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