TALES FROM READERS

• A Parrot and A Crow NEW
• Speaking Garden and Speaking Well NEW
• The Mysterious Voice NEW
• Be Helpful
• When Trees stopped speaking
• Gujarati Dhokala
• Village Leader and the Fallen Berries
• Lucky Pandit Tida Joshi
• The Coconuts story
• A Dream Saved the King!
• Lazy Pigeon
• A Scary Cold Water Drop
• Intelligent Merchants
• A Clever Old Woman
• Father, Son and a Crow
• The Mystery of Twin Town
• Miracle
• Bhola Bear Gets Honey
• Fear of LIZARD
• Rinku Rabbit Teaches A Lesson
• Every Tiger Has It's Day
• Mrs. Squirrel's Beachy Holiday
• Bella, Billu And The Billi
• A Suitable Match
• Chimpu- The Jungle Detective
  The Case of The Hidden Treasure
• Daring Sia and The Theft of The Twisted Candles
• Chimpu-The Jungle Detective
  The Case of The Stolen Honey
• The Princess of the Blue lotus
• Inspiration
• A Better Place to Live
• Sid And The Pirates 1
• Sid And The Pirates 2
• Sid And The Pirates 3
• Rinku
• Tula Wants To Grow Up!
• Shining In The Dark
• The Guru
• O.D.D.
• The Girl With X-Ray Eyes
• An Eerie Experience
• Scared Speechless!
• The Haunted House
• The Lily Pad(dle) Boat
• Little Tom And His Pets
• Deepa And The King of The Ocean
• Magic Rose
• Charlie's Pet Lion
• The Three Princesses
• The Ring
• Traitors You Can't Sustain!
• Friends And Enemies
• Bruno, The Sheep Dog
• Roses And Cacti
• Hardwork Pays
• No Pain, No Gain!
• The Magical Pond
• Everything For Something
• The Eavesdropper
• The Crow That Boasted
• The Golden Bird
• Asha And Aadesh In Frogindom!
• Moon's Magic
• Baby Tree Wants Ice Cream!
• Jackal And Birds
• Roll Model
• When The Teacher Became The King
• The Blind Beggar
• A Night of fun in the Desert Village
• The Blind Woman
• The Pirate's Mistake
• Team Work Wins
• Bobby Turns Brave
• The Two Princess
• God Everywhere
• The Mongoose And The Snake
• The Missing Sweetmeat
• The Mule
• The Wishing Tree
• The Magic Potion
• King And The Three Sons
• An Old Lady And The Lamp
• The Kindhearted Villager
• Christopher's Encounter With The Aliens
• The Mysterious School
• The Coconut Tree
• Count The Blessing Not The Curses
• Wonderful X'mas Gift
• Tikku and the Rats
• The Magic Hole
• A Mysterious Memory
• The Lost Ball
• Gundu and Mithu
• Home Alone
• Holidays
• Sleepovers
• The Secret of Work
• Little Friend
• Mr. Twinkle Transforms
• April Fool
• The Call
• The Thief Caught Atlast
• The Monkey And The Dolphin
• Toko Castle
• Elephant, Croc And Toad
• Vice of Dice!
• Laughter Is The Best Medicine
• My Meet With God
• The Impossible Magic!
• Encounter with the Friday Ghost
• The Last Wish
• A Fearful Event
• A King's Costly Mistake
• The Clever Pussy Cat
• The Dangerous Silky Bed!
• The Magical Ink
• The Magic Of The Map
• The Stormy Night with my Cousins

