Blossom Bookstore

Blossom Book House Kids' Section.

My aunt Nita came for a visit. It was her birthday. She really loves books, so we went to Blossom Book House, a famous bookstore in Bangalore. It was my first visit to the store. In the store, I saw books, books, books, and books. There were books everywhere. They were neatly arranged on shelves from floor to the ceiling. They were piled up all over the floor. There were narrow, old, rickety stairways and even narrower passageways to get to the books. Many people were browsing through books and I could hear a lot of rustling. 

It was different than any bookstore that I have been to. It was filled with excitement. I felt like staying until dinner so that I could browse all the books in the store and buy the ones I wanted. I wondered who started this interesting store and why. That's how I got the idea to interview the owner.

Piles and piles of books

His name is Mayi Gowda and he started the store 13 years ago. He comes to the store everyday even though he has many people working for him. He is kind, friendly...and busy!!! He sells a variety of books, new and old, children and adult, and everything in between.






Q and A:

Q. Why did you start a bookstore?

A. That is a long story. The short version is that I love books. I started selling books on the footpath when I was still in college. Later I started selling books from a small 200 sq. ft.store. I then bought more and more space over time to expand the bookstore.

Selfie with Mayi Gowda.

Q. Why do you sell second hand books?
A. I like to spread the love of reading. Selling used books makes them more affordable and so more people can buy them.

 Q. Where do you get the used books from?

A.. I have a network of sources across the country. Also, customers bring their used books here.

Q. How many books do you sell a day?
A. I sell about 1,000 books a day!

Q. Do you have children? What books do they like?
A. I have 2 children. They are 9 and 4.5 years old. The older one loves Roald Dahl books. The younger one is still exploring.

Q.What is you favourite book?

A. Animal Farm

Q. What do you like about running a bookstore?

A. I help many people read books and spread the joy of reading.

Q. What do you not like?
A. I do not like when people mishandle the books and don't put them back in their place.

Q. What are some challenges?

A. It's a lot of work. I don't get to spend much time with my family.

Blossom Book House is a really nice place that you must visit if you like books, They will even buy back your used books and give you 50% of your money back. Here's the address if you decide to visit:

Number 84/6, Church street, Opp. Amoeba, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 560001
Phone number: 25320400, 25559733

We'll visit the store often and I hope I see you there.                                                                                                                                        

Lego Ludo

I invented a game called  LEGO Ludo. This how it started. I was reading my LEGO book and then I saw a Ludo board. I decided to make a Ludo board with Legos.

By the way, do you know what Ludo is? If you don't, then ask me in the comments section.

The middle of the game
(I'm winning and I won)

After I made the board, I felt it should be different. So I changed the rules. Here are my Ludo rules:

• You need to go one-and-a-half rounds before going into the home row.
• The transparent pawns are special. They can send back to start, a pawn of the player that the transparent pawn's start box is pointing to - if they are within a 5 box distance. 
• For the transparent ones, the first time they are hit they move back one box, and the second time, they go home.
• And for the normal ones, one hit and they go home.

That's it for the special rules. The rest of the rules are similar to regular Ludo.

The dice is also special. It is made of Legos too. I replaced the dots with colors and patterns, and I made a sheet with a legend that shows the color code.

The last special thing about my Lego Ludo is that you can carry it around anywhere. You can play with it in your car or in a plane. You can also take a break if the game goes on for a long time. The game is "saved" until the next time you play.

You can take as many breaks as
you like without it being disturbed

Me and my parents and Simbu played the game once and I won!!

End result of the game - I won!!!

And the end.

Jurassic World

Today I'm going to write my first movie review (in my entire life). It's going to be about Jurassic World. It is the first movie I've watched from the Jurassic series. I watched this movie during a sleepover with my friends Seth and Cade.

Owen and the raptors

Jurassic World is an AWESOME science fiction thriller movie. It was released a few weeks ago. The movie is about dinosaurs that were recreated by scientists. The main characters are the Indominus Rex - a villainous dinosaur, Owen - a raptor trainer, Claire - the park's manager, and Zach & Gray, Claire's nephews.

