About Anisha, the upside down girl:
Anisha is active, entertaining and yes, naughty too! Ordinary days are filled with action when she is around. Anisha has a brother named Atul who is six years older than her and a younger sister named Shaina who is four years younger than her. However, Anisha believes that both of them are too “boring” to play with or talk to and she considers herself an only child.
Here’s what happened on Anisha’s 6th birthday.
I t was Anisha’s sixth birthday. She had a party for her friends and all of them played games and talked and laughed. Some of her big brother Atul’s friends also came and joined in the games. Anisha’s little sister Shaina wanted to play too, but she was only two years old and she couldn’t keep up with them. So she stayed in the drawing room, touching all the brightly coloured presents, while everyone ran around.
Soon everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for Anisha and they ate all the goodies and then they went home.
Then Atul went to his room and Anisha opened her birthday presents one by one and tossed the boxes here and there, under the dining table, out in the corridor, behind the sofas and chairs.
‘Put away the boxes,’ called Mom, but Anisha ignored her.
Shaina looked at the pile of boxes with red and yellow and blue paper coming out of them. She pulled one box back into the drawing room. Then she pulled another – and another – and another and lined them up like the carriages of a train. She sat inside the last box and moved it from side to side, making engine noises like she had heard the other children doing earlier when they were playing. ‘Vroom! Vroom!’ she said.
A small idea
Just then, the neighbour’s dog Dino came into the room to see if there was anything to eat. He could get some wonderful smells – of cake and biscuits and sandwiches – and he hoped there would be something for him.
Anisha spotted Dino and had an idea. ‘Here, Dino! Here!’ she said softly.
Dino came and sniffed among the boxes. As he did so, Anisha pulled out the ribbons from her hair and tied the end of one ribbon to Dino’s collar. Then she got into one of the cartons, like Shaina, and she tied the other end of the ribbon to it. She tied the second ribbon from her carton to the box in which Shaina was sitting.
Now Shaina really had a train.
‘Go, Dino, go!’ said Anisha and she threw a biscuit into the corridor. Dino ran behind it – and took the boxes with Anisha and Shaina with him.
Anisha squealed with pleasure and Shaina gurgled happily as the boxes went skimming down the corridor.
‘Get out of that box, Anisha,’ cried Mom as she came out of the bedroom, ‘and send Dino home!’ She didn’t see Shaina sitting in the box behind Anisha since there was wrapping paper poking out of it from all sides.
Dino was startled at the sound of Mom’s voice. He stopped – and the ‘train’ came to a halt. But Mom’s instructions had given Anisha another idea.
‘Home, Dino, home!’ she said.
Obediently, Dino turned and ran from the corridor into the veranda and then down the steps and onto the garden path towards his house. And Anisha and Shaina went with him in their boxes. Slide – slide – slide. Bump – bump – bump!
‘This is fun!’ says Anisha. ‘I love birthday presents!’
‘Fun – fun – fun!’ echoed Shaina.
Stay tuned to find out more about Anisha.
