain independence....
A routine college day. We had to go for textile practicals after lunch. Going for any class post lunch was a pain. All we wanted to do was sleep. But, that remained a dream since we were always packed with classes after lunch. Lazily, I dragged myself to the textile laboratory. “Today we are going to learn the technique of batik but first let me brief you about it,” said the teacher. I was already bored....
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642): Nearly 400 years ago, an Italian mathematician told the world that the planets revolve around the sun. And he was severely punished for it. But he stood by his words and spent the last days of his life under house arrest. This was Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei, or Galileo Galilei. Born on the 15th of February, 1564, Galileo was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, the father of modern physics, the father of modern science, and the father of scientific method....
“Trick or Treat!” shout little witches, paper-bagged goblins, rubber-masked imps and bed-sheeted ghosts as they extend a bag across for candy. It is October and it’s Halloween time! Halloween is celebrated on the evening of October 31st, which is the evening before the Christian feast of All Saint’s Day. Halloween’s history goes back to the ancient religion of the Celtic tribes (circa 500 B.C.) from whom came the Britons, Scots and the Irish. Present day Britains, Scots, Welsh and Irish are all descendants from these ancient Celtic tribes....
Source: https://www.pitara.com/non-fiction-for-kids/
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