Our very own Zaid Al Borashid from 8E won the junior category of the short story competition organized by the British Council. The competition was held to celebrate the council’s 75^th anniversary and Zaid’s story entitled ‘Mystery and magic in the desert’ gained him top honors. 

The competition rules stated that each sentence of the story must start with a  specific letter, than in the end will spell out ‘British Council is 75’. Zaid took full advantage of this, "The format was not limiting as there are loads of words that you can use. I just tried to think of words that started with that letter and would make sense in a story.”  (The winning story is shown below.)

Another St Christopher’s student Sanjana Varghese from 8B managed to win third place in the Junior category, which is made up of 12 to 15 year olds from across the country. The students were judged by British storyteller Alec Williams along with two English teachers from the British council.

Mystery and Magic in the Desert

Bahrain is an amazing place, full of culture and history.
Rich in oil and natural resources.
It is a beautiful place to live in. Amazing how trees can live in a place where rainfall is scarce!
The Tree of Life is magical and there is an old folk story about this tree...
It goes like this. There was once a man, he was very young.
Stubborn and stupid he left his home to go on an adventure.
He lost his way and ended up stranded in the desert.

Cold and scared for at night it was freezing, he saw a ghost and started to scream.
"Oh, good gracious," said the man. The ghost replied, "You will have three wishes if you plant this tree."
Under the moonlight he planted the tree.
Now the ghost said: "Choose your first wish."
Cold and with his teeth chattering the man replied, "I wish there will be a 100 gazelles around this tree!"
"It is time for your second wish," the ghost said.
"Let these gazelles have food for the rest of their lives," said the man
"It is done, now for your third and final wish," the ghost replied.
"Sami is my name," said the man. "I wish this tree will live longer than I live!"

75 years passed by, the young man who was no longer young, huddled
up under the tree and died!

by Zaid Al Borshaid
(1st prize Junior category)