Pitara Kids Home > Talespin > Stories for kids

A Town Called Boring

Once Grandma laughed the whole day -- so much so that her dentures fell out! But she made the people of her neighbourhood laugh with her. Since then there had been very few fights in that area.

Grandma had never forgotten Haasya's words. "You can have power over all the world's laughter. But that power willwork only if you wish to do something to make people come close to each other." That day Grandma learnt that laughter was the most powerful weapon in the world, though very few people understood its strength.

"I need to use the secret weapon for my granddaughter Ekta as well as for the people of Boring," Grandma told herself.

Next morning as Ekta got ready for school, Grandma played a clever trick on her. "Ekta, there is something under your chin, let me rub it off. As Ekta stood obediently, Grandma came up to her and tickled her hard. Something happened. It was like an electric shock. "Aiyeeee, Ekta squealed and then a laugh escaped her lips."

"What did I do just now," Ekta asked her grandmother in surprise. "This," said Grandma and tickled her again, making Ekta laugh some more. Her head had never felt so light before. From the window Ekta saw her puppy bark angrily at two crows making a big racket perched on the neem tree. She laughed.

Grandma took her to the garden. "How come I have never seen these blusing pink roses and the many greens of grass and leaves before," Ekta wondered. That day she went to school with the plan Grandma had told her."You just have to tickle one girl. The tickle travels by touch from person to person."

By afternoon, all the children in school were giggling. Each time they uttered the word m-a-r-k-s, they giggled! Each time they spoke of 'secret messengers', they went into whoops of laughter. And when somebody spoke of the teacher's treasure chest of marks, they toppled over asking each other: how could anyone store marks?

And then something wonderful happened. The same children who could never get a sum right did not do anything wrong that day. Asked to add two and two, they went out to the garden, touched two roses and two champa flowers and said there were four flowers! They said it with a giggle!

Even the teachers started smiling. It happened when one teacher tried to cane a student. He thought the student had cheated to get the right answer. As he held out the infrared detector menacingly over the student's knee, the student said, "Sir, there is a speck of dust on your trouser. Please let me remove it." Saying this he tickled the teacher on the back of his knee. The teacher started smiling and broke the cane.

The tickle revolution continued. By evening the parents had started smiling, laughing and guffawing. Next morning, the local radio station broadcast an interesting bit of news about some strange sounds having invaded the town! Nobody knew what the announcer said next, for he too started giggling! The tickle must have got to him too.

Grandma was satisfied. Her work was done. She returned home. Since then, wherever children have laughed and played with each other, those villages, towns and cities have never seen any misfortune...

Previous Page

A Town Called Boring [Stories for kids]

By Chitra Padmanabhan; Illustration by Kusum Chamoli

Pitara Kids Home > Talespin > Stories for kids