Chapter 1
The bell rang exactly by 10 a.m. in the morning. Recess time. Once the teacher left the class, the little girls started to run around the hut that housed Class III. Every girl from the class took turn to chime the little bell that Rachel hung near the black board.
It was Sheila’s turn on that day. She chimed the bell. The rest of the girls clapped their hands and giggled together.
Sheila smiled at Rachel.
“Stop.” Rachel looked keenly at her.
“Don’t move. Stand still.” Puzzled, Sheila stood there silently.
Rachel picked a thin hair from her cheeks. “It is a hair from your eyebrow.”
“Open your right hand.” Rachel placed it on her palm.
“Close your eyes. Now make a wish. Open your eyes and blow it high up in the air.”
Sheila blew the thin hair from the middle of her palm. It flew from her palm and drifted slowly out of the class sailing smoothly in the afternoon breeze.
“Don’t tell anyone what you wished. It will come true in 90 days.”
Even after four decades, Sheila remembered the incident. Childhood innocence always brings peace to a person’s heart and it made her smile.
Today things are different. Children are born with a matured attitude and never enjoy the bliss of childhood innocence. As they grow, they have nothing childish to count and they enter the adult life depressed and unhappy. Challenges and cut throat competition force them to work constantly and run behind materialistic wealth.
