Puffin Treasury of Modern Indian Stories by Mala Dayal

Author:Mala Dayal [Dayal, Mala]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789351181293
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

Hamid’s friends have gone ahead. They are at a stall drinking sherbet. How selfish they are! They bought so many sweets but did not give him one. And then they want him to play with them; they want him to do odd jobs for them. Now if any of them asked him to do something, he would tell them, ‘Go suck your lollipop, it will burn your mouth; it will give you a rash of pimples and boils; your tongue will always crave for sweets; you will have to steal money to buy them and get a thrashing in the bargain. It’s all written in books. Nothing will happen to my tongs. No sooner my granny sees my pair of tongs than she will run up to take them from me and say, “My child has brought me a pair of tongs”, and shower me with a thousand blessings. She will show them off to the neighbours’ womenfolk. Soon the whole village will be saying, “Hamid has brought his granny a pair of tongs, how nice he is!” No one will bless the other boys for the toys they have got for themselves. Blessings of elders are heard in the court of Allah and are immediately acted on. Because I have no money Mohsin and Mahmood adopt such airs towards me. I will teach them a lesson. Let them play with their toys and eat all the sweets they can. I will not play with toys. I will not stand any nonsense from anyone. And one day my father will return. And also my mother. Then I will ask these chaps, “Do you want any toys? How many?” I will give each one a basket full of toys and teach them how to treat friends. I am not the sort who buys a pice worth of lollipops to tease others by sucking them myself. I know they will laugh and say Hamid has brought a pair of tongs. They can go to the Devil!’

Hamid asks the shopkeeper, ‘How much for this pair of tongs?’

The shopkeeper looks at him and seeing no older person with him replies, ‘They’re not for you.’

‘Are they for sale or not?’

‘Why should they not be for sale? Why else should I have bothered to bring them here?’

‘Why then don’t you tell me how much they are?’

‘They will cost you six pice.’

Hamid’s heart sinks. ‘Let me have the correct price.’

‘All right, five pice, bottom price. Take it or leave it.’ Hamid steels his heart and says, ‘Will you give them to me for three?’ And proceeds to walk away lest the shopkeeper screams at him. But the shopkeeper does not scream. On the contrary, he calls Hamid back and gives him the pair of tongs. Hamid carries them on his shoulder as if the tongs were a gun and struts up proudly to show them to his friends. Let us hear what they have to say.

Mohsin laughs and says, ‘Are you crazy? What will you do with

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