remain a baby always”. I asked.
She soon, slipped into a thinking mood, “Yes, a baby can’t do many things.”
I didn’t say anything, and was watching her expressions.
“If my birthday comes, yours will also come”.
“Will you tell me stories even when I grow up?” She looked at me with curiosity.
“Definitely, my child”. I said.
“Then growing old is fine and there is no option also”. Saying this, she smiled at me and I nodded my head in agreement.
A return gift
That night, I was not keeping well. Non- stop sneezing had led to breathing trouble. Took the nebuliser and was trying to sleep with the hot water bag on my chest. I was fast asleep soon.
In the morning when I got up, I felt better. I thought of sending Annu to the play school which she had missed for the last two days due to my illness.
“Get up child, today you will be going to the school.” She was not so eager for the school, mainly because of long holidays she got which was from last Saturday to this Wednesday. Somehow, I made her get up she was ready for breakfast in half an hour. While having the porridge, she told me “Amma, I was very worried yesterday. Your face looked very dull and dark.” “It was due to the difficulty in breathing”. I replied.
Then she said, “Amma, yesterday night, I had a scary dream”.
“What was that?” I asked.
“We were playing near a river. Soon, you slipped into the river. A big snake caught you. I cried aloud. You were fighting with the snake, it had several heads. Then I saw Lord Krishna on its head. (Now I knew the back ground, she had watched several times the CD of a movie on 'Krishna' in these days). Soon I saw, Lord Krishna was fighting with the snake, within minutes, he saved you by killing the snake. He brought you to the shore. I ran towards Lord Krishna to ‘say a big thank you’. He took me in his hands, kissed on my cheeks. He turned back to go. I stopped him. I wanted to gift something to him. I took out the two muffins I had in my bag. I gave Lord Krishna ‘the muffins’ as my return gift.”
She raised her eyes to me in joy, I could not control my laugh. “Why did you think of a return gift to God? I had told you that, God will save us always.” “ Oh, that is ok, but don’t you know return gifts are our expressions of love and gratitude, why we should not give that to God, who is always there for us.” I looked at her eyes, hold her close to me, kissed on her forehead.
“Annu, come fast, I am getting late.” Her Pappa said, while taking her school bag and holding her hand.
I was standing at the balcony watching them going towards the car. I waved at her and in return she raised her hand and showed ‘best of luck’. I knew my eyes had welled up by then.
What is in a name?
Even after one month to the play school, Annu used to cry every day morning. In the class, she was crying most of the time for ‘Amma’. The teacher used to make her sit on her chair or table to stop her crying. Slowly, with persistent efforts, I succeeded in stopping her routine crying.
She was learning writing very slowly. She was slow in picking up speaking also. With these problems, her initial days in school were difficult. I was quite worried also. I saw her class work incomplete on all notebooks. Every day, we used to do writing practise at home. She was showing improvement. One day, she surprised me, the worksheets she brought from school had ‘stars’ and ‘very good’ on them. Hiding my shock, I asked her, “You yourself have done all this?” “Yes” she said. I took the papers in my hand, the writing was very clear, the drawings looked ‘cute’. I looked at them unbelievably. Suddenly, I saw ‘Name : Gautam’, I shouted, “Oh, these are Gautam’s”. “No, mine only”, she said confidently. “Then why Gautam’s name is written here, What is this?” I said showing her the name.
“That I don’t know, I wrote everything looking at Gautam’s paper, who was sitting next to me.” She was quick in replying.
“Oh, my God . Why you did so?” I asked.
“When we do class work, I write whatever, the teacher writes, when we do practise at home, I repeat writing whatever you write, that day teacher was not writing, then I can only write whatever, Gautam was writing.” She replied with a cute look. I was laughing for a while. Then, slowly, I made her understand, why one cannot look at the friend’s work in the class!
A case of missing things...
Anjali started going to her new school in Class 1. Her sister Annu, 2 years old, loved to accompany her sister to the bus stop. In case if I go to the bus stop without taking her, thinking not to disturb her sleep, then, she used to create a scene when she woke up. She used to insist to get into the bus.
