I love all the stars in the sky, but they are

nothing compared to the ones in your eyes

من تمام ستاره های آسمون رو دوست دارم ولی

اونا در مقایسه با ستاره ای که در چشمان تو

میدرخشه هیچند !

Mr. Krump was an elderly man with a long shaggy beard and hooked nose. The townspeople stayed clear of him and called him Mr. Grump, instead. That was his rightful name in the eyes of the community. Mr. Krump lived on top of a hill overlooking the valley, and on many cold winter nights you could see the smoke rising from his chimney, but no one dared to go near.

The only time anyone ever saw him was on Mondays, when he would drive to town and park in front of the grocery store for his weekly shopping spree. He would enter the store with the normal scowl on his face and mutter under his breath, while ramming his cart through the crowded aisles. No one felt comfortable around Mr. Krump, especially around the holidays. It was common knowledge that Mr. Krump hated Christmas and the idea of giving.

With only two more days before Christmas, the store was busy. Mr. Krump had managed to plow his way through the people, knocking carts over as he passed by. He stood in the supermarket checkout with a scowl on his face. He had his arms crossed over a rather large belly- complaining under his breath, when a light tug on his coat suddenly caught his attention. He turned around and saw a thin pale-faced boy with a mop of curly red hair looking up at him.

"Can I help you?" Mr. Krump frowned.

"Are you Santa Claus?" the little boy asked politely.

"Excuse me?"

"Santa Claus," he replied. "You look like an angry Santa Claus."

Mr. Krump ignored him. He did like children, they were annoying, especially this one. He continued to wait impatiently for the line to move, when another tug on his coat made him jump. "What do you want?" he yelled.

The boy cowered for a moment then said, "I think Santa is having a bad day."

Mr. Krump shrugged his massive shoulders and turned away, staring irritably at his watch. The line began to move slowly. Then the little boy tugged on his pants.

It was all Mr. Krump could do not to blow up. "What?" he snapped.

"I was wondering where Mrs. Claus was?" the boy asked teary eyed.

"There is no Mrs. Claus. I like to live alone. I"m happy living alone!"

The young boy stared up at him in wonder. "You don"t seem happy. I"ll be your friend."

Mr. Krump scowled again, moving his cart slowly towards the register.

"Santa please cheer up," the voice said softly.

Mr. Krump puzzled over this for a moment before he knelt down to the little boy"s level. "We"ll I suppose I do look a bit like him," he said rubbing his fingers through a thick gray beard. "My name"s Mr. Krump. What"s yours?"

"I"m Cody, and I"m this old," he replied holding up three fingers.

"Wow. You"re practically a man," Mr. Krump whistled. "So what"s that you"ve got in your hand?"

"It"s a Hot Wheels car. You want to see? It drives like this."

Cody took the shiny blue car and scooted it across the supermarket floor, weaving it through the passing feet. Mr. Krump still did not smile.

"That"s a mighty nice car you"ve got there," Mr. Krump replied. "I used to have one just like that when I was a kid."

"You were a kid?" Cody asked in surprise.

"Of course. I was once your age many years ago."

"Wow. How many years old are you now?" Cody asked with wide- eyed curiosity.

"Oh, I"m too old to count on my fingers," Mr. Krump said. "Let"s just say I"m a little older than you. So where did you get such a fancy automobile?"

"My mommy," Cody said, pointing towards a well-dressed woman in the checkout. "She bought it for my birthday."

"Well that was mighty nice of her," Mr. Krump replied.

"This is my favorite car in the whole world. I have another one just like it, but it broke," Cody said swinging from the silver handrail. "I can swing like a monkey. Want to see?"

"Sure," Mr. Krump said.

He watched as Cody dangled from the handrail, his freckled face glowing with delight.

"Do you want to try?" Cody asked.

"Oh no! I"m afraid I would break the handrail. I might just break my back too!"

"I forgot. You"re old," Cody giggled.

Then a soft voice called out across the lane. "Cody, it"s time to go."

