First prize

My dear God.

I asked you for strength, that I might achieve
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey...
I asked you for health, that I might do greater things...
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked you for riches, that I might be happy
I was given poverty, that I might be wise...
I asked you for power, that I might have praise of men
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...
I asked you for all things, that I might enjoy life
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...
God, please be in my head and in my understanding,
And be in my eyes and in my looking;
God, please be in my mouth and in my speaking,
And be in my heart and in my thinking.
God, be kind to mankind
And let happiness each soul find.
I got nothing that I asked for but everything I had hoped for.

Thanking you,

Yours
Krati Pasricha
Class VII,
Guru Nanak Public School,
Ludhiana.

Second prize

Dear God.

Here’s wishing you a happy ‘99. With the new year my mind has some new thoughts too which I would like to share with you.

First of all, thank you for Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy. They make the year fun. God, make our world a better place. Make nobody poor, sick or sad. Put flowers and birds all over the earth and twinkling stars above. Make the winds blow happiness, the sun give warmth and make people good and kind.

Make school more fun, include more holidays and play time in our time-table. Make the world as pretty as a rainbow and us children as lovely as angels. For our good deeds bless us with chocolates, hugs and kisses. Save us from heavy school bags which break our backs. Instead, give us wings like you have given to butterflies so that we can enjoy the sweet smell of flowers and dance happily wherever we like. How I wish I could spend time dreaming fun-filled dreams instead of being told to study and face exams.

God do be kind to us this year and I look forward to’99 as a reply to my wishes. Lots of love from a little girl.

Nayantara Shaunik,
Class IIIA,
Army School,
Jalandhar Cantonment

Third prize

Dear God,

I am a child. I have not seen the world. I don’t know the secrets of this universe. The circle of my thinking is limited. You are all powerful. People say that you are everywhere. You are present in sunshine, in the songs of birds, in running streams, in flowers and in the heart of every person.

In spite of this fact, I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you. I cannot open my heart in front of my friends or the people living around me. So please God listen to my thoughts.

Dear God, as you are in every heart, you know the thoughts of everybody. I can hide my thinking from all the people but not from you. So whatever I am going to say, is known to you. Any how, I have come to you to share my thinking with you. Oh God! I am very humble child. I am afraid of everybody. I am always in doubt regarding my future. The ground on which I am standing is not firm. So please God make the ground under my feet firm and hard.

If I walk, I should walk firmly. If I should see a thing, I should see it clearly. If I touch something, I should touch it very delicately and gracefully. In short people should look towards me for light, for happiness and for gracefulness.

Thank you God.

Tarranum Jaspal,
Class VI,
Sacred Heart School,
Chandigarh.

I, a child of yours, look forward to your favours. I appear before you, Oh Lord, in praise and thankfulness. You have given me wonderful parents and wonderful teachers. Let me work hard and become a good human being, a person useful to the community, a good citizen and a helping hand to people.

Dear God, our creator and father, by whom we are made, help me form good habits and good manners. Let me respect my elders and love those who are younger to me. Bless the parents, teachers and friends. Bless our country and our leaders. Bless those who feed and protect us. Bless even those who seek to hurt us. Keep our young minds and hearts open to all those who need us and bless the people who have no one to help and comfort them in hour of adversity.

Give restful nights and refreshed mornings to me all through my life to serve you better and do your holy will. May I begin and end all my days in your presence and walk through my life knowing that I am never alone. I will always look up to you for guidance and help.

Always at thy feet,

Vrinda Shukla,
Class V-B,
Convent of Jesus & Mary,
Ambala Cantonment.

Once again, I am back, but this time I am writing. You know that sharing my thoughts with you makes me feel good. I feel as if I am talking to a very close friend, who understands me.

I want to tell you something. When I was small, I believed that you lived up above beyond the blue skies. But, when I read about the space and our solar system in our science class, I was disappointed. I couldn’t locate your really residence in that vastness.

Now, I have grown up. I now understand better who you are and where you live. You live inside me and inside everybody. You are silent, yet you speak to me. When I am in doubt, I close my eyes and seek you. You guide me, fill me with an inner strength and confidence in myself and in you. You accompany me when I am alone. You guide me in wonderful ways. When I am wrong , you make me feel horrible.

Thanks, dear friend, for being with me, always. You have gifted me with a beautiful earth and loving parents and fiends that make me want to live. In return, I have nothing much to offer except myself. Please accept me. Finally I want to tell you that I love you.

Bye for now.

Your child,

Rahul Sharma,
Class VII, Government Model
Senior Secondary School, Sector 19-C, Chandigarh.

I’m Smriti, a student of seventh standard. I want to thank you for all that you have given my family and me. I know that you love us all. Your love shows through my adoring mother and father, I feel your love in the trusting eyes of my kid brother, in the love and affection of my elder sister and in the joyful leap of my pet Labrador. In the rustling leaves and the chirping birds. But now I know you well, I guess Aren’t you the one who created this universe?

Do you know that your creation is being destroyed by the selfish act of man? The beautiful springs are now dying. The brooks don’t sing any more. The enchanting birds and mighty animals are reducing in their number. The air is thick with smoke.

You granted us peace but we made wars. You taught us to love but we preached hatred. Lust for power and money has replaced compassion and charity. This beautiful earth is at the threshold of man made disaster.

I am told, you rested on Sunday after creating this universe. Hasn’t your Sunday stretched a bit too long? It is time you got up, took charge and made the world move your way. I am sure you won’t disappoint me.

Smriti Gaur,
Class VII-A,
Convent Of Jesus & Mary,
Ambala Cantonment.

