Once again, everybody in Marietta’s
family is quarrelling over watching the TV – just like they do every day!
Marietta’s brother wants to watch a cricket match while little
Susan is eager to watch her favourite
programme of song’s. Mummy and Aunty are good friends but their favourite TV
programmes are different.
Mummy likes to watch the news while
Aunty enjoys a TV serial. Marietta wants to watch cartoons and Daddy enjoys the
football match.
He says that he can watch TV only in the
evening. Finally, everyone had to watch the football match.
Why the Difference? Why the Difference?
It is 7 o’clock in the evening. Pratibha
is hurrying home from her friend’s house. Her brothers Sandeep and Sanjay are
busy playing round the corner with their friends.
They are in no hurry to go home. Even if
they are late, nobody will scold them. Pratibha thinks that this is not fair.
Why should there be one rule for her and another for her brothers? But what can
she do?
One day, Pilloo Aunty took Phali and
Nazu and their friends to the beach. What a good time they had! They played in
sand and water, and then went for a ride on the Giant wheel.
After that they ate bhelpuri and bought
balloons. Then everybody enjoyed some icy cold kulfi. When the kulfi-seller
asked for money, he made a mistake. He charged for five kulfis instead of
seven.
The children thought, “Hurrah! We have
saved money.” But Pilloo Aunty paid the money for seven kulfis to the
kulfiseller.
What Should I Do? What Should I Do?
Akshay loves his grandmother very much.
She loves him dearly too. She talks to him about many interesting things. Anil
is Akshay’s friend. His grandmother likes Anil too, but one thing that she
tells Akshay again and again is that he should never eat or drink anything at
Anil’s house – not even a glass of water! “They are very different from our
family,” she says.
One day there was a volleyball match in
the big ground near Anil’s house. It was a hot day and everybody was tired and
thirsty after the match. Anil invited everybody home.
Anil’s mother gave water to all of them, and
they drank it. When Anil handed Akshay a glass of water, he suddenly remembered
his grandmother’s warning. Akshay stared at Anil, not knowing what to do.
Who will Decide? Who will Decide?
Dhondu comes from a very large family.
His elder uncle looks after the family – their fields, money matters, etc. He
decides about all the small and big things for the family.
Dhondu
has always worked in the fields. But now, he wants to do something different.
He would like to borrow some money from a bank and buy a chakki machine to
grind grain.
There is no such machine in their
village. Dhondu is confident that this new work will help him earn more money
for his family. Father has agreed to let him try the new work. But his elder
uncle is not agreeing to this.
These examples reflect some situations
that we face in our daily life. These often affect us in different ways.
I Don’t Like It! I Don’t Like It! Meena
and Ritu were going home after playing hopscotch.
“Come on, come to my house,”
pleaded Meena, pulling Ritu by the hand.
“Is your Uncle at home? If he is, I will
not come,” Ritu answered. “But why do you say that? Uncle likes you. He was
saying – bring your friend Ritu home and I will give both of you lots of
chocolate.”
Ritu pulled her hand away from Meena
saying, “I am scared of your Uncle. I do not like it when he even touches my
hand.” Saying this, Ritu went home.
Some children may have similar
experiences as Ritu did. It will help to build their confidence and feeling of
support, if children can discuss this in class.
In case you feel the need, you could talk
individually with some of the children. If there is a counsellor in the school,
you could take their help.You may be very careful and sensitive to
deal with children if they wish to share problems related to drug addiction of
their family members. The harmful effects of drugs/ narcotics
may be discussed in the class. Such issues should also be discussed in the
inservice training programmes.
It may be possible that children from
such families (Drug addicted members) may fall victim to such habits/practices.
A timely action needs to be taken to prevent them. On this theme, charts and
posters can be prepared by the children with the support of teachers and
discuss in the class.
