“Aunty Malini, you and Uncle Alex, please sit and chat with Dadi-ma and Papa, while I go in and prepare breakfast for you,” said Malini’s nephew, Obaid.

“Breakfast?” blurted out Malini. “Nothing, Obaid beta! You go out and play while I fix breakfast myself for all of us!”

“But Aunty, we’ve all had our breakfast already! So, it’s only for you two that I will prepare something.”

“No, beta,” said Malini, thinking to herself, ‘what breakfast can this little teenager make other than bread-and-butter, I wonder?’

But no! Obaid would not take no for an answer and, on the contrary, prevailed upon them to spend time chatting with his grandparents, saying, “You have both come such a looooong distance to see Dadi-ma and Papa! So, I think Dadi-ma and Papa will be very happy if you do just that!”

The Secret of Bliss

Incidentally, Malini and Alex were visiting the former’s parental home after a gap of nearly three long pandemic-ridden years after having relocated to Mumbra, a town some 30+ km away from Mumbai, shortly after their marriage. Incidentally, Malini couldn’t help but notice that her parents, the Charpoys, both in their mid-seventies appeared to be at the peak of old-age bliss. But of course, it wasn’t long before she was to discover the secret.

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Once upon a time, in a small village nestled in the heart of the forest, there lived a young girl named Lily. She was a kind and curious child, always eager to explore the world around her.

One day, while wandering in the forest, Lily stumbled upon a clearing she had never seen before. In the centre of the clearing stood a large, ancient tree unlike any she had ever seen. Its trunk was as wide as a house and its branches reached up to the sky as if they were trying to touch the clouds.

Lily approached the tree and placed her hand on its trunk. As she did, she felt a strange sensation, as if the tree was alive and communicating with her. She closed her eyes and listened closely, and to her surprise, she heard a voice.

“Hello, Lily,” said the tree. “I am the Guardian of the Forest. I have been watching you and I have chosen you to be my protector.”

Lily was shocked and a little scared, but she also felt a sense of excitement and purpose. She knew that this was a great honour, and promised that she would do her best to protect the forest and all of its inhabitants.

From that day on, Lily spent all her time in the forest, learning from the Guardian and protecting the animals and plants.

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It was summer. I was waiting for my dad to pick me up after my classes. While I was waiting, I felt someone stare at me. My eyes fell on a boy standing opposite me. I recognized him from my Eco class, but I felt that he wasn’t looking at me. After some time, I realized that the boy was actually looking at me. But the moment I would turn my attention towards him, he would look away.

“That’s weird,” I thought.

The next day in class, the same boy sat in the empty seat in front of me. During the entire lecture, he tried to steal glances at me. Whenever our eyes met, he would look away embarrassed. I started to feel awkward whenever I caught him looking at me.

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“I should make class fun by having a discussion with students, as they are already tired from their consecutive science classes,” thought Tr Aarti, the English teacher of Class 12.

‘What do you want to become in life?’ was the topic. The students replied enthusiastically that they wanted to become doctors, engineers, IAS officers, businessmen, lawyers, scientists, etc.

Then Tr Aarti wrote on the blackboard, ‘Does anyone want to become a teacher?’

No hand rose and there was pin drop silence in the class. Tr Aarti then wrote out a third point, ‘Why don’t you want to become a teacher?’

The students replied saying that teaching was a low-paying job and the status of a teacher in society had declined as compared to the olden days.

“Who wants to become a teacher for a day on Teachers’ Day?” asked Tr Aarti.

Suddenly, all hands rose high in the air.

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“Jay, you really expect me to believe that your dog ate your homework? You know the new headmistress is taking rounds of the school and you still didn’t do your homework! This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable! Stand outside the class!” Ms Smita scolded.

“Sorry, miss,” Jay apologized.

“Shlok, you’re late! Did you bring your homework or was your homework eaten by dogs, too?”

“The dog did not eat my homework… he only tore it.”

“Enough of these lies, stand outside the class! I didn’t expect this from you, Shlok!”

