S7: "CHUMCHUM and the Choco-Jamuns"

One day in the morning, when the class was going on, the P.T. sir came in and announced the notice about inter school competitions.

‘There will be Inter school competitions this weekend. U can choose any sport like running race, slow cycling, quiz, cooking and many more. The list will be pasted on the notice board. U can choose your own game but u can’t choose your opponent. Anyone of you come and pick one paper note out of this’, he said holding a bowl full of paper notes.

Everyone in the class exchanged exclamatory glances with each other and nominated singham with their eyes. She went and picked up a note from the bowl.

‘Ah! You are going to compete against 6^th class students, decide the sport and tell me in the break TODAY’, he said and left.

The whole class was filled with terror as they don’t have any good connections with 6^th class guys and had already been involved in a fight or two.

The class ended and everyone came towards chumchum’s chair.

‘6^th class guys!!! Oh no!’ said kripa.

‘But now we don’t have any choice’, said uffi.

‘But whut we choose? They are faster and stronger than us so we can’t choose any physical sport’, singham said.

‘We will choose quiz’, confidently said vikki.

‘U sure?’, asked aishu.

‘Yes, I am absolutely sure, kumbu u go and tell them that we are choosing quiz’, vikki said and everyone nodded at each other with a relief.

Kumbu went to P.T. sir to tell him. ‘Come come, what do you want, write in this paper and give it to me’, he gave paper and pen to kumbu. He wrote, gave it back and returned to the class.

After the break, P.T. sir entered the class again and announced seeing the note pad, ’Ok You are participating against 6^th class students and You chose COOKING; interesting. Get prepared well for the weekend. All the best.’

By hearing the name COOKING, all the eyes in the class popped out. They had no idea how it happened. Everyone rushed towards kumbu’s table and splashed their angry looks.

‘Whut did u wrote?’ demanded singham. ‘We told u to write quiz’.

Ever-hungry kumbu answered innocently, 'He asked what do you want, write it on the paper and I wrote FOOD. What else anyone wants in a lunch break’.

‘What? R u crazy’, said chumchum. ‘None of us know how to cook’.

‘Relax guys! Now we can’t do anything. Just finalize one item’, vikki said in a low tone.

‘Gulabjamun’, said kumbu with a widened smile.

Angry looks again splashed on him.

‘Ok. After going home, find out how to make it and everyone bring one ingredient’, said aishu.

Everyone found out the recipe and how to make it from their mom’s.

Weekend came and the competitions begun.

Everyone brought one ingredient and both classes were given one supervisor to help them with the stove.

Vikki brought the instant gulab jamun mix and kept guiding with the instructions and recipe. 'Ok mix these balls with flour and put them in the pan’.

Aishu mixed them and uffi put the pan on the stove and the supervisor helped him to light it on. But Uffi put water in the pan instead of oil.

As per instructions by vikki, aishu put those balls in the pan.

‘What is that, Is that water? Put oil instead of water’, vikki shouted.

Kripa replaced it with another pan, this time with oil. Aishu put those balls in it. Vikki kept reading the instructions and everyone stood looking at him.

‘Hey hey take them out’, Vikki said. They turned out into black hard balls.

‘What are these’, Singham looked closely.

‘But we don’t have any time to make another. We have 2 minutes left’, chumchum got worried. ’Ok, put some flour on the plate’.

He arranged those balls in the form of the face and filled the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows with the chocolates he brought for emergency situations. He decorated the plate so nicely and the time was up.

The teachers came, saw the plate and laughed.

'What is this’, they asked.

‘Choco-Jamun’, Chumchum replied instantly.

They kept laughing and took the chocolates as they didn’t dare to eat the gulabjamuns.

 And the winner in this round is ‘3^rd class students’.

It was hard to believe but everyone was jumping around with joy.

‘How did this happen’, kripa asked out of surprise.

‘Maybe they were worse than us’, winked chumchum.

The whole class were mad after their success over 6^th class guys. They were making funny faces towards them and applauding chumchum for the idea.