The Shopping List Mystery

Whenever Sandip was playing his violin, he would forget about everything else. He once forgot that he had turned on the tap to fill a bucket and looked only mildly surprised when he put his violin down and realized he was standing ankle-deep in water in his bedroom. Scolding, punishment, wet ankles, poor marks in maths - nothing could change him. Whenever he picked up his violin and tucked the smooth, polished instrument lovingly under his chin, he was lost to the world.

‘Music is fine as a hobby,’ his mother scolded him, ‘but it’s subjects like maths that will help you get on in life.’ Mrs.Raghavan, Sandip’s mother, worked as a manager in a bank. His father was an accountant who could total up columns in a jiffy. Gayatri, Sandip’s older sister, had won the Mathematician of the Year at school two years in a row. But Sandip, though he was fourteen, still couldn’t remember what seven times eight was.

‘My teacher says that if I continue to practice, I may become a really good musician,’ he explained to his mother.

To be continued……..