Nisha was bored. Her school holidays had begun and she had nothing to do. Her parents were working and got back home rather late. She had to stay at home with the maid all day long.
On the first day of vacation, she tried to read magazines that were lying around. But they all seemed so boring and most of what she read she did not understand. But the pictures looked good. So, she got out her mother’s scissors and began to cut out the bigger and more colourful ones. Satisfied, she went to her room and stuck the pictures all over her wall. But things did not work out fine, because when her mother got back home in the evening she was not too pleased to see her magazines in tatters. The next morning, Nisha found that the pictures she had stuck on her wall were dropping off.
Getting bored
“What a waste,” she thought. “If I had a pet cat or dog I could spend some time playing with it.”
Her mother had brought her books from the library. So she sat in her room and read her books. Two days of continuous reading. and she had finished the books. She could return the books only during the weekend when her mother was free to take her to the library.
“One whole month to go, and nothing to do!” she whined when her parents got home.
Her dad smiled and said, “We have a surprise for you.”
“What?” she asked disinterestedly.
“Your grandparents are coming!” he said in a highly excited voice.
Nisha shrugged, like she had already known it wouldn’t be anything “exciting” anyway. The truth was she had never actually spent much time with her grandparents and hence hardly knew them.
That Saturday there was a lot of hustle and bustle in the house. Her mother rushed around, getting the house cleaned and the guest bedroom tidied. On Sunday morning, Nisha had to get up early and go with her father to the station to pick up her grandparents.
She saw them get down from the train, and because her father pushed her forward she ran up to them and hugged them. With the noise and crowd at the station there could not be much conversation till they got into the car. Her grandparents said they were excited about this trip as they would get to spend a lot of time with her.
The next day, after her parents had left for work, Nisha went to her room. She played a couple of games on her computer and was just getting down to read one of her new books, when her grandfather walked in.
“What do you do all day long?”
“Nothing,” she said. “What can I do when I am all by myself?”
Her grandfather smiled.
“Come with me. I will show you what you can do.”
“I was just going to start my new book,” she mumbled.
“The book will wait. What we are about to do must be done now.”
Nisha’s interest was piqued. She followed her grandfather outside. He had found a whole lot of garden tools. Very soon, they were having a whale of a time, gardening. He showed her how to loosen the soil, remove the weeds, prune and remove the dead leaves.
“Now you see why this job could not wait? We have to finish it before it gets too hot. In the evening, when the sun has set we will water the plants. Would you like that?”
“Yes,” said a happy, red-faced Nisha as she ran in to get washed and cleaned up. She had just finished when she heard her grandmother calling out to her.
“Come into the kitchen,” she said. She found both her grandparents there.
“It is time to cook,” said her grandfather.
“Granpa, you know how to cook?” she asked.
“Yes, of course. When we got married, your grandma did not know any cooking. I was the one who had to teach her!”
The rest of the morning was spent in the kitchen.
When lunch was over, Nisha was feeling tired and sleepy. But her grandmother would have none of it.
“I will teach you some embroidery,” she said.
Nisha had an eventful day and by the time her parents got home she was tired but happy.
She had had such a wonderful time and found her grandparents were simply the best!
She made them promise that they would not tell her parents that she had been learning to cook and sew and garden.
All she would tell them was, “It is a surprise Gramps.”
