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.

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S6: "SAS stories"

#1

Aug 8^th 2015 3:25 am:

‘Is it 5’, I suddenly woke up from sleep and check my phone. I was desperately waiting for my friends Sriya and Arjun who are coming after 6 months. They are more like a family and a part of my soul.

I got sleep deprived. I went to the kitchen, made some coffee and kept walking to and fro in front of the clock for some time, playing candy crush for some time and rolling on the floor for some time.

The phone in my hand got vibrated. I jumped up and said ‘hello hello’.

‘Hello sitara, we are about to reach there in 15min’, said sriya.

I took my bike and went to the bus stand to pick them up.

As I reached, they were waiting for me. I ran to them shouting, I didn’t care who were there around me. I hugged them so tight. I was crazily euphoric.

Arjun went to his house which is also in Tirupati. I took sriya with me to my home. I had so many things to say but the atmosphere was filled with comforting silence.

9:00 am:

We got ready and we went to bus stand to go to Tirumala.

This is my 1^st ever attempt to go to Tirumala by bus. The winding road, the scary speed of the drivers as if they were on a racetrack and the meandering curves altogether knocks my stomach door and say, ‘Time to puke’.

Arjun knowing that we both will get sick of journeys started talking things completely irrelevant to change our mood.

We reached there in 30 minutes, hopefully without any dizzy wizzy’s.

We directly went to darshanam and it took 1hr 30min for us which was pretty quick. The God was glowing magnificently in the dark room. We took laddus and we started our way back home.

As we reached the bus stand, me and sriya sat there waiting, as arjun went to bring his car.

As we were sitting in the bus stop, my eyes fell on the words “tiny tots” which is written on the back of a t-shirt of a kid who is selling flowers at the entrance. He was around 6-7 yrs. He looked so energetic.

Arjun came and he dropped us to our home.

The next morning I woke up pretty early as sriya was leaving to Bangalore.

She left and I was in my car parking, watching the rising sun and stretching my hands a bit. Suddenly a newspaper came with a bolt speed and hit my face.

‘What the hell’, I yelled.

‘Sorry Sorry’, the paper boy came towards me.

‘Can’t you see’, I raised my eyes to see that paper boy.

The same tiny tots t-shirt. ‘U flower boy? Bus stand?’, I exclaimed.

‘Yes, I sell flowers in the bus stand, I am so sorry, I didn’t see u’, he started apologizing.

‘It’s ok. U can go’, I said.

In the afternoon, I went to buy some groceries in the supermarket and to my astonishment, I saw that tiny tots boy again carrying the tea for someone.

‘Hey hey’, I stopped him. ‘Paper boy!’.

‘Tea boy’, he said raising the tea glasses upwards. He smiled and walked from there before I could say anything.

I was curious to know more about him. In the evening I went to the bus stand for him. He was there selling the flowers.

‘How many days will u wear the same shirt flowerboy?’, I smiled and asked.

‘Hehe, I washed it yesterday’, he said looking down at his t-shirt.

‘U washed? Ur m..mom ?, I asked him.

‘I have no one, I work here and there. I earn and go to school’, he said with a token of pride on his face and no sadness at all.

‘Where do u live?’, I asked so worriedly.

‘On that bench’, he said showing the bench on the bus stand where we sat while waiting for Arjun.

‘U sleep on that bench’, I stood aghast.

‘Yes. That uncle guides me and helps me for everything ’,pointing towards the man in the shop opposite to him.

I had no idea what to say. I totally lost my speech. After a minute I said,’ Come with me. I will join you in some orphanage and they will take care of u. There is no need to sleep on a bench and to work in this age. When the right age comes, then u should work, not now.

‘No, I am eating good food and studying now, I am happy. What if it won’t be like this?’, he said.

‘I assure u, I will take care of everything Trust me. Be ready tomorrow, I will come and pick u up at 10’, I said and left.

That night I spoke to Arjun and Sriya. They felt good and proud about my decision.

The next morning, I went to pick him up. He was there all ready to leave. I took him to the orphanage and joined him. I gave him new clothes, books and hugged him.

‘Here are the books and here is my number, if u need anything anytime, u can call me’.

‘Thank you for everything’, his eyes filled with happy tears.

‘Use your time wisely and study well’.

‘Bye bye lucky’, I said and left.

From then, we three pay frequent visits to the orphanage and give him new clothes, books and look after him.

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