Ms Smita was right to not expect this kind of behaviour from Shlok. After all, he was one of the best students in the class, hardworking and always ready to help his classmates. But she was wrong to think that Shlok was lying…

Earlier that morning, Shlok was walking to school with his homework sheets in hand that he had remembered to grab at the last moment, when he saw a dog that was chasing after a cat, run straight into a lady carrying many paper sheets in her hand just like him, making all the sheets fall to the ground. She began desperately trying to collect them but they were flying all over with the wind.

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The gigantic, glistening building with its gleaming windows stood in front of us. The students stood in a queue talking nineteen to the dozen as the line slowly entered The Great COVID-19 Museum. All eyes fell on the incredible lifelike statues and the brilliant paintings depicting the global crisis three decades ago. For the students, this trip was an unexpected journey, but for us teachers, it was like going back in time and experiencing it all again. A pair of curious eyes looked at me and asked, “Was this really true?”

I smiled and replied, “Yes.” As we went outside for lunch, the students begged me to narrate my own tale of the pandemic. “There’s nothing better than a first-hand experience.” I took a deep breath and combed through my memory as I described what the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic had brought to humanity.

“It all started with seemingly insignificant news reports which soon became the talk of the town. My father, a government official, was getting reports each day, and what seemed like an unrealistic situation soon became a bitter reality. The news was covered with horrible scenes of cremation grounds, people losing their loved ones, some not even getting a chance to conduct the last rites of their departed family members. It was really miserable.”

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Shamik, Jay, Shankar, Ravi, Dev and Sanchit were playing cricket in their colony. Dev was bowling and Shamik was batting. Shamik’s team needed a six to win. The match was at its deciding point. Dev threw the ball and Shamik hit it with great force! It was a six that meant Shamik’s team had won the match… except no one was celebrating.

The ball had gone flying through Sakaram Uncle’s window! Now Sakaram Uncle was a strict man. No one had ever seen him smile. So you can imagine why the boys were all so scared. “We could all just go home. He doesn’t seem to be at home right now. Many kids play here in the evening, he’ll never know it was us and besides it’s not like we did it purposely,” said Dev.

“But it would be wrong to not own up to our mistake,” said Shamik.

“Our mistake! You were the one batting. If someone is to apologize, it should be you.”

“I wasn’t the one batting when you broke Shanti aunty’s window or Ravi broke Devakar uncle’s car headlight but I still came with you and Ravi to apologize, didn’t I?”

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Alex and I had been walking aimlessly since the past three hours. “I’m really tired, Peter! Let’s rest for a while. My legs are giving way,” Alex sighed. We had come for a trek to Martin Hill with a team of five. We expected to have a great time but our foolhardy bravery of walking alone into the dense forest at night cost us to lose our way back to the lodge. A flashlight, a watch and a bottle of water were all that we had with us.

“Let me have a sip,” begged Alex.

“No, we don’t have much water with us and who knows for how long we might be stranded here. Control your thirst!” I barked.

After walking for a while, we came across a huge banyan tree with branches like distorted limbs with claws reaching out towards us. The monstrous tree towered over us, casting a shadow pool at our feet. Alex sat down under the tree with a thud. “What a relief! I’m exhausted,” he exclaimed. As I slowly sat down on the ground, I felt as if we were being watched by someone. A look at the numerous holes in the tree trunk made me feel as if the tree was staring at its uninvited guests.

“Let’s find a better place. This place looks spooky,” I said.

“Give me a break, Peter,” said Alex. He went off to take a nap. It was past midnight. Suddenly, a cool breeze blew past my ears. I was shaken by the sudden flight of an owl from one of the many overgrown branches of the horrific tree.

The eeriness of the place was taking hold of me. Only my heavy breaths broke the silence. All of a sudden, I heard the howling of a pack of wolves coming from the other end of the cutting. I could hear the chatter of macaque monkeys and bats screeching. It felt as if the jungle was coming to life!

Leaving Alex asleep, I switched on my flashlight to look around for a way out of there. After a minute or two of an unfruitful search, my gaze fell upon an old, withered, wooden signboard. I rubbed the dust off it to see what it read: ‘The Animal Point’.

