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teacher, Mrs Behl, went out and came back with a lady who
looked like an older version of Anita.

‘This is Mrs Mehta, Anita’s mother,’ she said by way of

introduction. ‘And Anita, as you can see, is a very special
child—a child with special needs. Anita will need a
special friend who can be with her, help her with the
homework and notes especially if she misses school.
And someone who can take her around to the library,

the school canteen and the dispensary. Now tell me
who will offer to be her special friend?’

There was absolute silence in the class. The girls
who had been jumping around and prancing about
a few minutes ago all sat still. They were all so
healthy and normal that they found it difficult to
accept that one of their classmates could not walk,

that she was on a wheelchair.
Ruma saw Anita’s lips tremble slightly. Her heart went out

to her. She did not know how she gathered courage and Why was Ruma
instinctively she raised her hand. shocked to see
Anita?
Just a Minute!
‘You?’ asked Mrs Behl, a little surprised. ‘Well, you yourself are
new here.’

‘Yes, Miss, that is true, but all the girls in the class have their own friends. Anita and I
are new so we can be friends as well. And we can discover the school together, it should
be a lot of fun.’ She trembled a little after she finished speaking, because for her this was

a pretty long speech. She wondered how she gathered the courage to say all this. But she
turned around in surprise to see Mrs Behl, Anita and her mother clapping away. Her
classmates too joined in applauding Ruma.

Ruma turned crimson with pleasure. ‘Girls,’ Mrs Behl said, ‘this is what I expect from my
students. Ruma, I am proud of you, my dear.’

That afternoon Anita and Ruma sat under a tree and shared their lunch. Ruma had
brought peanut butter sandwiches and Anita had brought aloo parathas.

‘It is really yummy,’ said Ruma as she bit into the aloo paratha.

‘Peanut butter sandwiches are my favourite,’ said Anita as she eagerly dug her teeth into
them.

During lunch Anita explained that she had been crippled instinctively: without conscious
thought; by natural instinct
after a car accident. crippled: severely damaged

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