Your Poems

Gandhi - a great leader

One of the most powerful national leaders of the 20th century used to wear nothing but a loin cloth - even to important conferences with high British officials. He slept on a hard bed in the poorest part of the city and travelled by train in third class carriages on wooden seats.

His name was Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi. He was known to his millions of followers as the Mahatma. Gandhi used peaceful methods to fight British rule in India and helped win independence for his country.

He was born on October 2, 1869 at Porbandar in Kathiawar in the west of India. His father was Prime Minister of an Indian State.

He was only an average student at school. When he was 19, he went to England to study law. He returned to India and then went to South Africa where he spent over 20 years.

Back in India in 1914, he began his campaign for Indian independence. He carried out what was called "non-violent civil disobedience". In 1930 for example, he decided to break a salt law which stated that only the government had the right to manufacture salt.

Gandhi believed it was wrong to kill. His methods were peaceful, but effective. He would begin a fast and threaten to starve to death unless the authorities agreed to his reforms. The British put Gandhi in prison, but he continued to fight for independence. At last, on August 15, 1947, the British Labour Government gave India and Pakistan their independence.

Peace, unity and equality were the Mahatma's aims. He fasted for unity between Muslims and Hindus in India, and he argued in favour of equal rights for the "untouchables" of the Indian caste system. On January 30, 1948, when Gandhi was at a prayer meeting, a Hindu fanatic in the crowd shot him.

The world was shocked by the assassination of this great man.

A. N. N. Nisra, Grade 10 T, Girls' High School, Kandy.

The war

It goes on for years,
With laughter and even tears,
Many people are killed,
This isn't a thing for us to be thrilled.

People lose their homes,
Soldiers lose their bones,
Soldiers are away from homes,
Their children are all alone.

They use weapons made of tin,
But in the end nobody will win,
Stupid and dangerous it is,
It is against peace.

Many cities are destroyed,
Many towns are devastated,
This poem can be written without an end,
Just as the wars, which will never end.

Sahan Vindula Abayadeera, Grade 9-C,Lyceum International School, Nugegoda.

Social studies - my favourite subject

Social studies deal mainly with the study of our society and the environment. It also deals with what is beyond the Earth we live in, that is the moon, the planets, the stars and outer space. When we do social studies as a subject, we learn about the people living in different countries and their way of life, we also learn about the achievements of the past generations and also their culture. This we call "history".

As a part of social studies, we also learn geography which relates to rivers, mountains, the climate, cultivation, and so on, in each country. A student of social studies gets a wide knowledge of the various countries of the world and also the universe beyond our planet "Earth". Thus social studies is a very interesting and an exciting subject.

Hashini Fernando, Primary 4-C, Leeds International School, Panadura.

My ambition

I wasn't certain as to what my ambition was until recently. The feeling that I want to be a doctor grew in me from the moment I visited my uncle who was very ill in hospital. What I saw was novel to me. There were so many tubes running through his nostrils and through a vein in the arm. These tubes were attached to plastic bottles supported by steel stands. To me it appeared as if my uncle was seriously ill. I couldn't help asking a nurse who was hovering around my uncle and adjusting the bottles and the tubes, why there were so many tubes. I was fortunate to receive a very polite answer from this kind nightingale. She took a lot of trouble to explain to me that my uncle was in a coma and he had to be fed and given medicine. All this can be done in a liquid form through the tubes, she explained.

She reassured me that my uncle will be all right in a few days' time. However I had a feeling he may not survive. I was determined to be a doctor to save the lives of innocent and poor people who come to the hospital for treatment. Then and there, I made up my mind to study hard and achieve my strong ambition to be a doctor one day.

Evangeline Roshan, Good Shepherd Convent, Kandy.

Schooling...

With thousands of fears;

Brown eyes covered with tears;

Can you remember;

The first day of schooling?

Looking for your mother;

Everywhere you go;

You become perfect gradually.

With so much hope in your heart;

You play various parts;

As your golden eras past

But one day you have to leave;

Carrying pleasant memories

Of this wonder world;

What a great difference;

Now and the past;

You are colourful and beautiful

As a flower, making the world

Fragrant.

U.M.R. Chathuri Madushika Kumari, Grade 10, K/Dudley Senanayaka Central College, Tholangamuwa.

The beautiful rainbow

I saw a beautiful thing,
That I hadn't seen before,
It was like a bridge in the sky,
But I didn't know what it was.

It had several colours,
I've never seen beauty like this before,
It was adding beauty to the environment too.

Again, and again, I wondered, what it really was
I kept on thinking and thinking,
As I remembered it at once,
It was the colourful rainbow,
Our English teacher had told me about.

Oh! a beautiful rainbow in the sky,
It's like a huge bridge,
I thought it was a creation of God
I was so very happy, so,
I looked at it several more times.

Slowly it started to disappear,
In to the infinite sky,
I felt very sad but,
It was the law of nature.

Ruwan Lakshitha, Grade 8A,Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa.

The struggle at home

My brave father struggles to protect the country as well as all of us in the war. My dear mother struggles to get my brother school entrance for grade one going from school to school.

My great struggle is at the tutory to get higher marks in the scholarship exam for grade five entrance.

But my lucky brother struggles for nothing and lives a happy life at home since he's small......

Hasini Vihanga, Grade 5-A, Dharmawickrama Girls' College, Kandy.

Myself

My name is Hansaka Samaraweera.
I am eight years old.
I study at Vidura College, in grade 3-G.
I like to drink water and eat bananas.
My mother's name is Priyanka and my father's name is Amith.
My ambition is to be a policeman.

Hansaka Mathiesha Samaraweera, Grade 3G, Vidura College, Colombo.

An interesting person

Gunapala mama in our village is an interesting person. He is thin and of dark complexion. He has curley hair. He walks briskly.He is fond of small children and we call him Pinnahami mama . During the new year season he rings a bell and goes from house to house giving sweets and many presents to small children.

W. S. M. Sakunika Sewwandi Samarakoon, Grade 7-C, Minu/President's College.