Cody turned to Mr. Krump and looked at him with love in his eyes. Then his tiny fingers opened up to reveal the shiny blue automobile hidden in the palm of his hand. "This is for you," he said.

Mr. Krump stared at Cody in silence. "I can"t take this. It"s your favorite car in the whole world."

"I think you need it more than me," Cody smiled; wrapping his arms tightly around the old mans neck.

Mr. Krump choked back the tears, wiping his face with the sleeve of his coat. "Thank you son," he whispered.

All of a sudden, Mr. Krump didn"t feel so angry anymore. He felt happy. And for the first time in years, he smiled.

"It looks like your mommy"s ready to go," Mr. Krump said straightening to his full height. "It was nice meeting you, Cody. You have a Merry Christmas! And thanks," he said, holding the blue car tight against his chest.

"Bye Santa! Bring me lots of toys!" Cody said, as he disappeared through the sliding glass doors.

Once upon a time there was a strange creature living in a planet far from the Earth. There was no one dwelling there but this creature. Actually they were two, but had stuck to each other in a peculiar way. The shape of their body was like an egg and each of them had a very big eye which had almost covered half of their bodies. They were stuck to each other from the back side so they could never see each other or even themselves, like two eyes which are being glued together from their back. Their planet was really beautiful and they enjoyed looking at different sceneries of their planet, and they never had an image of ugly thing in their minds. The only problem was that there were neither mirrors nor water so that they could see themselves.  Although they couldn’t see each other, they loved one another. One day Cat told Cap “we love everything around us because they’re beautiful. How about ourselves? Are we beautiful or not?” there was no answer to this question since they had never seen each other, or even themselves. However in their dreams they would imagine two beautiful creatures which were connected to each other by the power of love.

They were living in peace until one day an incident happened. They heard a sound of something breaking. They dashed to see what was going on. As they got nearer to the sound they saw a weird shining. It was a piece of broken glass which might have tumbled there from a space craft or something like that. They were gazing at it for a while and didn’t know what to do. Cat dared to approach it and suddenly saw an unsightly round , which thought to be something inside the glass. As he moved his body the reflection in the glass would move as well. After being in a befuddled state for a while they came to the point that the reflection in the glass was theirs!

At that very moment they became absolutely appalled. “Are we really this ugly?” they murmured. “We used to love this hideous malformed body amid all this beautiful flowers and places?” so they began to despise each other and also themselves! They were getting more despondent every day and they no more enjoyed the beautiful things in their planet and everything seemed ugly to them!

This trend was going on. However one day everything changed. Cap was contemplating profoundly about the things that had happened lately. He was thinking about the past that how simply he used to love Cat without any legitimate reason. What made them love each other was the good feeling between them which held them close by heart.  He realized that after the time he started to hate himself he even couldn’t love beautiful things he saw around him. So he came to the point that if he loved his friend Cat, it wasn’t because he was beautiful, but he was beautiful because he loved him! Then he talked to Cat about his insight, and also Cat admitted that they had been thinking wrongly. After they talked things over they began to love each other again, but this time their love was different from the doubtful feeling they had in the past.

In a very big forest there lived many animals and birds. One day the some of the birds were discussion about the way the animals live. The parrot said, “Look at me I do not eat any bird or animal I just like fruits and eat them all the time. I hate looking at these animals as they hunt other animals and eat them”. I feel that we the birds are the best in the forest as we do not eat other birds for our survival”.

Many birds agreed to this argument and narrated their own opinions:

The sparrow said: I eat the small insects that do harm to others that does not mean that I am like these animals who kill all other good animals.

The woodpecker said: See I protect trees by eating the white ants under their bark. If I do not do so many trees would have been eaten away by these white ants and other insects.

The weaver bird: You are aware that I am the best in the forest in making the nest. Show me any animal that can do like me. These animals are lazy and live like rocks in all seasons.

The humming bird said: I drink the nectar from the flowers and while doing so I do not harm the flowers. If help in pollination and make the forest look colourful with many flowers.

