308. Leap!

This movie was about an orphan girl who turned into a ballerina.  Her name was Felicie.  She wanted to dance.  She and her friend, Victor, also wanted to escape from their orphanage.  Finally, they managed to escape and went to Paris.  There, both of them were separated.  Victor accidentally fell into a ship, and the ship took off into the sea.  Felicie wandered in the streets of Paris, and at last, she came to the Opera, a very big school of ballet dance.  Only girls who got the letter from the Opera and allowed to study dance there.  Felicie meets Odette, the servant of a rich lady, Mrs. Le Haut.  Odette was a dancer at first, but suddenly, while dancing, there was a fire onstage and it damaged one of her legs.  So, now she was the servant.

The daughter of Mrs. Le Haut, Camille, was a very arrogant girl, who always insulted Felicie.  She also told Felicie that she was going to get the letter from the Opera soon.  So, when the letter came, Felicie took it, and she went to the Opera, telling everyone that she was Camille and studied dance there.  She was full of energy.  Instead of dancing ballet, she was doing some other kind of very energetic dance.  The dance master told that out of the ten girls in the class, each one will be eliminated and the girl who is not eliminated till the end, gets to dance as Clara in the Nutcracker, a very famous ballet dance.  But soon, Camille finds out that Felicie took her letter and so she and her mother went to complain. 

But the dance master told that both Felicie and Camille and allowed to dance.  At the last, both of them were the only ones who were not eliminated.  When Camille again insulted Felicie, both of them started a dance fight, and each of them danced her best.  The last step, which had the big leaping step, was very difficult.  Felicie did it bravely and she got the part in the Nutcracker.

But, Camille’s mother became very angry and wanted to beat up Felicie.  She climbed the top of a tower, with Mrs. Le Haut following her.  But, she had come to the end and she was about to fall down.  Her leg slipped too.  But Victor, who invents flying machines, comes out of nowhere and rescues Felicie.  In the end, Felicie plays the part of Clara perfectly well.  This was a very nice movie and I liked it.

                                                    

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307. Trip to Ooty - Part 1.

17.04.2017 (Monday) was an exciting day.  It was the day on which we were going to go OOTY!  I had never been there before.  For going there, I had purchased a nice blue – colored jerkin.  I also wanted to buy a blue cut – shoe, but the shop was closed every time I went there.  I love the color blue, that’s why I am buying everything in blue. 

We boarded the KPN bus that went to Ooty at 9:00pm.  It was very hot.  A few minutes after boarding the bus, I slept off, and I got up only the next morning at 7:30am. 

When I climbed down the bus, it felt very cold, unlike the scorching heat in Chennai.  An auto came to pick us up and we went to our hotel, Haveli Atithi Bhavan.  Then I brushed my teeth, took bath in hot water, dressed up and went down to the hotel.  There, I drank only coffee.

After sometime, our driver, who was a malayalee (like us), took us to the different places in Ooty.

At first, we went to the Pine Forest.  It was a very nice experience there.  There were many tourists.  It was a very slope - y place.  I was scared whether I’d fall down.  We took many pictures.  There was also a lake, but it was small.  We went horse – riding.  It was very nice there.

Then we went to Pykara lake and Pykara dam.  There were sheep and dogs and horses there.

The path we were travelling by car was a forest.  There was a road in the middle.  Then, we went to another dam.  We went by an eight - seater jeep.  It was very nice.

We ate lunch and then we came to Dodda Betta.  We ate ice - creams.  But it started to rain there.  We went to the Tea Factory.  We saw how tea is manufactured.  It was fascinating.  There were many kinds of tea, including white tea and chocolate tea!  I did not know this.  Then, we went to the chocolate factory.  But, there was no place where chocolate was made.  Only a shop.  We bought truffles and plain chocolate.  The truffles were yummy.  So I bought another packet, but finished that also on the same day.

But, it started to rain a little heavily after that.  So, we came back to the hotel.  Thus, our first day in Ooty was over.

                                           

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306. Best Translator Award.

