Feature stories for kids that focus on unusual and interesting write-ups on the world we live in. About its customs, ways of life, about cinema, sport, champions, rare feats and artists. Cool reading for kids.
156 items in this section. Displaying page 3 of 16
Schoolboy’s Diary – 4000 years ago
When I was in the fourth standard, I got my first real diary as a present from a cousin. It made me feel very important because it was gifted to me in the year for which it had been printed. Until then the elders had always shoved at me, two or three-year-old diaries in which the listed holidays and Sundays made no sense. Naturally! It was a diary bound in dark brown leather and was printed by some company that must have been making a lot of money....
Dress like an Egyptian
I am writing this as I am travelling in my time machine. I know how important it is to keep a diary of happenings. The machine is making strange rattling noises, because I forgot to clean its aching joints this morning. It’s an old contraption, after all. Hullo! Where am I? I thought I was visiting ancient India, but this decidely looks like a pyramid. Oops! Looks like I have reached ancient Egypt. Never mind, as they say – enjoy!...
Aristotle can’t remain Ignorant!
The Greeks were a passionately curious lot. When Alexander the Great set off in 334 BC on the famous expedition that took him over the Hindukush into Tashkent and Kashmir, he was accompanied not only by navigators, guides and surveyors, but historians and philosophers as well. Aristotle can’t remain Ignorant! [Illustration by Shinod AP] Alexander had been taught by the philosopher Aristotle, and we are told that he ordered everyone throughout Greece and Asia who made their living by hunting, fowling, fishing, beekeeping and so on, to make sure that “Aristotle should not remain ignorant of any animal born anywhere....
The Greek Barber
I wonder what others think of when they hear a mention of Greece. I think of the first Olympics and I think of the poison Socrates the philosopher was forced to drink. But I want to see something different today. Athens, here I come! The Greek Barber [Illustrations by Anup Singh] My machine says we have reached the Athens of 2005 years ago (5th century BC). I stretch myself and walk out of the machine....
Welcome to Blind Cow Restaurant
Almost two years ago, a blind pastor, Reverend Jorge Spielmann started a restaurant for the blind in the city of Zurich, in Switzerland. Almost all the chefs, bartenders and waitresses who worked at the Blind Cow, as the restaurant was named, were also blind. Now, not just the blind, but even people who can see with their eyes flock to this restaurant for the unique experience it provides, apart from the good fare it dishes out....
The Day Mother raised the Flag
On August 15, at the stroke of midnight, the Indian flag replaced the Union Jack of the British Empire. And millions of Indians went to sleep in a state of excitement. For, they would literally wake up in a free country. Among them was a five-year-old girl called Amrita Rangasami. She lived with four siblings and a young widowed mother, in a bylane of Madras (now Chennai). Sixty-year-old Amrita, a senior journalist and scholar, remembers the day clearly, as if it were yesterday....
Boomerang: From Weapon to Fun
This goes back a long time. The aborigines, or the original inhabitants of Australia, needed an effective weapon to hunt animals and birds for food. When they looked around, their eyes rested on wood, which was so easily available. They made banana-shaped weapons of hard wood, with a curve on top and a flat bottom. That made each leg act like an aircraft wing. They held it from one end over their shoulders and threw it hard and straight with such force that even animals could be killed....
Crafts kits for kids
I live in a neighbourhood of Delhi which is full of children of all ages, shapes and sizes. In the evenings, the quiet of the place is shattered by the blood curdling cries of boys and girls let loose in the park. They play games that are certainly not for the fainthearted! Ishaan and Tarini are no different. This brother-sister pair is particularly mischievous. Eight year old Ishaan and 10-year-old Tarini are known for playing pranks on others....
Abdul Kareem's Forest
A lush green forest in the middle of a rocky wasteland. No, this paradise is not an illusion. Abdul Kareem has created it with his own hands. Kareem’s 30-acre forest is in Kasargode district, Kerala. It is home to 1,500 medicinal plants, 2,000 varieties of trees, rare birds, animals and insects. Agricultural scientist, MS Swaminathan, has called the forest a “wonderful example of the power harmony with nature.” Abdul Kareem’s Forest [Illustration by Shinod AP] So, how did Kareem manage to convert a wasteland into a forest?...
Saraswati River in the Thar Desert
The vedas mention the mighty Saraswati river flowing down the Himalayas and then westwards towards Rajasthan. But Rajasthan is a desert. So where did this huge river, which the vedas say was bigger than the Ganga, disappear? It is widely believed that this river still flows under the Thar desert, though no one has been able to prove this for sure. Even the epic Mahabharata, written in 1000 BC, mentions Saraswati as the once-mighty river that was drying up....