Daily Prompt : Distant

In response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Distant

Minnie’s unfortunate adventure!

Faraway in a remote village lived an old man, his main work everyday was to take care of his Grand daughter Minnie, whose mom died in a strange accident, having lost her father a year before, made her completely helpless. Her Grandpa agreed to take care of her.

Minnie was a sweet, agreeable child, whatever grandpa asked her to do, she’d never complain. One day she was sent on an errand to buy some vegetables and fish, gramps was in a mood to cook a grand meal for his favorite Minnie.

Minnie was on her way to the market when she met a girl her own age, they started talking, both instantly became friends. The girl was Sally who was going to see her aunt Amy who lived near the    market.

While walking the two asked each other some questions to know each other well. Minnie asked Sally, ‘Why are you going to see your aunt, is she sick, did she invite you for supper, how long will you stay with her?’

Sally said,  ‘Minnie you’re asking too many questions, I’m going to see my aunt, I haven’t seen her for a long time, I don’t know how long I’ll stay maybe an hour or two, it depends on my aunt, if she invites me  to have supper I will or else I’ll go home shortly.’

Minnie listened to her new friend and suddenly wanted to accompany her to her aunt’s house. ‘Can I come with you too, I want to see your aunt, my mom or dad, had no   siblings, I never had an aunt, I so want to see what an Aunt is like, please ,please, can I?’

Sally was hesitant in the beginning but felt bad for her friend, she said, ‘Okay you can come with me but you mustn’t talk when we get there.’

At that point Minnie was ready to do anything, staying quiet in her friend’s aunt’s house, didn’t bother her much. She told herself, she’d listen and find out what an aunt looks like, she didn’t have an aunt herself, it’d be fun to watch Sally’s aunt.

They walked a long way until Sally pointed out, ‘Look that’s the house, the one with a red roof.’

They arrived at the doorstep Sally rang the doorbell, no one came out, she rang it twice, still no one, she was impatient she started banging the door hard, this time someone from inside said, ‘Who are you, what do you want, go away or I’ll call Malcolm, he will take care of you, I’m warning you?’

Sally cried out loud, ‘Aunt Winnie, it’s Sally your niece, I came to see you, I brought my friend too.’

Hearing her niece aunt Winnie opened the door, Minnie looked at the aunt, she was tall, stern to look at, she had a harsh voice and seemed unfriendly. Minnie had to think immediately whether to go in or run. She did the latter. Sally called her to come back but Minnie wasn’t sure the aunt was a nice person.

She ran to the market, bought the  things for gramps and headed home. At home gramps was walking to and fro wondering why was little Minnie taking so long.

When she arrived home gramps had a lot of questions, but first he had to cook the grand meal he promised his grandkid. Little Minnie was a  great shopper, she bought all the right things. Gramps finished cooking in an hour. It was time to have a delicious meal, the table was set, both ate well and put  the leftovers away to eat the next day.

Then Gramps asked his grand kid, “why were you so late?”

‘It’s a long story,’ she said, I wanted to know what  my friend  Sally’s aunt was  like, I found out, she  was  cold, anti-social, unfriendly, you name it, she was bad, she really was Distant  gramps.I understood then how great you are, a caring, friendly, and a  warm-hearted person, I love you gramps, you’re the best!’

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Daily Blogging Prompt : Moody

In response to daily post’s prompt: Moody

Here is a list of Ten signs of a moody person, I read minutes ago:

  1. You are openly rude when you do not need anything from others.
  2. You are rude to new people because of personal issues.
  3. You are rude around people of a certain sex, because of some past experience.
  4. You are rude around people who do not share the same religious views.
  5. You love hanging around rich people and act rude and weird around someone else.
  6. You say something one day and do not stand by it the next day.
  7. You are rude to people because of their political views.
  8. You dislike people who have a different ethnic background.
  9. You are extremely rude to everyone because of frustrations in your life.
  10. You act rude around moody people.
  11. To me all this sounds interesting, can you imagine a person who fits all these signs?

Daily Post Prompt : Echo

In response  to daily post’s prompt : Echo

December is here, I hear an  Echo everywhere,

What will Santa bring for me  kids cry out in despair!

I say don’t you guys worry,

I know you won’t be sorry,

For Santa and his  elves will bring his sleigh full of gifts with a lot of care!

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Merry Christmas kids all over the world is an Echo I hear.   🙂  🙂  🙂

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Daily Post : Candle

In response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Candle

wikipedia image

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Many years ago when I was eleven,my dad took us to Bangladesh for a visit. we had a good time in our maternal grandpa’s village. He loved gardening, he had a large area where he planted different fruits ones I never heard of  before, it was a  treat going into grandpa’s fruit garden and taste the delicious fruits he planted.

When we were there my mom’s youngest brother, my uncle entertained us with his imaginary stories we loved hearing them and asked for more. Uncle and aunt had two children a boy and a girl, when I saw the girl  she was an infant lying in her cradle. She was tiny and very sweet, my aunt used to leave her in the cradle for hours.

One day I went to see her, she was moving her legs, I wanted to pick her up, I wasn’t sure I’d be allowed.

After my dad passed away we moved to Comilla, Bangladesh, permanently.

One day my mom told me that my pretty little cousin was playing with her brother with a lighted candle, I have no idea how those two children got hold of a burning candle. The flame burned my cousin’s dress ,her brother was crying for help, there was no one around, when someone in the family saw her, it was already too late, she had third degree burns, and died because of lack of medical help.

She was only two years old. It was a sad day for her parents and the brother.

