Page 86 - Universal

Here in the Himalayan foothills where Rakesh lived, there
What you Think?ou Think?
were not many fruit trees. The soil was stony, and the
dry cold winds stunted the growth of most plants. But on What y
the more sheltered slopes there were forests of oak and Why was it decided to
deodar. Rakesh lived with his Grandfather on the outskirts send Rakesh to school?
of Mussoorie, just where the forest began. His father and
mother lived in a small village fifty miles away, where they grew maize, rice and barley
in narrow terraced fields on the lower slopes of the mountain. But there were no schools

in the village, and Rakesh’s parents were keen that he should go to school. As soon as
he was of school-going age, they sent him to stay with his Grandfather in Mussoorie.

He had a little cottage outside the town. Rakesh was on his way home from school when
he bought the cherries. He paid fifty paise for the bunch. It took him about half-an-hour
to walk home, and by the time he reached the cottage there were only three cherries left.

‘Have a cherry, Grandfather,’ he said, as soon as he saw his grandfather in the Garden.
Grandfather took one cherry and Rakesh promptly ate the other two. He kept the last

seed in his mouth for some time, rolling it round and round on his tongue until all the
tang had gone. Then he placed the seed on the palm of his hand and studied it.

‘Are cherry seeds lucky?’ asked Rakesh.

‘Of course.’

‘Then I’ll keep it.’

‘Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to some use.’

‘What can I do with a seed?’

‘Plant it.’

So Rakesh found a small space and began to dig up a flowerbed.

‘Hey, not there,’ said Grandfather, ‘I’ve sown mustard in that bed. Plant it in that shady
corner, where it won’t be disturbed.’

Rakesh went to a corner of the garden where the earth was
What y
soft and yielding. He did not have to dig. He pressed the What you Think?ou Think?
seed into the soil with his thumb and it went right in. Then Where did Rakesh

he had his lunch, and ran off to play cricket with his friends, plant the cherry seed?
and forgot all about the cherry seed.

When it was winter in the hills, a cold wind blew down from the snows and went
whoo-whoo-whoo in the deodar trees, and the garden was dry and bare. In the evenings
Grandfather and Rakesh sat over a charcoal fire, and Grandfather told Rakesh stories –

84