Chapter 4
1203 Words
Nirmala's P.O.V
Tanvi's was still sitting on my lap, but she wouldn't make eye contact.
"Mom, am I a bad girl?" Tanvi asked me, fidgeting with her fingers. I felt heartbroken by looking at the pitiful sight of my daughter.
"No, you have always been a good girl. Why do you ask?" I gently replied, but she didn't answer. Looking at her face, I understand that there was some problem with her or else she never would have talked like that. No matter what, I have to find the root cause of my little princesses problem. I couldn't see her face, but I could tell she was sad. I couldn't figure out the problem until I had spoken to Sister Daisy, but I was determined to get to the bottom of this.
"I know, let's play a game." I asked her, smiling. I knew the way to get her to talk.
"Yes, what game are we going to play?" Tanvi asked, her face brightening up at the thought.
"How about we play a word game? When I say a word you say the first thing that comes into your head, without thinking." I suggested, knowing full well that Tanvi would agree. Tanvi nodded and smiled, like I knew she would.
"Okay ready? The first word is mom." I said.
"Love." Tanvi quickly replied.
"Snacks." I said.
"Maggi." Tanvi replied.
"School." I asked.
"Big." Tanvi replied, she was getting faster with each answer.
"Teachers." I asked.
"Awesome." Tanvi replied.
"Students." I asked, this is the one I was curious about, what would she reply with?
"Beatings." Tanvi said, looking down. The moment Tanvi said that word, I was shocked. I pulled her close to me and hugged her tightly, she started crying in my arms. My poor baby, what the hell did they do to her?
"What do you mean by beatings? you can tell me, you won't be in trouble. I promise." I reassured her, I needed to know exactly what they did to her.
"The students were bullying and torturing me. They kicked me twice in the stomach and it hurt a lot." Tanvi cried, I could feel a lump forming in my throat, so I swallowed it down. I didn't want her to see me upset, it would only make her feel worse. I nodded and kept stroking her hair to comfort her.
"They opened my braid and snatched my candies and they pinched me. Why were they doing this mom? I never harmed them or fought with them. I just wanted to share my sweets with them and be friends with them. Is God punishing me because I did something wrong? Am I wrong somewhere?" Tanvi cried, the wall that she had put up, finally broke down and now I knew everything. It broke my heart in two, tears welled up in my eyes and I hugged her even tighter.
"You have always been a good child. You never did anything wrong. God had always loved you as you always are a very obedient child. It’s just that some people are bad from their heart and they don’t want to see others happy. That's why they start troubling that person." I told her, my poor sweetheart, why didn't the school tell me about this?
"You are a very brave girl and you will be fine. Did those kids threaten you?" I asked her, I need to know everything. Tanvi nods her head. If there's one thing I understand it's that this matter needs to be handled carefully and this needs to be discussed with Sister Daisy. A solution had to be provided or else there would be a deep scar in Tanvi's mind and heart. I quickly wiped my tear stained face, before looking at Tanvi and starting to cheer her up.
"I know, how about we play hide and seek?" I asked her, smiling. I know it's her favourite game and hopefully it will cheer her up. While playing with Tanvi, I could tell that her mood had lightened up and slowly she had recovered herself. It relaxed me a bit seeing my daughter smile, but the moment I thought about what my daughter had endured, I felt my heart tighten. I never would have imagined that my precious doll would have suffered so much pain and torment from other children.
How come those children had so much hatred for her? They are only small children, how can they treat another child so cruelly? Children are gifts from God. We should mold them in a way in which they learn how to be good humans. How to respect, love and care for others. They should be handled with great care and effort so that they don't get insecure in their mind. Their mind should be filled with love, care, and a sharing nature, but how come these students have got hate, jealousy and envy in them.
At 7.O'clock Pawan came back from work and he brought some muffins with him for his daughter. By seeing her dad, Tanvi immediately ran towards him. Looking at his little daughter running towards him, he immediately moved forward and scooped her up in his arms. He twirled her around and Tanvi giggled. He immediately took out the muffins from his bag and handed them to Tanvi.
Tanvi was a big foodie and she soon started gobbling up the muffins. I knew she was scared that if I saw her eating muffins she would get scolded as it was dinner time. I ran towards her to stop her from eating them all, otherwise she wouldn't have room for her dinner, but before I reached her Tanvi ate her last piece of muffin
"Khatam (finished)" Tanvi said, showing her toothy grin to me. Tanvi starts running towards her dad and hides behind him.
"Pawan, you spoiled her too much. Now she wont eat her dinner and if she didn't have dinner then she will wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry." I lectured Pawan.
"Don't worry, I will feed her dinner." Pawan said, trying to defuse the situation that he had caused. I was very angry with both of them and didn't say a single word to either of them, I just headed to the kitchen to start cooking.
Tanvi's P.O.V
My dad and I knew my mom was angry, because when she was angry she always kept quiet. My dad pulled me close and whispered in my ear, telling me his plan to calm my mom down.
"Mumma." I called her, with my sweetest voice, but she didn't look at me. I moved so I was in front of her.
"I'm sorry." I pouted and joined my hands together in front of me, begging. I looked towards her with the biggest doe eyes I could muster. My mom stepped forward and scooped me up in her arms, hugging me to her bosom, caressing and kissing my forehead.
"Never join your hands in front of me, I don't like it at all." My mom gently said. I knew my mom was upset by what happened to me, but on the other hand it pierced her heart. I knew she just wanted to take my pain away
"Never eat muffins at night, because you always skip dinner after eating these things." My mother said, holding me closer to her. I just nodded obediently and smiled at her.
- Writer
