Four Aaanas for Peppermint : Prologue

(This is a short introductory note on the theme of an upcoming series of short stories)

Those were the days.

She is woken up by maa and dressed up for school. She presses her stomach with both the hands, in a final attempt to call it sick. But maa looks through her little drama and pulls her out of the house. Amidst the chaos of flying chalk throws and desk thumping pen fights in school, she makes a mental note of her desk mate’s new three-compartment pencil box. She plans to ask papa to get a similar one for her. The afternoon is spent soaking the scorching heat of the playground, falling and getting hurt, and running home for a quick rasna break before resuming the game. She rushes back home later to catch her favourite cartoon after a fight with her sibling for the TV remote. But both end up getting scolded by maa and lose the remote to her. She cries her heart out but the thought of her friend’s birthday party later in the evening cheers her up. The house party is perfect, with her favourite chocolate cake, toffee, potato wafers, samosa, and innumerable games. It ends with a sweet gulab jamun surprise and a return gift in the form of a magic pencil from her favourite TV show. She smiles, picturing her sibling’s jealous face on seeing her pencil. Back home, maa serves dinner in her usual cartoon themed plate, which she relishes while narrating her day to papa. Papa promises to get her the pencil box and tucks her into bed. Somewhere between the idea of a fresh prank and thoughts of her new pencil box, she drifted away to her dreamland.

She wakes up in a new world. This world is driven by social media likes, comments and shares. This is a world where long distances are travelled in seconds via the internet. And this world is so close yet so far. She likes the new world too, but she wonders how her life would be without so many changes, one step at a time.

(Stories in the series:     Worth a thousand words?   ||    All those who wander all lost? )