Mathematics

It was evening. I was playing cricket with my friends. I loved to play cricket. I went home, got freshened up and ate snacks. ''Rita, tomorrow is your maths test!'' Father told me. ''Nah! maths is boring. I don't wanna study.'' I blurted out. ''Oh no!'' I exclaimed putting my hand on my mouth. I thought father will scold me a lot. But he didn't say anything. I and father lived alone in the house. My mom had died a month ago. (You will know it if you have read my story named ''My mom.'') I went in my bedroom and slept. I completely forgot about the test.

The next day, I woke up a bit late. I hurriedly bathed and brushed. I stuffed a slice of toast in my mouth and put my heavy bag on my shoulder. ''Bye, papa!'' I said. ''Take care!'' He replied waving. I went in the bus and sat near my friend, Tina. ''Hey!'' I said. But there was no reply. Tina was engrossed reading a math book. I sat near her and patted on her shoulder. ''Oh, hey there! Sorry, I was reading interesting math formulas''. I frowned. How could anyone like maths? ''Uh..... ok.'' I said. We reached school. The first period was Maths. ''Maths....'' I said rolling my eyes. Tina, on the other hand, exclaimed: ''Yay! Maths! wooooooooooohooooooo!'' I frowned again. Then our teacher, Ms. Suvarna, entered the classroom. We wished and greeted her. ''Maths test!'' she said. ''Oh no!'' I said to myself. I know I was gonna score another big egg (zero) in this test. And the same happened. I got only 4 marks out of 10!

I didn't talk to anyone. The school ended. I clutched my answer sheet and walked to the bus. I sat alone. I didn't want others to know that I am dumb. I reached home, kept my bag and went straight to my room. ''Rita!?'' Father said. He knew that something was wrong. He rummaged in my bag and found the test paper. I was seeing everything from my room. I knew I was going to get a nice scolding now. But instead, father came and sat beside me. ''Come here, I want to show you something.'' I followed him. He took me to the ground. He handed me a cricket bat. ''Do you know that cricket and maths are related? First, let's learn geometry.'' Father said. I nodded. ''Now, when you hold your bat a bit straight, it forms a 90 degree angle. When you hold your bat a bit towards the ground, it forms an acute angle. And when you hold your bat high, it forms obtuse angle.'' ''Interesting......'' I remarked. ''Now solve this question: ''You have a dozen of mangoes. You give me half a dozen mangoes. How much do you have?'' ''Hmmm....... A dozen means 2 overs....... Means that half a dozen means 1 over! Means, I have 6 mangoes!'' I said. ''Correct!'' father said. ''Now you can solve questions easily by imagining you are playing cricket!'' ''Yay!'' I exclaimed. I went into my room and took out my textbook. I solved a few sums. And they all were correct!

(Remember friends: Maths is fun. You just have to look at it from another perspective.)