While I wondered what it meant, I was frightened by a sudden tap on my right shoulder. Keeping my fingers crossed, I turned around to discover it was Alex. But something was wrong with him. He was not looking at me. He was staring at the ground. He spoke in a deep and unfamiliar tone. “Let’s keep walking, Peter. I don’t like this place.” I readily agreed and we started walking. I noticed that Alex had suddenly stopped talking. Neither did he complain of thirst nor did he look anxious about finding a way back. He had suddenly developed a strange character which worried me but I chose not to question it.

After walking for a while, I heard the hoots of an owl. We were standing under a tree and I noticed the owl sitting on a branch and staring at us with its big, shining eyes. I looked around. To my surprise, I saw the same wooden signboard again: ‘The Animal Point’.

“We’re back at same place!” I exclaimed. Is this place a labyrinth, I wondered.

“Keep walking,” he said with a blunt expression. I didn’t say a word.

I collected some pebbles. As we started walking, I dropped them on the way to make sure that we didn’t tread on the same path back to ‘The Animal Point’. But whichever path we took, it always led us back to the spooky tree. We were exhausted and decided to rest under the tree until our friends at the lodge came to our rescue. Alex asked me to rest while he went to collect wood to build a campfire. I leaned against the tree trunk and fell fast asleep.

Suddenly, I felt something long and rough crawling over my body. I woke up and looked around but Alex hadn’t returned. I called out, “Alex! Alex!” Nobody answered. I wanted to get up, but what I saw then haunts me even today. My legs and hands were tied up with the thick roots of the tree! I was terrified. The more I moved, the more the roots tightened their grip on me. It was a haunted tree. The roots wrapped themselves around my torso and tightened their grip on me. The tree was killing me! I wished Alex was there to help me. I kept calling for him but no answer came. Suddenly, the ground turned into quicksand. To my horror, the roots started to pull me down into the ground. The roots started to wrap themselves around my neck. I gasped for air. All the good moments of my life started running through my mind. But then a familiar cry struck my eardrums… “Alex! Peter! Where are you?” It was my trekking team. I knew that I had one final chance to survive. I filled my lungs with all the air I could and screamed, “Help me!” I lost all the strength I had and fell unconscious.

After that terrible incident, all I remember is waking up to see my friends around me as I lay on the ground. The trekking guide asked, “Why did you two go roaming about in the forest all by yourself? You should have informed me.”

Before I could put up an explanation, Jason threw another question at me, “While you lay unconscious, you were muttering about some haunted tree and you being killed by it. What happened? You were pretty alright when we found you.”

“I was being throttled by a tree. It was dragging me down under the earth. It nearly killed me!” I exclaimed.

“Stop hallucinating,” said Jason. I jumped up and turned around to show them the haunted tree but to my utter surprise there was nothing. The tree had vanished into thin air!

“It was right here. Ask Alex, he was there with me,” I said, emphatically.

“But where is he?” asked Rhea.

“Hasn’t he returned?” I asked.

“No, where did he go?” asked a worried Jason. Alex was Jason’s cousin. The tension was natural.

“Alex went to collect firewood for…” A sudden bark by Bruno, Rhea’s pet Dalmatian interrupted me. It kept barking until Rhea released it. The dog started sniffing the ground like a detective looking for clues. It went to the higher ground where once stood the haunted tree and started barking loudly as if it had discovered something. We quickly went there but found nothing on the ground. But Bruno wouldn’t stop; he kept barking and sniffing the ground.

A glance at the trekking guide made me suspicious. He was sweating profusely and hadn’t spoken a word since I had told them about the tree.

“What are you hiding from us?” I shouted.

“Hmmm… listen, whatever Peter has told us about the tree is true. There have been three such incidents at Martin Hill of a tree trying to kill a person who sleeps under it. We have been trying to hide it from the authorities to avoid legal proceedings which might disrupt tourism here. But things are turning ugly now,” the guide said with a sigh.

“I was right! It wasn’t a dream,” I exclaimed.

The guide bent down and drew an ‘X’ on the ground with a broken twig.

“Jason, let’s get the spades from the lodge. We’ll start digging at this spot,” said the guide.

“But first tell me where my cousin is!” shouted a furious Jason.

“Do as I say. I don’t want to argue. We will find him,” said the guide in a firm tone.