Thus many birds narrated their own stories and ways of living. Meanwhile they saw a herd of elephants passing under the trees. The parrot yelled at them: Hey big beasts do you know that birds are the best ones in the forest. You animals destroy forest, eat other animals and create bloodshed for your survival.

One of the elephants responded by saying : I do not know what you are talking but I can tell this to other animals as I am going to attend the meeting called by the Lion.

The Lion – the king of the forest – is sitting on a big rock surrounded by many animals. The meeting began with the topic “How shall we celebrate the onset of spring”. Then the elephant intervened and said: we feel that we are the great in the forest. I heard a parrot saying that the birds are the best because they do not eat other birds for their own survival. Lets first solve this problem and by deciding who is the best in the forest, the birds are we the animals.

All the animals got irritated at the statement of the parrot shared by the elephant. The wolf said: Lets call the birds here and we all can kill them and eat them at once then there is no problem. Haa Haaa joined the other animals.

Cool down: said the Lion. If the birds feel that they are the best in the forest, we shall allow them to prove. They said that they do not eat other birds but it is false. They do eat other birds for their survival. You are aware that the eagles are always on the look out for chicks of hens and peahens. They eat mercilessly all the chicks. Birds are fools and incapable creatures. I pity them.   Lets play with them for some time and prove our might. Dear fox, call all the birds at once here.

The fox approached the mangrove and yelled at the birds. You seem to be having a feeling that you are the best in the forest. Lets us prove who is best in the forest. All of you can come to our meeting place near the lake and prove yourselves. 

Hearing this the birds felt challenged. All of them flew towards the meeting place.

In the meeting place the most heated arguments took place.

Seeing the heat generated, the Lion said. Meeting is adjourned to tomorrow in the morning and asked all the animals and birds to disburse.

In the evening the grand old man who often visits forest and help animals and birds by treating them came to the meeting place and asked some of the birds still sitting there: I heard a commotion in the afternoon what happened to you all. I heard the loud sounds of animals and birds too. Do you have any problem and can I be of any help to you?

The birds said: we had problem to solve between the birds and the animals. We shall prove who is best in the forest. We argue we are the best but they argue as cruelly as they can for their superiority. It is good that you have come. Why don’t you come for the meeting tomorrow and help us.

The grand old man said Ok, I shall come tomorrow.

The next day morning all the birds and the animals gathered at the meeting place. The grand old man took some time to arrive. His arrival was welcomed by the Lion who was once save by the grand old man. Dear grand old man I am glad that you are here, hear all our arguments and tell us who is the best in the forest.

Both the sides amply briefed the grand old man. The birds and the animals became silent and await the judgment of the grand old man.

The grand old man said:   The argument of the birds that they do not eat other birds is both wrong and write. So in the arguments the birds and the animals both win and lose. That makes the problem nil. The birds and animals got confused at this. Seeing their faces particularly of the Lion’s the grand old man clarified it further:

Though the hens and peahens come under the family of birds they live mostly on the ground and they do not fly for their survival they run for their survival so actually come under the family of animals. The chicks of the birds also do not fly they just run on the ground so they are also animals. Since Eagles eat these chicks it amounts to eating other birds for their survival like the animals do. Which means birds eat and do not eat other birds for their survival.

Most important thing is this: If the animals like Lion, tiger, cheetah, fox and wolf do not eat other animals like sheep, goat, etc the population of these grass eating animals increase making the forest dry and difficult for all to survive. Similarly the birds help in pollination and cross-pollination, propagation of trees   and help add beauty to the forest. The forest becomes dull without any one of you. So neither the birds nor the animals are best in the forest, the forest itself is the best because it gives us food, shelter and protection from the human beings. 

Hearing this the Lion said: what a brilliant man are you my dear grand old man. I agree with you that it is the forest that is the best. The birds do chirped the same opinion.

Then the squirrel said: this is the best time to celebrate the onset of spring. Lets dance….

All the animals danced and make merry…..