Page 253 - E-Magazine 2016-17

Proud to be an Indian

“No ,I don’t want to go! I won’t leave my friends and go away!” sobbed Radha Jairaj, her eyes
were red and she clung on to a leg of the table.
“Oh don’t worry dear, I’m sure that you’ll make
many friends in your new school” said
Mrs.Jairaj in an assuring voice. Mr.Jairaj had
got transferred to USA and the day fixed for
moving was now only a day away. The little cot-
tage was filled with voices loud and shrill – eve-
rybody in an attempt to pack all their belong-
ings at the earliest. By lunchtime the packing
was done and they sat down to rest their tired
hands and feet. “I’ll sure miss this old little
house” sighed Radha. In the evening, she went
over to her best friend Sandhya’s house. Both of
them played and chatted for a long time and
when she came back, Radha felt much better. Sonia VI– C

The day of shifting had come. Everyone in the neighbourhood including Radha’s friends came
to bid them farewell. Sandhya, Monisha, Aparna and all of Radha’s friends hugged her and
said that they would really miss her and Sandhya gave her a locket ( which read ‘You BE-
LONG here…we will MISS YOU !’) saying, “Radha, we made this locket for you, so you will
always remember us!”. Then the family with tears in their eyes boarded the flight and they
could see their friends holding placards wishing them well and waving handkerchiefs.
Soon the sight of their homeland had disappeared.
After travelling for several thousands of miles - crossing land and sea, they reached their des-
tination-the USA. Their new home was a lovely one by the sea, and the sound of the waves
sweeping the sand and retreating was a pleasant sound to hear.

It was the first day of school and Radha was very excited. Her school- Stephany Towers was
enormous and the sounds of voices saying “it has been ages since I’ve seen you!’’ or “oh, how
tall you’ve grown!” could be heard. It seemed like everybody there had their own circle of
friends. Radha looked for someone approachable to talk to, but no one heeded the glance of her
anxious eye. When people looked at her they gave her cold, unfriendly looks and she even
heard a girl called Veronica whisper into her friend’s ear-“Look at that girl over there, doesn’t
she look silly!”
Soon all the students went to their classes and Radha’s form-mistress introduced her to the
class. Everybody teased her and thought it manner less that Indians ate with their hands.
Soon it was lunchtime and everybody opened their lunchboxes. While everybody munched on
sandwiches, burgers and french-fries, Radha opened her lunchbox which contained rice, dal
and sabzi. Everybody got the smell of this and came to have a taste of it and they all loved it !
“The food is even better than the aroma!” cried Sara. Then it was history class and everybody
was asked how many languages they knew. Radha said “I know Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and
English.” Everybody was amazed to hear this…little did they know that shortly she would im-
press them all even more with her strong footing in Indian culture and tradition. In this way,
Radha won the hearts of all and became the star of the school !
Radha was indeed very proud to BELONG to India!

Diya Vipin

Paarth, Aizah,
Anagha Shreya Nayak of
III– H 4-D