Pradyumna’s Selfie

Children’s Story

By Varala Anand

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Pradyumna was unusually nervous that morning. As he was getting ready to leave for school, his mother, Renu, looked at his face and asked, 

“What’s wrong, Pradyumna? Why do you look so worried today?”

“Nothing, Amma”

“Really? ”

“Really!” he said, slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, and walked out.

But there was only one thought running through his mind: How will my result be?

…

At school, all the children were seated in their classrooms. Everyone seemed unusually excited that day.

The teacher walked into the classroom with a sheet of paper in her hand.

“Good morning, children!”

“Good morning, Madam!”

“I have some good news for you today.”

Everyone leaned forward eagerly.

“Your annual examination results are here.”

A murmur went around the classroom.

The teacher called out the children one by one and announced their marks.

“Saai… Good.” “Anvi… Very good.”

“Rahul… Well done.” At last, the teacher paused.

The classroom became completely silent.

“This time, the first rank in our class goes to…”

Pradyumna’s heart began to beat faster.

Thump… thump… thump…

The teacher smiled.

“Pradyumna”

Suddenly, the classroom erupted in applause. “ Yay! ”  “Congratulations, Pradyumna!”

Pradyumna’s face blossomed with happiness. He looked at himself once, almost unable to believe it.

“Is it really me?”

Just then, the Principal entered the classroom. “Congratulations, Pradyumna!”

He placed a beautiful medal around Pradyumna’s neck. Pradyumna touched it and looked at it carefully. It was not made of gold. But to him, that medal felt like the greatest prize in the whole world.

……. 

The moment he reached home, Pradyumna ran inside shouting,

“Amma! Nanna! ”

“My boy has stood first in his class!” Madhav exclaimed, lifting him high into the air.

“Oh! Careful!” Renu laughed.

“Congratulations,  son! Keep it up!”

“Thank you, Nanna!”

Renu hugged him tightly.

“You used to cry whenever I asked you to revise your lessons. How do you feel now?”

Pradyumna gave her a wide, toothy grin.

“Now I’ll revise too!”

“Oh, that’s big news!” everyone laughed.

Just then, Madhav brought out a large box he had been hiding behind his back.

“Here’s your gift.” Pradyumna’s eyes grew wide.

“LEGO!” He shouted with delight. He had seen LEGO sets so many times on television—tiny colorful pieces that could be put together to make houses, cars, trucks and even dinosaurs!

“Nanna! Amma! You are the best!”

He kissed them both.

….

“I have one more surprise for you,” said Renu. “Another one?”

“Yes. Tomorrow we’re going to Dharmaram.”

“Dharmaram?” 

It was the village where his grandfather Sugender and grandmother Rama lived.

Pradyumna immediately became curious. “What is there?” “You’ll find out when we get there.”

“Are there buildings?” 

“What about big shopping malls?” 

“No.”

“A cinema theatre?”

“Maybe not.”

“Then what is there?”

Renu smiled.

“There are trees. There are fields. There are birds. And…”

“And?”

“Grandfather!”

“That’s enough,” said Pradyumna happily.

…………..

The next morning, the three of them set off by car.

After some time, trees began appearing on both sides of the road. Then vast green fields.

“Amma! Why is everything so green?”

“That is a field.”

“A field can be this big?”

“It can be even bigger.”

Pradyumna pressed his face close to the car window and kept looking.

…

When they reached Dharmaram, Grandfather Sugender and Grandmother Rama were waiting outside their house.

“Come here, dear!” Grandmother said, lifting him into her arms.

“ Oh my! How big you’ve grown!”

“I’ve passed second grade!”

“That must be why you’re wearing this medal,” she said, looking at the medal around his neck.

“Yes. I stood first in my class.” Grandfather laughed.

“So you’ve come to show your first rank to our village too?”

Pradyumna laughed.

……

While exploring the house, Pradyumna suddenly stopped in one corner.

“Amma… what is this?”

“A well.”

“A well? Does it have water inside?”

“Yes.”

“Where is the tap?”