The movie is filmed on a theme park island where dinosaurs are the attractions. The plot involves a few scientists who have created the INDOMINUS__REX, a cross between raptors and many other animals, including humans. It's HUGE, it's scary, it's smart, it changes colors. and it's a good hunter. It escapes from her (or his) pen  and destroys everything in its path and eats pretty much anything that moves. It causes a lot of destruction. Everyone and everything try to kill the Indominus Rex. Will they be able to kill it? 

Zach and Gray in a ride

The fights were epic and the rest of it was cool. I enjoyed all of it. The only thing I did not like is that it was very long. I would highly recommend this movie, especially if you love action movies. It's a must-see.

My Homeschooling Adventure

When I moved to India, I was afraid that the teachers would not know English. So I decided to homeschool (learn at home). My parents found out about this homeschoolers' meeting and I attended. That's where I met 3 of my homeschooling friends: Seth, Cade, and Srikar. Some homeschoolers started meeting monthly to do presentations and play and eat.

Everything is Awesome!

The first one was in my house. I had SO much fun (by the way, the presentations and playing and chatting went on till midnight). I presented about the bad affects of sugar. I think it was a popular presentation. The next presentation was in Srikar's house. I had a lot of fun there too. I talked about Chain Reactions. It was a killer presentation.The third presentation was actually a performance. It was in my cousins' house (farm). And I had so much fun there too. This time I sang "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego movie. It is my favorite song. It was "awesome" to practice and sing that song.

There are totally 12 presenters in the group now and everyone and their presentations are very nice. There were many interesting presentations. From music to religion, from eggs to sports and sleep. There were also many performances - dancing, singing, musical instruments, and everything in between. All in just 3 meetings. And the food was really good.

The next get together is going to be an outing - to Mysore zoo. I can't wait!!! Except for one reason - I have to wake up at 5.30 AM.

By the way, I did learn that teachers in India speak English and in fact, so do most people.

Why I still decided to homeschool:

1. I get to do less work and I think I'm learning more.
2. I get to be with my family.
3. I still get to play with lots of friends every evening.
4. There are these awesome meetings and presentations that I don't want to miss, ever.
5. I love my homeschooling friends.

The end. Bye!

Random Things

Part 1: Why I haven't written (writ10 :)) for so long.

Well I had other things in my mind (mostly iPad).

Part 2: Poetry Puzzler

Me and my mom decided to play a game called Poetry Puzzler. Here's how to play:

         

1. You write 5 words and the other player writes 5 words
2. You and the other player swap words.
3. You and the other player write a poem with the new words (you can draw if you want).
4. Share with whoever you want.  

Here are the poems we came up with:

Here's mine. You know why there's no rhyme? Because I couldn't think of any rhymes to do with monsters. Not all poems rhyme anyway.

I don't think you can read the poem properly, so I typed it below. I also illustrated the poem by drawing all the monsters. These are futuristic monsters that I will create in a Minecraft mod.

Monsters

by Rahul Maru

Cuboxes fly. 

Leafeuseuses eat.

Oceanuses are cool!! (and cold)

Thunderouses are fantastic

And all of the above.

Infernus burn.

Mountainuses Smash.

And twisteruses vacum. 

- The end

My mother's poem:

Fiery Lands

by Suma Maru

Never play with lava

Never play with fire

Never play with volanoes

Or you will earn the ire

Of Lava Lords fiery and strong

They will unleash Infernesus

Because they brook no wrong

In the land of the thunderous

  

The Farm

I went to a farm last Sunday. It is Sarayu and Samara's grandparents' farm. Sarayu and Samara were there along with their friends and parents and grandfather. It was fun to play with so many friends even though the grass was very ichy. 

We watched some TV at the caretaker Bagyamma's home. She has many pets including a dog, chickens and guinea pigs. I tried to feed the guinea pigs but they did not eat the food. 

