The Lost Parathas

“Sonu, finish your breakfast quickly.”

 “Mamma I don’t want this sandwich.”

 “Ok then have some juice.”

 “No.”

 “Omelette?”

 “No.”

“See how nice it is! The shape of your favourite car…..”

 “No, no, no”

“See, how stubborn your son is!” exclaimed Anu.

“Huh! When he does something wrong only then he is my son”, said Mr. Shukla casting a glance at Anu.

Again he engaged himself in the newspaper. 

“Sonu I have packed a tasty paratha in your lunch box. Don’t forget to finish it during the recess. If you finish it, Mamma will give you a chocolate. Is it ok?”

The little child nodded positively. Anu dropped him to the play school. When he returned Anu got very angry to see that he had not finished his lunch.

“Mamma I will definitely finish my lunch from tomorrow”, said Sonu.

But when the same thing continued for several days, Anu went to his school to meet Sonu’s class teacher. She told her about his habit of not finishing the lunch and requested her to take care that her child finished it daily. Then Sonu’s teacher got alert and started convincing Sonu to have the lunch daily and finally checking his tiffin box to make sure if he had finished it. It was so bothersome to Sonu. Although, Anu used to prepare healthy and sumptuous dishes for him, Sonu showed no interest in eating properly. He used to share his lunch with other classmates of him but when he was forbidden to share, he started throwing the eatables secretly in the dustbin of the class. But, that did not work either. The ayah (maid) informed the teacher about the parathas and other eatables found in the dustbin. Sonu was scolded by the teacher. He got a good thrashing at home, as well. Now, he had no other option but to finish the ugly monsters in his tiffin. Sonu became well-known in his school for avoiding his lunch. Now it was more difficult for him to get rid of it as everybody took interest in knowing whether he finished his lunch daily or not.

 It made Anu happy to see empty lunchbox of Sonu for some days. The teacher was also satisfied as Sonu neither threw the eatables in the dustbin nor shared with anyone in the class. The ayah was also a witness that Sonu did not go anywhere to throw the lunch. Sonu was also very happy. One day Sonu’s class teacher was trying to stick a chart on the back door of the classroom that always remained closed. Suddenly, she noticed a filling between the gap of the door and its frame. She got suspicious. When she tried to take that out with the help of a ruler, she was surprised to see a paratha that was so meticulously inserted between the gap horizontally. When she inspected properly she found half a dozen of parathas inserted there.

“Ohh! So this was the secret of Sonu’s empty lunch box!" exclaimed the teacher.

And this marked the end of Sonu’s habit of leaving his lunch unfinished. That day Sonu’s father saved him from the scolding of his mother as he was feeling proud of his son’s intelligence.

“Hahaha, he has inherited intelligence from his father. He is my son. Do you hear that?” said Mr. Shukla in an amusing way.

Anu left the room angrily.