9 years and below
My best friend
My best friend is Tenuki. She is thin and small. She is my classmate. She is in the English medium but I am in the Sinhala medium but we are very good friends.
She helps me in school and I too help her. We play during the interval in school. We go for choir together. We also go for orchestra together. She plays the violin and I play the guitar.
When I got Dengue she was sad. When I am sick she sends me the day’s school work. I went to her home for her birthday. But she couldn’t come for my birthday and she was very sad.
After school when I do not go for swimming, her mother or father bring me home in their car. In the sportsmeet she is in Melizan House and I am in Coudert House but we cheer for each other. St. Bridget please bless my good friend Tenuki.
Dilshi Fernando (8 years)
St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo
10 – 12 years
My best day
It was the end of the first term test. After a few days, my class teacher asked me to come and meet her. When I met her she told me that I have been selected for the ‘Sisu Daham Nipunatha’ Programme for 2018. Suddenly I remembered that I had scored 100 marks for Buddhism. That’s why I was selected for this competition.
I studied my Buddhism text book very carefully. Then the day I was waiting for came. On May 1st I went to Hemamali Girls’ College with my teacher. There were a lot of students from Grade Six to Nine to face the examination. Our teacher wished good luck as I entered the exam premises and I was asked to sit in a classroom. As there was still time for the exam to begin, some students started to study the ‘Daham Danuma’ books. I hadn’t studied that book as I only studied my school text book. I felt a bit scared but when the exam started I felt that it was very easy for me. I wrote all the answers. A few after the exam I forgot all about it.
After six months our third term test began. On the last day of the exam, my class teacher came to meet me with a smile. She said that I had won the 1st place of ‘Sisu Daham Nipunatha’ Programme. I couldn’t believe it. I felt very happy. The prize-giving was held at St. Sylvester’s College. I went to St. Sylvester’s College with my mother and teacher. I received a Gold Medal, a certificate and a Rs. 1,000 gift voucher from a bookshop.
That was the best day of my life because I was able to buy beautiful storybooks from my gift voucher.
Vinuki Weerasinghe (12 years)
Girls’ High School, Kandy
13 – 15 years
How could TV be better
Regardless of age, most of us consider the TV as an everyday activity. For example, picture this scenario; you come home from school or work and you place your bag somewhere, then you sit on the sofa, grab the remote and… watch TV. Feel familiar? Most of us do. Anyway, whether we watch half an hour of news or six hours of the endless rabbit hole called ‘tele-dramas’, watching TV is taken for granted. It’s amazing how much the television and its services have improved over the many decades, but how could it be better?
The first televisions displayed black and white images on a small screen that took insane amounts of power to work. They produced grainy, blurry content that may be considered almost unwatchable by today’s standards. But it was a technological marvel back then. Now, we have flat screen TV’s that are sometimes bigger and can produce colourful, vibrant and crisp content. Like the improvements that happened since the first TV, the current ones can also be improved. The display technology, power efficiency, picture quality, resolution etc., can be improved. Not only the TV but the content can be improved. We already have a very diverse amount of movies, TV shows, dramas and many other things but they can be broadened and better categorized. Constant addition of new content can be improved. But sometimes quality over quantity can be better. TV could be better if the shows reached wider audiences as most of the senior citizens find only the news ‘entertaining’. Streaming services can also be improved so that we get to watch what we want, when we want to.
These improvements happen at a very fast pace, as both TV manufacturers and content creators want TV to be better. While some of the broadcasters ultimate goal would be to conquer the networks and make people watch their programmes while they ignore food, water and self hygiene until they rot. We have to control ourselves in the usage of this valuable gift. So, let’s make TV better and not destroy mankind with it.
Pulasthi Keragala (14 years)
R/Sivali Central College
