A Child’s Diary: Idhika Diwan’s Corona Lockdown Days

November 9, 2020

Exam ends and end break starts

Now, my final term one exams have ended. The exams were for 3 days. There is a 9 day term break. I feel sad and happy for my term break. I am sad because I miss my best friends and I am happy because I get to play a lot with my younger brother.

On this Saturday, there was beach cleaning of my old pre-school. It was early in the morning. After we reached the beach, we wore gloves because we don’t want to get our hands dirty. There was a lot of trash waiting for us. The beach had creeper plants with trash in their roots and trash on the sand. I and my mom picked up the trash near plants as other younger children can’t go there. The trash was bottle caps, foam, plastic ropes and yarns, and plastic spoons and forks. I picked it up with a tong. This beach cleaning activity happens every year after the festival “Loy Krathong”. Krathong is a banana stem, wrapped with banana leaves and decorated with flowers.

An essence stick and candles are also placed on top of the Krathong. People light the candle and push it into the water. All the floating krathongs look very beautiful in the water.  Every year, my parents help me to float the krathong but this year, I kept the krathong in the sea by myself. In this festival, we pray to the river because the river gives us water, which is important to our lives. Lot of people go to the beach with the krathong and have a picnic. That is why it is important to clean the beach after this festival.   

On weekend, my family went to a party at the beach. The party was for celebrating Diwali. I got dressed nicely. There were beanbags on the beach. I sat on them and found that it was hard to get up. There were candles on every table. My brother thought that they were real but they were actually LED lights. I met a new friend and my old friend in the party. I liked that the spoon and forks, for eating, were made from wood. So there will be no plastic pollution at the beach. The party had 2 games. One was BINGO and the other was a couples game. I participated in the couple game with my mother. But we were out in the first round itself. I continued to cheer for my friend, who was participating with her elder brother. Later there was a fire show. I didn’t want to watch the fire show because I was scared that the fire would come on me. The fire show was on the sand. 2 people performed the show using sticks and fire. After the show, there were fireworks in the sky. They were colourful. I loved them but was a bit scared so I watched from far away.  My younger brother was the opposite of me.  At night, I and my mom danced. I was happy and tired after the party.

My favorite book is “Matilda”. The author of this book is Roald Dahl. Matilda is a girl who is very clever. She learnt a lot of things before going to school. She still did attend the school with her friends. I love the part in which Lavender; a student puts a newt (an animal) into Miss.Trunchball’s glass. Miss.Trunchball’s is the school s principal and all the students are scared of her. Ms. Honey is Matilda’s class teacher- she is very kind and gentle. I was astonished to know that Ms. Trunchball is Ms. Honey’s aunt.  There was no part of the book that I didn’t like. I loved the whole book. But I don’t want a school like that.  

In the term break, we are preparing for a festival called “Diwali”. It is also called festival of lights. Yesterday, we started Diwali cleaning of our house. I dusted the tables and showpieces. I rearranged my soft toys.  I and my younger brother made flower decorations from LEGO. I and my mom are trying to make an “Akash Kandil”, a lantern.

I will share about my Diwali celebrations in the next blog.

Wishing all of you “Happy Diwali”.