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Anitha had an uneasy feeling of who that classmate could be.

‘Did he tell the person’s name?’

‘He said someone called Nandini,’ her mother replied.

Anitha closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn’t understand what was happening. The
person whom she had ridiculed for coming late had actually saved her father’s life.

She could not sleep well that night. She started hating herself.

By the next morning, a change had come over her.

She rushed to the school and found Nandini standing by the
library. Why could Just a Minute!
Anitha not sleep
‘Nandini,’ she spoke hesitantly. ‘I want to apologise.’ that night?

‘Why?’ Nandini was surprised.

‘I mocked you yesterday. You saved my father’s life
and I ridiculed you for coming late. Why didn’t you

tell me?’ ‘You didn’t give me a chance,’ Nandini said.
Later that day, the Principal called the students for a
special assembly.

‘Students, I have to tell you something,’ he said.
‘Learning Science and Maths is not education.
Education should make a person a good human

being. A good student need not come first in class
but should have a good character. I am glad to say
Nandini is one such student. She has saved a person’s
life yesterday even though she had to sacrifice her
exam for it. We are proud of you, Nandini.’

Everyone clapped, but Anitha clapped the loudest.
When she went home that day she offered to drop many of her classmates at their homes.

She started smiling at her classmates. She helped them with their homework and shared

whatever she had. Within weeks people gathered around Anitha the way they flocked to
Nandini. Soon Anitha and Nandini became best friends.

Someone asked Anitha the reason for her change.

‘I have understood that it is not for knowledge alone that my parents are sending me to
school. More importantly, I have to learn to become a good human being. Nandini made
me realise that,’ Anitha replied with a smile.

—Cyril Antony George

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