Harsh is a young boy studying in class I, in a city in India.  There have been many changes that Harsh has seen when it comes to choosing his toys. Whenever he goes to the jazzy lit malls in his city with his Mama or Papa he is generally directed to the toys section by the shop assistants. And there are good number of toys almost clearly demarcated for young boys and little girls.

One such evening, Harsh’s mom wanted to pick a toy for his classmate’s birthday which was scheduled for the coming Saturday evening at her residence. Harsh was quite excited to look at the toys and wondered if he would be ridiculed for holding a Barbie doll.  As soon as he picked one toy on kitchen utilities, the shop assistant rushed to harsh and showed him to look for the cars and puzzles. ” I have those already, I just wanted to see if I can take home a Barbie doll or a kitchen toy tonight.”

The assistant’s smile was not encouraging, yet Harsh took the toy to his mom who was going through some labelled ‘girlie’ toys. ” Mama, Purvi likes to play with cars and bikes. Maybe you should pick that for her if possible ” said Harsh to his mom.  When his  mom looked at Harsh with a kitchen toy, she smiled and said  ” We are here to buy for Purvi. I can get you what you want next month.” Is that fine with you?”.

Harsh wanted an optimistic answer, ” Even a barbie doll or kitchen toy is fine with you?” asked Harsh.  ” Yes of course, cooking is a life-skill dear not just to be learnt by girls. Big boys ought to know cooking if they want to be independent in life. And you can take this toy next month.”

“But Barbie” said Harsh.

” It is not a problem.” But can I ask you why do you want a  Barbie doll asked his mom.

” I just like her just as I like Ben 10.”

“Yes of course, dear,” said his mom making harsh feel it was perfect for him to choose toys that he wanted than what was labelled around.

Finally his mom picked a small car for Purvi and Harsh went back to the shop assistant with his mom to say that they are coming back to pick the kitchen toy and the Barbie doll for him next month.

Story for 5-7 years old.

BY RESHMA KRISHNAMURTHY SHARMA

A beautiful yellow  butterfly came to the most popular garden in the city. The butterfly came and seated herself on a huge red rose.

Lots of visitors everyday thronged the garden and clicked pictures of the flowers and of the neatly laid out lawns. Today it was time for people clicking pictures of the butterfly.

A crow was sitting on a tall tree top and he saw this butterfly and thought to himself ‘ How I wish I was good looking too. People would admire me too.”

The butterfly happened to glance at the crow and murmured ” I wish, God had made me look  little more sober. At least I would have got little bit of privacy. I hate when these humans rover around me when I eat my food, when I sleep or even when I want to be alone.”

A wise pigeon who was present on another branch of the tree, looked at the crow and at the butterfly. Soon she called out to both of them to come near her saying ” I have something very important to tell you both.” When both came to her to listen to her, the pigeon further continued, ” We are all made differently and it is wise not to compare with others. ”

“Come to think of it, you really from the bottom of your heart wouldn’t want to be a disliked butterfly just because of your looks and you wouldn’t want to be a handsome crow, or else you would have been captive somewhere. ”

Both the butterfly and the crow realized that it is better to work around our limitations and plus points rather than cribbing about it.

By Reshma Krishnamurthy Sharma

The school bell had rung and it was time for all the children to go home. The children hurriedly packed their bags as the teacher said with a smile” Time to go home safely”. Lots of children came to the school from far off distances and it was a quite a task for many of them to reach back home on time.

As the gates opened the children in the little village in tamilnadu, selvi and her friends made a group of five before they could head back home. The school was 6kms away from her house and it was a walk selvi and her friends did everyday to reach school.

As her parents were uneducated and worked at the tea plantations faraway, they knew to get a better life one required to study and do well in professional life. They always wanted selvi to study and be able to look after herself well in life, hopefully with a good job and sound education.

There was however one stretch that ran close to the jungle border and there was the possibility of a wild animal coming in front of the little girls. Yet selvi and her friends had always decided to be brave and use presence of mind to save each other from any untoward incident.

It was an everyday game, each girl would pick three to five sticks from the road, and keep herself guarded as long as they were crossing the interior jungle stretch. Soon when they came closer to the village, they would put the sticks to one side together and go back home.

This evening, a long snake came in front of the girls. The five girls panicked and were thinking whether they should hit the snake or run from there. Selvi immediately whispered to others. “Stand still, do not panic or hit it. It will not harm us.” Two girls started crying out of fear. The snake hissed and left on a different route. All of them hugged selvi and said, “We must run home”.

Soon they reached home and within a few minutes selvi’s parents came from work after a long day. As her mother was getting about household chores, selvi told her mom and dad about the unpleasant encounter in the evening. Her father patted her for being brave and said that it is the right thing that the children didn’t provoke the animal unnecessarily.

Selvi went off to sleep after dinner and waited for the morning to come by. After all she had a story to share with her teacher and other classmates, “The 5 brave girls.”

It was a breezy evening. Arya had returned back home after school. As his mom was making his evening milk ready for him along with a few snacks, arya opened the door to see outside.

It was too cold and quite windy. Immediately he heard his mom sternly asking him to close the door. He murmured a ‘sorry’ and got back to the living room. After sometime he asked his mom if he can step out for five minutes and promised her that he will be well within the compound area.

Arya was actually looking for a tiny kitten that was trying to get underneath some sort of shade to cover itself from the monstrous wind. He had noticed the kitten the first time he had opened the door and had wanted to help the little one out.

He got a little round basket from inside his home and asked his mom to give him a towel. He then showed her the little kitten that was shivering outside. Arya’s mom understood that he wanted to befriend the little one and gave him a small towel. Arya then took the basket and put the little kitten slowly into the basket.

Before he could ask his mom if she could give the little one some milk, his mom got some warm milk for the kitten. The kitten hesitantly drank the milk from a stranger’s hand but soon felt secure in the basket. Soon the little one went off to sleep. Arya’s mom coaxed him to get inside and assured him that the little animal would be fine.

It became dark and after finishing his homework and playing with his toys Arya remembered again about the kitten. He went out to check if his new friend was doing fine but the basket was empty and the wind had calmed down too. Arya felt very bad that he could not retain his new friend for long. He came back rushing inside the house with tears rolling down his cheeks. His mom understood that the kitten had gone from the basket and consoled him saying that he had done a beautiful deed today and surely the little kitty must have surely gone to a safer place or maybe went back home to his mommy.

Arya again went to the window and prayed for the little kitten that she would be safe and happy.

Hopefully she will come to meet him again.

(The second story for 4-6 year olds, original story by Reshma Krishnamurthy Sharma).