101 Useful Essays

I like playing the guitar. Though I am not very good at it and am still learning, I can play some tunes. I spend quite a lot of time playing the guitar so much so I get scolded sometimes by my mother. I suppose I do tend to spend a bit too much time with […]

The games I like most is badminton. All it takes is a willing partner, two rackets and ashuttlecock. We do not even need a net. After all we simply enjoy hitting the shuttlecock to each other. My sister and I spend hours doing this just about everyday. We are not going to be world champions.

Many of us live in housing estates. I live in one myself. The one thing about living in a housing estate is that we have many neighbours.Next to my house on the right lives a family whose parents seem to be always scolding the children. I do not know them very well because they always

My father bought a new car one day. We were all very excited. He promised to take us to Melaka to visit my grandparents the coming Sunday.Sunday morning was bright and breezy. We hopped into the brand new car and soon we were heading out of Petaling Jaya towards the expressway. My mother sat in

I walk a kilometre or so to school every morning. Sometimes I come across a mad woman dressed in a dark dirty sari. She probably has not had a bath for years. Her hair is matted, teeth stained red with betel-nut and eyes blood-shot with the look of madness. I always keep my distance from

“Don’t eat just before going to bed !” my mother used to tell me. “You might get a nightmare.” How right she was. I never believed her until it happened to me.It was on a night when I felt hungry just as I was about to go to bed. So I made myself a peanut-butter

Fiona is my neighbour. She turned twelve recently and her parents held a birthday party for her. I was one of those invited.The party began at about three in the afternoon. There were about twenty of us children gathered in Fiona’s house. We were all dressed in our best clothes. Everyone, especially Fiona, wore a

The newspaperman delivers newspapers to us and many other houses in the neighborhood. I hear his motorcycle every morning when he comes to deliver the daily paper. He comes promptly at 6.30 a.m. every morning, rain or shine, unless something extraordinary prevents him from doing so.He is so regular and prompt that I do not

We are a noisy lot that is what our teachers say about us. This is largely due to Aditya Sharma. He is the noisiest of us all. His voice is like that of a bull frog but volumes louder. It seems that he cannot talk softly. Actually he does not talk, he shouts.In this noisy

My favourite time of the day is between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. This is the time when the sun is setting and the air is cooling down. At this time I either go for a stroll, play some games or sit quietly watching the activities around me.Sitting quietly doing nothing in particular is what

It is incredible how much rubbish we throw into the garbage bin. It always seems to be full. A garbage bin is never nice to look at and get near to. The smell can be quite strong. So we are very thankful to garbage collectors who come and remove the garbage.They normally come thrice a

Carrying a passenger on a bicycle is an offence punishable by law. Everyone knows that but still some of us do it.I had done it many times before until something happened to teach me never to do it again. It was not the police. Rather it was an unforgettable, and unpleasant, experience.It happened one evening

It has got to be one of the busiest street, if not the busiest, in Delhi. To be in it just once is to know the meaning of the word “busy”.I happened to be in it a few days before the New Year. On both sides of the street were hawkers with all sorts of

I live in a bungalow surrounded by a fairly large garden. There are a number of fruit trees growing here along with many plants and a lot of grass. At first glance the garden appears very quiet but actually many birds and animals live in it or visit it frequently.Every morning I am awakened by

The first time I ever rode on a ferry was when I took one to cross from Butterworth to Penang Island. My family and I had gone to Penang for a holiday.We arrived at the Ferry Terminal just as the sun was setting. My father paid the fare at one of the toll-booths and we