The Stormy Night with my Cousins

It all started with our visit to the country- side. I went there with all my cousins. We reached our destination late in the evening. The sky was dark, but the moon was bright. After we unpacked and dressed, we (all the kids), with our grandfather, went outside and placed an old mat on the grassy ground.
All of us sat down and listened to ghost stories our grandfather was telling. It was cold outside. The swaying shadow of the large mango tree to our right covered us up. The meadows surrounding us were bathed in moonlight. It was windy in the country and we could hear the rustling of the tree leaves. I liked that sound. It was a wonderful night.
We could see the full moon glowing in the very heart of the sky. And there were the stars, twinkling at us. What a windy and bright night! The sky was sparking with stars.
We sat there till late in the night, but didn't realise the time. Then our grandfather told us that it was past midnight and that we should go to bed. We obviously didn't want to, but had to. Who knew that we were about to have more fun in bed than we had out there! Otherwise we would have died to go!
All the kids were sent to bed upstairs, in the attic. The grown ups were sleeping downstairs. We were so happy that we would be sleeping together.
The basement was too creepy and dirty to sleep in. And besides, who sleeps in the basement! Well, we wanted to explore it but our parents said that it was much better to sleep or explore or even play in the attic. They said that it was just too dirty to go in there, how could we even think of sleeping or exploring in there! We found that they had even locked up the place so that we don't try to get in, for they knew that all of us were adventure loving and always went looking for dangerous and spooky things.
Anyway, we were still happy to sleep in the attic. That was a nice place to explore in a dilapidated, old house too. We went in and soon found out that we were right. It had loads of interesting things and it was surprisingly big enough for all of us to explore too!
After some time of exploring and ending with some old-fashioned, broken teacups, some old spell books and some frogs made out of stone, we were ready to go to bed. There was a huge, lumpy, soft bed waiting for us to lie down. After dusting it we all let ourselves lie on it. It was a place big enough for all of us. We were so comfortable on our bed!
The shutter-less, round window carved out from the wall was facing us. We didn't sleep for a while; of course we didn't want to. Besides, it was a new place and none of us felt like sleeping. We gazed at the things outside the window; it was different in the country. There were grassy hills and lush green meadows, big bushy trees and colourful flowers. We could see the full moon in the starry sky from here too. It was a wonderful sight. Then we thought of sleeping, so we closed our eyes and relaxed.
After a while, we heard something, which sounded much like thunder. We all opened our eyes and looked outside the window. We were totally surprised to see black clouds, all covering up such a clear and starry sky. That was weird! Last moment the sky was the clearest and brightest ever and the next moment, the sky is all covered up with big, black rain-clouds! What a sudden change of weather!
Maybe, this was common in the country. Anyway, it was still strange. We were disappointed at first, but then it all happened! It splashed down at first and that's when it all started. All of us were lying awake. It was raining cats and dogs outside. The end of our bed was already wet. Our toes were soaked.
The thunder made us cover our ears and scream. It was the scream of joy and fear, both. Now, that was what we called adventure! The lightning lit up the whole room, the sky changed from black to light purple. The meadows became a pool of light when the lightning illuminated it. The ray of lightning seemed to tear up the sky into two. The trees were drenched and when the storm grew stronger we could hear them rustle more furiously than before. The thunder and lightning made us rumble and tumble into each other. We had the time of our lives!
We took turns to stick ours heads outside the window and got drenched! I was hesitating at first, but when my turn came, I found that it was fun. We all knew this wasn't right and our parents would rebuke us if they knew. They would say that we would catch a cold, but it didn't matter to us at all!
We screamed, shouted and hopped around the whole room. We held on tight to ourselves when we felt cold or scared. We jumped on the bed and even let ourselves fall down on it on purpose! It didn't matter to us if we got hurt. We just wanted to have fun. That was all!
We had as much fun doing all that just as the storm did doing its own stuff. We even started dancing with each other later on! It was so much fun!
We didn't care about what was going on downstairs, but we didn't sleep all night! I don't know why we liked it so much! I mean, no one likes rain and storm, everyone hates it! Especially when they don't let us sleep all night! But maybe it is as I said before, that all of us were adventure loving.
Then, we even thought of going outside to check out the storm and get a clear view of what exactly was going on out there. But it was too late. The rain had stopped, and so had all our fun. We were very disappointed.
Anyway, that's what we did the whole night and that is why I called this story- "The stormy night with my cousins". Don't you think the storm was a good reason to have fun, especially when you are alone, only with your favourite cousins and there is no adult supervision?

-Anwesha Kar
11 years
Class VI
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
Kolkata.