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‘Why not?’ enquired Mrs Mehra who could not understand her
daughter’s fears though she knew the cause.
Do you make Let’s connect
‘I have a stomach ache,’ Ruma said triumphantly. Her mother excuses to skip

sighed. Ruma’s stomach aches were well known. In the beginning school?
they had worried her mother and confused the doctor as well. 21 c skills accountability
st
But all tests had proved normal and the doctor had been forced to
conclude that Ruma’s stomach aches were a convenient way to miss school.

‘Get dressed,’ said her mother, ‘we are going to see the doctor.’

‘What for?’ asked Ruma. ‘Why don’t you give me medicine and let me stay at home?’

‘Dr Batra has informed me that there is a new injection which cures stomach aches

immediately. He shall give you one then I shall drop you to school,’ said Mrs Mehra.

Ruma was indeed close to tears. Her lips trembled. How she disliked injections. She would
do anything to avoid them.

She sat quietly for a while and then said, ‘I feel
better already.’

‘Good,’ said her mother, ‘come, child, and
have your milk and cheese sandwich fast, we
are getting late for school.’

Ruma wore her smart blue skirt and white
blouse. She brushed her hair, wore her
shoes and was soon ready. ‘Have you not
forgotten something, Ruma?’ asked Mrs
Mehra gently.

‘What, Mummy?’ Ruma tried to look at

her with wide-eyed innocence.

‘Your glasses, darling,’ said her mother as she stretched her
hand, picked up the glasses and positioned them on Ruma’s Just a Minute!
nose. Why did Ruma
hate her glasses?
Ruma’s face crumpled. God, she hated her glasses.
She had begun wearing them a year ago and had
been mercilessly teased by her classmates as triumphantly: in a way that shows

‘four-eyed, half-blind’! great happiness or joy at a victory or
achievement
No amount of admonishing by the teacher had helped. crumpled: (of a person’s face) suddenly
sag and show an expression of sadness
And the teachers had not been very sensitive either. admonishing: advise or urge (someone)
earnestly

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