Puppy Dog Eyes

You are upset. You are very disappointed with your little one because he has been really naughty and he needs to be punished. You “steel” your heart and get ready to pronounce the penalty and then he goes and does it! He looks at you with those large, beady eyes that melt the very core of that heart that you have just hardened. The eye balls grow larger, pleading their innocence and imploring you to forgive him. You try and think of the last time he did that but your thoughts seem to be fading fast in front of those big, black, “puppy-dog”(I know it’s the same but that’s how my son refers to them) eyes. You weaken and you give way.

Ever wondered where those “puppy- dog” eyes come from? Well, here’s the story.

Andy was a 3 year old little boy who lived in an apartment. In the same block of flats there lived an old lady as well. The old lady had no one else but a big dog called Jessie, for a companion. Andy loved teasing Jessie and called him names like Messy Jessie. Jessie was always raring to have a go at him!

One day things went too far. Andy tugged Jessie’s tail and Jessie urinated on him in anger. The two got into a scuffle. The skies started darkening outside, heralding the approach of a storm. A large bolt of lightning struck the top of the tower of flats.

As the rain hammered against the glass panes of Andy’s dad’s office, his phone rang. It was his wife. She sounded frantic; she said something strange had happened to Andy and that he should get home as soon as possible. When he reached home he saw an ambulance parked in front. He grew worried and rushed in to see the old lady being taken away on a stretcher. He found out that the old lady had suffered a stroke because her dog had started speaking in a human voice! That was absurd, he thought! Then he remembered his wife and rushed up the elevator to his apartment.

The day seemed to be growing weirder. His wife was crying and his little boy sat quietly, looking rather confused. He asked his wife what the matter was to which she said that Andy was no longer able to talk. He went over to his son and asked him what was wrong but Andy only barked like a dog in reply.

Thinking that this was some kind of joke, he shook his son and asked him to speak properly but the little boy would only bark, “Woof! Woof!” His father kept asking him what happened. The boy just could not speak but kept barking!

Dumbfounded Andy’s father sat trying to figure out how this had come to be. And then he remembered the old lady and a crazy possibility started occurring to him. He went up to his son and asked him whether he had done something to Jessie, the dog. The little boy’s eyes lit up and he nodded, “WOOF!”

His father held him by the hand and took him to the old lady’s apartment. The dog took one look at him and thundered, “YOU!” Before anyone could do anything the two got into a mad tussle! They moved so fast that only a blur was visible. Andy’s father separated the two with great difficulty after which the boy regained his voice and the dog started barking.

Andy's father then took him home to his mother who was relieved to hear her son speaking again. She hugged him tight and kissed him on the forehead, glad that he was normal like before. That was when she noticed that his eye balls seemed unusually large and black, almost dog like. She looked at her husband inquiringly. He merely shrugged saying that he had done the best he could; besides, one had to admit it made him look especially endearing!

Magnum Opus III: Soccer’s Soothsaying Star

The sun was setting over the Mediterranean Sea and as Octopus watched he felt very sad. He was sad that he and his cousins had not been able to wear shoes. He was sad
for his cousin Hundopus, who had been converted into a station at Amsterdam. He had heard that his other cousin Milopus was devouring ships and planes in the Caribbean Sea, giving rise to stories of an unseen monster in the Bermuda Triangle. Octopus sighed; all he had wanted was to wear shoes.

A baby dolphin was playing with a ball, near the coast. Ocotpus loved the way it was carefree and was having such a great time.

He kept looking at the dolphin calf playing with his mother – they seemed so happy! Octopus felt a sudden urge to go talk to the dolphins. He approached them, a little unsure of how to begin. To his surprise and relief, the dolphins waved to him, inviting him to play. Octopus joined in and before long he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Octopus loved playing with the ball and started playing with the dolphins every day. He learned that the dolphins performed at a nearby aquarium, where hundreds of kids and their parents came to see them. There were other marine animals at the aquarium as well, that performed other tricks for the visitors. All this made Octopus very curious and he wanted to visit the Aquarium. His wish was granted when one day one of the keepers from the Aquarium, saw him playing with the dolphins and took him in.

He showed him to the others and everyone thought it would be a good idea to have Octopus performing at the Aquarium. In fact it would be fantastic if they could get the dolphins to play soccer with Octopus as the goalkeeper. With eight tentacles, he did make a lot of saves and a super goalie!

At first it seemed like a crazy idea but it worked. The number of visitors to the aquarium doubled. People from around the world came to see Octopus perform. Octopus’s keeper named him Paul and installed a TV near his aquarium for him to watch soccer matches on. Octopus loved watching the Football World Cup on TV and seemed to have a knack for predicting the result.

