Uma Iyer has dreamt of Molu, a mischievous six-year-old for almost a decade now. She shares with the young readers of Unboxed Writers, ‘Meet Molu,’ a yet to be published first book of hopefully what would turn out to be a Molu and Tushka series. Agni, or ‘Molu’ as she is commonly referred to, is a six-year-old girl whose life revolves around her parents, her friends and her puppy, Tushka. The book is a view of the world around her, through her eyes and consists of 12 chapters. This is the fourth chapter.

Main Characters:

Molu: Six-year-old girl, brown skin, big black eyes that shine and sparkle, curly hair, extremely curious, chatter-box, loves chips, ice-creams, water and Tushka, usually dressed in shorts and t-shirts, occasionally considers wearing summer frocks.

 Tushka:  Approximately five-month-old puppy, black as the night with brown eyes, of indefinite lineage, tends to cock her head to one side when Molu speaks with her, loves chips, ice-creams, water, balls and Molu, wears a neon green belt around her neck with a bone medallion.

 Etc. Characters:

Amma: The mother

 Appa: The father

 Bibi: The maid

 Coco: The cat next door

 Binny: The boy next door

Best Friends!

Appa said YES! Appa said YES!! We are going to bring home the black puppy. Yayyyyy! Ammais very happy also. She and I went to the pet store and bought a basket for the puppy to sleep in, and a very nice green colour  collar to put around his neck. I chose it. I liked the red one more. But then, the red one was a little broken, and I didn’t mind it but Amma said you must not gift someone a broken thing. So we got the green one. It has a silver colour bone in the middle. I hope the puppy likes it.

 Amma also told me the puppy was a little girl like me and not a boy like Binny. Amma always knows things like that. Now we cannot call her Blackie or Sheru or Monster.  Amma says we can call her Molu 2 and Amma and he started laughing. Grown up people laugh at anything.

 Bibi, the aunty who helps us with the cleaning and all says she will go away if the puppy makes too much mess. I told her the puppy will have good manners. I will have to teach her because she cannot go to school. I asked ma’am if she can come, only for 2-3 days, but ma’am said puppies go to different school.

 I will also have to teach the puppy to go to the toilet to do potty and susu. Appasays I have to be like a big sister. Everything I do, the puppy will do. If I am naughty, the puppy will be naughty. If I am good, the puppy will be good. I am going to be the bestest sister in the world, but I won’t share the puppy’s food.

 It tastes very funny and it smells very funny also, like boiled beetroot and eggs and something like that. I ate some when Amma was putting away all the things we bought from the shop. We also bought a green colour bowl for puppy to eat from. My plate is also green coloured. It has red flowers and two yellow butterflies.

 The pet shop uncle says we could call the puppy Bony, but the puppy is not thin, how can we call her Bony? Amma says we should call her Mishka after some girl she read about in a comic book when she was small. Appa says we should call her Tumbler because she keeps tumbling and falling.

 So we are going to call the puppy Tushka.

A little bit for Amma, a little bit for Appa.

Molu and Tushka. Best friends for ever and ever.

Uma Iyer is a writer, a mother and a freelance consultant for marketing communication to several organisations. She was raised in Mumbai and currently lives in Delhi. Her retirement plan includes two dogs, many books and a shack by the sea.