Let’s Go!

In a tiny village by a forest, lived four brothers –

Jambhal, Twasta, Rishi and Sunny.

Jambhal was the eldest, who loved to wander in

the forest, digging and delving, collecting roots,

flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds.

Twasta was always busy making toys and carts

for himself and his brothers and he had a favourite

wooden scooter with which he was seen running

around in the morning and evening.

The younger brothers Rishi and Sunny were

always following one or the other of their older

brothers. So they were always happy together.

Deep inside the forest in a clearing lived an old

woman who was known as Kalindi Mayee. All the

villagers were scared of her and avoided her,

because they thought that she practised black

magic. But Jambhal had often met her in the forest

and was quite friendly with her. One day Jambhal

went to her cottage and presented her a silver

comb which he had found while digging under a

mossy and old mango tree in the forest. Kalindi

Mayee was so happy with the gift that in return she

whispered something in Jambhal’s ear. Jambhal was

also very pleased and ran away home.

Next morning Jambhal with his brothers went

into the forest and stood on a high mound of earth.

“I have something to show you!” he said. “What is

it?” asked Twasta. “Is it some Magic?” asked Rishi.

Sunny stood very quiet and still watching his

brothers. “You will soon see.” said Jambhal.He

closed his fists into two tight balls and whispered,

“Fly Butterfly Fly,

Come Down Spaceship,

From the Sky! ”

All of a sudden a big blue and black butterfly

fluttered away in front of the four brothers and a

soft breeze began to blow, and they heard a

humming sound growing louder and louder. Soon

they saw a big, round, ball before them. It had a

small door like opening on its front face. Before

thinking twice the brothers climbed into it and

could feel that the ball was soaring upwards very

fast. Soon their spaceship hit hard ground with a

jolt. The brothers came out holding one another’s

hand. What did they see? They saw a vast green

field spread like a carpet on a piece of the blue sky.

The brothers felt neither hungry nor thirsty but

went on playing. All the brothers had brought their

wooden scooters. Twasta with his own scooter,

which was the biggest and strongest, was running

around on the field of the sky. He felt much lighter

He felt much lighter than on earth.

The other three were busy playing “Catch me if

you can.” It was the youngest Sunny who was made

to chase his older brothers who were too fast for

him to catch them. Still he did not give up, till the

end of the game, after which they cart wheeled on

the soft green grass. They went on playing, racing,

jumping and skipping till Jambhal broke a tooth

when he fell down and Rishi hurt his left eye.

Twasta started howling, while Jambhal gave out a

loud cry of pain before spitting out his broken truth.

Rishi was giving Sunny a piggy ride and ran away to

the other side of the field and the two older

brothers were left to comfort one another.

“Boys run away home!” shouted the couple

who had a cottage at the far end of the field in the

sky. They were the caretakers of the sky and kept

everything neat and tidy for the Sun, the Moon and

the Stars. “It is time we went back to earth” said

Twasta to Jambhal. Jambhal tried to remember

something and then gave out a loud cry- “Yee, Yeee,

Yee!” “What’s wrong?” Asked Twasta deeply

concerned. “I have forgotten the mantra to call the

space ship” howled Jambhal.

Rishi and Sunny were still playing. The caretaker

woman was looking at them. The two older

brothers stared into each other’s eyes and could

feel a cold fear slowly creeping up their heart and

choke their throat with sad silent cries. Sunny and

Rishi were blissfully ignorant of the scrape that

Jambhal had landed them into. But Sunny was

feeling tired and sleepy by now and Rishi made him

lie on his scooter which he moved very slowly.

The caretaker woman who was watching them

felt pity for Sunny and called him and Rishi into her

hut. She gave them some momos which she had

cooked that evening and some pieces of porkpie.

After they had polished off their plates Sunny fell

asleep resting his head on his brothers lap while

Rishi sat and wondered when would Jambhal call

them and they would all go back home to earth

before nightfall.

Name: Joysree Das

Age: Fifty four

Language of entry: English