Jason and the guide went running towards the lodge. It was five by my watch. The sun was rising; an orange hue had covered the sky, its rays spread throughout the jungle, lighting even its densest corners. They were back within a few minutes. Jason threw me a spade. The guide, Jason and I started digging the ground. After an hour of continuous digging, my spade struck something hard. Jason started digging faster.

The raucous cry of a peacock made me turn my head for a moment and in that instant, Jason made a strange sound. I quickly looked at him. His eyes were bulging. He was visibly trembling. To my horror, there lay at our feet, covered in dust, lying flat on his back with his mouth, legs and hands wrapped around by roots of a tree, Alex — lifeless, dead!

Rhea and Jason broke into a cry. Jason had lost his dear cousin forever.

All of a sudden, a gentle tap on my left shoulder made me turn around. I witnessed something which nobody would believe. It sent a chill down my spine.

Alex stood there and said with a smile on his face, “So, they have found us at last.”

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“Anna, do chai dena.” It was a regular day at Ferguson College with all the hustle and bustle around. I looked about at the people whom I had been seeing since two years; all of them lost in their own little fantasies including me. I waited for her to arrive as the tea cooled down; it had been two weeks since I last saw her, and to be honest I had been missing her.

“Arre, sorry yaar, really sorry, I was stuck in traffic,” she defended herself sweetly as she sat opposite me at the table.

“It’s not okay Panda. You have to treat me for being late now,” I joked. I used to call her Panda since Grade 4 and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.

“Stop calling me Panda, Ashu! My name is Praneeta. How many times should I tell you!?”

“Okay, so Miss Praneeta Panda, tell me all about your trip.”

“Okay listen, it was awesome, dude! I visited this church and I was really flabbergasted by its ancient beauty. You know what happened when…” She went on and on describing all the details of her trip. Just like that we both spent a wonderful morning.

The next day we both returned to our normal schedule — lectures, assignments, submissions but hanging out together during tea was a regular routine. She was always late for tea with an excuse ready in hand. One day I decided to pick her up. It was 9 a.m. and our time of meeting was 9.30 a.m., so accordingly I was waiting for her outside her house. She came rushing out like I assumed she did every day. But to my surprise, she headed in the opposite direction of our college. I waved out to grab her attention but she was in such a hurry that she did not notice me waiting.

I decided to investigate. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw where she went… horror and sadness struck me like I had seen a ghost! Praneeta, my best friend, was smoking a cigarette! That means all the times she was late, she was doing this! I caught her red-handed this time. All around her were her chain-smoker friends who were as high as she was. Numb enough to react to what I saw, I returned to the college. I didn’t wait in the canteen for her, instead just sulked among the vacant backbenches of my classroom connecting the dots as to how she could have become addicted to something that killed her father. Praneeta’s father had died due to mouth cancer when she was in 11th grade. It had been a hard blow to her and the entire family.

At 11 a.m. the bell for lectures rang. She arrived at 11:30 a.m.; she was much later today. I felt like going up to her and slapping her hard literally asking what she was doing with herself, but I knew I could never do that to Praneeta. I resolved to keep my feelings and turmoil concealed for a while. After the lecture, as I dashed out to avoid her, she cried out: “Arre, Ashu, wait! Why are you in such a hurry?” Without looking at her I shouted: “I have assignments to complete, catch up with you later!” and rushed home as fast as I could without waiting for her reply.

The entire evening I thought about what I could do to make things better. After hours of thinking and pondering, I came up with a plan which I thought would help her out. Whatever the reason she got swayed off her senses, I’ll help her out of every deep pit she falls into, I decided. After all that’s what friends are for.

The next day, when Praneeta entered the classroom, her desk had a note left on it which read: ‘It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.’ She looked at it peculiarly but didn’t pay much heed to it. The following day she saw another note that read: ‘Only a fool would put her lips at the other end of a burning fire.’ She was terrified as she looked at it. Without anyone noticing, she stuffed it inside her purse and sat down silently. The next note was: ‘Tobacco companies kill their best customers’, followed by ‘Stop, you’ll burn your soul someday!’

