Dear Young World,

On the occasion of your 20th birthday, I take the chance of letting the young minds know what you were, and how much you meant to kids like me, hoping whole-heartedly that you will like this little token of love :)

Time has changed and so have I.

From innocence to maturity, from being a school student to becoming a university undergraduate, from preparing for half-yearly tests to preparing for the real life, from reading the paper for daily bulletin in school to getting the news by heart for CAT, things have changed so much. But no matter how much you grow, as they say, some things in you never die.

Those were the days about a decade back, when Saturday was a much awaited day for me, not so that I could stay at home, or have a happy weekend ahead, but for the bright and colourful Young World edition that would soon lie there fluttering on my bed. It seemed to be a full day entertainer to me and solving those simple puzzles and math problems felt like conquering the world.

For someone like me, who preferred indoor games to outdoor, who stuck to cartoons all day and never knew what the story books were all about, what a different world they really meant, YW brought a change. In the first few weekends, I spent most of my day with the 'crayon corner' which seems to have taken retirement now, after a decade of dedication ;) Later on, the artist inside compelled me to sit down and make better sketches of all those pictures, and make them more colourful, and thus it all began. The stories, the photographs, and the tiny paragraphs and landscape sketches, that contained signatures in sloppy handwritings contributed by school children like me drew me towards them like a magnet. My mom would get me ready, and give me my breakfast, and soon after, I would sit down with this copy of Young world, and I never knew how the day went by.

Now ,the YW comes every Tuesday, and with hardly enough time to flip through all the pages of the newspaper, and give each article a look, taking out time for this children’s newspaper, and time for the child in oneself seems impossible. However today was different, I took time and sat down to relish every little game and story in YW, reminding myself of all the wonderful childhood moments, which I later penned down here for my dearest friend..

YW! I wish you a very happy birthday and may you live up to entertain all the coming generations.

Lots of love,

Your Ardent fan!