Funny Uncle Hooda by Geeta Varma

8/9/2019 Funny Uncle Hooda by Geeta Varma

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Funny uncle Hooda

Geeta Varma


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Advaita was excited when she woke up. Today she was going out with her friends and teachers

from school. She quickly got ready. She did not make any fuss when her mother gave her milk. She

couldn’t wait for her father to drop her. Rani ma’am had announced no writing today!

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Advaita was the first one to reach her class. Even Rani ma’am hadn’t come. Aruna akka, who helped

everybody in the class, was arranging the books and toys. She asked, “ How come you are so early

today, Advaita?!” Advaita smiled shyly. She couldn’t hide her excitement. Aruna akka was a very

sweet person. She played with everybody, at the same time looked after them all.

Just then, Advaita’s friend, Ishta came in, followed by Manu, Aditya, Karan and Rohini. Soon

everybody came. Rani ma’am too. Rani ma’am was wearing a pink salwar kameez with beautifulflowers on it.

Soon all the children were in the van, ready for the outing. Raju anna, the driver, locked the van

door and started the van.

They passed many buildings, offices, shops, houses, flats, parks, …. The van slowly left the town.


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Now, as they looked through the window, Advaita and her friends could see long stretches of green.

Rani ma’am’s friend, Lata ma’am, who was accompanying them, stood up and said, “Children, look

at the paddy fields.” She was smiling at them. “Soon we’ll reach a farm. There is a surprize waiting

for you.”

Raju anna slowed down the van as it turned right. A huge gate opened and the van went in. It

stopped under a tree.


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The place looked like a farm. There were many huge flowering trees and the ground was strewn with

flowers. Advaita and her friends were delighted to stand there. It smelled so good! Then they walked

on the yellow, white, orange and red carpet towards a circle of thatched houses. It was so beautiful!

There were men, women and children watching them. They looked happy and cheerful.

Suddenly, Rani ma’am turned. Facing them, she made all the children stop under a tall brown tree

with branches spread out. She made them all sit down under the tree. Advaita could see squirrels

running up the tree, and down. A couple of little sparrows flew away as she looked up. There were

monkeys too!

A tall dark man, with a long curling moustache and wearing a strange looking hat-like conical cap,

came out of one of the thatched houses towards them. He had a crooked stick in his hand. Advaita

and Ishta looked at each other. “ Is that a giant, ma’am?” That was Aditya. Aditya always made such

remarks. “Quiet.” Rani ma’am said in a low voice. By then the strange- looking man was in front of

them.

Advaita stared at him wide-eyed. What is he going to do, she wondered!

Then he smiled. His moustache spread out from one end to the other end of his face. He had shiningeyes. “ I am Hooda,” he said loudly. His voice sounded as though someone was talking inside a tin.


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All the children stared at him. He was dressed in bright red and yellow. His shoes curved at the tip

and the socks were tied up with colourful ribbons. Advaita had never seen someone like this!

“You can call me Hooda uncle,” and he smiled again. “See, I can do many things,” he said and with a

loud noise, he started jumping really high. Then he ran in circles, jumped again and fell down.

Advaitha and all her friends in the class couldn’t help laughing. Even the ma’ams were laughing.

Hooda uncle rolled, jumped and did all kinds of acrobatics making funny faces. Then he became

calm and serious.

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“ Who likes butterflies? “ All of them liked. They all shouted together. After all Hooda uncle was

quite funny and friendly. Children were not scared any more.

“Who likes flowers?” he asked again. They all shouted together. Rani ma’am did not ask them to be

quiet. Even she was amused.

“And monkeys?” Children screamed together, “I”, “Me”…

“Insects?”

They became silent!


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“Who likes to BECOME a fish and swim in a lake?” Advaita couldn’t believe it. Of course she wanted

to. “She said “I” and all the others, Ishta, Rohini, Manu, Aditya, Yamini, Fathima, Yash, Karthika,

Dhruv, Vinayak, Krishna, Karthik, George, Prithvi, Hari, Durga, Uthara, Salman, Rehan, Ambika….. all

the children started saying “I” one by one and together. They were so excited.

“ Okay, then follow me,” he said.

He took them a little away from the tree, behind the house. Then he, waving the crooked stick in

the air said,” Glglglgl…blumblumblum…repeat with me…glglglgl…blumblumblum…think of the fish in

the colour you like… glglglgl….blumblumblum…HUHUHUHU…” Advaita and her friends giggled as the

repeated those words.

Lo! Advaita became a pink fish in a pond there.

She started swimming around. Ishta had become a golden fish. They swam together. When they

turned around, they saw everybody swimming in the pond. What fun! They were so happy!

Then a sound came loudly, “HUHUHUHUMMMM….” They were back under the tree. This was real

fun! It was like a magic!

“Did you like it?” Hooda uncle was smiling as he asked in a friendly tone, lovingly.

“Now what do you want to become?”

They all shouted together different names. Butterfly, bird, flower, monkey, rabbit, lion, deer,

elephant, puppy, giraf fe,…..


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“You have to think of just one thing together.” His voice boomed. They became silent.

Then Rani ma’am said, “Okay children, you can all become either butterflies or birds. Decide

quickly.”

They all started together again. It was difficult to decide. Aditya badly wanted to become a puppy.

“Okay, butterfly then.” Rani ma’am decided for them to make it easy.

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Hooda started waving his crooked stick in circles and this time he asked them to repeat another setof words. He said, “tarataratara….lalalala…” He was singing and dancing. He was so funny! He made

them all sing and dance with him. And, Lo!

They were butterflies in a beautiful garden fluttering about. They felt so light as they moved about

from one flower to other. Advaita saw a beautiful pink rose and fluttered around it. It smelt

heavenly! It was so nice to be there with all her butterfly friends!

After a while the same words reached their ears. HUHUHUHUHUMMMMM….

They were all back under the tree.


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Then they became birds, flowers, elephants, monkeys, deer, rabbits, ….. and they became those.

This continued for a while.

All the children thought of many different things. They became very noisy, calling uncle Hooda to

become those. But they all stopped screaming when they heard the sound of drums and pipes being

played.


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A group of children led by a boy and a girl were coming towards them. They played it for a while and

stopped. He elephants and monkeys, in front of them, made strange sounds. A little girl came with a

small red basket along with a boy.

Hooda uncle lowered his voice and said, “Children, this is Selvam. He cannot hear anything. He

cannot speak either. And this little girl is Anbu. She is going to give you all sweets. And, the rest are

all children from this village. Their friends.

“ You can quietly think of the sweet you want as you take it from the basket.” Anbu was wearing a

red dotted skirt. Hooda was pointing at the basket she was carrying.

Advaita thought of all the sweets she liked. So did the others. It was difficult to decide. Then she

thought of the besan ka laddoo that her grandma made for her and took it from the basket. When

she ate, it was really besan ka laddoo!

“Happy?” Hooda uncle asked, looking at every face.

They were all happy.

By then it was time to go back home. All the children got back into the van. Raju uncle shut the van

door and started the van. They were all quiet now. Rani ma’am and Lata ma’am looked very tired.


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Advaita and others looked out of the window as the van drove past the green fields and entered the

town.

They were still in the magic world.

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Funny Uncle Hooda by Geeta Varma