365 Writing Prompts: Competition

What activity, task, or game most brings out your competitive streak?

As far as I know, I was never competitive. I have seen my siblings and my classmates, how competitive they were. This changed their personality completely, they were not friendly, they were totally consumed by competition, even to such lengths, like their classmates were their enemy.  I felt it was a bit much.

I was interested to do well in school, I didn’t care what my rank in class was. The extra pressure of rank had changed some of my siblings, they stayed away from classmates who were equally good.

I remember, there was a girl in my class, her aim was to secure the highest marks in every subject, this made her a very hateful person, no one liked her, all she talked about was how much better she was than the other students.

So competition was never my aim in life.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/365-writing-pr…ts-competition/

DP Daily Prompt: Circle of Five

A writer once said, “you are the average of five people you spend the most time with.”  If this is true, which five people would you like to spend your time with?

The five people I’d like to spend time with are my best friends Mini and Dilruba  , my colleague Atiya, my daughter Selina, and  my neighbor Agnes.

All of them are known to me for several years, of course I know my daughter since she was born.

Mini my best friend was my classmate in my post graduate class, we became very good friends while in school, we kept it up to this day.

I met Dilruba when I moved to North America, I visit her  when I go to Montreal, we love each others company. Our conversation begins with food and ends with diet.

Atiya was my colleague when I first started teaching in Residential Model school. She is a very kind person.

Selina and I have a good time discussing various foods and which one is good for us and also the ones we should watch.

Agnes was a very dear neighbor when I lived in her town. We were next door neighbors, Agnes liked baking cookies, I was always on her list when she distributed them. She is an excellent cook and  a very friendly person.

The above are the five people I’d love to spend time with, all of them are very good to me, I always enjoy their company.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/dp-daily-prompt-circle-of-five/

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: Oasis

A sanctuary is a place you can escape to, catch your breath and remember who you are . Write about the place you go to when everything is a bit too much.

My sanctuary in right in my home, I do not have to go too far.  There are times I do feel I must forget about everyone and think about myself only, the best place for me is my bedroom, there is no one else there but me, I sit or lie on my bed and think about how I have fared in my life.

I was never interested in having too many material things, I enjoy looking at my album think about the times my friends and I spent time talking and discussing what we have enjoyed the most in our lives.

For me the best part was when I was a student at,Holy Cross College, there were thirty three of us in dormitories, I was with my classmates, there were five of us. I remember we were not allowed to sit on our beds, we were provided with small stools made of cane, it was not the most comfortable one to sit on, but we did fine.

Every morning the bell rang for us to go for breakfast, as soon as we came down the stairs, Sister Joseph Mary would go upstairs to make sure we made our beds, of course we did not disappoint her.

Then there was Sister Augustine Marie the Principal, she’d watch us as she went along the path to her office, one thing that bothered her was if she found us chatting, not studying, she’d call us to her office and reminded us why we were there.

Despite all that, we managed to sing, and voted who was the best. Salma was the best, she had a tutor who came once or twice a week to teach her some popular songs.

The atmosphere in the hostel made us feel we were one big family, every now and then we had a few  who loved to talk behind our back, they were few and we ignored them.

Now when I think of those times I wonder about my classmates and others, how they are and what keeps them busy.

I was always quiet and lived in my own little world, I enjoyed singing songs I learned in school. Occasionally I’d hear my mother calling me to help her thread the needle, or look after my youngest brother.

Now they are memories which makes me sad that I’m no longer with them. I do thank God that I had an enjoyable life growing up, sure we had fights with each other, but at the end of the day we loved each other!

link: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/dp-daily-prompt-oasis

DP Daily Prompts: Discussion Enders

We’ve all had exchanges where we came up with the perfect reply —- ten minutes too late. Write down one of those,but this time, make sure to sign off with your grand slam (unused) zinger.

It happened when I was a student at the university, there were over a hundred of us in that particular class, most of them were male students, only three of us were female.

The prof gave us an assignment in our tutorial class, my two classmates did not understand the question ,they requested me to show mine, I thought it doesn’t hurt they’ll know how to write the assignment.

With our papers in front of him, the prof. gave a curious look and then, he said,”Who copied whom?”

I was stunned, nothing came out of my mouth, afterwards I felt I should have said something.

I should have said, “Sir, they were having trouble with the question, they didn’t know how to answer. I gave them my papers  to see how to do it, I did not know they’ll copy mine.”

Those words never came out, to this day I wonder who the prof. thought had actually written the assignment.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/dp-daily-promp…cussion-enders/

 

 

365 Writing Prompt: From the gut

Tell us about the last time you had a real,deep, crying-from–laughing belly laugh.

I cannot remember laughing that hard, I do laugh when some of my siblings make mistakes. Once one of our aunt asked my brother,Riaz,  “How is your middle sister?” He was disturbed, instead of giving a reply, he showed he didn’t like the question.

He said, ” She is not my middle sister she is My  sister”.

There have been many occasions  I laughed because some of the questions my classmates asked were stupid. I know I shouldn’t but I could not control myself.

I know laughter is the best medicine, it’s not always easy to laugh I think.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/365-writing-pr…t-from-the-gut/

Writing Prompt: Proud

When was the last time someone told you they were proud of you?

This prompt is rather hard for me to answer.  Actually  my classmates didn’t tell me they were proud of me when I did well in my exam. To tell you the truth they gave me looks which meant they were jealous.

Next in line my teachers,they said I should study harder to do better. That didn’t mean they were proud of me.

My little students said they loved me but did not say they were proud of me. Isn’t it different from being proud?

I remember my father once said, he was proud of me because I was the only kid among his  kids, who remembered the name of his ointment. That was the time he had a  severe pain somewhere in his body. He needed the ointment but without the name how would anyone get it for him. It wouldn’t get me too many points just for that.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/365-days-feb 15-proud/

DP Daily Prompt: Nice Is as Nice Does

To me it was the nicest thing I’ve ever done. To others it might not be the case. Still I thought I did something nice back when I was studying  in the university.

We were three female students in our class, rest of them were male. Two hundred fifty were male and only three of us were female. I thought if I could help my two female classmates complete the assignment given to us, it would be the nicest thing I could do for them.

My classmates were having trouble with the assignment. They didn’t know how to do it. Being a nice person like I was, I let them look at mine. Was I thinking they’d copy my work word for word, no I didn’t? That’s exactly what they did!

We handed in our assignment. The Prof. read our assignment and then without missing a beat he barked, “Who copied whom?”

I thought it was the nicest thing I ever did. The Prof.’s looks clearly indicated it wasn’t the nicest thing. So I leave it up to my readers to make the final decision!
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/daily-prompt-kindness-2