New Adventures
“Oh,oh, don’t touch the remote ,” mom snatched the remote from five year old Tom’s hands.
The child started crying. He was in the habit of starting his day watching his favourite Cartoon.
“Now, now,” she tried to calm him down. But in no case she would hand over the remote to him.
“That’s not fair, mom, even I have to watch my favourite programme,” cried Hazel.
“No, you can’t do it now,There a statutory warning that anyone watching T.V or iPad will be blinded in no time.Many such cases have already been reported in the metropolitan cities.The terrorists have invented some kind of invasive electromagnetic rays to harm the entire population of the world.It’s almost like Covid-19.”
Sad and crestfallen, the children didn’t know what to do.
The school was closed for Sunday and there wouldn’t be any on-line hobby classes.
Hazel was sad that she would have to go to school everyday.
“Cheer up, children. Let’s have our breakfast, then we will go for a walk in the surrounding woods.”
“Huh, what good will that do ? What is there to see except trees?” lamented Hazel.
“I will tell you about the games we played in our childhood. Those were real fun.” Mom told them enthusiastically.
But they weren’t convinced. Life appeared lacklustre. They didn’t have any option but to agree to mom’s suggestion.
They started half-heartedly, almost dragging their feet. Cool breeze lifted their mood, they started enjoying.
“Look Tom,” Hazel was showing tiny flowers, butterflies and pine cones to Tom that she herself had noticed for the first time.
He watched squirrels and chipmunks running around.All these were there all the time, but they had never noticed their funny antics before.
A tiny grey hare quickly hopped to another side nibbling some wild sunflowers.
“He looks exactly like the picture,” declared Tom.
They watched cardinals and blue jays for the first time.
“There are more amazing things around .Now let’s go back. We will come again next Sunday,” said mom.
They were full of stories when they returned and excitedly related their experience to their father.
Mom was glad that she could keep them off the dreaded screen.
“Isn’t the day too long ?” Hazel still appeared bored. Tom too had become a bit cranky.
Mom was tired and wanted a nap, but the children were wide awake. She couldn’t risk them using screens of any kind.
“Why not explore our attic,” she said, ”we might find something interesting.”
Sure enough, it turned out to be a treasure trove of fun.
They found toys, games, crochet needles, paint brushes and dried up colours that lay discarded because the children had been too busy to use them ever.
Children were so engrossed with new found treasure that they forgot all about mobile phones.
And lo and behold ! Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Hans Christian and Mark Twain were waiting for them in the attic to cheer them up with there adventures.
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