I have been working on creating content for a school project and decided to pen a short story for children, to teach them the importance of active listening. This story is written for children between the age group of 9-13.
Story: The
Disastrous Birthday.
Rina was a girl
of eight. She was an intelligent and hardworking girl. She scored well in her
studies and her parents were proud of her.
The only
problem was, she had two weaknesses. The first was she was addicted to
video games. The second was that she would never listen properly to anyone.
Sometimes, she
would do the wrong homework at school because she would not listen to the
teachers. Her friends were annoyed with her because she would never listen
to them when they spoke to her. However, they still liked her because of her
wit and helping nature.
At home, Rina spent hours playing her video games. Her father would sternly tell her to
finish her homework, before playing. Being a smart girl, she would quickly finish
her homework and sit down with her tablet. While she began to play, she would go deaf
to what was happening around her. Her mother kept Rina to be a
better listener. She would say,
“Rina, one day
you are going to get into real trouble because you don’t listen!” But Rina just laughed it off and continued playing her video games.
Soon, what her
mother predicted did happen.
It was two days before Rina’s birthday and she was excited. Her mother had decided to throw a
small party for Rina and they had already begun to decorate their house. The
menu was ready and the cake was ordered too. Rina’s father agreed to
pick up the freshly baked cake
from the famous Ramlal’s pastry shop, because it
was almost two miles from their house. It was designed with a Chota Bheem
theme, because he was Rina’s favourite cartoon character.
But, on the
morning of her birthday, there was bad news waiting for Rina. Mr. Ramlal called her and apologized, that he had an emergency at home.
“Sorry ma’am,
we have shut our store today, we will be unable to bake your order for you.
Please forgive us ma’am. Have a good birthday!”
Mr. Ramlal sounded really
distressed. Rina felt sorry for him, although she was bitterly disappointed.
"What do we do
now?" she wailed after she hung up the phone. "The only other cake shop that
sells birthday cakes needs three days advance orders!”
“Don’t worry
darling, I’ll bake a marvelous cake for you.” said her mother. “But on the
condition that you must help me with the work, too”
Rina was
overjoyed. She knew that her mom was an excellent baker and all her friends
loved her mother’s pastries.
“Yes, mom!” she
shrieked in joy and ran to give her mother a tight hug.
An hour before
the party was to begin, the chocolate cake batter was perfectly mixed with all
the ingredients and poured into the baking bowl.
Wiping her
hands on a dish towel, Rina’s mother gave a happy sigh and told Rina,
"It’s all
done. All we have to do now is to bake it."
She set the
oven to the required temperature, cleaned the kitchen counter and decided to
have a shower. Before going to her room, she told Rina,
“Rina, I will
take some time to return to the kitchen. I need to rest for a while, before
getting dressed. I’ve been working all day to get the dishes ready on time. Switch
off the oven after the cake is done.”
But Rina was
already on her way to her own room.
“Rina, listen.
Switch off the oven exactly after 40 minutes, okay?” Her mother told her again.
“Okay,” yelled
Rina from her room, already engrossed in her video game.
I still have
one hour to wear my new dress and be ready for the party, she told
herself.
Just then,
Rina’s mother called her again and reminded her to switch the oven off after 40
minutes, before she went to her room.
"Yeah,"
murmured Rina, as she negotiated a brilliant curve on her racing game.
Can you guess
what happened then?
Yes, you're right. Rina was so engrossed in her game, that she did not listen to what her
mother had told her. One hour later, she was still hurriedly getting dressed
when her friends began to arrive.
She ran out to
greet them, when the sweetish, sickly smell assaulted her nostrils. What had
her mother told her? Wasn't it something about her cake?
She rushed to
the kitchen, but alas, it was too late. Her cake was completely burnt to a
black mess.
It was the
first birthday in her life that Rina had no cake to cut. Although there were
many other yummy dishes to serve her guests, it was odd for everyone to have no birthday cake, in a birthday party. They tried to cheer Rina up
by singing the birthday song twice and even joked about it, but Rina’s eyes
were swollen and her face was stained with tears. She put on a brave smile
after sometime, but her heart was heavy. Nothing could make her forgive herself
for not listening to her mother.
As for her
mother, she did not say a word of disapproval to Rina. She knew that Rina had
learnt her lesson well, that day.
Rina was cured
of both her weaknesses that fateful day.
***
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