Grandfather laughed.

“There is no tap. Look this is a bucket.” He showed him a bucket tied to a rope.

“We use this to draw water from the well” Pradyumna stared in amazement.

“So… at our house, water comes from a tap. Here, you have to pull it up with a bucket?”

“Yes.”

“That must be very difficult.”

“In our time, this was the easy way,” Grandfather replied with a smile.

Pradyumna held the bucket and examined it curiously. Then he noticed a large wooden mortar.

“What is this?”“A mortar.” “What does it do?” “It is used to grind things into flour.”

“Don’t you have a mixer?”Grandmother laughed.

“There were no mixers in our village back then.”

“How did you manage without a mixer?”

“Like this.”

She showed him the long wooden pestle.

Pradyumna looked at the mortar.

Then he looked at the pestle.

“So… these were your mixers?”

“Yes.”

“Wow!”

That day, every object seemed like a brand-new toy to Pradyumna.

…

Later, Grandfather took him to the fields.

The green paddy swayed gently in the breeze. Tall maize plants stood nearby. Birds chirped among the trees. The crops moved softly with the wind.

Pradyumna stood quietly for a while.

“Grandfather…”

“ Yes dear?”

“Is this really a field? It looks just like the fields I’ve seen in my books.”

Grandfather laughed heartily. “Perhaps the field in your book was our field!”

……..

The whole day passed before Pradyumna even realised it.

Soon, it was time to leave. “Already?” Pradyumna asked sadly.

“Yes dear. Your parents have to get back to work.”

They got into the car. As the car moved away, Dharmaram slowly disappeared behind them.

After they had travelled some distance, Pradyumna’s face suddenly changed.

“What happened?” Renu asked.

He said nothing. Tears filled his eyes.

“Pradyumna? ”

“Amma…”

“What happened?”

“I forgot something.”

“What did you forget?”

“Photos!”

“Photos?”

“Yes!”

Tears rolled down his cheeks.

“I didn’t take a photo of the well. I didn’t take a photo of the mortar. I didn’t take a photo with the pestle. I didn’t even take a photo with Grandfather and Grandmother together!”

Madhav laughed. “That’s why you’re crying?”

“Yes!”

“Why do you need the photos?”

“I want to show them to my friends. They’ve never seen these things.”

Madhav thought for a moment. Then he turned the car around.

“Alright.let’s go!”

“Where? ”

“Back to Dharmaram.”

Pradyumna’s face immediately lit up.

……..

When the car stopped outside the house, Grandfather and Grandmother came out, surprised.

“What happened? Did you forget something?”

“We didn’t forget anything,” Madhav said, laughing. “He did!” Pradyumna needs some photographs.”

Grandfather understood immediately.

“That’s all?”

He walked towards the well.

“Come on! First, let’s take a selfie with Grandfather near the well.”

Then  photograph with Grandmother.

Then the mortar

The pestle

The bucket

The fields

And another photograph of Pradyumna with Grandfather standing among the green paddy

To Pradyumna, it all felt like a festival.

“Amma! We should make a video too!”

Renu switched on her phone camera.

Pradyumna stood in front of it and said,

“Hi, friends! Today I’ve come to my grandfather’s village. This is a well. This is a bucket. This is a mortar. And this is a pestle. These are all very old things, but they are really interesting!”

From behind the camera, Grandfather called out,

“In our time, these were our gadgets!”

Pradyumna burst out laughing. “Grandfather! So you had gadgets too!”

……

Soon they were on their way back to Hyderabad. Pradyumna sat in the car, looking through the photographs on his phone. One picture showed Grandfather. Another showed Grandmother. Another showed the old well. Another showed the vast green fields. As he looked at them one after another, a little smile appeared on his face.

After a while, he turned to his mother.

“Amma…”

“What is it, dear?”

“When we get home, I’m going to build a village with my LEGO.”

And this time, Pradyumna knew exactly what his little LEGO village would have

a well, green fields, trees, birds, a little house… and, of course, Grandfather and Grandmother.

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