Today, 25.4.2017, was an amazing day.  Today, I was going to get the State Award for Best Translator  for the year 2016 from the CM, Edappadi K Pazhaniswamy!!  Yesterday, many of my father’s friends called and wished me.  At 8:00 am today, we reached Tamil Valarchi Iyakkagam in Egmore.  I was wearing a green lehanga.  There, we waited for sometime.  There were 10 of us who were getting the Best Translator Award, and I was the youngest of them all.

After sometime, the people in Tamil Valarchi Iyakkagam themselves took the 10 of us and our families to the Secretariat, where we will be receiving our awards.  They told that only the people who were getting the awards should go inside the room.  The others, that is, our families, should wait outside.  Inside the room, they made us sit in order.  I was sitting beside Uma Balu aunty, who translated an English book, which is the biography of Steve Jobs into Tamil.  We became friends and took photos.

Then, we had a practice session, of how we will receive the award for the CM.  Then we again went into the room.  After sometime, they called us for the real award distribution.  I was a little nervous.  I was not VERY nervous, because I did not need to make a speech in front of the people, as there was very less time and a lot of awards to give out.  When my turn came, I greeted the CM and he put a green colored shawl around me.  Then he gave me my award.  There was also a cheque of 1 lakh rupees!!  It was inside a leather pouch, which was stuck to the front of the award with cellotape.  It also had a small photo of Dr. J. Jayalalitha.

When I came out of the hall, all the people, half of whom I don’t even know, came and wished me.  They told that to do something difficult like translating books in my age (12 years) was because of God’s blessing.  Then, I came out of the building and again went back to Tamil Valarchi Iyakkagam.

We had lunch.  My father told that, as I did not have a bank account of my own, the 1 lakh rupees cheque has to be changed to my mother’s name (which was already in my name) in order to put it in her account.  When we were waiting for the new cheque, the award function came in the news in Jaya Plus channel for two times.  As soon as we got the cheque, we came home.  It was a wonderful experience today, and I will write more books and get more awards like this.

                                   

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305. Zootopia.

This movie tells all about trying always.  Judy Hopps, a bunny, wants to become a police officer.  But, other big animals make fun of her and tell that small animals like her can’t become cops.  But, she tries hard and becomes a police officer.  But in her workplace, she gets the job of a metermaid, who puts tickets on carks parked illegally.  Then, she befriends a nice fox named Nicholas Wilde, who is not violent like other foxes.  But, an otter comes to her workplace and tells her chief that her husband is missing for the part 10 days.  When the Chief delays it, Judy takes up the responsibility.  The chief gives Judy 48 hours to find the otter.  She and her friend Nicholas (Nick), find out the last place where the missing otter was.  It was in the car of a rat named mr. Big.  The driver says that suddenly the otter became violent, attacked him and ran away.  But, immediately, the driver, who was a jaguar, also becomes violent and chases Judy and Nick.  But they escape.  Then, with the help of CCTV cameras, which were there in the place where they were attacked, both of them find where the violent animals went.  It was a hospital – like place, where 15 violent animals were kept.  Someone was talking about Night Howlers attacking the 15 animals to make them violent.  Judy and Nick think that Night Howlers are wolves, because they howl at night.  Even though she finds the violent animals out and the chief is happy, she resigns her job and goes back to her home, which is near a carrot farm.

 

But then, her father told her about flowers called Night Howlers.  His brother touched them and became violent.  That was the time that Judy realises that Night Howlers aren’t wolves, but flowers.  She goes back to Nick and her job, and finds the animal which collected Night Howlers from a weasel called Duke Weaselton, who knows nothing other than money.  The animal was a ram, named Doug.  Judy and Nick get all the Night Howlers and bring them back as evidence to show to the chief.

But then, the mayor of Zootopia, Dawn Bellweather, who all along acts like a sweet sheep to Judy, comes to them and tries to get the flowers.  But, Judy has a recording pen.  It can be used to record what people say.  She records whatever Bellwether tells and within a few minutes, all the cops in the city come to the place and arrest Bellwether and her cronies.  At the end, Nick also becomes a cop and the chief finally gives them a big job to do.  I loved this movie very much and am waiting for its second part to come, maybe in 2018.