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Daily Post : Value

In response to daily post’s prompt : Value

Friendsip

There are a lot of valuable things in our world, out of them I value friendship, the most. I did not have a lot of friends right from my childhood. The ones I had and still have I treasure them.

I had a friend in college her parents married her off when she was less than twenty, she moved away with her husband, I was studying and didn’t have the opportunity to inquire about her.

In the university I had one, she was a very good and sincere friend. I could not correspond with her, she was too lazy to write. I moved to Canada, I did see her when I visited Dhaka, Bangladesh.  I miss seeing her, she lives in Bangladesh and I moved away. I call her sometimes, it is not easy to get telephone connection. Sometimes our circuit is busy, other times the time difference makes it difficult.

To me nothing is more valuable than friendship.

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Daily Post Prompt : Cake

In-response to daily post’s prompt : Cake

Humans have invented a variety of very useful things some we use to do our daily work, such as a vacuum cleaner, in my mind this is the best invention. I cannot imagine sweeping the floor with a broom. It’s time consuming and the end result is not perfect.

The best invention is cake by the ancient Egyptians. It originated in ancient Egypt as a round flat unleavened breads, these were cooked on a hot stone. The evolution of baking continued for centuries, through the introduction of new techniques of baking.

The Egyptians learned the skill of using natural yeast,it helped to to leaven the flat breads. There was a difference between bread and cake, while bread was used as a staple food, cake was served as a dessert.

Over a period of time we’ve learned to bake a variety of cakes, eg. chocolate,vanilla, pineapple upside down cake and so many other kinds of cake.

when I came to North america, I took a liking for baking. I baked regular white bread, then I tried hamburger buns, finally I attempted  a variety of cakes.

wikipedia image

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Perhaps I was overconfident and this taught me a lesson. We were having company, I decided to bake a four layered sponge cake for dessert. It was a step by step recipe, I had the ingredients in place, there was one thing lacking in my knowledge and that was how to mix the ingredients of a sponge cake.

I got the ingredients together and used my mixer at high speed. I wasn’t aware the  method was wrong.I put the cakes in the oven, I was supposed to split the two cakes in layers after it came out of the oven. When I took them out of the oven, they were flat. I quickly got some more ingredients together and baked two more cakes. When I put them together, I noticed the first two cakes were flat and seemed hard. I didn’t have enough time to redo plus I had no idea what went wrong.

The guests came ate the dessert but stayed quiet about it. I was bothered by my unsuccessful attempt. Later on either my colleague told me or I read in the cookbook why my cake didn’t turn out the way it should. I had used the mixer, I was supposed to mixed it with a spatula gently, this keeps the air in, mine didn’t.

I remembered the quote, “Failure is the pillar of success.”

After this disaster, I baked a lot of cakes and made sure I read all the instruction more than once.

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Daily Post Prompt : Sidewalk

In response to daily post’s prompt : Sidewalk

Wikipedia image, this is Memorial university campus on Elizabeth Avenue.

MemorialUniversity.jpg (2816×2112)

I live in a corner house where our front faces, Elizabeth Avenue, and on the back of our house is Baltimore Street. Due to high traffic in Elizabeth Avenue, our driveway is on Baltimore Street.

Baltimore Street is a very short street. The sidewalk is only on one side of the street. In winter it’s covered with snow, students who live here have to walk on the street. It is risky but they have no choice.

Elizabeth Avenue  has sidewalks on both sides, the snow is cleared by the city, it is an important road because of the university. In the summer it is pleasant to walk on it and enjoy watching people on bike, cars, trucks and the pedestrians on foot.

Unlike other sidewalks in downtown St. John’s, it is free from peddlers. Once in a while one can see a man pushing a cart carrying, empty bottles and cans. This is how he makes his living by selling them to the Recycle depot. One must appreciate how he toils hard, rather than pan handling. We have a few panhandlers, they sit on the side street.

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Daily Post Prompt : Expert

In response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Expert

The following is a song by Rabindranath Tagore, it is translated in three languages,Hindi, English and Bengali. Since Tagore was a Bengali, the original lyrics was written in his native tongue Bengali.

In this song Tagore has described the ever-flowing wave of life in the universe which is controlled by the Almighty. This is why he is called ,”The Maestro,” the supreme creator of life, joy, sorrow, light and music.

I couldn’t think of anything or anyone who can surpass the Almighty. I don’t know who has translated the original, in  Hindi, and English, I don’t know who the singers are either. But I’ve posted this for my readers, who I hope will enjoy it.

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Daily Post : Cheat

In-response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Cheat

Each of us have been put on earth with the ability to do something well. We cheat ourselves and the world if we don’t use that ability as best as we can.____ George Allen, Sr.

I wanted to use a quote to know how much ability we have and how best we are using it. Though I can use examples of a variety of humans, whose whole life is based on cheating.

But my inner self tells me to look at myself first, can I say I’m not guilty of cheating, of course I cannot claim I haven’t. When I was teaching, I tried to tell my kids one must not cheat, it’s a bad habit. When I decided to quit teaching, I told my kids, ‘this  is my last year. I will retire after this year.’

Word got around in the whole school, I was quitting. One little girl who was in Grade Two, asked,  “Are you retiring Miss?”

I said, “Yes.”

“Please stay for two more years, I’ll be in Grade 4, I want you to be my teacher.”

From that day, each morning when I was on outdoor duty, she’d give me a big hug, “you will stay, won’t you?”

It became increasingly difficult for me to tell her I cannot stay. She didn’t forget to give me a hug, she felt somehow I’d change my mind. I didn’t, I had a sick husband who needed my attention.

When I look back I think about the little girl who so desperately wanted to have me as her teacher. I could not comply, in a way I cheated her.

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