sankranti festival 2020

Sankranti festival

Sankranti festival is celebrated all over India on 15th of January.  Grandma did aarati (blessings) to me and my bro. Here are some pictures taken on this day.

**********

story by cousin abhirama

Cousin Abhirama participated in Contest and wrote the following story.

Contest in Chess Association, Dallas USA

The Revolutionary War of The North Pole!

Written by Abhirama Sonny

Once upon a time, a Polar Bear ruled the Kingdom of the North Pole. The King was kind hearted and defended the kingdom from enemies. He had a son named Magnus Bear. Magnus Bear was very intelligent. He knew the best defensive and attacking strategies to guard the Kingdom.

One stormy night in winter, the ruler of another kingdom attacked the Kingdom of the North Pole! The polar bear king was caught by surprise. Even though the King and Magnus put up a brave fight, the enemy overpowered them and King had to abandon his castle and seek refuge in a village.The King lost half of his soldiers and even the Queen.

Magnus couldn’t accept the defeat so he decided to fight in the war and take back his Kingdom. One day in a blizzard Magnus left the village.

By this time it had been summer. His powers were really weak now, but he had to keep fighting if he really, truly wanted to see Magnus bear ever again.

After a month or so, the Polar King heard some terrible news, his son was wounded and dying. The King decided the battle had been going on for too long. Even though he did not have a castle or a fort or even half of his soldiers he decided to put an end to this war madness.

Why did the polar bear cross the battlefield? Because he wanted his kingdom back. The King did not stop for Black Friday at Walmart or even Cyber Monday at Amazon - he just kept going. For him each move was very important.

The walk was hard, there were lots of obstacles, but none of those excuses were enough to stop the king bear from going back to his rightful kingdom. Since the king and the army did not have any forts they built an artificial castle out of soldiers, a couple of camels (the king liked to call them bishops) under the watchful eyes of Knight riders.

When he almost reached the enemy territory, he realized that some of his soldiers were complaining! This would mean only one thing. The soldiers were going to quit en passant. King declared that if they could help him in this final frontier to save his brave Son then they could be promoted to a higher level and perhaps a brave girl soldier may even become a Queen!

He was supported by his well trained army. This King bear was going to prove to the world that you may not have a Queen on your side, nor many soldiers fighting for you, but you can win the war with the help of an army of minor pieces. After a week of hard fighting this army got inside the enemy’s territory. It so happened that one of the Girl soldiers indeed broke ahead so the King immediately promoted her to a Queen. The army was excited about this promotion. They strategized to work together with the Queen to save the Prince.

A year later, Magnus became the King of the North Pole. He decided that he wanted to make a game about the great revolutionary war. He wanted Soldiers, knights, bishops, rooks, a queen and finally a king in this game and called it “The Game of Chess”. Legend has it that the first kings in chess were shaped like polar bears.

When the King finally got to the enemy's territory, he finally found out the secret! Magnus was not wounded at all! He actually assembled a lot of warriors. It felt like he was fighting all his life. In a couple of months the king won the war. All peace was restored to the kingdom of the north pole.

*********