The story so far: As part of their English homework the class has been asked to interview their grandparents. Tanvi is in a bit of a spot as her grandfather has stopped talking to her. Her friends have offered some solutions, and it is up to her to see if it works.
T hat evening, Tanvi picked up her drawing book eagerly, and went to the living room where grandpa was seated in his rocking chair.
“Grandpa,” Tanvi called out, holding up her open drawing book. “Look at what I drew in class today!” There was no response from grandpa. But instead of being upset by this as she was usually, Tanvi smiled happily. She hurried to stand on the opposite side of grandpa’s rocking chair.
“Grandpa!” she exclaimed loudly and clearly, pointing to her drawing book. “Look at this!”
Grandpa looked at Tanvi and smiled. “Eh? What did you say?”
Tanvi tore out a scrap of paper from her scribble pad, and with her red crayon, she wrote in bold letters, “Do you like my drawing, Grandpa?”
Then she placed the scrap of paper, and her drawing book, on grandpa’s lap.
As grandpa read the words, a wide smile spread across his face.
“I love your drawing, Tanvi,” he said enthusiastically. As he turned the pages of her drawing book, Tanvi clapped her hands in delight.
Quick action
When Tanvi told her mother that grandpa was hard of hearing, (and not irritable or absent-minded as they had thought) he was taken to an ENT specialist the next day.; A few days later, Tanvi reported to Meera and her other friends that grandpa had been fitted with a hearing aid.
“Now, we have conversations just like we used to,” Tanvi remarked happily. “In fact, the first thing he did after he got his hearing aid was answer my interview questions.”
A few days later, when Tanvi came home from school she found grandpa slumped in his rocking chair, looking irritable.
“Who’s making that terrible sound?” grandpa asked, as a loud, sharp yowl shattered the quiet of the afternoon.
“Oh, that’s the Mehta’s new German shepherd puppy, Zara,” Tanvi explained. “She’s only three month old, and hates to be left alone. So, whenever she’s alone, she howls.”
Grandpa winced as another long, loud, quavering howl floated into the air. Then suddenly, he sat up and clicked his fingers.
“I’m just discovering how useful a hearing aid can be,” he said. With a wide smile, he switched off his hearing aid, and lay back in his rocking chair.
“I am going to have a nice, quiet afternoon even if no-one else does!”
The End
