"Life and the Beautiful Land"

This was a story that Sammu told me yesterday.  Putting it down here before I forget because I loved the little details she added to the story.  It's of course tied to the fact that they are learning about 'Life Around Us' at their school and inspired by a dozen other stories that we tell each other almost every day.  Here is the story, almost all in words that she used.

There was once a family that lived in a little hut.  They had a beautiful garden with lots of lovely flowers.  They lived happily in this hut.  One day there was a 'puzhal' (tamil for cyclonic storms that are somewhat common in the coastal part of Tamil Nadu during the monsoon season).  To escape the wrath of the storm, the family crawled into a burrow type of hole in the ground.  They took all the living things (not the plants of course because they can't move) with them into the hole.  They had a parrot that built up a mud wall to cover the hole so they would be covered during the storm.  The parrot built up the wall from outside and then made a small opening in it so she could then go inside the hole herself.  She then filled that wall also with mud from the inside.  So the family and their animals stayed in the hole for a long time, until the storm passed away.  They even slept there!

And then they came out... and do you know what they saw?!!  Their beautiful garden, so full of flowers in all colours, buzzing with the sound of honeybees and pretty butterflies.  They could also see vegetable plants in their garden with many carrots and pumpkins.  There were rabbits in this vegetable patch too!!  The family loved their garden so much and they came out and lived their lives happily ever after in that little hut with the garden.

This is the story of 'Life and the Beautiful Land' :-D