The keepers started putting food in two boxes with the flag of the participating teams on them. Paul would then pick food from the box that he thought would win and most of the times he was correct! Paul, the Octopus became famous the world over. The aquarium was so pleased with his success that they got boots made for him…....eight of them for each of his tentacles.

Octopus was beside himself with joy! His long cherished dream of wearing shoes had finally come true!

The Magnum Opus II: The story of the Amsterdam Central Station

A 2 year old, little boy once went to Amsterdam with his father. In the city, the little boy was completely awestruck at the Amsterdam Central Station. Built on the edge of the North Sea, the terminal looked like the half submerged head of a giant sea monster. He could not stop wondering about the station and asked his father how the station seemed to be floating on the sea. Then his father told him the story of the Station’s construction.

Hundopus, the giant sea creature with a hundred tentacles, had become very upset and disappointed at being unable to wear shoes. In his anger and frustration he had started swallowing a lot of the ships that sailed the waters of his home in the North Sea. Most of these ships were Dutch and were sailing to and from the port city of Amsterdam.

The sailors and the people of Amsterdam were growing weary of the menace that Hundopus was turning into. They met at the city’s waterfront but no one had the courage to capture Hundopus. They asked each other “Who’s going to catch Hundopus?”

Somewhere in the background, a giant red excavator was just waking up from his sleep. He yawned and stretched his arm and people said “Yes, we have found our guy”.

The excavator was completely taken aback and before he knew what was happening he had been pushed towards the sea. Scared and completely at his wits’ end he started looking around for a way to escape, when he spotted his friend, the giant red dump truck.

“Don’t worry pal, we can do this. I have an idea!” he said.
“Get me a large pair of our famous wooden shoes and some very long rope”, he told the people.

They tied the shoes to the rope and threw them far out into the sea to lure Hundopus to the shore.

Hundopus desperate to try on the shoes lunged forward to grab them. As soon as he did that the dump truck and the excavator started pulling the rope in.

When Hundopus’ head emerged close to the shore, the red excavator knocked him a deadly blow. Hundopus fell unconscious and his tentacles landed all over the place. The dump truck and several of his other friends immediately dumped earth and stones over the tentacles and they become rail tracks. Then the red excavator and his other excavator friends carved out a hollow into Hundopus’ giant head and made the Amsterdam Central Station out of it.

The Magnum Opus I : The Day Julius Caeser Sought Asterix's Help

A long, long time ago, there lived in the sea, a creature called Octopus. Octopus had a large bulbous head and eight tentacles. Octopus had two cousins, Hundopus and Milopus. Hundopus had a hundred tentacles while Milopus had a million of them. Octopus lived in the Mediterranean Sea, Hundopus lived in the North Sea and Milopus lived in the Caribbean Sea.

Every once in a year they would all meet. On once such occasion they decided that they wanted to wear shoes like humans. Hundopus, suggested they go to Italy, known for its superb shoemakers, around the world.

So, the three of them travelled to the Shoe City of Italy, Vigevano. The shoemakers in Vigevano were astounded at their request. They told them that it was not possible to make a hundred shoes of the same size, let alone a million.

That made the sea creatures very angry. They started attacking the humans and destroying their cities in Italy. The Italian emperor, the mighty Julius Caeser and his army could do nothing against these giant creatures.

Caeser then remembered the little village of invincible Gauls in Armorica, who constantly defied him. He called upon the village’s most valiant warrior, Asterix for help. As always, Asterix rose to the occasion. He drank the magic potion that gave him superhuman strength. Then he and his best friend, Obelix (who was permanently super powerful because he had fallen into a cauldron of magic potion when he was a baby) fought Octopus, Hundopus and Milopus. The duo beat the living daylights out of the sea monsters (Biff! Bang! Thwack!) and threw them back into the sea.

Turning of the Tides

Once upon a time there lived a family of piggies on the banks of the river Ganges, in Howrah. As is usual, they lived in the dirt and squalor of a dumping ground made by the neighboring factories and slums.

One day as the tide was ebbing; the piggies decided to go on an adventure and dived into the river. They swam out to the mouth of the Ganges and the tide pushed them out further, into the Bay of Bengal.

They swam ashore and walked up the beaches of a 5 star resort in Mondarmoni. They went in and ordered themselves the deluxe suite at the resort for the night.

The man at the reception laughed and asked them “But do you have the money to pay for the room?”

And the piggies replied, “Of course! Why don’t you turn us around and look in our belly?”

To the utter disbelief of the man, the piggies indeed had coins in there. He took the money and lent them the suite.

The piggies had a fabulous time at the resort, lapping up the sun, swimming in the sea and eating good food.