I then explored the farm with my friends. There are lots of trees in the farm. There are coconuts, teaks, chikoos, sitafals, chilies, beans and so many other trees growing there. Wild animals such as elephants and monkeys visit the farm. The monkeys love visiting there. At night a lepord or a jaguar comes to the farm and leaves at day. There is a snake that lives beneath the ground in the farm. 

There are lots of bugs. I saw a praying mantis, a ladybug, spiders, flies, a grasshopper and worst of all Mosquitos. Luckily I had repellent on so they couldn't do a number on me.

We played a role play game. The oldest one (a girl) was the queen the other three girls were princesses and I was the knight. There were evil kingdoms and another good kingdom. I belonged to the good kingdom.

Me protecting the good kingdom with my bow and arrow
and the princesses being silly.

We started a picnic. There were noodles, sausages, pasta, potato salad and too many bugs to let us finish it. 

The girls are going to move to the farm at some point so I can visit the farm often (and use up all our mosquito repellent).

Diwali

Every year there is a festival called Diwali. It happens at the end of October or early November. This year, it started on October 22. It's a big festival in India. It's like Christmas and 4th of July combined. People gift each other and families get together and eat big meals. People eat lots of sweets (such as laddus and burfis) on Diwali. People also burst firecrackers for 4 days - at least. We only burst firecrackers for 2 days because we were being responsible for the environment.

We were gifted by my friend Siddharth's mom, and the people that live diagonal from us gifted us. So we were gifted by everyone on the seventh floor. My grandmother also gifted me.

There was a big meal at my house on October 23 or 24. Sarayu and Samara (my cousins) came, their grandparents came, my grandmother came, her friends Daniela and Anil came, and my dad's sister Nita came the day before. 

We dressed up in traditional clothes. 
    

We decorated the house with flowers, rangolis, lamps and other diwali decorations.

Nita made rangolis made out of flowers.

Me and Sarayu and Samara helped make puris. Sarayu and Samara made balls from the dough.

My grandmother rolled them into flat circles.

I took the circles a few at a time to the kitchen to my mom and Nita

They fried them.

 The yummy puris were ready. We had a big lunch.

I ate a lot of laddus and barfis.

My cousins and I read a Chota Bheem book with Daniela. I like Chota Bheem. 

 We lit the lamps in the night.

Finally we bursted fireworks and firework rockets. 

The Picnic

I went to a picnic on October 11 with other kids and their families. It was fun!!!!!!!!!!!

The picnic was in a huge park called Cubbon park. It is more like a forest then a park. There were big trees everywhere. There were some tamarind trees and tamarind fruit had fallen on the ground. I tasted a small piece. It was very very sour. The weather was cloudy and muggy. The ground was slightly wet from rains.

Cubbon Park



Tamarind flower

Tamarind fruit

The first thing that me and the other kids did was go on a nature walk. We found many interesting things such as interesting and yellow flowers, 3 leaf and 4 leaf clovers, a twig that had another twig coming out if it, and something that looked like a bamboo stick. At the end of the picnic we painted using the things we found during the nature walk. I painted lava drops and gold raining on a plains biome. I also painted the results of the lava and gold rain. I lost one of my two paintings. :(

There was also an obstacle course. The first part of the obstacle course was to measure a jumprope with your feet, the second part was to run around the numbered trees in order, the third part was to kick a socer ball (foot ball) to my friend Seth's older brother Cade, the fourth part  was to do a thing called the Army Crawl, and the last part was to hit two balloons hanging from a tree with our fists.

Seth's dad showed us how to pitch a tent. He taught us how to hammer in the tent pegs. He also taught us how to attach the canvas to the peg. Once the tent was done everyone went inside the tiny tent - except for me.

We played many fun games. We played socer (football) and badminton.There were lemon spoon races. In a lemon spoon race, you have to put a spoon in your mouth and put a lemon on the spoon. The first person to reach the finish line without dropping the lemon is the winner of the race. We also played cops and robbers. I was one of the cops. There were only two robbers and three to six cops. So each cop did not much chance to catch a robber.

