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‘My dad was driving the car,’ she said sadly, ‘he died in the accident.’

‘How awful!’ said Ruma as she thought of the enormity
of Anita and her mother’s loss. And yet Anita and

her mother smiled and laughed all through.
They were the courageous ones; they were
the true survivors.

‘I wish I were as courageous as
you,’ said Anita wistfully.

‘Me? Courageous?’ laughed Ruma.
‘I am a real coward.’

‘Coward? How?’ Anita looked

perplexed.

‘Anita, you are willing to face the world in a wheelchair, while I am not even ready to face
it wearing glasses,’ she confessed.

‘You wear glasses?’ asked Anita wide-eyed. ‘Let me see how you look in them.’

Shyly Ruma took out her spectacles and perched them on her nose. ‘Don’t laugh,’ she
warned.

Anita smiled.

‘You look intelligent, I hope you get grades to match.’

Ruma turned around in surprise. It was not Anita who had spoken, but Mrs Behl who
had come to check on Anita. Shy, Ruma instinctively put out her hands to remove her
spectacles.

‘No, Ruma, don’t,’ the teacher warned, ‘your eyes are the most precious gift of god, you
cannot spoil them just because girls tease you.’

In the afternoon a pleasant surprise awaited Ruma.

‘Girls,’ said Mrs Behl, ‘I have to choose a class monitor and I have decided that Ruma is a
responsible child and with her glasses she looks both intelligent and studious. So, I have

decided to make her the class monitor.’
wide-eyed: having one's
Once again, the class broke into an applause. Ruma stood shyly eyes wide open as a result of
as the teacher pinned the badge of class monitor on her. surprise
wistfully: with a feeling of
vague or regretful longing
‘How was school?’ asked Ruma’s mother anxiously. perplexed: puzzled

‘Oh, Mummy, I simply love this school,’ said Ruma to her mother’s delight.

—Vandana Kumari Jena

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