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Let’s read the story and found out who is Shanti’s friend.

Shanti always had to get up early in the morning. Just when the sky was getting lighter
and most people were asleep in their beds. She had to get up early to make tea for
Chacha ji and Chachi ji .
1
2
Shanti was eleven years old. She stayed with Chacha ji and Chachi ji in the city. She had to

come to the city because it did not rain in her village for two years. All the crops dried up
in the fields.

Soon there was very little food to eat.

Shanti’s father fell sick and her mother didn’t know what to do. There was no money for
his medicine and no food for Shanti and Pappu and Guddi. The children stopped going to
the village school. But Shanti’s Chacha ji and Chachi ji who lived in the big city were
very kind.

‘Don’t worry,’ Chacha ji said. ‘Shanti can come and stay with us in the city.’

‘She can help me in the house,’ Chachi ji said. ‘Maybe she can go to school too.’

‘Go to school too! You are too kind,’ Shanti’s
mother said. ‘I’ll try and find work where

they are building a new road. I might earn
enough money for the rest of us.’

Shanti came to the city with Chacha ji and
Chachi ji in a bus. The city was huge and
the city was dirty. There were lots of houses
and very few trees. Shanti missed the big
banyan tree in her village and the pond

where she used to bathe.

Here she had to carry water in a bucket
from the tap on the street. Lots of people
stood in line for that water. Sometimes they
fought. Sometimes someone pushed Shanti’s
bucket aside and she got late.

Then Chacha ji scolded her because he needed
that water to bathe and was getting late for work.

But Shanti knew she was very lucky. There was enough food to eat here. And she loved

the baby, Mamta. So she worked very hard and wondered when she
could join the school. When she asked Chachi ji, she said, ‘There’s no scolded: spoke angrily
time to go to school. Maybe next year, when Mamta is older.’ wondered: thought
about something
1 Chacha ji: (in Hindi) means uncle
2 Chachi ji: (in Hindi) means aunt
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