Rigved

On Saturday night Rigved came up to me and said if a sleepover was allowed. I did not know what that meant. So he told me that a friend comes over and spends the night at our home. I asked him who is this friend and he said it was Shirsha, a new friend from the neighboring building. She is a year younger to him but a couple of inches taller than him and loves reading just like Rigved. They ve been exchanging books recently and they get along pretty well. She is probably the only sensible girl in the area we live in, the rest is cattle.

I was a bit surprised that a girl is coming over to spend the night with Rigved, and wondered if her parents will actually allow her. Rigved personally cleaned up the house and was dressed neatly when she arrived which was much to our surprise. They watched a movie, read books and laughed out loud till about 1:00 am. They slept in the computer room and till 5 AM I kept coming to the room to make sure everything was alright. After about 3 AM both the kids were in deep sleep and they looked like 2 puppies sleeping innocently unaware of the proverbial big bad world outside.

Shirsha woke at 8 AM and woke Rigved. Her mum came to pick her soon after and Banda just had to tell her how well behaved and mature her daughter was.

All in all Rigved’s summer vacation is going great. The scholarship class that had begun was abandoned in mid May as the teacher, her home and the rest of the kids there didnt create a welcoming atmosphere for Rigved. Also we realized that this is his summer vacation and the feeling one gets in these days is unparalleled to any other feeling in one’s life so why ruin it under the name of constructive utilization of holidays. The objective of the vaction is to unwind, take a break and forget the school, teachers and studies by playing all day and sleeping peacefully at night. These days will never come again and neither will childhood.