She was getting frustrated and scared about who was watching her so closely or had she attracted a stalker? Nearly a fortnight after receiving the first note, Praneeta was early to college. Her eyes were smudged as if she had been crying. I smiled sadly as my morning note inside her purse had been her father’s Polaroid picture with the caption: ‘Munni, remember me?’ (Her father lovingly called her Munni).

She was extremely quiet, barely lisping words. I innocently inquired what had happened. She didn’t answer; I didn’t persuade her either. I left her bits of paper notes, pictures on her desk or hanging them with her keychains, slipped them inside the pages of her notebooks, etc. To my contentment and glee, Praneeta was breaking free from her cage of addiction gradually. The notes which she stared at with dismay were the very notes she now looked at with an angelic smile. She reached the canteen before me and had a cheerful aura around her.

The day of her final test arrived. I met her at the canteen table as always. “Hey, Panda! Want a smoke?” I asked firmly, holding out my hand with a cigarette pack in it. She looked at me in amusement for a minute and then smiled; she reached into her purse and gave me a note: ‘Your positive action and the strong-willed determination and endless efforts you put in, have resulted in success. Congratulations on quitting smoking, Praneeta!’ Along with the note was her favourite chocolate bar.

“Who gave you this? And you were smoking? What’s going on? Tell me!” I acted innocent. She told me everything. “I wish I knew who that person was who cared so much about me. If it had not been for those notes I don’t know what I would have been.”

Taking a deep breath, I narrated my side of the story. With tears in her eyes, she hugged me with all her might. “Thank you for everything, thank you for saving me, thank you for teaching me the real meaning of friendship,” was all she could say.

As I reached the canteen the next day at 9:35 a.m., Praneeta greeted me with a beaming face: “You’re late, Ashu!”

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Avni was a teenager. She led a normal student life with loving and caring parents and friends who were like family to her. She wasn’t very popular in school. She didn’t talk to many people but had a few close friends whom she knew she could always trust.

She was a very happy girl, a little bit clumsy at times, a little childish, but everyone loved her for who she was. But little did she know that there was someone who didn’t like her.

It all started with a message on her phone telling her “Stop”. Avni was confused. She replied, “I’m sorry, maybe you have the wrong number?”

After a few days there was another message: “You are Avni. I have the right number.”

Avni thought it was a friend from school so she replied, “May I have your name, please? And I don’t understand what you mean by ‘stop’.”

The reply came, “Stop being who you are.”

Avni was confused. She decided to ignore the number. But the messages didn’t stop; they increased day by day and became worse. The person told her that she didn’t deserve to be happy, she didn’t deserve nice friends, she was very weird, and she should stop acting like she was the happiest person on earth.

All this hurt Avni very much. She stopped smiling, started avoiding her friends, and started crying a lot. She felt alone. She didn’t realize it but slowly she started changing. She stopped wearing the clothes she liked and changed the way she spoke. It was becoming too much to handle for her.

She didn’t tell her parents because she thought they wouldn’t understand or listen to her.

Her friends noticed this peculiar change in her behaviour. They tried talking to her and asked her what was wrong, but she just got angry. Her friends decided to remind her of the happy moments they spent together in classes or sleepovers where Avni made everyone laugh. Avni thought they were making fun of her so she suddenly burst into tears and ran away from them.

When her friends realized what was happening to Avni, they decided to tell her parents. But they asked her parents to let them help Avni.

They went to Avni’s room. She was sitting on her bed crying. Her friends went to her and gave her a huge hug. They felt so bad for not having been able to help her earlier. They all sat there and let Avni speak. They sat with her for hours, just letting her cry and talk.

And that was when Avni realized that she did not have to care about what a stranger thought of her. Her friends wanted to take revenge on the person, but she stopped them, telling them that she could handle it.

She took her phone and went to the chat app that had become her most frequently visited app. She typed, “Thank you for helping me realize I have very nice friends. Thank you for taking so much interest in my life. You have helped me grow strong, but I am who I am and you cannot do anything about it.”

She got a reply: “I was just jealous.”

Avni never received a message from the number again.

That day, as she looked at her friends and family, she knew for certain that they would always be there for her. That much was a given.

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