Childhood on Pitara Kids Network

The Cookie

Mon, 29 Apr 2002 11:13:20 +0000

The dining table was loaded with goodies – cake, pastries, pies, halwa, laddoo and yes, her favourite cookies. Nina wanted to eat them all. The 10-year-old stuffed a couple of cookies in her mouth but the cookies tasted a little different. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t gulp them down.

The dream broke at that point.

Nina woke up with a start and found herself chewing on a bed sheet. She was in her dormitory bed and it was pitch dark. A grumbling stomach reminded her of how terribly hungry she was. All because of Mr. Katiyaar, the poker-faced warden of the residential school which had been her home for the last one year.

Runu and Chotu

Fri, 18 Feb 2000 05:16:49 +0000

A June morning. Holiday morning. “Fun! fun!” Runu thought as she woke up. No school, lots of cartoons on TV, computer games, and surely, a trip to the ice cream parlour. Fun, fun indeed! Runu gulped down her chocolate milk.

Mom and Dad came in to pet her. Dad said, “Sorry baby, but we have to go see someone who is ill, can’t take you out today.” Seeing Runu pull a long face, Mom said, “I’ll leave the computer on for you, and your favourite CDs. Is there going to be Scooby Doo and Pop Eye on TV today? Smile please”. Runu decided to smile and bid them ‘bye.’

A Free Bird

Thu, 19 Apr 2001 04:08:27 +0000

A Free Bird [Illustrations by Kusum Chamoli]

Everybody in his family called him ‘shy baby’ — not ‘cry baby’ to be sure, but shy baby. Young Somu was shy, but not just a little shy. Somu was very, very shy. When guests came to his house for tea or dinner and asked him his name, Somu would dig his chin into his neck and close his eyes and after a few minutes he would run out of the room. His parents always felt embarrassed about his behaviour and every time after the guests left the house Somu would end up getting a sound scolding.

Keep Hope Alive

Sun, 24 May 1998 14:28:16 +0000

First prize winner of Spin-A-Tale contest

It was destiny that bound us. Jamie, the black kid whose mum worked for us and me, Kevin the kid, whose mother employed Jamie’s mum. When I saw him first he was just this skinny kid walking around with his head drooping down to his feet. I asked him if he went to school but I got no answer.

Keep Hope Alive [Illustration by Shinod A.P.]

I assumed that he was just shy, so I went about my own work while he just sort of kept staring at anything. Later that night my parents started discussing Jamie over dinner and that’s when I came to know that Jamie was deaf… I was really shocked and not because he was deaf because I have seen lots of disabled people but the horrifying manner in which he had lost the power to hear.

The Girl who Loved Danger

Thu, 01 May 1997 13:15:32 +0000

Once there was a lovely girl named Ginger. The one thing she loved the most was danger. There was only one reason she loved danger. She loved it because she had never faced any danger.

She was forbidden to go any farther then the garden. Her father would not allow it because one day her mother went beyond the garden to get her scarf that had blown away. She never returned. Ginger was also the daughter of the richest man in Teton, where she lived.