I used to put before her a number of arguments why that was not possible then. Though she appeared convinced, but always had a disappointed look.
One night, I saw Annu took an old school bag of her sister. I saw her putting some newspaper and one bottle into it. She went to sleep with this bag near to the bed. In the morning she was ready with her bag on her back. That day, she insisted to stand next to Anjali in the queue in the bus stop. She was secretly planning to get into the bus and she cried loudly, when I took her in my arms.
While returning home, tried to convince her ‘more effectively’. “Like all children have a Mamma at home, all children going to school, must have a teacher in the school. Do you have a teacher now, waiting for you in the school?” “No”, she said and my reply seemed satisfactory to her.
“Oh, amma, today was not that fine in school for me.”Anjali said, immediately after getting down from the bus.
“What happened? Did you miss the homework?” I was curious.
“No, My school diary and my English copy were not there in the bag.” She said.
“Don’t worry, must be somewhere at home”.
She searched everywhere, but in vain. I was also surprised, “how books can vanish like that.”
Soon my eyes got stuck on the bag kept packed by Annu. She was sleeping, so I took the bag from the bed side and opened it. The school diary and English copy were in it.
Anjali was happy, but she said, Annu is too small to go for stealing my things”, she was very irritated for her sister.
“Oh, don’t say like that, poor Annu, must have thought that, if she carries them in her bag, she may be permitted to get into the school bus”. I said to calm down her.
“What a fool!” Anjali started laughing, and Annu was fast asleep without knowing all these happened.
Winner
We, the children marched to the school ground for the assembly. I noticed some strangers, standing alongwith the Principal on the stage. "May be some speakers", I guessed.
After the prayer song, pledge and P.T exercises, it was the turn of the Principal to introduce the guests. They were from the Space research centre. One of them introduced himself as Assistant Director there and he said that, he has some big announcements to make. He said, "this is about the children in Space Programme, offered by NASA. We had invited applications through leading national newspapers from aspiring students of Class 11 & 12, along with their marks obtained for Science subjects in class 10. They were also asked to submit an essay on 'Why I want to become an astronaut?".
I was standing with my fingers crossed. I could hear my heart beating intensely. I had applied for the same on the direction of my aunt, who works in the Rocket launching centre. Her accounts of experiences behind the missions had always fascinated me.
"We are here personally to congratulate the student who got selected from your school, who will be a member of a five member group from India. They will be spending one month in NASA. And the proud winner is 'Anjali’ from class 11.' "Oh my God, it is unbelievable." I shouted. My friends took me on their shoulders and everyone was excited. My teachers were showering me all praises. My class teacher, embraced me, I saw tears of joy there.
r /> I wanted to inform this happy news to my parents. I requested my teacher for her mobile. I dialled my mother’s number. Soon, I heard the ring.
"Yeh, Anjali, get up, why are you still asleep?" I opened my eyes suddenly. The wake up alarm was ringing loudly.
Then I saw you standing my bedside trying to wake me up.
Anjali narrated that day’s dream with slight disappointed in her voice. Soon, she regained the spirit of a new morning and started the day.
A direct question
The Platform was not crowded. I looked at my watch. There was still half an hour for the train to arrive.
“Let’s sit there”, I told Annu (then about three and a half years old). Holding her in one hand and the bag in the other hand we moved towards a bench.
A person selling ‘pokeman’ toys crossed us. The small toys in a different colours with a whistle immediately caught her attention. I bought one. The small yellow toy looked very cute and its tongue came out for every blow of the whistle. Annu burst into laugh and started blowing the whistle again and again.
The train was approaching the station. I took our bag and holding Annu in my hands I moved towards the Compartment. We settled in the side seat. The other passenger in there was a man in his fifties. He occupied the seat near the other window.
As soon as the train started moving, we took out our lunch and finished it fast. We were really very hungry.
The train had taken speed; it just