Thank you for being beside me in the shadowy days of my life. Your helping hand and your blessings has guided me as well as guarded me through the black clouds and through the lonely roads that scared me. I also thank you for those sunny days, those tender moments that brought happiness and glory to my life.

O, most merciful God, grant me I beseech you power to wish, to dream, to aim, to struggle and dare to win. Oh Lord, my life is full of suspense which is so deep, so high and so dense. My future is not known, I am not aware about what will be lost and what will be owned. But I know that I am not alone. You are with me, beside me in every form. You are with me in form of parents my friends, my companions and you are in my prayers.

Holy Father, My only wish to you is to grant all your children happiness, courage and ability. Bless my parents with success and happiness. Please answer my wishes soon.

Harry
Class VII C
St. Josephs Convent School
Jalandhar

Last night I had an amazing dream. I stood before the gates of heaven. I showed the gatekeeper my pass and he let me in. What I saw was nothing out of ordinary. I saw everything a city would have — schools, parks, even markets.

I suddenly found myself before the gates of a school. I felt proud when I read the name ‘Carmel Convent School’- my own school. I went inside and saw that the inside was the very same as our school in Chandigarh. The only difference was that the pupils did not walk, they floated. My enquiries revealed. That the curriculum and the style of teaching is also the same except that they have more project work. I woke up from my dream and found myself in my bed licking my hand. Now I brooded over my dream and concluded-heaven and earth are the same. We can turn earth into heaven ourselves-very easily. I pray to you God that all human beings realize this.

Your dear one,

Kriti Puri
Student of Class-VI-A Carmel Convent School,
Chandigarh.

When I see the world around me, it’s really turning into hell to live in. So much pollution, so much war and crime, no peace nowhere. My dear God, Why can’t we children be given all powers for sometime and then see wonders children do to improve the situation. I really wish from the deep of my heart that we children should be given some days to rule this world. First thing that I will do good for this world is to pass a law stopping all the crimes done against children like child labour, stopping them from getting education, etc. I would like this world to hold a good future for all the children and if we give proper education to children they will be able to bring prosperity to this world.

Secondly, I will stop the killing of wild animals and destruction to the wild life in this world. We talk of being technologically advanced but what’s the use of such advancements if we are left with no place to live in.

Words like peace, love, trust, affection are slowly getting replaced with hate, jealousy, fight and war. Oh God! I strongly believe that you will certainly grant my wish one day and give me enough courage and strength to spread your message of peace and love in this world.

Your loving son
Madhur Sahni,
Class VII-A,
St. Xavier’s High School, Sector-44, Chandigarh.

Good morning, Adab Arz Hai, namaskar,
How should I address you?
I really don’t know.
So If I make any mistake.
Please don’t seriously take.
My dear God,
Can you prove that you are not a fraud?
Please tell me your date of birth.
Or the place of your hearth?
Show me your report card
Or tell me the name of your ward.
Give me your postal address
Have you ever met the Press?
What is your telephone number?
Why are you in such a long slumber?
Why do you hide
Things which others tell with pride?
Tell me you don’t exist.
Or my questions please don’t resist.
Why do you need police force for your protection (at Ayodhya/ Mathura etc.)?
If you exist, immediately swing into action
And to dishonest politicians show you reaction.
Who sell you in every election
Prove your existence with perfection.

Diwakar Pasricha,
Class VI,
Guru Nanak Public School,
Sarabha Nagar,
Ludhiana.

1. Though, I have not seen you, I have heard a lot about you.

You are omnipresent, the supreme power, the creator of the universe.

With my this letter, I would like to bow my head in front of you for making me a beautiful creature of the world. I express my sincere gratitude for the wonderful act and placing my every organ in an apple and pie order, I salute you again.

But dear God, last night I slipped into a strange land in my dream. There I saw a huge crowd of blind people. I got puzzled and perturbed as to why these people can not see when they are given beautiful pair of eyes by you.

In the morning I talked to my father who is a doctor to solve my puzzle. My father explained that blindness can be by birth or due to accident or illness and asked me not to worry. We can return thanks to God by donating our eyes after death, so dear God I resolved to donate my eyes and let the blind people see this world through my eyes after death.

With folded hands I request you to do a favour. While at my rebirth engrave my forehead with a slogan "Donate the eyes and other organs".

Sahil Kapoor,
Class VI-C
Sacred Heart School, B.R.S. Nagar, Ludhiana.

Give me a healthy mind, to keep the good and pure in sight; which seeing sin is not appalled, but finds some why to set it right.

Give me a mind that is not bored, that does not whimper whine or sigh. Don’t let me worry over much about this fussy thing called ‘I’.

Give me a sense of humour and the grace to see a joke, to get some happiness from life and to pass on to other folk.

Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path and to use it so that it may make me patient not irritable, make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow, haughty and over-bearing.

Teach me to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life, in disappointments, failure and to think of the happiness of others.

Teach me to meet the challenge of life with the art of laughter.

Naina Sharma,
Class-VII,
St. Albans School, Sector 15, Faridabad.

I am doing fine here. First of all I would like to thank You for all the good and great things you have given us like, Light, Air, Plants, Land, Sky, Stars, Moon, Sun, Sea etc. You have given us brain. You have given us wealth. You have given us peace and beautiful things. But do You know, what we have given in return? We have given pollution. We have given drought. We have given war. We have given weapons.

Why don’t You create a world where there is no war, but peace.

Why don’t You create a world where there are people who are kind, good and helpful.

I need a world where teachers and parents should not scold children.

I need a world where animals should also come to school just like us. They should sit with us and play with us.

Last but not the least, give us contentment, place, happiness, knowledge, kindness and plenty of love.

Thanking you.

Yours lovingly,

C. MEGHASHYAM St. Kabir Public School Class- VI- C, Sector 26, Chandigarh.