 

We played a game called Star. We each have four pieces of folded paper. We unfold them and if we have the same pieces of paper, we say star. You can't let anyone else see your paper. The first person to say star puts his hand on the ground. The others need to quickly say star and put their hands on top of the first person's hand. The first person gets the most points and the closer your hands are the clouds, the less points you get.

 

When it was lunch time we had a big lunch I had a roast beef sandwich, mango juice, vada pav,cucumbers and watermelons salad, and different types of rice. For dessert, there were chocolate chip cookies, brownies and lemon cake. The food was yummy. My favorite was the brownie.

 

All about Pokemon!

There is a series called Pokémon. It is my favorite series so I desided to write a post about pokemon. There are several Pokémon types.

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Grass
4. Electric
5. Flying
6. Ground
7. Poison
8. Bug
9. Normal
10. Fairy
11. Fighting
12. Psychic
13. Rock
14. Ice
15. Ghost
16. Steel
17. Dragon
18. Dark
19. ??? (Mystery?)

Certain types of Pokémon can evolve into other Pokémon. Pikachus can't evolve into Charmeleons. Pikachus can only evolve into Riachus. Riachus can't evolve into anything. Certain types of Pokémon can learn certain attacks. http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_moves.

There are Unevolved Pokémon, Evolution One Pokémon and Final Pokémon (Evolution Two Pokémon). Final Pokémon are at their final stage. They can't evolve. Evolution One Pokémon can only evolve once into Final Pokémon. Unevolved Pokémon can evolve into Evolution One Pokémon.

Unevolved Pokémon can be starter Pokémon (the first Pokémon you get). The three starter Pokémon are 1. Squirtle 2. Bulbasaur and 3. Charmander. Squirtle evolves into Watortle, Bulbasaur evolves into Ivysaur, and Charmander evolves into Charmeleon. The starter Pokémon's final stages are Blastoise, Venusaur and Charizard respectively.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_National_Pok%C3%A9dex_number

There are a group of very rare and powerful pokemon called legendary pokemon. There are 6 generations: generation 1 (generation I), generation 2 (generation II), generation 3, (generation III)
generation 4 (generation IV), generation 5 (generation V) and generation 6(generation VI).

Pokémon called Pikachu; his name is Speakachu
 

Not a Pokémon

Also not a Pokémon

The Bombe Hubba - The Dussera festival doll display

There is a big festival in India every year called Dussehra. In some parts of India, there is a festival called the Bombe Hubba (doll festival) as part of Dussehra and Navratri. I  learnt how to add links to my blog and have included links about these festivals.

I hosted a bombe hubba with my cuzins in their home. I made some things for the doll display. I made a Lego plane and put a Lego man on it. The plane was hung from a ceiling lamp so it looked like it was flying on top of the display.  I also made a mountain monster out of clay. He fought 3 or 4 Goddesses and 1 God. The Lego men were also fighting the Goddesses and God. The mountain monster's name is Everest. If he was real, he would be 54,00,000 feet tall.

The hubba was fun. I made 3 rangolis.  I ate many laddus. They were yummy. Some of my friends came to see the bombes (dolls) and I played with them. I played with my friend Seth. After he left, I played with my cuzins. We had a pillow fight. A few people got hurt so the pillow fight stopped.

After my friends left, I watched 2 videos. They were pony videos. There were 5 girls and only one boy (me) at that time and I did not get to chose any of the videos. This made me sad. If I did choose, we would have watched the Diamond Minecart Minecraft videos.
  

Everything was lit up.

There were flowers everywhere.
Everyone decorated their cars
and homes. We did too.



My rangolis are the ones at the bottom.

Me making rangolis



One of the displays with my plane flying over it.

My grandmom is stringing flowers.

Yummy laddus and chickpeas
and flowers my gradmother strung.

The monster I made is the one
with the green tail

Decorations. My cuzins colored them.

The elephants were made and decorated by my cuzins

A display of an Indian wedding



Watching the videos

This is called haldi and kumkuma
and is applied on the forehead

I'm tired after a looong and fun day.