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 second 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

Part 2- Small class, big worries

 

My class teacher, Vanita ma’am is very, very, nice. She looks like my Poorvi maami. She always smiles and never gets angry. She gave me three gold stars last month, one for handwriting, one for the drawing of ‘my family’ and one for good manners. Only one time in all April, I had to go stand in the corner for disturbing the class. And that also was not my mistake, someone did big purr (I think it was Tinku, but I didn’t say in class) and I laughed and because of that Binny laughed and then Soumya laughed. It was good I went to stand in the corner; Soumya told me there was so much bad smell afterwards.

 This year, in my class we have new benches, last year’s benches had become old and had many, many scratches on them. When we used to put our drawing sheets on them, the pencils used to go up and down like there were speed breakers.

 I share my bench with Agastya. We sit roll number wise na, that’s why. He is not my best friend; he digs his nose with his pencil. I like Soumya more. And my best friend is Binny. He lives in our complex only. His real name is Benajmint something. Very big name, so we call him Binny.

 We have English spelling test tomorrow. I know almost all the spellings from pages 24 to 29. Appa says it is because I am very smart, Amma says it is because I have my nose inside a book all the time. I don’t know why Amma says that, she only buys me all the books… AND, she also always has her nose in a book. I think I will ask her next time.

 Only three words I got wrong when Amma asked me.

PUPPET

SWIFT

GIRAFFE

 Amma says to break the word… P.U.P.P.E.T … like that. But it is not easy at all.

 I have to write them three times each. Or, I can pray to God for help. Appa says God will help, if you do your best and then also pray a little.

 Maybe I will write a letter to God. I want a pet also. Everyone in my class has a bird or fish… even Binny has a cat. Orange colour cat, but he is called Coco. I told Binny that he should call his cat Tango or Tiger, but he says Coco is like orange flavour chocolate. Sometimes I don’t understand what Binny says. He always gets gold stars for spelling.

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.