Bored brother

Dhanya Parthasarathy

Recently Prakash had started hearing a lot about a ‘board’ exam. What’s that? he wondered, Was it a ‘bored’ exam where children and teachers yawned all the time? Or was it a test with questions on blackboards?

“No, silly. It’s just another exam, but a very important one,” explained his brother, Anand, who had suddenly become a VIP because he was going to write the board exam.

Suddenly everyone at home was behaving strangely. His mum seemed to live in the neighbourhood temple. She was praying for Anand to do well in the board exam. She appeared only at meal-times and plied Anand with blessed food.

Suddenly daddy had stopped laughing, and wore a grave face. He disconnected the cable television and came home early from office. He didn’t want Anand to take any study breaks except to go to the bathroom.

Grandma complained loudly about not being allowed to watch TV serials any more. So dad bought her a radio and earphones, and told her to wait until the holidays.

Grandpa was in charge of Prakash. His duty was to prevent Prakash from disturbing his brother. He shushed Prakash all the time, even for chewing too loudly. “Wait until the holidays, then you can eat more noisily,” he said.

Prakash’s brother Anand was due to write this examination in March.

In all this commotion about Anand’s board exam, nobody noticed that Prakash had bagged the role of a bunny in the school play. Nobody noticed that Prakash’s loose tooth had fallen off, or that he could finally ride a bicycle without trainer wheels.

All everyone said was, “Wait until the holidays.”

So Prakash waited. He was careful about being noisy. He read some Enid Blyton. He did some colouring and he stopped pinching his brother altogether.

And finally, Anand, finished his boards.

Prakash waited and waited. He stood by the door on the day of the last examination.

“Boy, I am glad that the board exams are over,” said Prakash.

“Can we play carrom? Can we watch TV? Can we go out for an ice-cream? Shall I show you how I ride my bike?”

“Oh no! I am even busier now,” said Anand. “Now I have to write my entrance exams.

I’m busy preparing for them. Go away. Don’t disturb me. And for heaven’s sake, please be real quiet!”

Teacher’s Corner

Help your class remember points by making up their own acronyms.

Build an acronym based on the starting letter of each word or point — like VIBGYOR for the colours of the rainbow.

Another way is to formulate an acrostic. Form a funny sentence with the first letters. For instance, the names and order of the planets can be remembered with this one: My Very Earnest Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets!

“Learning without thought is labour lost.” Confucius

Also read: Short Story – The Kitchen King