Before the morning sun even peeps through the window, stories come alive in Pradyumna’s home.

Whenever his mother, Renu, begins,

“Once upon a time, in a forest…”

Pradyumna’s eyes grow wide with wonder. Before one story is even over, he is already asking for another.

He simply loves stories.

Renu works for a software company. Though she spends long hours in front of a computer, the moment she comes home, she paints colorful pictures, reads books, and, every night, tells her son a story.

“Reading stories makes your heart grow bigger, dear,” she often tells him.

Pradyumna’s father, Madhav, works for the government. When he was young, he won several medals in sports.

“Winning is not the greatest thing,” he tells his son. “Winning someone’s heart is.”

Perhaps that is why Pradyumna loves people so much.

Whenever someone visits their home, he stays close to them. And when they leave, he walks all the way to the gate, waves goodbye and asks,

“When will you come again?”

After they leave, he becomes quiet for a while.

“What happened?” Renu asks.

“I miss them,” he says.

Renu smiles to herself.

This little boy has such a big heart.

……

The school year came to an end.

Pradyumna had completed the second grade, and the school was buzzing with excitement on the day the results were announced.

He had stood first in his class.

His friends clapped. His teacher gently patted his head.

“Very good, Pradyumna”

A smile appeared on his face.

But after a few moments, the smile disappeared.

The teacher looked at all the children and said,

“Children, today is the last day of your second grade. Next year you will be in the third grade.A new class… a new teacher… new books… and new friends. All the best”

The classroom suddenly filled with cheerful voices.

“Bye, Madam!”

“Happy holidays”

“Thank you, Madam!”

The children ran out excitedly.

Only one child remained standing there.

Pradyumna.

He slowly walked towards his teacher.

For a while, he said nothing.

Then, suddenly, he hugged her tightly.

“Madam…”

That was all he could say.

His voice broke.

Tears began streaming down his cheeks.

“Madam… I’ll miss you… I’ll miss my friends too…”

He began to sob.

The teacher was speechless.

For a moment, she felt as though a little bird was trembling in her arms.

She gently patted his back.

“Oh, my dear… we aren’t going anywhere. We’ll still be in the same school. We’ll see each other every day.”

But her eyes had grown moist.

She had never seen a child love so deeply.

………….

Even after returning home, Pradyumna was not himself.

He did not even open his schoolbag.

He did not watch cartoons.

Renu was surprised.

“What happened, dear? Aren’t you the boy who stood first in his class?”

Pradyumna said nothing.

He simply came to his mother and buried his head in her lap.

“Amma…”

“Tell me, dear.”

“I miss my teacher…”

After a little pause, he added,

“I miss my friends too.”

Renu gently stroked his hair.

“Do you love them that much?”

Pradyumna answered innocently,

“Amma… without them, our classroom would be empty, wouldn’t it?”

Renu’s heart melted at his answer.

She understood something that day.

Children do not grow only through books.
They also grow through people.

………………

The next day, Renu brought out a large sheet of drawing paper.

“Come, dear.”

The two of them sat on the floor together.

“This is your classroom.”

“This is your bench.”

“This is your teacher.”

“And these are your friends.”

As Pradyumna remembered each one of them, he filled the picture with colours.

Red…Yellow..Green…Blue…

Finally, on the classroom door, he wrote in large letters:

WE WILL MEET AGAIN

He put the picture on the wall opposite his bed.

Every day, he looked at it and smiled.

……

The summer holidays passed. The first day of third grade arrived.

Pradyumna wore his new uniform, packed his new books and went to school.

Just as he was about to enter his new classroom, someone called from behind.

“Pradyumna”

He turned around.

There they were—his friends from the second grade! And at the far end of the corridor stood his old teacher. She smiled and waved at him.

“What happened, dear?” she called. “Where did all your tears go?”

Pradyumna smiled.

He ran to her, greeted her respectfully, and then walked into his new classroom with his friends.

That day, he felt a great happiness.

He understood something important:

Saying goodbye does not mean that friendship has ended.
It is only a beautiful pause—making room for new friends while keeping old memories alive.

From that day on, every year, on the last day of school, Pradyumna made a little card for his friends.

On it, he wrote:

“????? ???????? ???…
We will meet again.”

Every friend who received the card smiled.

“Yes! Yes!”

They waved goodbye to one another, laughing as they went their separate ways.

The teachers watched them with happiness, thinking about the pure love that children carry in their hearts.

And in the eyes of some teachers, a tiny tear would quietly appear.

Because…

A loving heart has the power to touch another heart.

And a good heart will always find its way to another good heart.

Image generated by the author using AI.