Inks and Reels

In this deep silence was my guilt, and my fear slipped away. I couldn’t forget her cry — she was miserable. Meena, that was her name. She is smaller but older than me. I am eleven years old; she is twelve. But Grandma told me not to call her Didi because she is our servant’s daughter. In fact, I like her, but we are not friends. I have many friends, and they don’t like including her in our games. So, I would avoid her when my friends were around. She doesn’t understand English. One day, my friends tested her with some spelling, but she couldn’t spell even a single word, and then she cried. Amma told me she goes to a different school, so she couldn’t understand English. When I heard this, I thought of teaching her some English, but she was too shy. Amma is proud of me; on the contrary, Grandma always seems unhappy. Yesterday was a holiday. All I did was sit and watch my favourite movies. Meena came to help her mother but kept glancing at the TV. I know her family doesn’t have a TV like ...